First off, before I even begin to talk about why I'm writing this (like I do with my reviews) I feel the need to make a short disclaimer to at least alleviate some of the fanboy rage my opinions may (and possibly will) bring about. I'm going to have some less then flattering things to say about certain games, some of which may be your favorite game. I'm of the assumption that the Escapist houses a pretty smart bunch of folks, so if my opinion about a game differs from yours, we can discuss, we can debate, but can we PLEASE keep it room temperature? Flame wars aren't as fun as intelligent discussion.
Anyways. /disclaimer
A short while ago, I got into a debate with a friend about what genre the Metroid Prime games belong to. My argument was that it was a first-person shooter, but my friend had a VERY compelling argument leaning toward MP being a 3D platformer. This debate ended in stalemate, and this stalemate brought me to a rather interesting thought: What do these genres even MEAN anymore?
In this day and age, games are taking bits and pieces of other games and mixing them together. We have a first person shooter with the writing quality of an RPG, and puzzles like a platformer, for example (bonus points to whoever guesses it first). So I decided to attempt to define the genres again. And being the idiot I am, I decided to define the one that's easily the most nebulous, the role playing game.
According to my good friend Wikipedia, the RPG is "a computer or video game where the player controls one or several characters, and achieves victory by completing a series of quests." This definition can safely apply to pretty much any single player game, which leads me back to my original purpose, clarification. EVERY GAME DOES THIS, so how do we distinguish the RPG from the FPS?
Going back to my easily stolen notes is the fact that the characters in an RPG grow in power as the game progresses, while exploring a massive game-encompassing world, solving puzzles, and engaging in strategic combat. In my view, this would mean that the RPG has a much different definition of a "game stage" then many other games. Why most FPS's, platformers, strategy games, shoot em ups and beat em ups have a series of levels to indicate the goals, RPGs have everything in one massive world. Sure, RPGs expect you to go to certain places in the world before others, but one could say that a key feature of the RPG is the fact that there is only one level that gradually grows and grows until you reach the credits screen, as opposed to a series of levels arranged in an order.
Without looking at my notes, I can say a necessity for a good RPG right off the top of my head: good writing. Simply put, a FPS, a platformer, a beat em up, a shoot em up, a racer, and in some cases even a strategy game can be great games even if the plot is shoddy (EXAMPLE : Resident Evil 4. Don't tell me you bought it for the story, or I will call you a liar.), but a good RPG really can't. Simply put, RPGs are the opposite of what I would call a "gameplay driven game." In a gameplay driven game, the credits screen means you bested every challenge the game set before you. In an RPG, your reward for besting the challenges is finishing the narrative and seeing the story's resolution.
So, I guess in a bit of a tangentially related editorial, I'll give a few examples of what I mean. Back when I was around 4, I was an avid Mario fan. Super Mario World was my crack. I loved this game, because it presented me with a great deal of interesting challenges, and I felt a sense of accomplishment for besting them. Another game I had lying around the house was Earthbound. And, in these days, I hated this game. It was easy. It wasn't fun. Oh sure it had some good music and the enemies amused me with appearance, but, there was no challenge. My reward for doing a simple task was a simple victory tune. And there was only one REALLY BIG LEVEL. This wasn't fun.
Now, before any MOTHER FANS crucify me, let me restate that this was me at 4. I could hardly read at 4. I learned everything by trial and error. I liked overcoming error after countless trials and being rewarded for it with a new trial. After giving it a few years, I decided to pick Earthbound up again. It took a while for it to happen, but I guess it was around the time I first took notice that Pokey was apologizing profusely that I cracked a smile. When I realized I was talking to a dog, I started to chuckle. When the leader of a gang sicced a steampunk robot after me, I started to laugh, hard. I was starting to see why this game was so fun. It wasn't fun to BEAT, it was fun to PLAY, to read and laugh with the wacky script, and have fun with the game. I appreciated it being easy, because if it was hard, I'd never see any more hilarious writing.
I hold Earthbound as one of the best RPGs of all time, and the game that got me interested in the genre. Another example of a game that holds a very special place in my heart is Final Fantasy 4. To this day, I have never given a damn about a video game character quite as much as I have over Cecil Harvey. Every character (except maybe Edge, who comes in way too late for me to like him like I do the rest of the cast) is such a well written individual, truly alive in my eyes. Sure the plot is cliche, but I followed it through to the end because these characters MEANT something to me.
Anyone who is aspiring to make a new RPG, take examples from Earthbound and FF4. Earthbound's hilarious bit characters, wacky script, and overall lightheartedness make it great, and FF4's great cast of main character's made even a cliched overall plot GREAT. Game's you might want to avoid taking notes from, is a later FF installment, and this is where my worries of fanboy rage came from.
Final Fantasy 7 was a technological marvel of the time, and it established a lot of traditions that the FF series still holds to. Sadly, being pretty then doesn't mean much now, and some of the legacies weren't exactly great, in my humble opinion. Not to mention that Final Fantasy 7 has had more spinoff's then I'm willing to enumerate, and gave birth to what has to be the most overrated villain I can imagine.
The spinoffs is a major gripe of mine, because I believe that an RPG should house a complete narrative. A good RPG shouldn't need a sequel, or a prequel, or a companion game. FF7 was fine enough as is, but it's makers have beaten that poor horse so often, and are continually making great returns on it, mostly off of fanboy's who think that Cloud and Sephiroth's big swords are totally fucking awesome, and/or the fangirls whose undergarments start to drip after seeing Cloud and/or Sephiroth's effeminite features.. It may be that I never gave a shit about the cast of FF7, and thus never gave a shit about the plot, and thus never decided to force my way through the entire plot, but did FF7 really need 2 spinoff games and a sequel movie? Couldn't they have better focused that effort and a new game?
Alright, I'm getting wordy, and well over half of this is opinion, but since I have no idea HOW to wrap up my text wall, I'll just repeat the good bits of the disclaimer. We can discuss and debate till the cows come home, but I'd rather NOT have to deal with the flames.
Sorry for making this such a long rant, and thanks for reading through to the end if you did.
Anyways. /disclaimer
A short while ago, I got into a debate with a friend about what genre the Metroid Prime games belong to. My argument was that it was a first-person shooter, but my friend had a VERY compelling argument leaning toward MP being a 3D platformer. This debate ended in stalemate, and this stalemate brought me to a rather interesting thought: What do these genres even MEAN anymore?
In this day and age, games are taking bits and pieces of other games and mixing them together. We have a first person shooter with the writing quality of an RPG, and puzzles like a platformer, for example (bonus points to whoever guesses it first). So I decided to attempt to define the genres again. And being the idiot I am, I decided to define the one that's easily the most nebulous, the role playing game.
According to my good friend Wikipedia, the RPG is "a computer or video game where the player controls one or several characters, and achieves victory by completing a series of quests." This definition can safely apply to pretty much any single player game, which leads me back to my original purpose, clarification. EVERY GAME DOES THIS, so how do we distinguish the RPG from the FPS?
Going back to my easily stolen notes is the fact that the characters in an RPG grow in power as the game progresses, while exploring a massive game-encompassing world, solving puzzles, and engaging in strategic combat. In my view, this would mean that the RPG has a much different definition of a "game stage" then many other games. Why most FPS's, platformers, strategy games, shoot em ups and beat em ups have a series of levels to indicate the goals, RPGs have everything in one massive world. Sure, RPGs expect you to go to certain places in the world before others, but one could say that a key feature of the RPG is the fact that there is only one level that gradually grows and grows until you reach the credits screen, as opposed to a series of levels arranged in an order.
Without looking at my notes, I can say a necessity for a good RPG right off the top of my head: good writing. Simply put, a FPS, a platformer, a beat em up, a shoot em up, a racer, and in some cases even a strategy game can be great games even if the plot is shoddy (EXAMPLE : Resident Evil 4. Don't tell me you bought it for the story, or I will call you a liar.), but a good RPG really can't. Simply put, RPGs are the opposite of what I would call a "gameplay driven game." In a gameplay driven game, the credits screen means you bested every challenge the game set before you. In an RPG, your reward for besting the challenges is finishing the narrative and seeing the story's resolution.
So, I guess in a bit of a tangentially related editorial, I'll give a few examples of what I mean. Back when I was around 4, I was an avid Mario fan. Super Mario World was my crack. I loved this game, because it presented me with a great deal of interesting challenges, and I felt a sense of accomplishment for besting them. Another game I had lying around the house was Earthbound. And, in these days, I hated this game. It was easy. It wasn't fun. Oh sure it had some good music and the enemies amused me with appearance, but, there was no challenge. My reward for doing a simple task was a simple victory tune. And there was only one REALLY BIG LEVEL. This wasn't fun.
Now, before any MOTHER FANS crucify me, let me restate that this was me at 4. I could hardly read at 4. I learned everything by trial and error. I liked overcoming error after countless trials and being rewarded for it with a new trial. After giving it a few years, I decided to pick Earthbound up again. It took a while for it to happen, but I guess it was around the time I first took notice that Pokey was apologizing profusely that I cracked a smile. When I realized I was talking to a dog, I started to chuckle. When the leader of a gang sicced a steampunk robot after me, I started to laugh, hard. I was starting to see why this game was so fun. It wasn't fun to BEAT, it was fun to PLAY, to read and laugh with the wacky script, and have fun with the game. I appreciated it being easy, because if it was hard, I'd never see any more hilarious writing.
I hold Earthbound as one of the best RPGs of all time, and the game that got me interested in the genre. Another example of a game that holds a very special place in my heart is Final Fantasy 4. To this day, I have never given a damn about a video game character quite as much as I have over Cecil Harvey. Every character (except maybe Edge, who comes in way too late for me to like him like I do the rest of the cast) is such a well written individual, truly alive in my eyes. Sure the plot is cliche, but I followed it through to the end because these characters MEANT something to me.
I can't describe how happy I was that Rydia survived the Leviathan incident. I was pleased that Gilbert made it out, even though the entire world hates the bard. I shed a tear over Tellah, and don't get me started on the twins, Cid, and Yang's sacrifices. Sure they were alright in the end, but when it happened it was saddening!
Anyone who is aspiring to make a new RPG, take examples from Earthbound and FF4. Earthbound's hilarious bit characters, wacky script, and overall lightheartedness make it great, and FF4's great cast of main character's made even a cliched overall plot GREAT. Game's you might want to avoid taking notes from, is a later FF installment, and this is where my worries of fanboy rage came from.
Final Fantasy 7 was a technological marvel of the time, and it established a lot of traditions that the FF series still holds to. Sadly, being pretty then doesn't mean much now, and some of the legacies weren't exactly great, in my humble opinion. Not to mention that Final Fantasy 7 has had more spinoff's then I'm willing to enumerate, and gave birth to what has to be the most overrated villain I can imagine.
The spinoffs is a major gripe of mine, because I believe that an RPG should house a complete narrative. A good RPG shouldn't need a sequel, or a prequel, or a companion game. FF7 was fine enough as is, but it's makers have beaten that poor horse so often, and are continually making great returns on it, mostly off of fanboy's who think that Cloud and Sephiroth's big swords are totally fucking awesome, and/or the fangirls whose undergarments start to drip after seeing Cloud and/or Sephiroth's effeminite features.. It may be that I never gave a shit about the cast of FF7, and thus never gave a shit about the plot, and thus never decided to force my way through the entire plot, but did FF7 really need 2 spinoff games and a sequel movie? Couldn't they have better focused that effort and a new game?
Alright, I'm getting wordy, and well over half of this is opinion, but since I have no idea HOW to wrap up my text wall, I'll just repeat the good bits of the disclaimer. We can discuss and debate till the cows come home, but I'd rather NOT have to deal with the flames.
Sorry for making this such a long rant, and thanks for reading through to the end if you did.
