What are Role Playing Games Coming To?

by Jesse Sweetland 

In order to see the progression of role playing games (RPG), one might go back to their beginning. Before the polygons, before the full-motion video, before the predestined outcomes, people would gather together and create fantastic worlds whose bounds were limited only by the players' collective creativity. Instead of a game pad, there were pencils; instead of a complex console system, a set of dice.

In contrast, the virtually costless system of yesterday is being eclipsed by spectacularly expensive visual effects, original synthesized soundtracks, and a single-player system. Lamented also is the constricting storyline, which at best allows only a few possible outcomes. What once was a loosely organized brainstorming session has evolved into a series of extensive interactive movies. Is this what the public wants?

If one had a conversation with contemporary RPG fans, the reaction would be a unanimous "no." In the past, characters were unique because of their abilities and limitations, usually determined by a role of the dice or player preference. These players complain that contemporary systems are too open; they allow the characters to become too broad, too powerful. The materia system in Final Fantasy VII, for instance, allows a patient player to equip each character with the most powerful spells and commands, with virtually unlimited redundancy.

Is such a system wrong? In Final Fantasy VII materia takes an inordinate amount of time to master, and thereby duplicate, which would prompt an impatient player to abandon the effort and beat the game out of frustration. Knowing this, one might infer that such privilege is a earned reward. Furthermore, there are limits to the number of materia one might equip that is based on type of weapon equipped. This is similar to the original RPG system in that the player must choose how to customize each character and by using some materia and sacrificing others. With discipline a player can make each character as unique as he or she desires.

What system do RPG fans prefer, then? Though it has its pitfalls, Final Fantasy VI's combat system seems to have the most appeal. Each character has his or her special command; Sabin uses "blitz" techniques, Terra can morph into an Esper, Celes can absorb magic attacks, and so on. The result of this is a set of characters which may be customized to a point, but are always unique in the way they attack.

Then why was Final Fantasy VII so popular? If the system was so unpopular, what was it's redeeming quality? Was it the innovative 3D graphics, the music, or the story? The graphics had a lot to do with it. Previously, our only picture of the characters was an exaggerated anime caricatures. No depth. Now the player sees lifelike people in full motion video, complete with body language that tells much more than the dialog. What was kin to a Saturday morning cartoon is now on par with weekday-afternoon dramas, complete with sappy dialog.

Also appealing was the story, by far the most impressive Square has yet developed. Although love themes had been explored in the past, with Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI, never had they elicited such a response from the audience. Learning from the unpopular ending in Final Fantasy VI, Square endeavored to reach closure during the game, with limited success.

So what is the future of RPGs? Based on the success of Final Fantasy VII, one can only presume that it will be more of the same. RPGs are now seeping into mainstream society and gaining support from defecting strategy and adventure players. The interactive movie quality also appeals to many non-gamers. Finally, the content of RPGs is changing from pure fighting to in-depth personal stories, which may draw more female support. The result of this is a shift in buying power, a loss of monetary votes from the traditional RPG fan. As with all things electronic, the trend is to become more user-friendly. My advice to the restless minds of the RPG stronghold is to break out the old 8 and 16-bit consoles and relive the fantasies of the past, or break out the old pencil and paper to create the fantasies of the future.