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Successful products in the video game market as of late have consisted largely of sequels. Half-Life 2, Halo 2, Doom III, Tekken 5, Resident Evil 4, Gran Turismo 4, Devil May Cry 3…the list goes on and on. The genre comprising role-playing games is not immune to this general trend. KOTOR II and Everquest II all serve as further proofs for the existence of this trend. While each of the aforementioned games does indeed build from and develop further the elements of their predecessors, most of those games are self-sufficient; players need not have played all of the game’s previous iterations to enjoy the game at hand. RPGs, however, have a curiously important characteristic that makes “self-sufficiency” much more difficult to obtain: the all-important story. The focus of RPGs, in contrast to other game genres, is largely on their characters and how their story is developed, and RPGs are less gameplay-centric when compared to other genres. That being said, multiple chapter RPGs may seem like good ideas on paper; they would span across several games, building upon the story of previous games much like sequels to action games build upon the gameplay that was developed earlier. However, it has come to my attention that this method of creating RPGs, which involves the telling of a single, gargantuan story over multiple games, is almost inevitably doomed to failure.
Before I accidentally invite a flame war to the message boards by those who think I imply that any sequel to any RPG is worthless, perhaps it would help if I clarified what I meant by a “multiple chapter RPG.” By multiple chapter RPG, I mean those series of games that tell a single story throughout a span of several actual games, games that have abrupt endings that only serve as “to be continued” signs for the following game, which will continue the story. These games often sport little to no changes in gameplay, graphics, etc. but only create sequels for the sole purpose of developing or concluding the story begun by earlier games. In this editorial, I shall consider three series of games that can be classified multiple chapter RPGs: Shenmue, .hack, and the more recent Xenosaga series. While each of these series can only be considered multiple chapter RPGs to a certain extent (Shenmue, for instance, currently resembles a multiple chapter RPG more than the Xenosaga series, as Xenosaga Episodes I and II differ from each other in gameplay, graphics, and other areas), each of these examples proves in their own way the unfeasibility of multiple chapter RPGs.
First, let’s consider the Shenmue series. While I really enjoyed these games, one cannot help but recognize some of the glaring difficulties that are inherent in both Shenmue and Shenmue II. By virtue of their being multiple chapter RPGs, the Shenmue games both seem annoyingly inconclusive; the player feels as if very little has been resolved by the ends of both games. This feeling is exacerbated when one realizes the improbability of a sequel to Shenmue II being released is small. The length and depth of the story of the Shenmue series, while awesome in theory, fails in practice; releasing multiple chapter RPGs simply isn’t cost effective for companies. The development of multiple chapter RPGs depends on the maintenance of a strong, large, and extremely enthusiastic following of gamers, and the sheer difficulty in acquiring this kind of audience is pretty clear. The Shenmue series, originally slated to contain sixteen chapters, has only covered four of those chapters with Shenmue I and Shenmue II. Thus, even if a sequel to Shenmue II is developed, Yu Suzuki and rest of the brains behind the Shenmue series still have several games to create to complete the story that was originally laid out (absent any changes to the original story, that is). Furthermore, recent rumors that Yu Suzuki probably won’t even produce Shemue III have begun to gain creedence. The chances of these games being made is quite small, and as a result, the Shenmue series thus proves why multiple chapter RPGs are doomed to failure.
The .hack series exemplifies a variant of this problem, but it perhaps succeeds where Shenmue (probably) will fail. .hack managed to have all four of its intended games released (most likely due to the bags of money that Bandai threw at the project). However, even with this success, the .hack series still represents a huge problem with the concept of the multiple chapter game, a problem that Shenmue has encountered: absent any substantial changes in gameplay between each game, relying on a niche audience to purchase each game in a long series simply isn’t cost-effective. There’s no telling how many gamers bought .hack Infection and .hack Mutation, became disinterested by the series, and then refused to buy the latter two games. Multiple chapter games, insofar as they rely on an audience that can only slowly deteriorate as the series spans out across several games, are doomed to failure. Moreover, it is highly improbable that .hack Outbreak garnered more new players, players who had never experienced Infection or Mutation, than they did lose players who became disinterested with the series. If little changes in gameplay or other areas from game to game in a multiple-chapter series of games (as is often the case), the only thing that keeps players interested is the story presented by the series. Sadly, stories are not enough to keep enough gamers interested for multiple-chapter series games to be financially profitable, and thus are not likely to be produced.
Now I’ll address what’s likely to be the most controversial instance of a multiple chapter game that I will argue is probably doomed to failure: Xenosaga. The Xenosaga games released so far have done much more successfully financially compared to my other examples, and they are widely popular games. However, a quick examination of the state of the series places it in the exact same predicament that the .hack and Shenmue series faced. The Xenosaga series was originally planned to consist of six games. The first game, which has become one of the top-selling RPGs for the Playstation 2, was widely successful, giving the series a chance at survival. However, reviews and sales for the second episode, Jenseits von Gut und Bose, have been a bit more modest and less impressive. To the game’s credit, it did not attempt to rehash the gameplay elements of its predecessor; Episode II sported a different graphical style, a new style of gameplay, new characters, and more. However, even with all of these advantages, Xenosaga seems to be going down the same road that the doomed .hack and Shenmue series traversed. Like Yu Suzuki’s rumored severance from the Shenmue series, two extremely instrumental creators of the Xenosaga series have quit their jobs. Already, the project seems to be beginning to enter a state of disarray. Combined with Episode II’s comparatively disappointing sales figures, it would seem as if disinterest in the Xenosaga series is already growing, which can only spell trouble for the series. If history means anything in helping us to predict the future, all signs are pointing towards Xenosaga’s failure.
I don’t think it’s impossible to make a successful multiple-chapter RPG, however, the sheer difficulty in crafting a story that will keep gamers entranced enough to shell out massive amounts of cash simply to see it concluded makes the task almost impossible. In order for the multiple-chapter RPG to be successful, some sort of substantial reform is going to have to be made in how it is presented to the everyday gamer.
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