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Gaming Therapy: Astounding Development
By: Jesse Lee
I remember my first RPG very clearly. I was around six years old, and
my Super Nintendo was my object of worship: my sacred icon. Every day I
would wake up early before school and try to get a few levels of a game in
before school started. When I got home, I would rush through the door,
firmly set myself before the television, and game until the controller was
pried from my hands. I remember that first RPG. Final Fantasy VI, then
known as Final Fantasy III, was recommended to me by a friend whose name I
don't even remember - but I owe him a great deal - because without him I might
not have grown to love RPGs as I do now. Not a whole lot has changed about
me and my relationship to games, but a lot has definitely changed about the
RPG genre, and gaming as a whole.
A major role in the success of any form
of entertainment is change, and the ability to adapt to the trends in the
market. Every media platform and genre struggles with this, but darwinism
ensures that those with the ability ot adapt go on to make the games of
tomorrow. This often leads to conflict between those of the new and old
schools of gaming, but it's a rare feat to please your entire market. True
success comes from a satisfying and well-played mix of classic and
revolutionary elements.
Let's take a look at our roots. Your classic RPG had two basic
elements: random encounters and a leveling system. While not as monolithic
as the other two, there were a number of other traits that were prevalent
for a number of years (you know which ones I mean) and until recently, not
much changed. However, things are rapidly changing now. A number of genre-defining franchises have been departing from long-held
industry standards. Two obvious examples would be Final Fantasy and Dragon
Quest. When Square released Final Fantasy X-2, they gave it a combat system
that was far more rapid and fast-paced than that seen in earlier
installments of the series, and it seems now with Final Fantasy XII that
they've abandoned turn-based combat and random encounters completely, opting
instead for a free-roaming, less rigid and structured combat engine. There
are mixed feelings on this, just as there always are when a game departs
from a long-held precedent. Though many have said that the battle system
presented in the demo was flawed, some see the departure as inherently
flawed and doomed to failure. Others said that it had potential.
Personally, I acknowledged that the battle system of the game definitely
needed some polish and a number of improvements, but regardless, I support
this shift even if it is on principle alone. As a gamer, I've realized that
there's nothing that will kill a genre more surely than stagnation. In the
game market, a genre must be dynamic and capable of offering new concepts
and ideas to its players. Imagine if no one in the industry took risks with
new systems and concepts with their games. Many of the games of today would
be nothing more than clones of games that came out years ago. Given the
alternative of stale and regurgitated games for years to come, I'm willing
to take a risk now and again, even if that risk is Final Fantasy XII. I've
been surprised in the past and hey, who knows?
Like Final Fantasy, the Dragon Quest series has also strayed from its
own long-held standards. With Dragon Quest VIII, not only did the series
make the leap to 3D graphics (about 6 years late to the party), but it got
rid of its traditional first-person battle perspective. Granted, these
changes were far from innovative, as other games had been in 3D already for
years (Dragon Quest was essentially the only series to ever use a
first-person battle perspective in the first place), but it called stirrings
none the less. Traditionalists scorned the game for departing from its
roots and giving in to the pressures of the newer schools of gaming. Other
old fans welcomed the changes as a sign that the series had what it took to
compete in the more modern market. The game even one over some younger
gamers who had never before been interested in the series. Dragon Quest
VIII has been lauded as being a success by most sources, and to me appears
to be a shining example of an effective combination of new and old school
elements within a game. While departing from game concepts that a number of
consumers believed to be old and tired, but incorporating newer ones and at
the same time, all the while holding on to the sense of humor and epic
adventure that has always been the heart of the series, Square-Enix
effectively managed to hold on to the majority of older fans and win over
many of the game's long-time skeptics and some who may have simply been
unaware of what the series had to offer. In any competitive industry, if
you're not moving forwards, you're moving backwards. In the American
Market, Dragon Quest had been going backwards for a while, but by
introducing fresh concepts, the series has begun to take great strides
forward.
RPGs, like any game, cannot compete with each other, let alone other forms of entertainment, unless they learn to
differ from one-another and include gameplay aspects which have never been
seen before. The true measure of any game is simply how much fun it is, or
how entertaining it is. How can a game be entertaining if there are
thousands of others exactly like it? In that situation, why chose any one
game over the others? Why play them at all? If they're all the same, if
you've played one, you may as well have played every one. Success only
comes to those willing to take risks. Your idea might flop terribly, but it
could also change the gaming paradigm. People enjoy the new, the
interesting, and the unexpected. To win in the gaming market, you have to
be all of those and more.
-- Jesse Lee
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