Feature: Dissecting the Japanese RPG: What's next? Subscribe to this RSS feed
What about the gameplay?
Linear progression: At first glance, "linear gameplay" sounds like a rather negative term to use while describing a game. However, as anyone who has played a lengthy JRPG will be able to tell you, linear gameplay can accomplish something that gameplay based on non-linear advancement cannot: It can guide you through a carefully crafted experience and make you play the game the way the developer wanted it to be played.
JRPGs usually take you down a fixed path with pre-determined actions and consequences, dialogue and events. These make the games feel more like a movie than an actual game, and in some cases, even allow game developers to concentrate completely on the game's primary focus.
Complex gameplay: The one aspect of any videogame that developers would do well to prioritize during the development process. Take away the cool graphics and flashy visuals ... strip a game of everything you possibly can except the gameplay, and if this aspect of it is polished enough, the game will shine regardless of its shortcomings in other areas.
JRPGs often involve complex, turn-based gameplay mechanics with deep character customization systems that are often incorporated into the stories themselves. Sometimes you'll have a game like Valkyrie Profile 2 that tries to do something different, but for the most part, JRPGs involve turn-based combat with little or no modifications made to the formula.
That about sums it up. The PS2 era of role-playing has definitely contributed to the games industry in ways that others before and after it have not been able to. Sure, Mario might have invented the platformer, but Final Fantasy VII is loved by nearly as many gaming fans. And FFVII is just the tip of a very large iceberg. However, the PS2 era is now over, and it's time for something new. Time these games abandoned their old ways and tried to do things a little differently. Already, we are starting to see developers trying to experiment with gameplay mechanics. Final Fantasy XII introduced the concept of Gambits and featured a blend between turn-based and realtime combat, and it looks like FFXIII is set to take that even further.
Unfortunately, apart from FFXIII, there aren't too many Japanese role-playing games that have been announced since last year. Square's The Last Remnant, Nintendo's rumoured Monolith Soft RPG, White Knight Story and several handheld role-playing titles are the only RPGs people are really keeping an eye on. We have no way of knowing whether or not these games will actually bring any significant changes to the genre with them, but it is fun to speculate and think about how the formula could be tinkered with to make it more diverse and interesting.
