Fixing the JRPG

Once upon a time the Japanese Role Playing Game was king. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII influenced an entire generation of gamers, in Japan and in the west. The list of top 10 best selling games in 2011 doesn’t include one JRPG, or a single Japanese developed game. Today the JRPG is a niche product, more likely found in the clearance bin than the top shelf, so what happened?

Let me start off with a warning, I’m going to generalize. I’m going to generalize about games that you might love, about Japanese people, and about western people. I know that every rule has its exceptions, and that my personal opinion doesn’t make something true. I also know that every topic isn’t black or white, but many shades of grey, and that without a certain amount of generalizing we wouldn’t be able to discuss anything. This is my assertion, the modern JRPG sucks.

Every JRPG developer should ask these questions, “If my game doesn’t suck then why isn’t it achieving mainstream success in the west? If it does, how can I make it better?” The problem is cultural differences.  Western gamers aren’t like Japanese gamers, their tastes aren’t the same and what works in Japan isn’t going to work in America or Europe.

We all know what it takes to make a great video game; characters that hold the player’s interest, a great story, and innovative, fun gameplay. This should hold true anywhere, so what do western gamers want from an RPG? Books could be written about the minuscule differences in entertainment tastes, but what it all boils down to is that western RPGs try to give you the tools to make your own story, JRPGs try and tell you one. What’s something that’s available in almost every western RPG, but exceedingly rare In the JRPG? Character creation and branching storylines.  Most JRPGS present you with protagonists with fully formed personalities and goals.

Japanese & Western cultures are very different. In Japan people are encouraged to conform to society, to follow the national narrative. In western countries being individualistic is seen as a virtue. Forging one’s own path and destiny is something every little American child aspires to do. Is this an overgeneralization? Yes. Does this mean that the statement is false? No.

We need real characters, heroes we can relate to. It doesn’t matter if they’re in a fantastical setting. I rather play a silent Dohvakiin around whom I can build my own narrative, than another over designed, one dimensional, spiked haired cutout.

                   VS

There is no question that a game’s story is what makes it great. Metal Gear Solid 4, while not an RPG, is an example of a Japanese game in which the story is the star of the show. With one of the cut scenes clocking in at 60 minutes, we should be grateful that it was a very enthralling narrative. When the story presented is less than compelling, and overemphasized at the expense of good gameplay, the game suffers.

 Many of the people who grew up playing Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VII are now in their 30s. Let’s be honest for a second, It might be rated M but the teens today are playing Call of Duty not Super Mario Bros. If JRPG developers want to make games that are compelling to this audience they need to present engaging storylines that talk to gamers’ real lives. Does this mean we need to take the wonder out of games? No! I recently played a wonderful game called Catherine. It was a surreal experience, full of crazy levels and a wacky narrative, but what was the game built on? A story that focused on the Issues of relationships, fidelity, and trust, things we can all relate to.

I love RPGs and I love Japanese culture. Japanese developers have created games that I’ll always remember fondly, but we all need to evolve. I’m writing this with the earnest hope that the future will bring many great experiences from developers from the land of the rising sun, after all they did make this whole video game thing what it is.