>Desert town is ALWAYS the trade hub even it's actually located in the middle of nowhere
If it wasn't a trade hub, it would have zero reason to exist.
>First Chen thread of 2016
>that town with the waterfalls and aqueducts and stuff
>>322205340
Those madmen, settling that oasis in the middle of the desert.
>That town built near an active volcano
>>322205225
shame games often don't even set the town on a believable trading route
>no one even stops by there
>the desert only leads to some abandoned tower filled with monsters
there should just not even be a town
>there's a visible back end of a building that's inaccessible until the plot calls for it but no other building in town has one
What do you call this, architectural foreshadowing?
hey now, sometimes it's a weird town filled with cultists awaiting their dark god
>there's multiple houses in the town
>you can only enter in some of them to talk to NPCs
>the one you can't enter straight up have no doors whatsoever
>>322205247
>there is only one TZ
>spend the night in desert town
>wake up to find it was an illusion
>everything was destroyed before you came
>>322206039
The doors are on the side you can't see. There's a whole other town invisible to the player.
>Small settlement in the middle of a dungeon for no reason.
>>322206259
really? usually they give out some reason
like being in hiding, or a hub for explorers
>>322206259
I like those.
>>322206323
Minetown in Nethack doesn't.
>>322205526
>Oasis as big as lake
>Surrounding, entirely devoid of green, except maybe some palms
>>322206906
>that one single guy who fishes in the oasis
>nobody else does
>it's only ever him
>world has 10+ small towns separated by volcanoes, deserts, sea filled with monsters, and even mountains no one would dare climb and they can't even fly except for the band of teenagers that found the ancient airship
>they all speak the same language, and even do trading
>>322205589
Volcanic ash is very fertile.
>>322207095
What game?
>>322207326
Not him, but almost all JRPG do this.
I mean, the ancient with cool-as-fuck technology that managed to create airship and other stuff, only ever successfully sealing the Ancient evil.
Bunch of teenager with only some part of their technology can kill the ancient evil.
>>322207481
Not really, a good chunk of them will have bands of NPC soldiers and guards who are otherwise involved with ensuring traders get to where they need to go. Many games have ports, carriages and so on. There's plenty of dodgy stuff in JRPG worlds but many of them are safe enough for people to travel around to different towns.
>>322207625
Why don't they build their settlement nearby with each other?
>>322207095
>those towns surrounded by massive mountain ranges (like in FF1) that can't be reached by anything but the ancient airship
how did those people people even end up there
>>322207781
What, in general? Well there's normally some sort of reason the town was settled. Like, a mine, or a port with lots of fishing, or because it's where a fort is, or something like that.
There's an important rationalization in JRPGs that's kind of needed, where you have to assume that the six buildings you see in the village are just the CBD, and that there's an unseen amount of sattelite structures and people. This assumption also works on a larger scale- the continent doesn't just consist of the capital and three towns in a big empty space, there's X many smaller towns and villages surrounding them that have no relevance to the plot.
If you use this assumption then RPG worlds make a lot more sense because what you're seeing is a representation of the location with caveats to the limitations of software and development time.
If you don't use the assumption then JRPG worlds don't work, straight up. That's why it helps to play games that put visual representations of huge cities in the background of the accessible parts to give an impression of scale and population density instead of relying on the player to fill in the gaps with their imagination.
>>322208217
..not to mention the mountains lead to either the ocean or a desert
>>322207781
no worries, since towns are becoming 2hard2make most jrpgs nowadays have a single central town for the entire world
that or menu driven towns with a background still
>>322206121
If I remember correctly, there was something like that in Terranigma, right?
>>322208334
Some games tried simulating realistic-ish fantasy worlds, with minor and major settlements, trade routes and so forth, but it ended just as well as one might expect. I don't think there are more boring and uninspired worlds than those of Daggerfall and Dwarf Fortress in adventure mode.
>town in desert is always the best place for selling and trading in the game
>town in mountains is either located next to a very active volcano or a cave with some people eating monster in it
>town by the sea is always a bustling port and plays a major role in the story
>town located in the snowy icy north is always late game
>town located in a reasonable location always gets destroyed
>>322208810
>>322206121
I feel like I've seen that in at least 4+ games myself, but can't remember which
probably older snes/ps1 games
>>322208640
To be fair that's our fault because western publishers ramped up the industry's costs and priced smaller devs out of the market or forced them to join up under their umbrellas to be drained of ideas and cast aside.
>>322205694
Remind me of the game Azure Dream. Also an anime call Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic.
On both it is a desert town that mostly deal with trading. The main thing is that adventurers will enter the monster tower located in the town and hopefully come out alive and richer.
>>322208334
Some games actually tell you straight that there were only x number of cities and towns.
While I must agree that small settlement like village doesn't need to be "viewed" unless plot related, big structures like town and fort need to be added, especially if the nation itself have neighbouring nation that in "unfriendly" state.
It's true when playing game you should have fills the gap with imagination, but in current year I expected them to make build the world better.
Then again every flaws and fault in JRPG that I could think of comes from Tales for some reason.
>>322208924
>small town at the ass of the world that is hateful towards people from outside has some of the best weapons and equipment of the game even thought they dont have anybody who uses it
>biggest town nearly central of the map has complete shit items
What the fuck DQ9
>>322209090
tales tend to stick to the old formula for world building, aka what most jrpgs did back on the nes/snes and sometimes ps1
towns often feel randomly placed between obstacles just as a next destination for the player
>>322209090
At least some JRPGs justify having only a couple of towns.
Like in FFX "not much shit Sin keeps gobbling it up"
>>322209336
Dragon Dogma somewhat fix this as the equipment in shops get better as you buy from them and progress in the story. With that said though there is really only one major town though thankfully it is in the middle of the world.Seems all roads lead to Gran Soren Arisen.
>>322209336
the isolated town have better blacksmith and stronger monster?
>Hey MC I come from that village!
>Said village have lv.50 mob and high end equipment
>he join you at level 3 and shit equipment
>>322209350
>>322209090
Depends on the Tales. Symphonia's cities were spread pretty randomly and Hearts had a serious case of "buildings standing around aimlessly".
Then you have later games like Vesperia where there where two massive, vibrant metropolises and even a smaller town like the tree city had tons of buildings visible. They were believable places.
Xillia had the downside of not having a world map but its' cities were pretty huge and multi-layered and continued off into the distance, so you could get the sense of scale from them.
Zestiria kinda continues that trend, you've got a handful of cities in a dangerous world but the cities are gigantic well-populated walled towns.
The thing is though, these three examples also all have tiny villages with a fart's worth of people and buildings in them. You have to use your imagination like the other anon said and pretend there's more buildings beyond what you can see.
>>322209336
Maybe the big city has strict laws on the martial weapons' availability to general population. If it has more than 30 AP, it's an assault sword that is reserved to military and special forces.
Shit now I want to play Monster Hunter
>>322209785
Vesperia doesn't even try to sell you illusion of bigger town, Rita's town only have small-ass road and three building, 1 for library, 1 for research center, and 1 for Rita's personal shack.
>>322209948
Rita's town wasn't actually a town though, it was a bunch of researchers living in the ruins of an ancient city which is fucking huge.
Also those three rooms are just the parts you were allowed into, they specifically made a point that the towers above were locked off from outsiders.
>>322209760
The village i am talking about worm....something something hates any outsiders and has literally one guy who defends the full village and he can only use swords and lances
>>322209834
after you beat the game a second person shows up in the weapon and the equipment store and sells you the second best(buyable) items in the game
>A town where everyone looks the same
>>322210126
How did they transport the material to build the town? heck why even build them inside, why not the outside?
Why don't they just make at least two map, town entrance, and then town inside.
Also is Engeve from Abyss is totally believable town? It's one of the major, if not the only one, town where they produce food. And it's located near the border to enemy nation.
>>322204886
>Desert level
>the first enemy is always scorpions
>bandit quests
>slave quests
>trade items with waters
>BGM always sounds like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yy831UQ5_w
>town won't let you in
>you get in
>no one is there>can't get out
>>322210516
>Slave always treated as something inhumane, something that shouldn't even existed
>Implying slave-tier people at that age capable of doing thing without being told, and not resorting to do criminal thing.
>>322205937
and you need a fully recovered bird that's the reincarnation of a god to hover to him.
>>322210432
>>322210432
It wasn't built. The entire structure is a buried ancient civilization's flying citadel that was stuck under the mountain. The rest of the city is literally the final dungeon. You only explore half of it getting to the boss, there's an entirely different route down the other side full of crazy shit.
>>322210806
I haven't actually finished vesperia yet, it kinda boring to be honest and no mention of another world anywhere in-game which kinda I hope since the world map is so damn empty even after getting flying whale.
>player owned base has it's own shop
>every time you visit a new shop in a another village all of their merchandise is added to your base shop
How does he do it?
>>322210978
>atelier
>shop can duplicate items with alchemy and sell them if you gave them 1 original copy
literally piracy
>>322211889
Probably they were given step-by-step instruction how to create the item.
>>322205225
Not unlike the Middle East with oil, literally why do humans live there
>town built in an alternate dimension
>everyone is dead
