jw2299

How do you go through an RPG?

Do you talk to every person in every town? Do you look in all the drawers and/or smash all the bottles and boxes? Do you complete every side quest regardless of how long it takes you and how relevant it is to the story?

Or

Do you see how fast you can get through the game, so you can post it on Gamefaqs.com? Do you buy the strategy guide and follow it page by page? Do you only buy/obtain the weapons/items you absolutely need and discard the rest?

I'm currently playing through and RPG and very much enjoy them, and was just wondering how other people play through them as well.

I have to say that I am more of a wanderer, talking to all the people, smashing every bottle, doing every little thing. But sometimes I do get tired of the game and just want to finish it, so I'll read a walkthrough just to get it over with.

Copenhagen

I generally follow whatever storyline is in place, but I will wander off the path if something catches my eye.

young

i try to do everything... but frankly, after reading a faq or something later, i realize i usually miss a ton of stuff.

but, it doesn't bother me if i don't get everything.

fumanstan

First time i follow the story, doing what i can. Second time i try to be more complete.

PalmerJoss

I normally only go through once and try to get the story elements. I usually leave side quests and the like alone, but now that I'm playing KOTOR for XBox I am taking my sweet time. I want to get everything I possiblyl can out of that game. I almost always run into some trouble at some point in the game and that's when I go to the forums and try to get some help. I refuse to cheat, however. It cheapens the RPG experience.

nemein

First time through I try to do everything, subsequent times I just try to hit the high points (and find the things I missed before).

darkside

If the game is really good I spend time trying to find everything and do every side quest. If the game is not, but the story at least holds my interest I will simply go through it as quickly as possible. FFX is a good example of rushing through. I wanting to finish the game, but skipped all the side stuff and the very boring Blitzball.

wildcatlh

The first time through, I usually go through the game straight-forward, and complete it.

Then, assuming I had enough fun with the game, at that point I'll usually get the guide (or consult GameFAQs), and go back through it, hitting all of the side-quests I might have missed.

shizawn

I usually go through and do every quest*, talk to every NPC, explore all the maps. Some I'm more thorough than others, especially if I really get into the story. Fallout 2 and Planescape: Torment are two such RPGs.

The CRPGs I play don't tend to have endless respawning enemies and random enounters, so I don't XP farm to get maximum stats.




*Except Morrowind. There's no way I'd be able to do every quest in that game.

PixyJunket

I tape the A button down and leave the room.. come back in a few hours and I've gotten pretty far!

einTier

I'm really bad. I usually don't have time to play a game twice, much less something that can take as much time as an RPG. I also hate missing things, especially really important or really cool things.

So, about the only way I can have 'fun' with an RPG is to simply sit down with the walkthrough and methodically complete the whole thing.

Sucks.

WOWZY

I take more time per area than 95% of the people out there. As an example, I left Taris on KOTOR and I have logged in 16:38 hours there, but I forgot to rescue the the pilot held up in Daviks base. So I will be going back for him tonight even though I didn't realize that I forgot him after I became a level 3 Jedi.

I figure I'll have to backtrack 2.5 hours. But I don't mind at all. Great game!!

GatorDeb

I go along with a faq and do EVERY sidequest since I want to go through it only once.

edstein

I do all of the main quests. If I'm in the mood, I will do some of other quests. I seem to spend alot of time analyzing my equipment in order to get the best out of each item.

Trigger

I play for about half an hour and then get bored and put it away for a few months at which point I start a new game and play for a half an hour and then get bored with it again and put it away... etc...

PixyJunket

I did that a LOT in the PSone days before I pretty much gave up on the genre.. I think I played the first 2 hours of Lunar a dozen times.

neiname

I start out trying to do everything and then around the 15 or 20 hour mark I get bored and just want to finish the game.

kneijst1

depends if I'm really into the game or not.

With the old Final Fantasy games, I would try to do as much as I could, and I enjoyed leveling up my characters as high as I could before going to the next level boss/dungeon.

The last RPG I did was Dungeon Siege, and although I enjoyed the game, I just wasn't too into the story, so I pretty much just went as fast as possible.

I'm looking forward to playing FFX once it reachest greatest hits and the price goes down. I just don't like paying $40-$50 on games anymore.

Josh H

Somewhere in between the two options.

I generally talk to everyone, do a decent amount of sidequests, but I usually won't bother with super long and hard sidequests just to get weapons (i.e. the ultimate weapons in the last few FF games).

Superboy

Who's idea was it to give FFX the most boring and unfair sidequests and minigames in the history of RPGs? Seriously.

Any-way, Legend of Mana felt like one huge sidequest, which is probably why i had so much fun with it what with me having a short attention span and all.

RoQuEr

dungeon siege had a story?

I do everything methodically, which is why I couldn't get into morrowind.

Wait, I just got in this town and you want me to leave? But I can't leave before I pick every flower from every tree, and kill all the surrounding bad guys and talk to every person even though they say identical things. You mean the bad guys in the first town are level 12? Well thats poor designing in my eyes............

Groucho

I don't think it's bad design at all to have higher level baddies in the first area. I enjoy RPG's where you can revisit old places after you're more of a badass and finally get to kill that guy who kicked sand in your face when you were a 98 lb weakling.

Ginwen

It depends. Usually, I just play through wherever the game leads me. Final Fantasy games are so long and have so many hidden things (I really don't find it all that fun clicking on every surface for the hidden door,...) I usually end up printing out a guide to make sure I get everything.

One of the things I liked about Chrono Trigger was that, after finishing, I got to restart while carrying over all my uberness, so I played it the first time without cheating at all, then played it a bunch more times using guides to get most of the different endings.

gcribbs

I usually spend a bunch of time trying to get almost everything and kill almost everything. I find the more monsters/bad guys I kill the higher up I get and the easier the final battle is.

If you rush thru the story the final battle can often be very hard.

If I do not like the game much I usually do not bother to finish it.

jw2299

Yeah, I learned that lesson in FF7.

I try to do as much as possible, but I have a short attention span. Which is why I like the .hack// games so much. They're short enough for me to actually finish them while I'm still interested, which leaves me wanting to play the next one. It's a marketing ploy, yes, but I enjoy it nonetheless.