VIDEOWIZARD'S PROFILE

Oh no, RMD RMN is dying!

I knew it was at least 9 years, since The NeXus was around in 1999, but I didn't realize Holbert started before that. And for the president idea, IIRC, doesn't the "C" in rcholbert stand for Clinton? ;D

So, basically, to avoid the Trap, I just have to make part of a cave really difficult, but on the other side, enemies are weaker? That's what it sounds like here, Dragon Quest (past III especially) is notorious for doing that. Dragon Quest I-II don't, and it's annoying.

Dragon Quest IV, for example. That darn World Tree is hard and annoying to climb. However, once you enter Zenithia, things get much easier. Even the last cave isn't quite as bad (and in fact is good, because of Metal enemies en masse), and I didn't find the Last Refuge THAT bad, either. DQIV thus plateaus at the World Tree and doesn't reach that level until the Final Dungeon.

Dragon Quest VIII did that, too, that's one way I knew the Dark Cave wasn't the FINAL area, because the enemies weren't nearly strong enough. (And you're only in the 20s for level)

Yes, even Final Fantasy does this. Surprisingly early in the series, too. The original Final Fantasy has REALLY tough areas followed by easier ones (Chapter 7- Castle of Ordeals is easier than Chapter 6- Gurgu Volcano?) The WORMs of the desert area help out with high rewards. (Yes, they also can hit hard, but they don't take that much to kill)

So, the scorecard-
Series that do have varying difficulty rates:
Breath of Fire I-IV, Dragon Quest III-VIII, Final Fantasy I-VII, IX, X and X-2, Lufia I & II, Suikoden.

Series that keep a steady difficulty rate (whether increasing or static):
Dragon Quest I & II, Final Fantasy VIII.

Dragon Quest I & II keep getting harder with no let up, Final Fantasy VIII stays at nearly the same middle difficulty the entire game (worse than any of the others mentioned- even in DQ I & II (NES) you get a sense of strengthening when fighting early foes. In FF VIII, they just level up with you).

Final Fantasy II varies too much, in fact. You can get killed for going the wrong way on an open map. (This can happen in a small part of Final Fantasy III, too, though not as dramatic, and can actually be humorous.)

The great thing about episodic content is
-it won't feel like a 320 hour game. Some of the great shows of all time had 100s of episodes. If you could play any one at any time, without having to go through all the ones before it, it'd be great.
-you can add special episodes at any time. This includes side quests at the end of the game. Or the end of the entire project in this case.

Say you liked The Simpsons episode 75. Notice that you didn't have to watch episodes 1-74 to get to that point, whereas you would in an epic RPG. 20 minutes an episode (remember, commercials) times 74 episodes is 1480 minutes, or about 25 hours.

If I had to watch the equivalent of 74 episodes of The Simpsons before I got to the part I wanted to see, I'd give up. By the way: a 320 hour game comes out to 960 20 min. episodes- more than The Simpsons has produced. This is also why most RPGs have minimal replay value.

There have been 400 episodes, which at 20 min. each is about 133 hours (about as long as Dragon Quest VII). For a 40 hour RPG, that is the equivalent of 120 episodes (six seasons, or roughly the "good" part of The Simpsons- to me, it went downhill after about 1996). Even a 20 hour RPG is "only" 60 episodes (about three seasons' worth!)

brandonabley, out of the list of games you mentioned, I've only played less than half (your game- Wilfred the Hero, Three the Hard Way, A Blurred Line), mainly because they're not just the Final Fantasy epic again. I'll have to give Last Scenario a try.

I've played Final Fantasy ad nauseam. I don't really want Final Fantasy VI again, the best that the community can do with this technology.

Sometimes, I just want something I can pick up and finish within a couple hours. Wilfred the Hero did great on that respect.

I even have an idea for episodic content when it comes to levels. Suppose that you don't want to play the first several hours of a game again to reach a certain point.

Well, a code can be given at the end of an episode that will work on the next. That way, instead of starting at a default level with default equipment, you'll keep the stats you had before. I'm not sure if transferring a save from the old episode would work on the new one, because it could be done that way.

Episodic content also means that a game could have modules, such as an optional super-boss in, say, Episode Ten, where your party would need level 70+ stats to survive. Or, you could skip that one entirely, and finish with Episode Nine.

If support for a series starts to look weak, then it could have an early end (as I've seen some TV shows do), or a gimmick to draw in more people.

I've only had maybe one or two e-mails about any of my games, though that could be because Dragon Kingdoms is more popular in Antarctica than it is in the US. (And I didn't know penguins could play video games)

Seriously though, the e-mails were more "Where should I start in the series", "How do I get past this obstacle".