RESPONSE TO: The Sins of Cross-Pollination
I find myself in perfect agreement with the editorialist Carmine Red. Not with the literal content of the editorial, mind you. Rather, I found myself nodding my head and grinning at the sheer genius in his (her?) sarcasm. One of the more annoying aspects of the RPG fan base is the snobbish puritanism of the lot of them. This isn't to say that all RPG fans have their noses stuck high in the air, but a good many of you do. It seems that every time some game attempts to put up a little spice in the RPG genre, both the game and it's developers end up taking unbelievable amounts of flak from the supposed die-hard RPG fans who see the attempt at innovation as an affront to everything that the RPG genre stands for.
Take for example, Legend of Dragoon, Sony's answer to the Final Fantasy series. The game certainly had its issues, most notably its poor translation. However, the one part of the game that was most reviled was its combo system. Anyone who's played the game probably knows what I'm talking about – Pressing X at the right moment to get another hit in, until the combo is completed. It shocked me that so many people hated this tweak to the tried and tired menu system to the point of writing huge rants about it in fan forums, whining about how absolutely horrible it was.
Now, I understand that not everyone is going to like everything. It seemed, however, that the main crime that Legend of Dragoon had committed in the eyes of RPG players was that it dared to deviate from the standard turn-based, menu-driven RPG. Not how well or how poorly the new game play angle was implemented, or how it affected the game, but rather that it had been implemented at all. Any other genre's fans would have been elated to see the attempt at something new. I don't remember anyone whining about how Halo was corrupting the purity that is the FPS genre. Only in the RPG genre are there fans who not only want things to stay exactly the same, but fight change with every fiber of their being. Perhaps this is why the RPG genre has seen dreadfully few exceptions to the Final Fantasy template.
Which leads me to my latest point. I've been playing RPGs ever since a friend in the neighborhood handed me Dragon Warrior for the NES for free at a very young age. I've seen pretty much everything since. The menu systems bore me to tears nowadays, simply because I've played so many games like that in the decade since I got my hands on Dragon Warrior. I mean it. I cried my heart out when I tried to play Dragon Warrior VII, because absolutely nothing had changed from the Dragon Warrior games of old. It's hard, looking at every other genre move on and innovate while RPGs cling tightly to the conventions established by the NES era. It's to the point where I'd prefer to play an action or adventure game over another RPG.
With this in mind, what is the answer? Perhaps the fighting game hybrid Red uses as an example? Sports RPGs aren't exactly a bad idea either. Lord knows I'd love to take on the role of one H. Wayne Huizenga and try to make the Dolphins a contender for the Super Bowl again in a game reminiscent of Segagaga! The possibilities are endless, to be sure. However, they will never be given the chance to shine if companies are punished for going away from the percieved “true” path.
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