Phantasy Star: Fringes of Algo

Which do you prefer to see in a video game: pre-created characters like those in Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy or player created characters like those in online RPGs? Why do you have that preference?

Personally I don't have much of a preference. I can enjoy both about the same, but I usually find the games with player creations don't have as deep of a story. That's a downside for me, but it usually doesn't affect my enjoyment of the game one way or another.

I always prefer premade characters. It adds to the story, overall. Sure, you typically have more freedom and variety when it comes to making the characters yourself, but I guess it depends on the game. For some it works, for others, I don't care for it.

A good example is Dragon Warrior 3. You DO start off with the hero, but after that you can literally customize your party and either go solo or have whoever you want to join, whether it's offensive with three soldiers, or balanced with a soldier, pilgrim, and a wizard (as it's recommended in the beginning, but I never go with that! ). All in all, this would be a game where it does work.

I can't think of any examples for games where you can create your own characters that I didn't really like. I'll have to think about this one.

Depends on the game!

I love my Oblivion character! It took some time to make him how I Wanted to look and create his class/stats but it was very fun. Of course a epic game like Oblivion, you should have to create your own characters.

I agree with Atolm, the game makes all the difference. I have to say I do like the concept of the Dragon Warrior 3 approach as well. A group of story characters combined with some originals is a very good middle ground. When I played Dragon Quest 8, I really missed that. It had only four pre-made characters. I thought it would have been a little more interesting with a couple of tweakable people.