Western & Japanese RPGs - III: Why Are Western RPGs More Popular? - Extra Credits

All right, this will be our last segment on Japanese versus Western RPGs. Last week we established that these two groups are actually two different genres. One, the JRPG, more focused on narrative, while the other, the Western RPG, focused on fantasy and expression. Now, in this final episode on the genre, we'll figure out why this distinction is so important and why it leads directly to the current dominance of Western RPGs. You see, this distinction's been with us all along and affected the genres throughout their evolution. In fact, most of you can probably see it. Let me ask you, what's habitually one of the worst parts of JRPGs? And no, it's not the androgynous heroes or the absurd number of buckles. Some of you are going to bristle when I say this, but for quite some time these games have fallen down due to their combat systems. Let me explain that. Many JRPGs retain the old menu-based combat systems that were first devised in the early '80s. And in fact, if you really think about it, even then, menu combat wasn't that engaging.

But back then it didn't have to be. At the time the JRPG was one of the only types of games that could really deliver on narrative or abnegation. These were the reasons you came to the genre. So it didn't really matter that menu-based combat wasn't the most exciting gameplay experience. It just had to be good enough. Western RPGs, on the other hand, were trying to deliver expression and fantasy. And so from the outset, in order to better deliver on expression, they started to experiment with different combat systems. If you pick out a Western RPG pretty much at random, from Ultima to the Gold Box games, to Black Isle's work, on through Diablo, Deus Ex, System Shock, even the games of today, you'll see a continuous drive to experiment with the combat system to allow the player a greater variety of play styles and choice throughout the game. And for a while this worked fine. Even if they weren't experimenting much with the moment-to-moment play, JRPGs seemed to thrive. They were flexing their narrative muscles in ways most other genres couldn't hope to at the time. But what's happened since then? What's changed in the last few years? Well, as technology improved and new options for conveying narrative came into play, like voice acting for example, suddenly other genres were able

to deliver on narrative. Suddenly JRPGs were faced with competition in a space they occupied practically by themselves before. On top of that, other genres began to adopt the leveling systems and quests and other mechanics that made JRPGs such a great source of abnegation. Suddenly the two things you went to a JRPG for, you could now get everywhere else. Meanwhile, the Western RPG stole mechanics as freely from other genres as other genres stole from it. And the best Western RPGs used those mechanics in novel ways to support their core engagement of fantasy and expression. For example, first-person shooting in Fallout 3 isn't there to create the same kind of emotional state that it is in Call of Duty. The VATS system makes that abundantly clear. Rather, it's there to reinforce the contrast between play styles and make the effect of the various perks much more distinct, thereby further reinforcing the player's sense of expression. Unfortunately, this issue of other genres encroaching on JRPG territory isn't the only problem. The real issue is that the JRPG industry, in some ways, lost sight of their core engagement over the last decade. I mean, if JRPGs were still turning out stellar narratives and were

still clearly the place to go to when looking for engaging human drama or a compelling story, I don't think we'd be doing this episode. But the hard truth is, they're not. Much of the emphasis for the JRPG industry shifted to visual fidelity and cinematic cutscenes after a few games used those elements to help deliver a strong narrative experience. But sadly, the delivery method does not equal the end result. And so, by conflating the idea of high-quality visuals with good narrative, much of the industry went spinning off down the wrong path. And it doesn't really help that the Japanese game industry has this tendency to completely rewrite their core engine for every product they make. Added together, these two facts leave you with an incredible money sink that further diverts company time and attention from the core reasons the player goes to the JRPG. As a result, this has left the majority of successful RPGs coming out of Japan to be Western RPGs that just happen to be made in the East, and perhaps with a Japanese audience more in mind. You know, games like Monster Hunter, Dark Souls. I would even argue that the recent Persona games have taken a lot of elements from the Western style because they focus more on expression by having the player as the protagonist rather than simply operating

one. And many of the successful traditional JRPGs of late seem to be ones that require less raw graphical power such as the Dragon Quest series latest installments. So, that's where we are. Now to the big question. How do we write the JRPG ship? It's an incredibly tough question as the JRPG industry is so heavily invested in its current path leaving them further and further away from their strengths. But this doesn't mean JRPGs can't be delivered in new ways. We've seen some fascinating attempts in things like To the Moon or Cthulhu Saves the World. And if any external force can swoop in and help step up a JRPG's narrative power, it's Studio Ghibli. So, we'll see. I wish I had something better, but unfortunately as consumers all we can really do is what we've already been doing. Rewarding products that stay true to their core engagement. When a worthy RPG is put before us, we got to jump on that like we're not going to get a second chance. When Atlus hands us something amazing like Persona's 3 and 4, get those guys some money. Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, get those guys some money. Dragon Quest 9, get them some money. If Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, and Ni no Kuni turn out as good as we hope, get them some money. If Square

ever decides to start making good RPGs again, get those guys some money. We are consumer and currency is our megaphone. And speaking of Square Enix, maybe somebody could remind them that they're sitting on a mountain of great franchises in addition to Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. I mean, they got Chrono Trigger, The World Ends With You. They owe us at least one more Parasite Eve to apologize for Third Birthday. And lots of people would love to see Kingdom Hearts 3 after so many years of handheld spin-offs. They've got a host of incredible intellectual property. Perhaps just stepping back and working on one of their other IPs for a while would allow some perspective that's hard to get when you're deep in the trenches of an established brand. It might also give them the chance to experiment a bit at lower cost and refocus on what really drove players to those brands in the first place. Besides, seriously, it's been 12 years. We're ready for another Chrono game. Okay? I mean it. It's not funny anymore. Well, I think that's it. I hope that helps shed some light on why we're in the state we're in and how we got here. Next week, a new topic. Promise. See you then.