A Trend in RPGs

by Joe Pawlikowski 

I am a some what enthusiastic RPG player, even through I don't own a PlayStation, and the trend now tends to be going towards science fiction oriented story lines. What I hear from my console zealot cousin keeps telling me about some of the new games he has, most notably Parasite Eve, and how it strays from the standard RPG fantasy adventure. Now this trend is hardly new, anyone to remember the old computer game Wasteland will tell you that it was one of the best of its day, but unfortunately the trend didn't continue. I believe this is due to the reason is the same as there are a lot of fantasy books out now, fantasy is easy to create, sells pretty well, and fantasy taps into an ancient desire to look back to find a place better than the one we are currently in. The only problem is the lack of plot, don't get me wrong, I read The Lord Of The Rings and loved it, basically when you boil it down there are only two real fantasy plots. The first is not seen much very more as the main subject, it's the slay-the-monster-get-the-treasure plot found in The Hobbit, look around and you will find a lot of these. The more popular plot comes from The Lord Of The Rings, it's the stop-the-evil-wizard/warlord-before-they-destroy-the-world-as-we-know-it. The main thing that a group of warriors, another ideological throw back, that go through various social interactions with each other and with their adversaries. This if all well and good, but it gets old after a while, now they could drastically alter the main plot to something similar but twisted i.e. Eve Forward's Villains by Necessity where the last of the old fantasy stereotype villains save the world of becoming all wholesome and good.

But I am talking about the past, for the present it seems like gamma rays through a sheet of lead, science fiction is slowly coming back into the RPG mainstream. I first noticed this in Final Fantasy 3 (VI), which advertised that the story took place in a world where magic and science collide, the idea just thrilled me, having a game where a horde of orcs could face off against a hive of aliens. Even though the plot wasn't what I expected, even the little hint of science fiction during the "Empire" section of the game did fill a little niche I was yearning for. Then came Crono Trigger that dealt with time travel, and you can't have time travel without science fiction, with the future dystopia other science fiction themes in the sub plot was soothing an itch for a hard SCI-fi RPG. Even though most of the game dealt with the magical civilization and how advanced it was because it used magic instead of our science was satisfying. Then as I grew out of the SNES and went on to the PC, it was a while before I got another RPG, Final Fantasy VII, when I started playing it I thought I found my dream, a crowded city surrounded by a polluted land, and owned by a mega-corporation was heaven in my eyes. Unfortunately about half way through disk one it went back to a magical quest, but it was still in a world where science was the norm and magic was uncommon, if only they had kept the whole game like the few hours. Personally I found that Rufus and the TURKS (what does that stand for anyway?) were more sinister than the main villain Sephiroth for one simple reason, they practically owned the world! You weren't up against a single all powerful guy, a secret sect, or a militaristic country, but the capitalistic force that united the world under the dollar (or in this case, gil) and doesn't have to worry about a constitution or public opinion, they owned all the media so they could make the people think what they wanted them to think. That in it's self is scary, but they had a world wide military they could sic on you at a moment's notice, almost a Big Brother type society. Now looking around the software store I finally see my dream come to fulfillment, embodied in a simple game called Fallout and Fallout 2, where you wander around a post nuclear apocalyptic America, can you hear me salivating? While I don't own any of the games I am determined to get at least one by this year's end and be SCI-Fi RPG nirvana.

Now I know that there are some I missed like Xenogears, Front Mission, and Robotrek but I haven't played them, but support the trend they are setting, more creative plots with new and original ways to play. I conclude this editorial with this, all you who love any kind of science fiction, cyber-punk, hard, or cheesy, let your voice be heard by the game companies on what games you would like in this wonderful capitalistic society by buying those games which appeal to your tastes. I urge you to forsake your magical claymore, disrobe from your worthless mithril mail, and abandon your magical fairy land of elves and demons, embrace the future, don't reminisce about the past. Instead load your uranium 238 spewing chain gun, suit up in a roboticly enhanced titanium alloy armor, and look upon a planet where the environment will kill you as soon as the roving mutants, where the orcs and trolls are replaced by the dredges of humanity and alien societies. The plots will deal with various touchy subjects we have to deal with today where we will decide what will be the limits of technology for years to come, if it seems disturbing, dark, and dreadful, good. No one said that the future would be perfect, but it will be our reality unless we can think of a better one, all by thinking about the issues in simple video games. Thank you, may your future be what you hoped for.