While up at BioWare's headquarters in Edmonton, I had the opportunity to throw some questions at company co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. I was curious about how the duo felt about the current RPG landscape in general, and why we're seeing more and more western-style RPGs while JRPGs have, at least among North American audiences, fallen somewhat to the wayside.
"The fall of the JRPG in large part is due to a lack of evolution, a lack of progression," Zeschuk said. "They kept delivering the same thing over and over. They make the dressing better, they look prettier, but it's still the same experience.
"My favorite thing, it's funny when you still see it, but the joke of some of the dialogue systems where it asks, 'do you wanna do this or this,' and you say no. 'Do you wanna do this or this?' No. 'Do you wanna do this or this?' No. Lemme think -- you want me to say 'yes.' And that, unfortunately, really characterized the JRPG."
Zeschuk admits that there are definitely exceptions coming from the East (Demon's Souls is currently one of his favorite games), but North American definitions of role-playing have simply evolved beyond those of their counterparts on the other side of the world. "We have big debates on whether GTA is an RPG, for example. It's got all the elements, it just doesn't have the numbers. And what gamers here want is that higher depth, that higher integration of features...Mass Effect 2 is in some ways a continuation of that evolution."
I agree wholeheartedly with Dr. Zeschuk, but I no longer have any patience for JRPGs whatsoever (Half-Minute Hero notwithstanding, obviously). I'm curious to see what JRPG fans think of Zeschuk's stance, though. Do JRPGs really suffer from a lack of evolution?
Contest:
1:00 PM on 12.18.2009
| 
That all may just be from personal tastes. I feel like there really isn't a "better" RPG between the west and east, just different kinds. Play the ones you like and leave the ones you don't. It's pretty simple to me.
Truth!
sarcasm here: Can't wait for all the fanboys to flame this :(
Not only does the JRPG depend on a really guided narrative, but a lot of the appeal lies elsewhere. I don't care that I have to say "YES" at every dialogue box because learning how to bounce Flare off my entire part is fun. The deep calculus of input vs. output is changing (look at Persona, Final Fantasy XII), albeit slowly.
Not to mention that "lack of evolution" is hardly unique to JRPGs.
Was Ultima Online a JRPG? Nope.
I don't think he said Bioware did anything revolutionary in the context of Rev's questions. He asserted that JRPGs have been stagnant versus WRPGS(including Ultima), not specifically Bioware's, though he probably would if you asked him.
This is coming from a guy who played almost all JRPG's for the better part of two decades. In the last 3-4 years, I've probably beaten like 1... Demon's Souls. Meanwhile, Fallout 3, Mount and Blade, Dragon Age Origins, and the Witcher have all been bested by myself....
I enjoy old-school JRPGs very much even to this day, and I'm glad they get to go play a JRPG and get one experience and then go play a WRPG and get a completely different one. If JRPGs suddenly "evolved" into a WRPG style I'd be incredibly disappointed. Why would I care about playing a game like Mass Effect if every other RPG did the same thing?
coherent linear story > what the hell was that storyline
RPGs in general don't smack the evolution stick too much. Sometimes, that can be a good thing if the system is good enough. Other times, it just complicates the genre and nothing gets accomplished but a ton of complaints.
My comment was more in regards to the remarks that JRPGs need to evolve made by the co-founder of a company that has been at the forefront of the WRPG genre. I'm just saying that what they're doing isn't anything new either and at this point I'd argue that WRPGs are already on their way to becoming as formulaic as JRPGs. I'm also not trying to say that UO is a JRPG :p
The gaming landscape is constantly changing, with each respective genre continuously evolving. The problem is that the evolution is gradual and not extremely obvious spikes. What Zeschuk has said is just very narrow-minded and is more about stroking his ego than being an objective statement about JRPGs or any other gaming genre.
I think the issue here is more about audience rather than a genre-specific problem. Western audiences are looking for a variety of different things to please their gaming needs, where perhaps Eastern gamers are accustomed to similar experiences, stories and things which are more relevant to their cultures (speaking mainly of Japanese gamers here).
Call me crazy, but I still feel that JRPGs get a bum rap. AAA titles like Persona, Valkyria Chronicles, Dragon Quest and Mario and Luigi are far, far from stagnant. It's just the oversaturation of shit like Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicle, Infinite Undiscovered, Star Ocean and so forth that crowds out the truly new and wonderful experiences. Kind of like FPSs. There's still a lot of great stuff coming out, it's just hard to see it through the deluge of shit.
I do agree with UltorOscariot that random battles are downright archaic. But random battles are slowly disappearing from JRPGs. Hell, they are practically gone from the mainline Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series that were released over the past few years (FF 12, FF 13, DQ 9). The only mainstream JRPG series in the west that still has them is the main Pokemon series.
But yet it's games like Valkyria Chronicles, The World Ends With You, Persona 4 and the 3D entries of the 'Tales Of' series who are truly innovative and don't have random battles are still over shadowed by their western counterparts in terms of sales, coverage and marketing.
Namco Bandai beat em to that I think.
Then again, I find Bioware's stories to be quite interesting so I don't know...
*crickets*...On a completely unrelated note: So Anthony, how did you like Edmonton?
Dragon age has plenty of difficult, gray area decisions that don't necessarily have a "good" option. It's starting to move beyond good and evil and simply into options territory, which is a huge improvement. Binary choices like Infamous are almost laughable.
Which is why Dragon Age is my one exception :)
How many traditional, turn-based JRPGs have we had this generation? Not many, and the few that we did have mostly suffered from flaws that were not intrinsic to the gameplay (such as poor characters or a poor plot, etc.).
The problem this gen hasn't been lack of evolution, it's been evolution in all the wrong ways. How many more convoluted "systems" do we need thrown into our turn-based battles? I'm sick of it. Just give me a classic JRPG with modern graphics, along with characters and a plot that don't make me cringe! That's all I want! Is anybody listening!?
JRPGs has been over the past few years has been ALOT more dominate on the portable platforms than the western role players. The same can be said for western rpgs being more successful than JRPGs on the consoles. Maybe Dr. Zeschuk is still kinda butt hurt over how well Sonic Chronicles against JRPGs on the DS.
That said I'm still going to try the new FF game. Being a fan boy is so hard lately. But anyone looking for a fun RPG thats different, try Eternal Sonata.
The Last Remnant went on sale on steam for $10.00, and i feel that's still too much for a sub-par game