Puzzles in your RPGs?

[charmwitch]

My favorite RPG with puzzle is Lufia 2. There are puzzles in most dungeon, ranging from simple to a really complex one.
Easy puzzles such as pushing pillars to a button and it will reveal a door.
More difficult one such as rearranging similar color blocks to make all of them disappear in order to open a door.
Destroy every single grass with fire arrows before they grow (they grow is sequences, you have to remember them exactly.)

I really like the variety of puzzles they have. It can be really fun and challenging. I suppose if you want to make people less frustrated, you can make the mandatory puzzles easy (for people who just want to see the story), and optional puzzles difficult (for people who like challenges and unlock extras)

When I saw this thread, all I could think about is Lufia II.
That game really made me love puzzles, they were just so fun! (and hard, but fun.)

I love games that incorporate like, trick box puzzles. Where you have to find the right color combination or put together a sliding puzzle. I always think those are super challenging but really get your mind going in the middle of gameplay. Another puzzle I'm thinking of right now is one from... gosh, Onimusha? There's a scene where you have to get out of a water trap or something...then again, that puzzle probably wigged me out because it was on a time limit. Time limits =

[LVUER]

If you love puzzles, then you must include Alundra 1 and 2.

[kinougames]

The biggest problem with puzzles in RPGs tends to be replay, because very few RPGs give you any method of skipping that kind of thing on replay. That Dragon Age puzzle was fun the first time and ANNOYING when I was playing through with a second character... and it's not a very long puzzle. They can get much worse.

Tough puzzles should probably be either completely optional OR a major component of gameplay from the beginning. If it's obviously an RPG packed with puzzles, the player knows what they're getting into. If it's been straight combat for hours and then suddenly there's a mind-boggling puzzle that you HAVE to complete to succeed, the player may throw a tantrum before consulting a walkthrough and grumbling.

Hilariously enough, it's rare that an RPG has a story I loved, but a puzzle I hated so much that I wouldn't replay it anyway. For example, in KH2, I hated the whole set of beginning stuff. It wasn't hard, but it was, like you said, long and boring. Regardless, KH2 is hands down my most played game thanks to love of the story. There's a puzzle in BOF 2 that I always want to kill, and yet I've probably played it 3-4-5 times.

Basically, I've found that if I can finish the game to completion, chances are very, very good that I will be playing it a million times, regardless of if I hated one or two parts.

More so if there's a different ending I want to get!

Regardless, as I myself am more for story than gameplay 99% of the time, I don't plan to ever go overboard.

[LVUER]

Speaking of BOF2, the puzzle that I hate most is the music puzzle (and perhaps the only puzzle in RPG that I couldn't solve until now). I guess I just don't have that sense of music...

[kinougames]

I hated the one where you're in like, this room, and the room spins and spins and spins and you have to stare like an effin zombie so that you don't miss the "you need to go this way" cue.

[LVUER]

You mean the water temple puzzle?

[kinougames]

I don't even remember xD

I think it was one of the last puzzles before the end of the game, though. The floor was transparent, and it looked like you were in outer space, kinda?

[Topagae]

"Neque porro quisquam est qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit..."

[Showsni]

Ooh, how about the block kicking puzzles in Goof Troops? Not that it's really an RPG (except in the literal sense that you are playing the role of Goofy and/or Max). Pretty simple kick the stone blocks around the room to get them into the correct areas. Obviously if you kick them into a corner, you have to leave the room and come back to reset it... Of course, the fact that it's co-op helps add to the fun. (You kick that one to me, and I'll kick it up. No! You kicked it the wrong way! Ir just kick it into them to be annoying...) Then in later levels you get added difficulties, like pirates that can kick the blocks the wrong way, blocks that explode if you take too long, etc...

[musical74]

Having played RPGs since about 1986 I think i can add something to this!

Fetch quests and puzzles used to be quite common (get X to get Y to work), and while I don't mind puzzles like that, also remember to make them somewhat easy... I don't mind backtracking a little bit, but if you have to backtrack 12 hours because you forgot something you didn't realize you needed...GRRRRRRRR I forget the game, but there was one treasure that I was supposed to have...and didn't get...and didn't realize I would need until 12 hours later, on another continent (yeesh)

Optional puzzles are the best, because while you don't NEED to solve them, doing so usually results in great rewards. Things like the Acient cave in Lufia 2 (the 99 level one), getting Bahamut in FF 4 - you don't NEED to solve those, but it's worth it.

The biggest problem I have with puzzles is the *OK I'm missing one thing...but what?!!* So long as you avoid the *you are missing something to solve the puzzle, but no way we are going to tell you what it is, you are on your own* I don't have any problems with them.

[LVUER]

Or getting Bahamut and Eden in FF8...Extremely hard dungeon (even harder due to the infamous FF8 LV system), but practically turns you into living God once you got them (combined with Lion Heart, hmm-mmm).

[Riviera]

Lufia 2's puzzles were lots of fun. I sunk so many hours into that extra dungeon.. my whole group is kitted out in blue gear and I haven't even found all the iris treasures yet. I just go down a bunch of floors, get blue boxes and skedaddle. It's glorious.

Iron Cave in FF4. I bet this one is quite famous since it appears often in Top 10 List of GameFaqs.

In case you don't know... in this cave, you have to rescue a boy that entered a cave full of monster (typical...). What makes this cave very difficult is that you couldn't use any metal equipment due to strong magnetic nature this cave possess, which leaves you with weak weapons and equipments (if you insist on wearing it, you couldn't move in battle at all).

Not to mention that this cave have strong monsters that could decimate your party in several turns... and since this is FF4, random encounter happens every several steps. To ramped up the difficulty, there is very strong boss at the end of the cave.

And don't forget that FF4 doesn't have any save points outside inns.

Did you play the japanese FF4 or the DS version? I can't speak about either of those, but the original US SNES one (that came over as FF2) had save points in dungeons and let you save anywhere on the overworld map.

The iron cave was still a pain in the butt.