Games have come a long way since their humble beginnings. I am by no means an expert but drawing from my own experiences with Super Mario on the now ancient Nintendo Entertainment System to present day when I drop Dead Space 2 into my PS3 and experience a fully fleshed out universe that at the same time fascinates and terrifies me. I love games in most all of there formats; not much of one for sports titles but I'm a sucker for the latest basketball titles; but the Japanese RPG is a genre that holds a special place in my heart. Long hours of my life have been sacrificed to them in pursuit of their often simple and naive plots. Where as with shooters it is pure matter of skill RPG's allow the user to build and modify watching their heroes grow from punk farm boys or squires into full fledged warriors of this and that. While there are several RPG franchises that survive to this day the Final Fantasy series seems to stay much more in the spotlight than the others; perhaps because of how hard Square pushes it in advertisements, but then how could they not it saved them from bankruptcy; however while Square seems obsessed with pushing the envelope of sparkling graphics and convoluted plots other equally established RPG franchises are still going strong but have turned to hand-held consoles sticking to their roots. This poses another side of the problem to me in that many have become to complacent and adhere a bit too closely to the old ways. I guess the question I'm trying to work through here is, why the hell do I like them so much?
To further analyze my feelings let's break it down from the beginning. My first RPG was Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete a remake of an old Sega CD title for Playstation. (Also this was the first game I ever completed, but my game commitment issues will be for another time.) At the age of 12 this shining example of cliched and naive romantic heroism was the greatest goddamn story ever told by man. It consumed me. I drew pictures of the characters. I pretended to be the characters. I downloaded Japanese spin offs for the Gameboy that never saw American shores. I think it was for Gameboy, I don't remember what emulator I used to play it. After three or so play throughs of this title it was time to move on. Then came my first experience with Final Fantasy for there in the greatest hits section sat Final Fantasy 7 the back of the box promising me that I held the greatest game ever made full of swords, sorcery, and (the ultimate hook for my little brain) an urban setting. This was a new concept for me and from the moment that disc hit the tray to the moment I gave up on it somewhere on the third disc were filled with equal parts awe and obsession. I would return to FF7 many times throughout the years but to my shame I only just last year managed to muscle through it. You see I have come to realize that until recently I was terrible at video games, but again for another time. The Playstation and later the Playstation 2 were rife with RPG's. There was never a lack of some new adventure to set out on or some world to save. It seems to me that it was a bit of a golden age for the genre.
I don't know when I started to lose respect for Squaresoft perhaps it was when they became Square Enix. Certainly it was before they started buying up all the developers they could and started publishing such non-japanese and non-rpg titles such as Just Cause, Kane & Lynch, and Tomb Raider just to name a few. I think it happened somewhere around Final Fantasy X, or maybe X-2. The problem with Final Fantasy as I see it -- excluding FFXII which was freaking brilliant in most every aspect as far as I'm concerned is -- is that like so many other things in our lives the priority has become flash over substance. Now while I genuinely enjoyed the combat in FFXIII the story was bland. The characters; excluding non-threatening black man Sazh; were beyond bland. I reached Pulse, carried out a few hunts and then quickly realized that I didn't care about the game and the combat combinations had really run their course for me. Now while FFXIII certainly has redeeming qualities beyond it's "breathtaking visuals" nothing demonstrates Square's disconnect with function rather than form like Final Fantasy XIV online. My wife and I being rabid fans of their first MMO, XI, dropped the cash for two collectors editions with only slight hesitation because of the $180 price tag that entailed. We didn't care. We wanted that extra week and we were convinced that it would be sweet Nirvana. What we got was the most beautiful MMO I have ever played on my PC, that would barely run on the lowest settings of my wife's laptop, and literally nothing else. There was nothing to do. I could go on and on but I'm sure you've read about it yourself and if you haven't feel free to for a laugh. Square has recently released a public apology for XIV and indefinitely extended the free period of the game. I'm still not going to play it.
So while Square attempts to dazzle us with fireworks displays on all the latest technology their former rivals stick to the shadows quietly releasing titles with decidedly less press. Dragon Quest which has been around just as long as Final Fantasy is still a juggernaut on the Nintendo DS being one of the few franchises to have actual TV ads. Where the PS and the PS2 where once the breeding grounds for RPG's now the DS and the PSP have taken over. Obviously these don't have the processing power of an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3 so this means that these games stick to conventional graphics and game play styles. This doesn't mean that they don't try to be creative though Sands of Destruction for instance has one of the most convoluted battle systems I have ever seen and that coupled with my wife's issues with patience has just about lead to us needing to replace her DS on more than one occasion. (The thing freezes if you jostle it too much now.) It's refreshing to see the classic styles being preserved but at the same time more and more the stories are becoming cardboard cutouts as are the characters. Like children's television there is no depth anymore. I understand that games are considered a children's activity but I know I'm not the only person in the world in they're twenties who enjoys a good story and that is exactly what an RPG used to promise. They were epic sagas of friendship, romance, and betrayal; 40 plus hours of struggle and triumph. There are several problems with this now. First of all stop "saving the world". Dammit all every conflict does not have to envelope the entire planet. Take some ques from Suikoden and have a war that is limited to one corner of the world were you can have equally heroic heroes and equally malevolent villains without having to save the world every other week. It's tiresome. Second of all, and this one is really important, make the characters endearing. I know the Japanese like weird and wacky characters but it's hard to care about the hero's plight when I just want him to shut the hell up. Seriously go back to the silent protagonist. If it's good enough for Gordon Freeman it's good enough for anyone. Isaac Clarke went vocal on us but I think it works. He's an everyman and they picked a good actor. However American voice actors are the worst thing that ever happened to JRPG's because they grab the same stock losers who dub Anime. They're terrible at conveying emotion of any kind. I don't like them. I understand some people do. I don't understand why and I'm never going to.
Fair warning I'm going to get a bit rabid and frothy now because I'm going to explain to you why I love Shin Megami Tensei and anything that has ever been published under that name. My wife's favorite game series in the world is Suikoden and I could go on about it as well but I think I'll leave that to her. SMT has yet to do any wrong in my eyes. Each title is traditional to a fault however each is unique in their own way carrying over the core principals that make up SMT; chatty demons, a weakness system, and Gothic plots. It's not a hard formula to follow but what they do with it is create engaging worlds while always staying firmly aware of the constraints of the hardware. SMT tends to let the story do the talking while being somewhat minimalist with graphics. Which is more than fine with me. I do not give a damn how pretty your game is I'm not paying thirty to sixty bucks for a movie that isn't why I'm here. A distinctive art style and the fact that almost every series within the SMT universe is completely different from the last. High School students seem to be their target audience as most of their heroes are just that or at least start out as that but beyond this and the demons I can go from Nocturne where I'm battling through a post-apocalyptic, inside-out Tokyo to determine how the Earth will be reborn to Devil Summoner where I'm a 1920's Japanese Detective who monitors demon activity. Not to mention Digital Devil Saga which is set in a hellish Purgatory called the Junkyard where warriors who have been locked in a stalemate for years are given tremendous power at the cost of having to eat their enemies.
The point I'm feverishly trying to make is that every title brings something new without reinventing the wheel which is a lesson that every developer should take to heart. Stagnation will keep a core group of gamers coming back but you're not going to make new friends that way, on the flip side however change too much and you are going to alienate your fan base. I guess what I'm trying to say boils down to the fact that all I really want is some depth. A story that doesn't make me roll my eyes because every cut scene some cardboard cutout of a character whines on and on about the importance of friendship. I'm looking at you Star Ocean 4.
And what the hell was White Knight Chronicles? I've never encountered such brainless obnoxious writing. Seriously. I'm tired of being spoon fed altruistic nonsense.
-DigitalDevil
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