Western RPG's versus Japanese RPG's (JRPG's)... Why "Dragon" doesn't always mean Dragon Age or Drago

Do these two games look anything alike?

In this day and age, as we discussed before, people like to compare things. They will research and compare and contrast every aspect they can think of. It creates that ability to be armed, ready for an argument when it involves something you are passionate about. Well gamers are passionate, and in case you didn't know, gamers have been at war with each other for decades. Atari versus Intellivision, Nintendo versus Sega, and now Sony versus Microsoft... Versus PC. Never mind the wars that have developed over individual Intellectual Properties (IPs) like Battlefield and Call of Duty as discussed before. But don't worry, I won't go off on another tangent in this one, there is really no need. I think I got that off of my chest yesterday.

Today's topic of discussion is the argument that has built since the United States developers starting making what is now dubbed the Western RPG. And how it evolved from the Japanese Role-Playing Games most of us grew up playing young and still love today. But before we discuss video games, it should be noted that the term Role-Playing Game actually was first used to refer to pen and paper games like Dungeons & Dragons (which even had a video game showing, no RPG though). These were games where the players would gather around a table with a set of dice, anywhere from D6 - D20 dice, and take turns following a book which contains rules, rolling dice and playing out the game. This format would take hours to play, and eventually evolved into leagues and gatherings of major support. These games eventually evolved into encompassing large-scale terrains and figures like WarHammer which took the imagination out of it, and gave the mind and body a battle-field. Still considered an RPG, the Table-Top RPGs as those became known were important to the development of video game RPGs in Japan. More than most people know or realize.

At one time, the consoles were unable to handle the major mathematical calculations required to truly convey that full-scale RPG, although some tried, to mixed success. It wasn't really until the Nintendo NES and Sega Master System that we started to see games evolve into that sense. And wildly considered the first commercially successful RPG in the United States was Enix's Dragon Quest on the NES. It was a pack-in game with Nintendo Power Magazine Subscriptions in the holidays the year it came out, and was received well in retail. The success would spawn 3 other games in the generation alone. Another one that became wildly successful was Final Fantasy which released a year later by Square Soft. Building off of the precedent set by Dragon Quest, this game chose to build on the idea of multiple people in your party rather than just one. People liked this, and even Dragon Quest eventually followed suit. By the end of 1988, people knew what an RPG was and they liked it.

Dragon Quest (NES)

Many of these people though, had never played a table-top RPG or even pen and paper, for whatever reason. The video game versions were offering true response and interaction. Consequences of death, adventuring, what later became known as "grinding" or "leveling", huge story lines, airships and more! These games were known as Japanese RPGs. They often utilized turn-based game play like older pen and paper RPGs, and had characters who would level up much like those table-top games. Add in the ability to modify abilities, change weapons and armor, equip magic, items, and more. Then, you continue your adventure until you reveal the story, complete the side-quests, and fight the final boss. By then, you have experienced an adventure that goes into dozens of hours of game play. Today's JRPGs even feature longer stories which push game play into the 100+ hour mark. For example, Final Fantasy VI on SNES had a save once on my cartridge where the calculator was actually MAXED out to the point where the timer reset itself, and was replaced with a blank screen. It eventually became corrupt because I kept loading it without a time-stamp and therefore it became a file for showing off... It was now read-only. Some of the JRPGs have limitless potential in the right hands, imagine having a game entertain you that much, that you wanted to unlock all of the characters, and then teach them everything... It made the final level in FF VI so much easier. With or without Shadow.

Final Fantasy VI (SNES)

There was a time however as a kid where I started getting bored, and noticed that something called PlayStation was coming out. Nintendo failed to close the deal on their disk drive, and now we have a new console coming out to the public. Sony had worked hard at securing rights and licensing to great stuff to launch that console, and a monster was born. The world was now gaming in 3D and the future was looking awesome! Of course, Japan continued working out RPGs, and even had one from SquareSoft called Final Fantasy VII; widely considered the Greatest RPG of all-time. But the visuals were changing, people were changing, and eventually were clamoring to explore these wide open lands like Sony's own Legend of Dragoon, without the restraints of sub-maps and linear locations. People desired open-world. But the consoles weren't quite there yet to portray fully-realized worlds into 3D which is why sub-mapping or the use of images to build your locations; like Final Fantasy VII where the only true 3D segments were in the world map, and certain level situations. Otherwise the locations were bitmaps drawn with scale and paths laid over them. Creative, but it worked. In order to move forward, we needed new hardware.

Remember this one? I believe his name was Cloud, and that building was Shinra

Eventually Sony answered the call with the PlayStation 2. October 26th, 2000; the birth of the next generation of gaming. Microsoft hadn't released their XBox yet, Nintendo was barely talking GameCube, and Sony was first out of the gate. The race was on, but no one knew it yet... The PC had a new kind of game people were looking for in Elder Scrolls on consoles. And it wouldn't be too long before they got their chance. Sony had created something new, the Massively Multiplayer Online RPG; Everquest for PC. The western style RPG was being shaped. People started comparing elements to other games in the adventure genre and even to RPG's. It was eventually stated that the Western RPG gave the player a different feeling, mainly because of the 3rd-person point of view, and more sophisticated controls, and open-worlds. So now we have new stuff coming to the PS2 that is showing this off in massive scales. And then here comes the Microsoft XBox (Origin) and Elder Scrolls finally makes the jump because of the programming similarities between XBox Origin and PC. Console gamers finally had that massive RPG adventure we all dreamed of. Open-world design, insane complicated abilities and statistics to keep track of, amazing worlds to explore, characters coming to life in ways we have never seen. This had become the pinnacle of what Western-RPG's were to become. And until XBox 360, this is where it stands. Every game like it was tied to limitations, but people played through them because they wanted the experience. Much like the original Dragon Quest only featured roughly 20 hours of game play versus Dragon Quest VIII which featured hundreds. And with the new consoles meant new power, and new limitations. So the worlds got bigger, games became more sophisticated, and companies like the innovative BioWare would make games like Dragon Age, or Mass Effect that would revolutionize the Western RPG even further with their communication wheel. Now we have free-will controlled by player input. We have games that no longer use cutscenes to tell the story. We have real-time storytelling, real-time battles, real-time actions, real-time weather, etc. By the end of the PS3 and XBox 360 era, we had an evolved RTS turn Western RPG in the Fallout Series. We had Elder Scrolls Oblivion, and then the even more massive; Skyrim released later featuring over 300 hours of content without update or add-on. A style was born.

This is what the West views as an RPG...

But sitting silently in the background is the JRPG. Going through some time with open-world exploration like Dragon Quest VIII which eliminated the backgrounds in favor of explorable 3D fully-fleshed out maps and dungeons. Even Final Fantasy X crossed into a new point of view that was 2.5D but still featured fully 3D environments in most areas. It wasn't until after Final Fantasy XI, the MMORPG, came out that more Western elements started to shine through. Move forward to Final Fantasy XII, and you can see where the inspiration comes from. Now we are playing western-styled RPG's and adding JRPG elements to make them stay in the turn-based realm. Even though that turn-based realm was becoming more and more real-time.

The last TRUE JRPG Epic, on XBox 360; Lost Odessey - MistWalker

This was all great for the industry that new genres were evolving and people were receiving it well. So well that people started trying to copy it all, and not everyone was good at it. Soon, like my previous entry, people started comparing the little games, or similar games to games like Skyrim or Fallout. This creates the same problem we had discussed with Grand Theft Auto previously. It hurts the developers because people want the game to be like something else. Which is why great games like Dragon's Dogma from Capcom never got much praise aside from its niche fanbase. People wanted it to be something it was not... Not even close too. I get that some people feel that these comparisons make the game relate to something else they may be into. But in the process, they are drawing down the other game because it never stands to the giants. A perfect example why such an amazing game like Kingdom's of Amalur: Reckoning never went anywhere... Unfortunately the studio failed, financial support was lost, and the game dropped to $14.99 in pre-owned resale shops like GameStop. That is why it is important that when you see a Dragon or other similarity, NOT to compare it to Dragon Age, or Dragon Quest.

Every developer dreams of their game being as big as the others. But when gamers over-flatter these games, they create insurmountable passes for them to climb. Another great example of this in the current generation is Bound by Flame by Spiders; an Indie developer who wanted to make something from their hearts. But people slammed it because of "copying" this and that, when my only complaint was slow character progression early, and the constant out-of-place swearing which started becoming funny after a while. Never did I try to compare it to anything else, it doesn't compare. It dooms these games for failure ahead of time... Often ahead of launch. I know I still take the chances where I'm enticed to do so. I don't let other people deter me from trying games, and sometimes I eat crow. But every now and again I get to experience a Classic that never got referred to as a "Classic". So as I mentioned before, give developers a chance. Stop blowing it into the hype and move on into gaming. These people work their lives away for our entertainment, the least we could do is give them a chance. So remember everyone; "Keep on gaming, play fair, play hard, and play strong".

This is Desolate_9 just sharing some thoughts... Want to join the conversation, and you can be constructive? Leave it in the Comments, I check in. You can also follow me on Twitter @TheDesolate_9, and on my other Channels. Thanks for stopping by, and if you like the message, please share it on your local social-network... The only way thoughts are shared with others is through talking...

Last post in the series on the subject:

The Personal Computer (PC) and why it finally is relevant compared to consoles...

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