Blurring the Edges?

by Evan Mandel

One of my friends refuses to play any Final Fantasy game past FF1. He gives "It's not an RPG!" as his reason. After thinking about it for a while, I started thinking that he might have a point.

Now, before you all get the pitchforks and torches, I'd like to say that I do consider the FF games RPGs, always have, always will. My friend, though, does not, because they don't allow you to play the main character's (or the party's) role as you see fit. In this he may have a valid idea. It may be that we need to blur the edges of the RPG universe.

Let's compare two games that differ in one particular respect: Fallout, a PC game, and FF8, a PSX game. Fallout lets you do pretty much whatever you want: your character can be a saint, bringing peace (well, at least after the initial hail of turbo plasma) and justice to the ruined world, or he can be a vicious madman, killing everyone who crosses him or who has something he wants. In both cases, you can still save the world: not doing so would result in your death, which your character obviously doesn't want. Furthermore, there is nothing to say that you must go everywhere: as long as you get a water chip, blow up the Military Base, and kill the Master, you win. Basically, regardless of whether you took the high road, the low road, or somewhere in between, or if you were thorough or brief, you can still finish the game. You have, with the exception of a couple of things, complete freedom over your actions.

FF8, on the other hand, plays more like a movie. Things happen, and you react to them. True, periodically you get the option of having Squall act like an insensitive bastard or a decent person, but largely, everything that goes on is scripted. Squall cannot decide to join with Edea because she pays better or something. There is no option to ignore Balamb on Disc 2 simply because you don't like the town and want everyone in it to die; you must head there and save it if you want to progress. FF8 is a series of set events that you must play through to get to the end.

The truth is, neither of these is bad. Sometimes you do want to hear a wonderfully scripted love story or tale of survival with real, "three-dimensional" characters. Other times you want to do what you want and still be able to get somewhere. The problem is, the two types of RPGs seem to be afraid to cross platforms (barring ports).

Simply put, I can't think of any games from the last five years that let the player roam and do and act (or not do and act) as they want to, with the possible exception of the Ogre Battle series (and I haven't played Tactics Ogre, so I'm not sure about that one), at least not released for console systems. PCs have seen zillions of these games released in the same period. Conversely, there seem to be many more "plot-oriented" RPGs for consoles than computer, though that number seems to be steadily increasing (keep an eye out for SepterraCore, it'll be neat...). Why don't we see more even numbers? I can't see how it could be the ancient computer vs. console "sophistication" issue: ages for console owners are increasing, if I remember correctly, and if adult computer owners can enjoy movies, they shouldn't have too many problems with our more linear games. Nor do I really see how it could be the hardware: with the widespread acceptance of discs (sorry, N64 fans), and increasing system power, we should easily be able to handle the system requirements needed to handle all the decision-making needed for the more "free-willed" games, and we're all pretty sure the computers can handle our games, as otherwise we wouldn't have bleem! The time issue might be more of a problem, but I think Fallout and FF8 took about the same amount of time to make (two years? Correct me if I'm wrong.). Still, I'm sure many would be willing to wait a little while longer for a quality game with loads of replay value.

Whatever the cause, RPG segregation is not beneficial. A lack of variety will just lead to stagnation; consoles will see bigger and better theatrics, and PCs will see more and more paths. Letting the two systems see the other's games might lead to a sum greater than that of its parts. Remember FF8? Wouldn't it be neat to choose sides, instead of being forced to the side of good? That's the kind of possibility I see. Remember that the younger gamers of today may wind up as the future game makers of tomorrow. Exposing them to both types of game may encourage such a mixture. At worst, we'll have diversity, and there's nothing wrong with that. Who knows? Maybe that will get my friend to crack open the newer FF games.