Best/worse starting zones in RPGs?

[frajaq]

Morrowind start was pretty bad actually. You had to fill up some forms and shit before you could play.

I'll take a couple of minutes of fantasy bureaucracy any day over some of the opening sequences of games these days

 

[Ocelot]

What do you think of starting areas that are interesting but become inaccessible once you leave them? (e.g Dark souls)

 

[T. Reich]

What do you think of starting areas that are interesting but become inaccessible once you leave them? (e.g Dark souls)

I think it's fine.

If the area exhausted its usefulness, it might as well become inaccessible; it's not like a player would have any reason to come back anyway.

 

[thesheeep]

Morrowind start was pretty bad actually. You had to fill up some forms and shit before you could play.

I'll take a couple of minutes of fantasy bureaucracy any day over some of the opening sequences of games these days

Especially if that kind of intro lets you create your character.
For all the deserved shit Fallout 3 & 4 get, and ignoring the simplicity of their RPG mechanics, their character creation was actually interesting and involved.

I'd take such an intro/char creation mix over filling out a character sheet and then you just plop into the world.
Obviously, it is a huge resource investment to implement such an involved character creation, so not all games can have it.
And of course it wouldn't work for party-based games.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

What do you think of starting areas that are interesting but become inaccessible once you leave them? (e.g Dark souls)

You can get back to Undead Asylum.

 

[Nas92]

Worst: Fallout 2, NWN2, BG2, Kotor 2

Best: Fallout, Kotor, Morrowind, BG1, Deus Ex

 

[laclongquan]

'sup Drog~

Anyway, I must say Jagged Alliance 2 make a good starting area. Even at highest difficulty, vanilla Ja2 only has one enemy with rifle there, so the diff was juggled just right.

 

[aweigh]

Midgar City