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Imagine with me for a second...
Imagine an RPG as it stands today. Imagine the sprawling, gorgeous cut scenes of a game like Xenosaga. Imagine the realistic-looking characters of Final Fantasy XII. Imagine the linear nature of Dragon Quest VIII. Imagine NPCs who tell you that, "We can't open this door yet, we need to find a lever." Imagine the static, unchanging world of Baten Kaitos. Imagine tapping the circle button mindlessly while grinding enemies in Final Fantasy VII. Imagine an RPG as it stands today.
Now...
Indulge me by imagining a world where every action your characters take has an effect. Imagine NPCs having lives, wants, needs, likes, dislikes, and communities. Imagine those communities changing, growing, living, thriving, or dying, becoming extinct. Imagine a game that is open to exploration from the very beginning, if you have the guts. Imagine leveling your characters by artfully using your innate cunning to eke out a desperate victory against a foe many times more powerful than yourself.
Now...imagine that this potential blockbuster RPG looked like Final Fantasy VI...
Did I catch you doing a double take?
This is a wakeup call to us, the RPG-loving community. The natural progression of our beloved genre has been toward more realistic, more cinematic and less risky games. With the skyrocketing cost of producing games for most of the next-gen platforms, companies are becoming more risk averse; less willing to take a chance on a game that has not been made before and has not been proven to be a good seller. But is this what we really want?
Can you remember the joy you had when you discovered a new ending in Chrono Trigger? Can you remember the tension in Dragon Quest when you were struggling to make it through a cave full of enemies, knowing that if you can just find the next set of stairs, they would take you out of the cave where a town would await you...they would take you to salvation, just in the nick of time? Can you remember the last time an end boss was difficult and you had to think in order to defeat it, and you jumped up from your couch in triumph when it lay dead at your party's feet?
It's time to bring those feelings back. It's time to go the way of Nintendo, exchanging the graphical arms race of Final Fantasy XII or White Knight Story for a new idea, a new way to progress forward. While immersion can be garnered through realistic looking worlds and characters, these worlds are filled with nothing but paper dolls that look good. Immersion can also be found in a world that is real and alive. Why not use the resources spent on creating a pixel-perfect femme fatale like Lightning and use them to produce code that will give pixilated NPCs life? Give them the ability to follow their own whims. Let them build their own towns and shops. Let them aspire to save the world, or let them aspire to destroy it. Let foes on the battlefield use the skills given to them to the best of their abilities. Let them be cognizant of you characters and their skills and let them adjust their strategies accordingly. Let your characters grow in skill and gain far more experience by defeating a single, difficult foe than by killing an infinite drove of blue slimes.
If they were mutually exclusive, would you accept content over graphics? Would you accept a world from the 16-bit era if it were alive? Could you again feel the pain of Aeris's death, if she looked like Terra?
Imagine the possibilities...
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