Why don't more RPGs focus on depth of a setting rather than width? And I don't just mean "muh lore". I mean why don't they have just one town, but make the town and surrounding area super intricate and detailed?
Closest I think of is Rattay, which had stuff like dry goods, butchers, etc
Gothic, Gothic 2,...
I haven't played Gothic 2, but Gothic 1 felt really small. The areas and the towns. I guess it's close to what I want, but I like to have some balance, y'know?
because when gamers see that a game only has one town they freak out at the lack of content
One of my favourite games of all time(Quest for Glory) only ever had one town.
Not RPG, but Pathologic town is very interesting
ah yes, I remember Dragon Age 2 as well
The answer is that the market demands more than that. Look at DMC5, it is a straight forward action game. Environments don't fucking matter. Yet people still bitched that there wasn't enough variety. The simple truth is, with a fantasy setting, people will not be satisfied if there isn't a wide variety of environments. People will complain "why is there only one town?"
what brings in buyers is the fact that people want to explore a big world, not a single town.
deus ex mankind divided's Prague might be something you'd like
Because when they market the game, they need to say IT'S THIS MUCH TIMES BIGGER THAN SKYRIM.
Otherwise the sub-80 IQ Redditors won't care. After all, it's much better buying an ocean deep as a puddle than a puddle deep as an ocean.
You can have both, in a way. Most "towns" in vidya are like five fucking houses, and the surrounding area is super compressed.
Make a decent sized town full of houses, businesses, all that and then make the surrounding wilderness. Fields, rivers, quarries, all that.
It'd be both expansive while also being focused.
DMC5 is a bad example because not only are levels repetitive, but nowhere near the level of detail and depth OP is talking about. People shit on DMC5 level design because it's a straight repetitive narrow path. OP is talking about a smaller setting but with deeper design surrounding it.
This is true. It's also why the average fuck loves open world games. Not to mention loving long games full of filler garbage as opposed to a way shorter game that's actually full of 100% quality
Morrowind's Tribunal expansion was pretty cool with this. Although still not a ton of stuff, it would be cool to see a full game have one city and ruins under it
tßh I'd rather have a medieval village with 500 unique NPCs without voice acting as setting than a whole country like Skyrim where the biggest city is decorated with 24 NPCs voiced by three voice actors.
>deus ex mankind divided's Prague might be
A good example are the newer Ass Creed games. I started out enjoying Ass Creed Origins but then the game kept going on and on with absolute filler shit that I could barely finish it. Meanwhile I'm reminded of older Prince of Persia games by the same company where every moment was meaningful and had some unique design to it.
>implying what I(OP) am asking for isn't open world
It's not Just Cause 2 open world, but it's still open world. Stop this "OPEN WORLD BAD, HUB GOOD" garbage.
That's a pretty cool idea actually.
I think i'll steal for my next little game.
>I mean why don't they have just one town, but make the town and surrounding area super intricate and detailed
A product needs marketable qualities to be successful. By marketable qualities, I means qualities that can be communicated clearly in marketing. It is easier to market certain things more than others. The number of towns in a game can be communicated clearly in marketing and give the impression to customers that they are buying a full product. "Buy our game it has 1 000 towns!" It's simple and straightforward, it tells potential customers that the game contains a lot of content. "There is only one town but it looks super great" is not as convincing. It is hard to market. It is not the optimal situation that the developer wants to pursue. Games with a single element are losing in popularity over the last decades. Games with a single town, a single dungeon, a single boss, a single music, a single character, a single skill, which is supposed to be so good that they are worth the same as 1 000 others. The customer will always think like this "These developers say they have spent thousands of hours working on that single town, or dungeon, or boss, or music, or character, or skill, but can I truly believe them? Are these things really the best dungeon in the world, the best music in the world, the best boss in the world? Maybe they're lazy people bullshitting me, why should I take the risk to give them my money? Isn't it safer to pick the game that says it has 1 000 of all these things? That is much harder to fake, that is much harder to lie about, I will definitely get my content."
the last game that geave me this feeling was, indeed, Kingdom Come Deliverance and The Witcher 3
Also, Horizon Zero Dawn come as a close second
And don't forget games like Bioshock, where you have these town (both the originals AND Infinite) and their complex structure
nothing like Majora's Mask where, because of its "groundhog day" gameplay, you get to know every single NPC in town and it's movement
bethesda used to be good in environmental storytelling, but now with voice acted NPCs everything is far more complicated, but Prey was intruguing enough for example
because they should prioritize being an actual fucking game before caring about anything else. That is the problem with you westcucks, you simply don't understand this and keep falling for the "you can do anything!" open world dogshit every other month
Nigger what are you on about
Planescape Torment aka the best RPG of all time
Mankind Divided did this and you faggots bitched about it.