In an ongoing quest to capture the newer audience of casual gamers, role playing games have needed to make a few small tweaks in order to be more broadly accessible. When you come right down to it, I believe that both casual and hardcore gamers are going to want the same thing out of their role playing experience, but they are going to want it at different speeds and in different doses. Things like choice, compelling story, interesting characters, fun combat, and stronger abilities will all be important to both types of gamers, the difference can be found in the presentation and the pacing.
Most hardcore gamers already know that a role playing game is going to consist of combat that is balanced against their characters statistics, which are augmented by their equipment and abilities. Most hardcore RPGs consist of character menus, inventory menus, skill menus, and lots of numbers. This kind of presentation can be overwhelming to somebody who is just getting into the world of role playing games, so, simplified statistics and inventory are the status quo for a casual RPG.
Combat is almost a definite for any role playing game. Hardcore RPGs will consist of combat that requires strategy and a well rounded party. Casual RPGs will probably consist of simpler combat that is more straightforward with little or no strategy necessary. Both types of combat will need to be gratifying with exciting animations and challenging opponents.
Hardcore RPGs consist of quests that can take hours of game time to complete, with intricate puzzles that require hard-to-find pieces in order to solve them. Casual RPGs consist of smaller quests that will allow the player to drop in and out of the game at their leisure while still managing to accomplish something with each session.
Hardcore RPGs, on the whole, require a greater time investment and less hand holding than casual RPGs, but make no mistake; players from either side of the spectrum want a fun, engaging experience with a great story and memorable characters.
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