[PATV] Wednesday, March 7, 2012 - Extra Credits Season 4, Ep. 4: Western & Japanese RPGs (part 2

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[PATV] Wednesday, March 7, 2012 - Extra Credits Season 4, Ep. 4: Western & Japanese RPGs (part 2)

This week, we continue discussing (and defining) Western RPGs and JRPGs, this time with a special guest!
Come discuss this topic in the forums!

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Xocolatl

Why is wRPGs crushing jRPGs (if we can even call them by those names anymore.)? Hmm... good question. When was the last time you play wRPGs on PSP, or DS? I think it depends mainly on the platform, and on who you ask. I do agree that wRPG gets a much larger sales number, but I think that is mainly due to advertisement and stigma. Nobody with any self respect in the US will be caught dead watching anime, or playing any jRPGs. They are cutesy, weird, taboo-ey type of things that just..aint cool. Hence the mainstream stays (at least visibly) away from them.

Not to mention localization...that's a toughy.

GodotIsWaiting4U

I feel like by this definition Bioware's RPGs are a fusion of the two genres. It sounds like, say, Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect hit both play criteria (sort of). Planescape: Torment limits the expression a bit by giving you a pre-defined backstory and appearance, but allows plenty of expression for you once you get into the actual game, to shape the Nameless One's present even if you can't touch his past, so I'd say it also hits both boxes.

thugorp

THEY SHARE ROLE PLAYING! The reason, "MW3," isn't an R.P.G. even though it has a leveling system is because you don't ROLE PLAY, during the cores of the game. I would like wise assume that even though there is a first person shooting element in, "Half Life," much like in, "Skyrim," the reason that game is an R.P.G. as apposed to a first person shooter, is because the Role Playing takes a more prominent role than the shooting in the full experience of the game.
Perhaps, "Half-Life," could be called a first person rpg. :-)

zluvsanime

i think these videos prove that dragon age origins is the ultimate rpg... i guess mass effect too but i enjoy fantasy more than sci fi but to each his own. jrpg's make you feel like you are part of something epic or watching something epic unfold "history in the making" if you will. western rpgs make you feel that you are what is epic you're not watching an epic tale unfold you are the legend itself. both of these have separate but fundamental problems. jrpgs are seriously lacking in making the player feel powerful, the main character is useless without the rest of the party and they conform to the writers idea of what they should be, the player is just the trasport. in western rpgs there is a severe lack of emotion sure in skyrim i feel like a powerful god among men in whatever form that takes but id be hard pressed to say that i actually emotionally care. and thats it easterns lack power and westerns lack emotion. dragon age and mass effect fill both those voids. they let you design and nurture your own creation with a bit of practice making you feel very powerful. at the same time it makes you feel a part of the world with emotional ties to the people in your group and the world they live in, i found that it mattered to me what choices i made and who i offended and who i pleased. and the story made me feel like i was truly a legend that helped an epic story unfold. those two games are truly the very best of both worlds and they could not come more highly recommended to any rpg fan, in the world of single player rpg they are without equal, these games are the golden standard to which all new rpgs should strive to achieve

padoyle

I always thought of the main character in Persona 4 as sort of being the player him/herself. You choose literally all of his dialogue, and through playing the game you choose all of his actions as well.

Twenty Sided

GodotIsWaiting4U wrote: »

I feel like by this definition Bioware's RPGs are a fusion of the two genres. It sounds like, say, Knights of the Old Republic or Mass Effect hit both play criteria (sort of). Planescape: Torment limits the expression a bit by giving you a pre-defined backstory and appearance, but allows plenty of expression for you once you get into the actual game, to shape the Nameless One's present even if you can't touch his past, so I'd say it also hits both boxes.

Except that your backstory is still largely predefined in KOTOR, to the point that the major plot twist of the game hinges on it. KOTOR 2, amusingly enough, is Torment with lightsabers and the Force. Mass Effect is a little more broad, but then again, the protagonist's backstory isn't supposed to be the emotional payoff here. (And you still die and get rebuilt in the sequel.)

Still ain't no such thing as free choice in a video game. As in real life, it's an illusion. You toggle a handful of cosmetic parameters, flag this or that romance dialogue from a preselected pool of love interests, then derive satisifaction from this.

Sandboxes are just railroads that disguise the railroads with empty spaces and inconsequential choices.

padoyle wrote: »

I always thought of the main character in Persona 4 as sort of being the player him/herself. You choose literally all of his dialogue, and through playing the game you choose all of his actions as well.

He always struck me as the weirdly stoic wunderkind than he ever did as the blank slate I could mold however I wish.
This is not helped by the fact that his special powers are a special exception amongst special powers.

thugorp wrote: »

THEY SHARE ROLE PLAYING! The reason, "MW3," isn't an R.P.G. even though it has a leveling system is because you don't ROLE PLAY, during the cores of the game. I would like wise assume that even though there is a first person shooting element in, "Half Life," much like in, "Skyrim," the reason that game is an R.P.G. as apposed to a first person shooter, is because the Role Playing takes a more prominent role than the shooting in the full experience of the game.
Perhaps, "Half-Life," could be called a first person rpg. :-)

I've considered "roleplaying game" a semantic holdover from when people still played pen-and-paper make believe games with dice.

In strategy/civ games, I'm inhabiting the role and motivations of a Machiavellian general. It's a small role, but I'm still pretending to be an omnipotent head of state with armies and biz. Video games are roleplaying, even if that role isn't rigorously defined or characterized by the plot.

But ever since Dungeons and Dragons got translated into video games, "RPG" has become synonymous with leveling systems, fantasy settings and looting.