RPG Evolution: Right vs. Left Brain

by Michael Greenhut 

Having been a hard core RPGamer for the past nine years, I've made up the following steps I notice in the basic "Evolution" of mainstream RPGs, along with their benefits and drawbacks. If you read any of it, I ask you to read at least the last category.

1) The most obvious, graphics. From the cutesy, pudgy 8-bit sprites of FF1 with no obvious personalities to the "dazzling" Polygons of FF7. Game universes have transformed from a flat, sub-cartoonish worlds to a disturbing realistic virtual 3-D experience. Or have they? Is "realism" the word we're searching for, or "elegance"? Many people claim Wild Arms has fabulous, wonderful graphics, yet all I see are stiff, featureless plush toys...okay, very ELEGANT and sharp-looking plush toys, but still no more realistic than walking 3-inch stuffed dolls. The same goes for FF7; in most of the FMVs, Cloud and company looked merely like a group of very smoothly animated hand puppets without features, nothing more. My question is, how is this better than flat cartoonish sprites? Sure, the old graphics may seem to make less of an impact on the left brain, but at the same time they left plenty of room for imagination on the right. As far as I see it, it's just another tradeoff. Those who like everything to be well defined will whine if the graphics aren't up to par, and those who don't mind bad graphics and like to fill in details with their mind won't care as much.

2) Party sizes. They started out differently, with either the basic four to six(FF1, Wizardry) or the lone adventurer(Dragon Warrior, Crystalis, etc). For a time, this either remained the same or increased(5 party members in FF4), then began steadily decreasing, from 4 party members in FF5-6, to 3 in Crono Trigger, FF7 and Wild Arms. Sure, there's still the occasional exception like Suikoden and FFT, but by their very nature those were seemingly deliberate(temporary?)returns to tradition.

3) Magic. Magic began simple, you'd buy it from shops and be granted a fixed number of uses between resting, which would increase in a linear fashion as levels raised. There were two basic categories, White and Black. Only special characters could use magic. Then came the more realistic system of MP, and the appearance of Blue, Time/Space, monster summoning and other types of magic. Then all of these concepts were mixed up, shaken, stirred and condensed into little crystal balls called Materia that any average Joe character could use and learn from. "Magic", it seems, has become a common drug anyone can build in their system with enough time. Useful, yes. Convenient, Sure. Is something lost by this? Are games where any character can cast the most powerful spell in the game too easy?

4) Linearity/Depth. Not in terms of story, in terms of game play and possible paths. This seems to have remained more or less constant for the past ten years, with a few exceptions like CronoTrigger(successful, with deep and interesting subplots open to exploration) and Saga Frontier(unsuccessful, except as a frisbee; like all the worst elements of the worst Hannah Barbera cartoons condensed and made into a mockery of an RPG). Linearity and solid, defined outcome seems to be the chosen approach for now. However, the increasing depth(?) of story and intense graphics and sound make most players forget this.

5) Story/plot. This evolved from seemingly none or little(DW1, FF1) to the movie-like qualities of FF7, Xenogears and FF8. Note my use of the word SEEMINGLY. FF1, if you look closely, had a very complex plot; a once noble knight corrupting the four elemental orbs and kidnapping a princess, enchanted objects buried in strange places, an advanced civilization who build airships and floating castles, robots, elves, dwarves, mermaids, and a bizarre time loops. This, to me, is far more appealing than stopping a meteor from obliterating a disgustingly modern, nearly dead world which the purpose of true fantasy is to escape(but I won't fall back into this argument now). Ah, but what's left purely up to the right brain of creativity in FF1 that the left brain of logic handles in FF7? Personal story, details, people's actual lives, and my last and most important category...

6) *Character development and personalities. In games like FF1, Wizardry and Dragon Warrior it was up to the player to create their character and/or mentally fill in his/her personality from scratch. Fooling around with character creation and mentally sketching your own personality and background comprised a great deal of the fun, although it hampered the actual story of the game, of which character development is often the backbone. Later games, beginning(when I first noticed) with FF2j/FF4 and FFL3 for the gameboy, completely scrapped the idea of the player designing his or her own characters, presented pre-defined characters with existing and self-developing personalities and took them through planned albeit beautifully done scripts. Enjoyment of interactive cartoon/movies replaced the joy of creation and personalization of the early style RPGs. Many see this as a good thing, and FF1 is all but forgotten, if ever known at all by today's gamers. Yet, there are some of us who want both elements. Character creation is sorely missed by old-time RPG buffs, and might serve to turn the current interactive eye candy movies back into actual full fledged games. But then most of the story would have to go, wouldn't it? This, I am certainly not suggesting. Don't get me wrong, despite the modern feel of FF7 I still enjoyed the story for what it was as much as any of you, if not more so. However, I NEED YOUR HELP. What are your suggestions for combining character creation and character development? Is it even possible? Was FFT an example of this? I have my own ideas, but I'd like to hear input from others as well, it will help me with my next issue: Is a Utopian Character RPG Possible?