I really like Zelda and Ys style ARPGs. Specifically, rare and impactful loot, and little reliance on skill levels, but rather skill aquisition. Both approach it very differently, and later Ys games fall into more traditional RPG mechanics (e.g. farm money/exp, buy gear, etc), so I’m more talking about Ys 1, 2, and Origin, as well as pre-BOTW Zelda games.
Basically, I love this gameplay loop:
Enter dungeon/level and fight baddies
Find important item/ability
Use important item/ability to defeat monsters
Fight boss, using a mix of important item and learning movesets
Repeat 1-4 several times, with plot mixed in
Fight final boss using a mix of everything acquired
Ys and Zelda do this in very different ways, and I absolutely love the level cap in Ys 1 to enforce playing smarter instead of grinding. You can never really get OP, even if you try (except Ys 2, which I don’t like much).
Unfortunately, “ARPG” has been twisted to mean Diablo-like, which is heavy on loot and ability trees instead of puzzles and exploration, and future Ys games go that direction as well.
This isn’t really specific to mechanics or systems, but I’ll like pretty much any mechanic or system that lends itself well to that gameplay loop.
I really like Zelda and Ys style ARPGs. Specifically, rare and impactful loot, and little reliance on skill levels, but rather skill aquisition. Both approach it very differently, and later Ys games fall into more traditional RPG mechanics (e.g. farm money/exp, buy gear, etc), so I’m more talking about Ys 1, 2, and Origin, as well as pre-BOTW Zelda games.
Basically, I love this gameplay loop:
Ys and Zelda do this in very different ways, and I absolutely love the level cap in Ys 1 to enforce playing smarter instead of grinding. You can never really get OP, even if you try (except Ys 2, which I don’t like much).
Unfortunately, “ARPG” has been twisted to mean Diablo-like, which is heavy on loot and ability trees instead of puzzles and exploration, and future Ys games go that direction as well.
This isn’t really specific to mechanics or systems, but I’ll like pretty much any mechanic or system that lends itself well to that gameplay loop.