As I have been working my way through Ultima I have been thinking about some game design elements that I have seen in an RPG over the years but have not seen, or rarely seen since.

The first one that comes to mind is the genre bender. Part of Ultima has you flying around in a space ship. While mixing fantasy RPGs and space travel has been done many, many times (Final Fantasy IV, Star Ocean) it rarely has any impact on gameplay. That is, you are still playing the same game you are just playing it in sssssppppppppaaaaaaccccccceeeee.

Having the RPG switch over to a shooter is rarely done. In fact the only recent merger of these game play types that I can think about is Jade Empire which had 194x like overhead shooter levels. However Jade Empire was hardly your standard turn based RPG and the shooter elements were not well integrated there anyway.

The RPG is a genre that is in constant danger of terminal stagnation, especially the JRPG. It has happened before (the years before Baldur's Gate) and it will probably happen again. It may not seem like RPGs are in much danger of stagnation right now while we are flush with the joy of Oblivion but the fact is that other than (mostly sub-par) copycats it hasn't shifted RPGs all that much. In fact the only one coming up that looks different is Mass Effect. All of the console RPGs have been playing it safe in fact many have been going for a 16-bit throwback feel (Atlus). On the computer front things are even worse there is nothing but a long line of Oblivion wannabees (this possibly includes Fallout 3) and of course Diablo clones to look forward to. I have not heard anything yet about a new turn based RPG due anytime soon. Where are the D+D games other than Neverwinter Nights?

There is some good stuff going on. Etrian Odyssey is definatly a throwback to the old days but it is also a massive improvement on that old style and it is way different than anything else done recently. The roguelike seems to be generating some interest on U.S. consoles with the Pokemon game and the upcoming Shiren the Wanderer games for the Nintendo systems. There was also a D+D Tactics game for PSP that showed that D+D turn based combat can be done very well in a video game, the problem was there was nothing else to the game at all. Also there is Puzzle Quest which my wife loves and she had never been able to play an RPG before. However, none of these games seem to be having a large influence on the mainstream.

I would like to see a high quality, turn based D+D game using the new edition. I would also like to see a big budget, big name roguelike and I don't count Diablo clones. Take into account all of the things that make a roguelike an interesting and different type of game. It is more than just random loot and dungeons, they are almost puzzle games in a lot of ways. Rogue was not a click-fest, it was careful planning and figuring out the different powers of the items you used.