Inner Working Rants: The Rise and Fall of the J-RPG

The Japanese game industry has had an amazing impact over the years on the game industry. It brought the idea of the Video game from a minor gimmick into a full fledged culture. Mario and Sonic still being the two most famous video game characters of all time. Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy music has been some of the most influential music of all time. Even his music for the fourth titles has been used in many schools around the world for music classes.

So why recently has the JRPG been given so much grief? Most people i talk to about even the Idea of the next Final Fantasy give me the same reaction.

 

I don't particularly think its because of the fact that our generation is growing out of it. But rather that our standards have been raised since the rise of Western RPGs. JRPG's don't actually follow there name very well, They're like watching a book, The player is watching the act's play out(or reading if there's no voice acting) Role playing has hardly any elements in the JRPG. You aren't pretending to be the characters or even get immersed into believing you are.

Western RPG's decided to push the concept and create an experience for both the player and the character he portrays. Surprisingly, the Western ideals of a role playing game are found more in the genre of First Person Shooter. The moment when Half Life introduced the first person perspective throughout the entire game, including during the story driven parts. It signified the position and importance of storytelling in games other than just Role playing games. The introduction of this level of Immersion helped first person shooters become one of the most popular genres of the Western World.


The problem that i have noticed with the JRPG is that it lacks a fairly important element. Innovation. This doesn't mean better Graphics but giving the player something new and interesting to stay away boredom. Recently Square Enix admitted they don't even know where to go with the Final Fantasy Series after XIII. Without Innovation the elements will continuously repeat themselves and players will feel like they are playing the same game.