It may have been Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, or maybe even Pokemon. Or perhaps very recently that you started to take interest in this genre of gaming. Role-playing games have been one of the more popular genres in gaming for almost two decades now ever since fans of the old Dungeons and Dragons board game started to play video games. After all that’s what RPG’s were created to duplicate — Dungeons and Dragons. Many have spent countless hours, days and even weeks accumulating loot and experience so they could pimp out their character with new moves and weaponry or to complete the task hand. RPG’s have changed over the years many times over and over and have even expanded throughout the world; quiet literally. MMORPG’s like World of Warcraft and Everquest have changed the way people have been playing RPG’s. Now you were able to take your own customized character that you leveled up yourself in these games and along with a friend you can fight off enemies together and complete many quests alongside each other. Aside from multiplayer in the evolution of RPG’s there was the change in single player titles. While eastern developers concentrated on giving the player a linear and scripted story to play with the choice of how to level up your character; western developers started to ponder how to make an RPG more of the players own experience rather than an experience their forced to play along with. Both Western RPG’s and JRPG’s (Japanese role-playing games) are very much popular today and are still doing well (i.e. Bioware studio, Bethesda, Square Enix) but you can’t doubt that both are very different and carry on their own style in gameplay, characters, and overall gameplay experience.
THE WESTERN RPG
Notable series and developers: Bioware, Fable series, Bethesda (Elder Scroll series)
Lately you may have found yourself enthralled in games like Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3 or Dragon Age: Origins solely because of the non-linear story or because of the fact that you can do just about anything you want whenever you want to. In many western role-playing titles you can change the world around you by a few simple decisions; you can choose to destroy a town (a la Fallout 3) or kill off a character eliminating any chance of completing a certain series of quests (Oblivion). Many games from western developer Bethesda concentrate on bringing you an open-ended world full of exploration while a developer like Bioware would bring you an epic story with good and bad choices along the way of your journey. What really stands out is most western RPG’s is the idea of choice and consequence. Choice and Consequence allows for you as the player to experience a story of the game in the most interactive way possible, the way you would really go through the story if you were the actual character. It’s interactive storytelling at it’s best. A game series like Mass Effect, Fable, and Elder Scrolls really show how far you can go with your choices. You sometimes feel as if you’re experiencing the story on a more personal level when having the freedom to do just about anything to anyone. This is one of the key differences between what you will experience with a western RPG versus what an RPG from Japan will offer you. With a unique cast of characters and a vast world to explore it’s easy to see why western RPG’s have been doing so well for a the last couple platform generations. You can never get tired of living in a unique world through a character you designed yourself.
THE JAPANESE RPG
If you’re a lot like me and you have a computer that isn’t efficient enough to play PC games — this is probably the type of RPG you first played. Back when most PC gamers were spellbound by MMO’s like Ultima online; many of us were playing Final Fantasy VII on our PlayStation. As opposed to the generally free-to-roam worlds you’re pit in western RPG’s, JRPG’s give you a strictly directed and liner story and world to venture to. Rarely do Eastern games break from this traditional storytelling mechanic by giving you an alternate story depending on what important decision you made during the games turning point (see Tales of Symphonia). Overall though very few console RPG (most of which are presumably Eastern) offer a different ending or change in story depending on your previous actions in the game. You’ll find that many console RPG’s are also different in gameplay; notably the combat. They carry on the style of turn-based fighting; the combat you have grown used to in Final Fantasy and Pokemon games. You use strategy and timing to unleash attacks and spells on your enemy; this made combat more unique for the player in that you can have time to think about what you want to do. Think of it as chess… only with demons and girls wearing very little clothing instead of horses, pawns, kings and queens.
While both sub-genres carry the same name it’s evident that culture played a big role in the change in RPG’s that you see today.
Key Similarities:
- Both place a strong emphasis on plot compared to other genres of gaming (fighting, FPS, platformer) they’re more like Real-time strategy games with an appeal to “adventure game” fans
- Both give you a system or upgrades from loots you can gather to customs you can unlock because of your leveling up.
Key Difference
- Eastern RPG titles tend to take you on a liner story and gameplay experience while Western RPG’s give you an open-ended world you are free to roam with a story you can experience in any order you choose (Choice is also a bigger factor in western titles)
- Eastern RPG will usually implement the idea of “random battles” into their games as a way to help the player Level up due to the combat system in the game and the amount of mandatory battles given to you throughout the story. While western games will randomly place enemies throughout the world for you to face as you venture through the land under your own free will…..
