Why are most RPG openings bad?

Yesterday, I was talking about the classic Fallout games' openings with a friend of mine, and we both arrived at an uncannily accurate observation: most RPGs in general, no matter the developer or the culture it came from, have terrible, or at best mediocre openings that don't exactly put their best feet forward, compromising either on the gameplay with really long expository or story centric scenes, or on the story with an uninspired early dungeon featuring really weak enemies.

Why is that? Well, I posed the question to a few places, and came across what I think is a comprehensive answer:

1. I credit my friend for bringing this point up, but essentially RPGs find themselves needing to come up with good reasons for their characters to be adventuring the world instead of going on with their regular lives at home, like regular people. This imposes certain narrative limitations, as there's a very limited width of explanations that satisfactorily meet this need, and often RPG story writers find themselves explaining the need for adventure with a contrast between the idyllic past and the uncertain present, which often necessitates a fair bit of exposition.

2. Gameplay wise, RPGs are bound by the need to make players feel like they're progressing their characters, as in, making them stronger as they go through the game. For this purpose, it's necessary to make the gains from levels, weapons, magics etc matter, which is often achieved by making them start weak, as each gain feels substantially stronger when being added to a weak base. However, this also constricts enemy design, forcing them to be weak to give the player a fair chance, as otherwise they would merely be locked in a constant, hopeless loop. The downside of this is that early game enemies have little space to be interesting or deep, often just turning into glorified bags of xp.

There are obviously more nuances to the matter, but I feel this broadly covers the problems with making RPG openings. What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts!

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About Me

I am Dev Jyoti Chand, a man of many interests. Chiefly, I like playing video games, specifically, strategy 4xes, strategy RPGs, and adventure games. My favorite games are Master of Magic, Tactics Ogre, specifically the SNES/PS1 version, and Quintessence - The Blighted Venom. I also am very interested in learning about history, especially ancient and medieval history, and am ever curious to learn more about the world. This blog is mostly a grab bag of subjects I felt strongly enough about to dedicate words upon words. Most notable among them are a series of challenge runs of the Star Ocean 2 remake, a long form commentary on To the Moon that I am not particularly proud of these days, and, more recently, LPs of the classic Mana games . I am ever eager to talk about my interests, and am very accepting of feedback, as long as it is given in good faith. If you wish to contact me, you may do so through the following means: Shoot an email to dev221117@gmail.com Join my Discord with th...

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