Player choice and many other things that game companies did with their games is what made RPGs great back then, I remember being able to choose from 6 different choices on how to deal with raiders in the old fallout... Same for the old BioWare here is what I mean -
I was just thinking that today on my play through of DA:I deep roads dlc. The deep road dlc reminded me of origins which was nice and the voiced inquisitor made that nostalgia unique. I think a mix of both old and new could go a long way, best of both worlds.Personally i very much value the voiced PC so i can't say i agree that going backwards in that regards is either good or likely.
Sometimes it's hard enough for me to decide between 3 dialogue choices, let alone the paragraph of options you had to read in old rpgs. 
Personally I'd much rather have a voiced protagonist, I feel far more invested in my character when I can enjoy their dialogue too. I find the stories are now more engaging, and having a billion choices will only lead to very few of those choices actually being meaningful long term.
BioWare grew up, they make Triple-A games now. In the words of Cassandra - deal..with..it. 
If you want the old rpg experience smaller indie developers are the ones to do it, like Undertale for example (lots of endings, great characters, no voice, choices in what you can do, or miss out completely etc). After all, that's what KickStarter is for right?
Sounds great, OP. Now what are you willing to give up for your 18 different dialogue options? Granted, Planescape: Torment is probably one of my top games of all time. But simply pointing out "go back to this" is meaningless. Bioware's record from KotOR onwards indicates pretty clearly that they do not want to go back to that style.
And just for fun, as amusing as your picture is, I should point out that Black Isle went bankrupt and Obsidian was on the verge of bankruptcy prior to Pillars of Eternity's release. So it might not be too bad an idea to operate from a financial stand point.
Why not just play DoS, PoE or Wasteland 2 and let BioWare get on with making character focused, RPG-lite action games?
It's easy to have a gazillion different dialogue options or choices when all of it is rendered in text and the view is isometric, with the devs not needing to worry about character animations, cinematic conversations, or cutscenes.
There is still a place for old school RPGs, as Pillars of Eternity demonstrated, but that doesn't mean that every RPG should be a PoE clone. Mass Effect certainly shouldn't.
Why not just play DoS, PoE or Wasteland 2 and let BioWare get on with making character focused, RPG-lite action games?
And also the underrated Sword Coast Legend I would add, even if I know that many people here are going to disagree..
At any rate, back on topic, while I am also a huge fan of RPGs wih isometric view, I think that it's pointless to ask a company like Bioware who aims at great distribution to go back to those roots. Indies and Kickstarter nowadays is the place where you can find those games and I am happy that they have their own place, where they can follow a way that is totally separate from AAA games.
Inquisition got so much crap for not having more cinematic cutscenes and "shot/reverse shot" type of camera for every single conversation. Bioware is so lazy, people said. Now this.
It's almost as if when you get a group of people together on a forum there are varying opinions.
but that would be crazy talk =P
Sounds great, OP. Now what are you willing to give up for your 18 different dialogue options? Granted, Planescape: Torment is probably one of my top games of all time. But simply pointing out "go back to this" is meaningless. Bioware's record from KotOR onwards indicates pretty clearly that they do not want to go back to that style.
Doing early access to Torment: Tides of Numenera. The spiritual successor to Planescape: Torment
Absolutely amazing game, even in its incomplete state. The world needs more of these.
And just for fun, as amusing as your picture is, I should point out that Black Isle went bankrupt and Obsidian was on the verge of bankruptcy prior to Pillars of Eternity's release. So it might not be too bad an idea to operate from a financial stand point.
Pillars of Eternity... Say, wasn't that the old-school brand RPG made that invoked P:T and BG2 as inspirations? THe game that saved the company? 
And also the underrated Sword Coast Legend I would add, even if I know that many people here are going to disagree..
...
Somewhat off topic - but is that actually any good? I had it on my Steam Wishlist but the reviews weren't exactly glowing so I took it off with the intention to maybe just grab it when it's on a cheap Steam sale.
I welcome more choices, as long as they are voiced and as long as we never go back to that isometric view
Tried Divinity Original Sin, no thank you. It is good some one makes those games. I applaud diversity. But why should every RPG be the bound to the same rules?
Somewhat off topic - but is that actually any good? I had it on my Steam Wishlist but the reviews weren't exactly glowing so I took it off with the intention to maybe just grab it when it's on a cheap Steam sale.
TL;DR (and of course my own and strictly personal opinion): if you look at it like a generic RPG I think it's quite good: solid campaign, nice voice acting, fun companions, and albeit its linearity there is a fair amount of quests many of which you can approach and solve in different ways (ie using your skills rather than resort to brute force). Also some good moral dillemas. If you look at it like a D&D game and you are fond of the rules then you are going to dislike it.
PS. My apologies for the OT.
So, about these two images...
This comparison is absurd. In the case of the first, I can see a, "I'll come back and talk later option," which indicates that everything you can say in that interaction is displayed in that list. I'm going to go out on a limb and wager that it's possible to select the inquisitive options, and then still have the decision options available to you. Most of the time, Bioware games provides the same thing, but they pace it out, in order, so that it's less simplistic and flows like an actual conversation. And the contrasting picture they're showcasing is at the very end of a branching journey of dialogue where no actual decision is being made. It's flavor dialogue.
As for the second image: lol.
Ah, rose-tinted glasses. Gotta love 'em.
Especially if you're Cyclops.
This topic is terrible. Not necessarily because comparing old RPG dialogue structures to new ones is terrible, but because you put forth zero effort in the OP to make an argument and instead relied on some crappy cherry-picked memes.
Old RPGs suck, confirmed.
As for the whole "old vs new" thing, BioWare is now into big budget AAA cinematic storytelling which limits the amount of choices you can give a player due to the amount of money involved in doing so. There is no real going back for them at this point.
There are however a good deal of developers making games like PoE, Shadowrun, and Divinity Original Sin for your old school isometric RPG needs.
This topic is terrible. Not necessarily because comparing old RPG dialogue structures to new ones is terrible, but because you put forth zero effort in the OP to make an argument and instead relied on some crappy cherry-picked memes.
Retour en haut
