RPG character creation vs. builtin-chars

VGFreak009 · July 10th, 2002

What do y'all prefer? (Note this really only applies to RPG's that involve parties, not single characters...)

RPG character creation: you tune and build a party at the beginning of the game, and develop them as you go. You may be able to change chars during the game...

e.g. Ultima 3 (Nes), FF1 Nes, AD&D games (Krynn, Pools.., Baldur's Gate), etc. FF5 is borderline...

Builtin-chars: Seems to be the trend now... i.e. you have no control over who you play. You may be able to select from a pool of chars, ala Chrono Trigger, but not much else.

e.g. everything else... Dragon Warrior 2, Ultima 4+, FF4, FF6+,
Shining in the Darkness, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Legend of Mana...

Personally, I prefer creation, but there are so few good games with this approach... I remember playing through FF1 at least 4 times, with completely different party types, which made the game quite different strategically.

I understand it's harder to make a compelling storyline which is personalized for the characters when they are generic, but I feel that party creation is an important part of RPG.

Any opinions?

Omega · July 10th, 2002

You should start a pool with those options, in my opinion i prefer to play with Builtin-chars like you said, cause with more characters i know it's hard to set 'em level up but there are more options of viewing and charact abilities

**Kane** · July 11th, 2002

Built in characters generaly can have better stories, but homebrew characters are fun too, making a character as close to what you want to be as poss.

Kaiser Sigma · July 11th, 2002

depends... it's waaaay easier to have a party made of characters that you made however in games like BG II you miss a lot of subquests and dialogs wich are interesting or just funny (Minsc arguing with Viconia is hilarious)... depends on what you are looking forward to...

Pivi · July 12th, 2002

Totally depends on the game...

I didn't see a game with character creation, that had a REALLY good story. Built-in characters have personalites, main life, they can love other characters, etc... Created characters are monster hacking exp gathering maniacs, which is good in it's own way. ^_^

Cless · July 13th, 2002

as long as it has a good story i don't care.

systemid · July 13th, 2002

final fantasy tactics lets customize your charachters so much its great you can go in all differnet directions battle wise and the story is great to.

July 10th, 2002	#1 (permalink)
VGFreak009 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: TX, US Posts: 2	RPG character creation vs. builtin-chars What do y'all prefer? (Note this really only applies to RPG's that involve parties, not single characters...) RPG character creation: you tune and build a party at the beginning of the game, and develop them as you go. You may be able to change chars during the game... e.g. Ultima 3 (Nes), FF1 Nes, AD&D games (Krynn, Pools.., Baldur's Gate), etc. FF5 is borderline... Builtin-chars: Seems to be the trend now... i.e. you have no control over who you play. You may be able to select from a pool of chars, ala Chrono Trigger, but not much else. e.g. everything else... Dragon Warrior 2, Ultima 4+, FF4, FF6+, Shining in the Darkness, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Legend of Mana... Personally, I prefer creation, but there are so few good games with this approach... I remember playing through FF1 at least 4 times, with completely different party types, which made the game quite different strategically. I understand it's harder to make a compelling storyline which is personalized for the characters when they are generic, but I feel that party creation is an important part of RPG. Any opinions?

July 10th, 2002	#2 (permalink)
Omega User addicted to Diazepam Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: WIRED Posts: 4,732	You should start a pool with those options, in my opinion i prefer to play with Builtin-chars like you said, cause with more characters i know it's hard to set 'em level up but there are more options of viewing and charact abilities __________________ .:[ This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time ]:. .:[ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last]:.

July 11th, 2002	#3 (permalink)
Kane 邪魔ゎ指せない Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Gosport, England Posts: 26,255	Built in characters generaly can have better stories, but homebrew characters are fun too, making a character as close to what you want to be as poss. __________________ >Site Live< Pop over to my site for help with setting up PSX emulators. Help for the Final Fantasies and other RPGs avalaible Celes: (Desktop) Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, MSI K8N Platinum, GeForce 8800 GTS 320Mb, 500Gb RAID HDD, Vista Business Erika: (MCPC) Athlon XP 2400+, 1Gb 400MHz DDR Ram, geForce 6800 256Mb, 80Gb Hdd, XP 2005 MCE Kimiko: (Desktop 2) Athlon 64 3000+, 512Mb 400MHz DDR Ram, Asus K8V, geForce 6800 128Mb

July 12th, 2002	#5 (permalink)
Pivi Registered User Join Date: Dec 2001 Location: Hungary Posts: 21	Totally depends on the game... I didn't see a game with character creation, that had a REALLY good story. Built-in characters have personalites, main life, they can love other characters, etc... Created characters are monster hacking exp gathering maniacs, which is good in it's own way. ^_^ __________________ Best Regards: Gabriel "Pivi" Pivarcsi Mithril Band - keyboards

July 13th, 2002	#7 (permalink)
systemid The fat one Join Date: May 2002 Location: crapland Posts: 629	final fantasy tactics lets customize your charachters so much its great you can go in all differnet directions battle wise and the story is great to. __________________ Hahahahahahahahahaha the cubs suck. GO marlins

July 11th, 2002	#4 (permalink)
Kaiser Sigma ~ Lord of Darkness ~ Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: A place darker than the night Posts: 14,593	depends... it's waaaay easier to have a party made of characters that you made however in games like BG II you miss a lot of subquests and dialogs wich are interesting or just funny (Minsc arguing with Viconia is hilarious)... depends on what you are looking forward to...

July 13th, 2002	#6 (permalink)
Cless Banned Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 1,809	as long as it has a good story i don't care.

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