The power of friendship (JRPGs)

[Rhinzual26]

I see that someone hasn't discovered TV Tropes yet

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TrueCompanions?from=Main.Nakama

Check under the Videogames heading under "Examples:".

Sure, it's overused...but how do you imagine JRPGs without it?

Okay, it worked for Vagrant Story (solo dungeoncrawler)...but that is one dark, cynical game...in a good way.

Great, been in a tvtropes wiki walk for hours.

Anyway, the idea is overdone, but the only other style is lone wolf or the army of nameless mooks route it seems. Well, those or tetris.

 

[JediMB]

Not a JRPG, but Dragon Age II handled the theme of friendship and family very well. One of its strongest points.

It's more important that the themes used are well-executed than whether or not a particular theme is or isn't in a game.

 

[cainx10a]

And that's not common in WRPGs as well? Dragon Age? Mass Effect? The amount of time I wasted "socializing" with the other characters to get on their good side, for the sake of the benefits their friendship will bring along.

Personally, I don't mind a light hearted story once in a while, Tales of Vesperia was great on that front, how even the characters that technically had disdain for each other bonded up during their travel and came to understand their personal motives better than say, Cerberus cheerleader and Cerberus Hater chicks did in the entirety of mass effect. Or that mage-hater and non-mage-hater who were filled with more angst than the entire crew of FFVII.

 

[krazykidd]

And that's not common in WRPGs as well? Dragon Age? Mass Effect? The amount of time I wasted "socializing" with the other characters to get on their good side, for the sake of the benefits their friendship will bring along.

.

Well there's a difference , Mass Effect and Dragon age didn't used the 'POWER of frendiship' to defeat the arch deamon , or saren or sovreign as oposed to FF6 to defeat Kefka and Persona 3 to defeat NYX for example. There was benifits to not being a dick to all your characters in ME and DA , but it's not required nor cheasy in the sense of ' WE WILL DEFEAT OUR ENEMY BECAUSE OUR FRIENDSHIP AND TRUST IS SO GREAT ' kinda thing.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I would say friendship and trust gives you a big advantage over people you are fighting. Just because your teamwork is better. Playing co-op and multiplayer with a guy I have known for years we are at least 20% cooler together than we are playing solo. So I'd say that theme is relevant.

 

[krazykidd]

There are plenty that don't focus on friendship, like Star Ocean (or Star Ocean 3, at least, haven't played the others =( ), Shin Megami Tensei (main series and several of the spin offs), several Final Fantasies, several Dragon Quests, ect. You just gotta play a lot and see what's out there.

That said, it doesn't bug me. In a big bad world where everything's out to get you (both in games and IRL) it's nice to have a reminder of how important friendship can be from time to time.

After all, Friendship is Magic =3 (FLAME SHIELDS UP)

Now ill agree that alot of SMT games don't use the power of friedship ( except persona 3 and 4 , ironically persona 1 the main characters almost hated each other which was funny ) but all the FF games ( the main ones at least ) do use the Power of friendship, i would like to know which ones you find don't out of curiosity.

The very first one doesn't, that one's just "4 people gotta save the day", essentially. FFVIII is more so a love story, and while you could make the case that it still has to do with friendship it's at least sorta different. FFX ends up being moreso about the father-son dynamic and the idea of one's duty (with a little romance, not as much so as FFVIII though). I haven't played all the way through so I'm not totally sure on this last one, but I 'think' FFXII is moreso just a government conspiracy/politics things more than anything.

Granted, several (or maybe all) of them discuss friendship at some point or another more than likely (it's been far too long since I've played them), but that's not the overall theme of these particular ones.

Now For FF 1 your are right , but then again your characters don't even have a name nor personallity , you are just 4 warriors of light sent by Cosmos to return balance to the world.
Now i have to disagre with you with the other three games, FFVIII used the power of friendship pretty often, especially after disc 2 when they realised that they all lived together in an orphanage and were basically raised together, added witht he love story with squall and rinoa and the whole laguna senario, made for a very friendship family love theme going.For FFX , now that i do agree with the father-son relationship as the main theme of the game, friendship does play a secondary role although i don't remember the game enough to prove this point. Now for FFXIII only on the last disc does the game shift to the power of friendhsip thing ,because basically all through the game your team is seperated one from another, but dont worry it's there , especially at the final boss fight which i wont spoil since you haven'T finished it

 

[spartan231490]

Is anyone else tired of the power of friendship in Video games ( mainly JRPGs). It seems that JRPGs have been using that theme since forever , to demonstrate how friendship can overcome all and yada yada yada and beat the bad guy. So my question is

a) Do you think the theme of friendship has been overused in JRPGs ( give an example )

and

b) what other themes work well and you would like to see more of in JRPGs

a) Yes. I almost choked on it in kingdom hearts. I only played kingdom hearts for about 30 minutes.

b) Anything. any emotion can be a powerful motivator. Fear of something in your past that you want to avoid. Love. Anger. Determination. The drive to be accepted worked really well in Naruto. Anything. That's why its so disappointing when video games all revert to the big 3, friendship/love, revenge, and greed/powerlust. Jesus, pick a new one. Or even just modifications on the old ones. Instead of personal love, make a character who fights out of love for his race because he wants the race to be granted acceptance(would have worked well for elves in DA) or out of the desire for that race to be the new overlords because he thinks their better, or out of revenge for how poorly his race as a whole is treated. There are so many different ways to motivate a character, can we stop with the overuse of 3 simple archtypes. Play dnd for a few campaigns, you learn quick how boring those 3 archtypes become and how similar the characters are. Then you'll come up with some new ones.

 

[FinalHeart95]

Mass Effect 2 is all about how you need to form a team and gain their trust and only then you can take down the Reapers. How is that not just another form of what you're saying? Let's be honest, the "power of friendship" thing is a trope in all forms of media in all sorts of genres. In games centered around a group of people, this tends to come up at some point.

Anyway, is it overused? Eh, not particularly. Teamwork is essential, and being friends with the person certainly helps that. Some games it can get over the top, I suppose, but I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Other tropes I would like to see used? Well... I don't know really. I like JRPGs, so I can't really think of anything different to add to the storylines. Maybe different settings.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

There are plenty that don't focus on friendship, like Star Ocean (or Star Ocean 3, at least, haven't played the others =( ), Shin Megami Tensei (main series and several of the spin offs), several Final Fantasies, several Dragon Quests, ect. You just gotta play a lot and see what's out there.

Actually Star Ocean 2 and 3 used it in an interesting way- both games allow Private actions between party members in towns that make it possible to develop a closer friendship with a character of your choice (you can't talk it up with everyone at once, you have to choose). If either person in a fully-developed social connection dies in battle the other one screams their name and goes berserk, attacking nonstop with increased power for a while. More prevalent in SO2 since people beside one of the two main characters can choose a PA.

The only thing that annoys me about everyone's favorite JRPG cliche is when someone tells instead of showing. You can say you'll stick by your party to the death, but do you mean it? Would you risk getting kicked out of your town? Out of your religious order or army? Turn on another friend who's developed a bad case of the Evils?

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

And that's not common in WRPGs as well? Dragon Age? Mass Effect? The amount of time I wasted "socializing" with the other characters to get on their good side, for the sake of the benefits their friendship will bring along.

Personally, I don't mind a light hearted story once in a while, Tales of Vesperia was great on that front, how even the characters that technically had disdain for each other bonded up during their travel and came to understand their personal motives better than say, Cerberus cheerleader and Cerberus Hater chicks did in the entirety of mass effect. Or that mage-hater and non-mage-hater who were filled with more angst than the entire crew of FFVII.

The only person in FFVII who is even remotely angsty is Cloud and even then he is more troubled and a bit anxious than filled with angst.

OT: So there are plenty of over used clichés in other genres? I don't see too many people calling out the overused Tolkien and Space Opera settings in WRPGS do you(Of course there are loads that do actually say this)? It suits the genre that is why it has become a cliché if you don't like it play a different genre. It is also not as prevalent in a cheesy was as you make it out to be.

Maybe they could go for more pseudo-realism the odd time tone wise. I do like that they are out there which makes them unique but the odd realism or a bit more of an aged cast in the mainstream or exported ones wouldn't go amiss.

 

[badgersprite]

There's nothing wrong with that theme, especially considering that's a hugely common theme in a lot of stuff aimed at the same sort of demographic as Final Fantasy, but it's more a matter of how it's delivered than the theme itself.

For example, the theme of "friendship" in FFIX versus in, say, FFVIII. For me, the theme of friendship in FFIX works better than in a lot of other Final Fantasies for the simple reason that the characters in FFIX are all so different from each other that it actually means something.

In other Final Fantasies, we're told characters are different in that they have some different personality traits, but their overall goal and their reason for entering the conflict is almost always exactly the same, such that it's never in doubt whether they will work together. Like in FFVIII. All your primary characters have the same age and the same background (sort of barring Rinoa), and are all given the same missions and have the same goal. Was it ever in any doubt that they would work together when they have no reason whatsoever to not have the same goals? This is kind of true of other Final Fantasies as well. It has the problem of making them generic. Yeah, they have a personality, but the personality doesn't affect the plot in any way, and it often has a problem of "Oh, they have to feel this way now for X plot reason/power of friendship moral" without any real buildup.

Compare that to FFIX. Everyone's goals and motives are conflicting from the very start. Every single character has a unique reason for joining the adventure, and they often end up being completely at odds with the rest of the party. They have actual character conflict, such that when two characters who used to be enemies actually do become friends, it's meaningful. Characters regularly leave your party to do their own thing, or have to take actions so at odds with their goals that it seems entirely plausible that they might not come back. That makes it all the more powerful when they actually do band together and become a team.

FFIX isn't even the best example of how the power of friendship can be used successfully in games, but I think it is a good example of how much of a difference "show, don't tell" makes in pulling it off.