| 1.
Originality: "Oh look, it's an evil carpenter trying to take over the world this time! And a 46-year old merchant is the only one that can stop him!"
Believability: "I'm joining your side because you're stronger and because you pay better! Killing your enemies is just so dull."
Not whacking the playing over the head with everything: "I'm pretty sure that guy was evil. Yeah, you're probably right. Maybe we should eventually try to stop him or something."
...While also not being mysterious about everything: "You know, I'm almost positive that you will run in to some kind of evil around hour 17 that you'll have to defeat with a certain sword. I could be wrong, though."
And character development that fits all four of those: "Hey! We came from somewhat different backgrounds but discovered we have something in common. It's possible that this relationship could give us some sort of power that may or may not be able to defeat the bad dude!"
2.
Both KotoR games. Lots of believable character development, a good mix between making things obvious (Malak teh evilz) and being secretive about stuff.
Chrono Trigger. Most of you have played this one; don't think I need to explain it.
3.
Suikoden Tierkreis. I get it. The Order is evil. Really evil. Now please stop saying that in every other sentence. Also, the "evil empire" thing has been done to death. It might also help if you didn't develop characters by making one not shut up for twenty minutes and then being silent for two hours. Or if we didn't have 90+ characters with <10 lines.
FFTA2. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, SQUARE? I NEED 200 HINTS TO FIGURE OUT A PLOT TWIST IN ADVANCE. 150 JUST WON'T DO.
Maybe more later, but I think that gives a pretty good represantation of my opinion. |