Posted February 13, 2022
Having to make choices at character creation that have no default and have no direct impact on gameplay.
One offender I can think of is RPGs that require naming characters, but don't have an auto-name feature. (This feature, which IMO every game with character creation should have, chooses a random name from a list (possibly dependent on race/class), and fills the name field with it. Final Fantasy 1 GBA is an example of a game with this feature; I think Elminage Gothic also does this.)
Darvond: And now the filler arc: Time/Day/Event based RPGs where there's dead air between the important events. Bonus if you can't actually do anything in that time and it's literally just wading though button prompts. Here's some examples:
* Zelda: Majora's Mask has some events, mainly for sidequests, that work on a schedule. While there are ways to warp forward through time, you usually can only warp to 6am or 6pm.
* Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song (and possibly the original Romancing SaGa) has quests that open and close based off the number of battles fought; if you do enough of the quests that are open early, you could run into a situation where there are no reasonable open quests and you have to fight a few battles to get a quest to open.
* From what I hear, Pathfinder: Kingmaker is like this. The game is on a timer, with major problems happening every so often; if you do everything in a timely manner, you'll end up with no remaining side quests and there still being time before the main quest can continue.
One offender I can think of is RPGs that require naming characters, but don't have an auto-name feature. (This feature, which IMO every game with character creation should have, chooses a random name from a list (possibly dependent on race/class), and fills the name field with it. Final Fantasy 1 GBA is an example of a game with this feature; I think Elminage Gothic also does this.)
* Zelda: Majora's Mask has some events, mainly for sidequests, that work on a schedule. While there are ways to warp forward through time, you usually can only warp to 6am or 6pm.
* Romancing SaGa: Minstrel Song (and possibly the original Romancing SaGa) has quests that open and close based off the number of battles fought; if you do enough of the quests that are open early, you could run into a situation where there are no reasonable open quests and you have to fight a few battles to get a quest to open.
* From what I hear, Pathfinder: Kingmaker is like this. The game is on a timer, with major problems happening every so often; if you do everything in a timely manner, you'll end up with no remaining side quests and there still being time before the main quest can continue.
Post edited February 13, 2022 by dtgreene