I was thinking the other day about what makes a good RPG. Obviously, story is one thing. Gameplay helps too. Fun battles and bosses, good music, blah blah blah. Everyone knows that. But I'm thinking more about the small things. What are a few things that set an RPG apart from the generic RPGs in our minds?

So here's my list of things that should be considered when making an RPG, and why they work.

Possible spoilers within but I do try and avoid them...

1. You gotta fuck some shit up

Sorry for the vulgarity, but this is how I feel.

Have you ever been playing an RPG that just seemed to be going...well, nowhere? You go over a mountain, fight a boss, meet a character (and they join you), go a bit further, find a town, go through a pass, fight a boss, meet a character, etc. Just... mundane stuff, really.

Lost Odyssey seemed to be going this way, even though the emotional parts kept it interesting. Still, I had never lost a character or done anything completely out of the ordinary yet. That is...until disc 3.

Disc 3 met one of the most crucial goals in an RPG (especially ones driven by the characters) by fuckin' shit up. All of a sudden the game grabs you by the balls and shows that its story is not quite as ordinary as you'd thought. Your team gets split up, these two go this way, these three go another, these two have to chase down these other two, another new character is met, shit starts blowing up, and so on. The good stuff. You find yourself using characters you probably haven't used in a while, and probably in cool boss fights, no less.

In my opinion, good RPGs know that sooner or later, you have to fuck shit up. The better ones do , even though we might not realize it. Final Fantasy 2(IV) had somewhere around 12 playable characters, but you could only have up to 5 at a time. This kept it interesting. One of my biggest video game pet peeves is to be stuck with the same party for way too long. FF2 hardly even lets you think that - once you get used to a certain group, one of them might have to leave the group, or a Leviathan might eat your ship. Hell, some characters even go through big changes. Awesome!

Final Fantasy 3(VI) is one of the more obvious ones because what happens to your entire party. Tired of using Locke? BAM! Have fun with the Phoenix Cave...

To keep with the trend, I enjoyed Final Fantasy VII and Chrono Trigger the most when you temporarily lose certain characters.

Which brings me to my next point...

2. It's not always about you (guests, etc.)

IMO, nothing sucks worse than meeting your party early in the game and being stuck with them until the end. Final Fantasy XII disappointed me for many reasons, but here was a big gripe: there's only six characters, you can literally ditch 3 for the entire game (and I did), you get them all pretty early into the game, and the characters kind of sucked.

One thing FF12 did right, though, was to implement a guest system. Guests were basically temporary characters that would be a fourth member to your normally 3-person group. They'd level up on their own and you couldn't change their equipment, but you wouldn't have them forever...so they were just guys that you'd have for a while but not get to keep. In addition to being helpful, though, they were usually cooler than your own party. Plus they were interesting.

IIRC, Vossler was a badass soldier with a giant sword that helped your party out a few times along the way. He has a different view of how things should be done, which is cool, because not everyone would be so happy-go-lucky with the way your group is doing things. He had more depth than Fran, but that's another rant for another day. Reddas was a black pirate with kickass mutton chops. I think he had a cool past too, but I was too busy staring at the chops.

Final Fantasy Tactics (I swear I play more than FF games, honestly) was the first game I remember using a guest system, and it was great because stories aren't always all about you. Not all games have X amount of heroes who band together and fight evil, and only they can do it. That works for Zelda and Final Fantasy I, but it's a little dated now. If you've played Skies of Arcadia, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. While your group contains the main heroes, a plethora of pirates and friends help make the game truly memorable.

Final Fantasy 9 had a system where you could occasionally see what others were up to around the world - old friends were having their own adventures or experiences. Which is good, because Blank was the best character, and you can't even keep him. Just sayin'.

3. Talk to your characters

Grandia II had a neat system where your characters would chat around a fire or while eating dinner if you stayed at an inn. The added dialogue helped flesh out the characters. You could tell that they were all friends, but they'd also discuss important things about their journey - their fears, their hopes, and most importantly, why they are even there.

If you're nearing the end of a game and you still have to ask "Why is this character here?", then something ain't right. Seriously.

The best way to figure out characters motives and such is to let you talk to them. Knights of the Old Republic had it right - in addition to hearing interesting stories and developing your characters, there were light/dark side points and side quests to be had. Sometimes I'd think "Why is Jolee with me?", but after hearing his story, I don't even have to ask.

If the player doesn't see how the characters get along or what they believe, why should we believe their cheers and excitement when you win? It's like all of a sudden everyone's best pals... "but _ only joined your party like an hour ago...and he was previously a bad guy...and _ didn't even KNOW _ because he joined AFTER _ happened..." Bah! DEVELOP UR CHARS PLZ.

4. Legit villains

Obviously no developer sets out to make a game and WANTS to make his or her villain corny or annoying, but it happens. Alls I'm saying is that when it does, it hurts the product in a big way. (This is spoilerific territory but I'll try not to reveal anything big)

The villain in Lost Odyssey is lame looking, but by the end of the game you KNOW he's one evil motherfucker. After all that he's done to your characters, you want him dead just as much as they do. And that's how it should be.

The villain Final Fantasy 3(VI) is often regarded as one of the best, and with good reason. He effs up a world like never before, he kills important characters, he enslaves Espers... he's about as evil as it gets. And that's how it should be, if that's what you're going for.

Mass Effect's villain goes a different route, and this is a good thing. Everyone's got a different theory on why Saren goes rogue - he hates humans, he's corrupt, he's just plain evil...but fortunately it's more complex than that. I won't spoil it here, but I really liked that I could somewhat sympathize with his original motives... but also that those motives don't make your mission any different - you're not forced into fighting a fight you don't believe in, it simply gives a character depth instead of being all "rawr, I'm evil!"

The WORST is when you're facing a villain at the end of a game in an epic battle that you just can't buy into. "Why am I fighting this guy again?" It completely kills the mood if 99.9% of a story is after one villain, and then some other bad guy that you don't really know steps up and says "Ah-HAH! You see, it is I who conquer this world you think you just saved!" Twist endings might work sometimes, but unless it's COMPLETELY believable, avoid it at all costs. Luckily, most RPGs aren't directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

Miscellaneous thoughts

It happens in all games, but if you really have to ask "Why am I here, again?" too many times, the story is simply getting weak.

Someday, when your characters stay at an inn (and there isn't some fight in the middle of the night), they'll learn to remove their armor before they sleep.

Speaking of, if a story is really long, it's not THAT much to ask that some characters change their appearances. In Final Fantasy Tactics, Ramza and Delita both change their appearance two or three times. And it makes sense. Ramza isn't going to wear school boy clothes when he's a mercenary, and Delita isn't going to dress like a peasant when he's a knight.

If I made an RPG, it'd be like this:
-4 or 5 characters to a party
-10 or so main characters, with some other not-so-important that you get to use
-Have to actually USE all the characters more than just once per playthrough
-Not random encounters (where you approach them and then it starts a fight)
-One twisted motherfucker for a villain. Or perhaps two villains that you'll fight simultaneously?
-Plenty of opportunities to get to know your characters, but not forced down your throat via cutscenes
-Shit occasionally being fucked up

The end!