Topic: Does not seeing your own characters on the battle screen bother you?

Personally, I prefer seeing my own characters on the battlefield as opposed to just my foes, especially when it comes to RPGs with turn-based battles. I think that's part of why I'm not crazy about games like EarthBound or Phantasy Star III. It's a little different when it comes to first-person shooting games like GoldenEye and Doom, although I'm not a huge fan of those either. I never really got into first-person melee games like Dead Island either.

It's nice to be able to see them but it doesn't really bother me if you can't.

@DrDaisy

Nah, my first rpg was Dragon Warrior, so I'm accustomed to not seeing my character in combat.

You're missing out on some good "dungeon" rpgs.

Etrian Odyssey, Labyrinth of Refrain, Mary Skelter, etc.

Honestly, it doesn't bother me that much. I don't really care about if I see the characters or not, as long as the game itself is a good game. For example, games like Persona Q and Etrian Odyssey don't show the characters on screen, but they're still pretty good games.

I actually prefer first person RPGs as it feels more like you are the character. While I do like the NES/SNES Final Fantasy games, they always felt more like an interactive story rather then a game. With your characters on screen in feels like you are a general in the army or a director of a play telling them what to do, not the same feeling.

With games like Pokemon, it makes sense and that sense of immersion is there cause you are the trainer which you don't see in battle commanding the Pokemon what to do.

Immersion is one reason I play games like Skyrim, Fallout in FP mode rather then third person as well.

Not so much, but it's always nicer when they're there, especially in games where they don't necessarily "have to" be, like your old-school JRPGs

I do find recent Pokémon games' habit of having the trainers blink in and out of existence depending on what's currently happening a tad distracting though

@Magician A strictly first-person battle screen is not a deal breaker, it just lessens the appeal for me, especially if I don't even see an arm, hand, or weapon. As for Earthbound, Phantasy Star, and Phantasy Star III, they had other issues that made them unappealing for me.