I've played a number of rpg's in my day but it seems that the majority of them have mediocre to bad combat mechanics.
This thread will mostly focuses on Western rpg's since I have little knowledge and have played only one JRPG.
Sometimes I wonder whether these developers purposefully did this or they don't put enough time fine tuning the combat of their games.
I find people's reasons and excuses weak because almost every rpg I've played, combat is unavoidable and a lot of times either the controls or the combat itself is a huge barrier for me as a player. I don't think getting used to the combat is a good enough solution nor do I think just waiting for mods to "fix it" is a good solution either.
Bethesda is one of the biggest offenders when it comes to this.
For example, the combat in the two Elder Scrolls games I've played, Oblivion & Skyrim, suck. Skyrim was a big improvement but it isn't what I would call good either. There are other first person games with combat that is comparable to the Elder Scrolls series that Bethesda could have taken inspiration from to improve theirs. The fact that they've been making this series for 20 years and still haven't mastered their own style of combat is disturbing.
Fallout 3 & New Vegas have First person shooter combat and yet both still fail at it. How could Bethesda and Obsidian have gotten combat so wrong when so many FPS's came out the same time as both games?
The Witcher series is also another big offender of this too. Witcher 1's combat is super simple, like a glorified QTE. You just click and wait for the cursor to light up and keep clicking. Witcher 2's was worse and plays like a bad action game.
Now, I have played some rpg's with good enough combat like Jade Empire, Kingdom's of Amalur and Dragon's Dogma but those are rare.
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I've often thought that RPGs with action-based forms of combat tend to pale in comparison to actual action games. I'd be interested to know the reasons why ARPGs so often highly lack mechanical polish and balance. Maybe there are technical factors.
I don't think it's always such a bad thing, though. Take Oblivion and Skyrim, for instance. The combat is just kind of there; it's not good, but it's not super-annoying either. The main thing it does is add to the experience of feeling like you're living the life of an explorer and an adventurer in a fantasy world, which is the main draw of those games for a lot of people.
That said, I see no reason to make excuses. Just because I think the combat is serviceable enough to play its part in the overall experience doesn't mean I wouldn't want it to be better. It's fair to criticize them.
Its mostly western studios, thats not just for RPGs, most western studios make gameplay that puts me to sleep.
I dont think so. traditional RPGs with hack/slash combat always get so boring so fast. That includes The Witcher 3, which I cant bring myself to finish.
I'm probably the odd man out, but I MUCH prefer the combat in Elder Scrolls games to third person hack/slash. Elder Scrolls combat allows you to approach situations from multiple angles, and you get a lot of control over combat scenarios. Sneeking up on some townspeople, pegging one of them in the head with an arrow, and then retreating into the shadows is so satisfying. Traditional Hack/slash RPGs never allow that kind of freedom.
Testament to how true sandbox design can bring much more life to a game. Games that are absolutely drenched in long, drawn out bullet-sponge combat scenarios need good combat.
I agree with this post. I play games for game-play first and foremost, everything else second. I don't care how good your graphics or story is, if you don't have satisfying gameplay I just can't deal with it.
This is why I don't play a lot of RPGs. . Their combat is unsatisfying and boring. . There are a few exceptions of coarse.
Like the Souls series.. these barely have story in them. Straight up gameplay.
I didn't even bother going near any of the Elder scrolls games.