Types of RPG research

There are lots of different types of RPG available out there. Some being more conventional popular ones. E.g. Final fantasy, skyrim etc. However there are some more unique games that still come under the blanket of RPG. Made for different age groups and implementing many different game mechanics.

Recettear is a marketing Rpg. Where you play as Recette Lemongrass who finds herself in charge of an item shop built into her house, she has to pay back a loan that her father took out, with Tear, her newfound fairy friend who makes things difficult but makes sure she keeps her payments up. The idea of this top down, Dungeon crawl, money management rpg is to collect loot from dungeons in order to pay off this debt. Making for a unique game experience.

I would like to consider how economics would work in the world I create, however I would not like to make it the key mechanic like in this game. This game is fun but can become quite repetitive in its dungeon crawl and since my research suggested that people have a preference for open world games. I am not sure how much a mechanic like this would play into my game ideas.

However the game is very charming with plenty of morals and is a decent way of showing younger audiences how to money manage and pay in debts in time, whilst making the game and dungeon experience fun. Similarly the design is very styalised in the japanese Anime style. Making it cute and aethetically pleasing to look at and feel less like a money management simulator.

Hollow knight is an exploration RPG where your main goal is to go around and explore scenery and defeat bosses that get in the way of you making the world a better place. World exploration would be a good RPG to make however they are very difficult to pull of. I find the best ones in this genre are like this one where the world is quite dark and foreboding. However the more I research into these games the more I want to make a child friendly experience in the vein of The legend of Zelda.

However a key element of Rpgs I have noticed in my research is the importance of good inventory managements and UI Systems. Something I will need to consider designing. Similarly small icons to represent objects in game.

Also something I will need to consider is how much I want to stylise my character and environment design. Do I want it to be reaching for realism like skyrim or witcher. Or do I want to make it more charming like Hollow knight or Recettear.

I feel like making something more stylised is more attainable in the time frame that we are allowed for this project as the learning I will have to do to implement realistic textures and movements on my model will probably take a lot longer than the designing phase that i will have to take a lot of time on as well.