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It's not that I'm knocking the old standards, but it's becoming a situation of déjà vu as the same old fantasy settings are being rehashed and tweaked over and over again in RPGs. Don't get me wrong, if enough love and care and details are put into the setting, then I will sit up and take notice, even if it's the type that been beaten several thousand times with a stick. For example, Eternal Sonata's world was a spectacle to behold; you could tell that everything down to the last cobblestone in the digitized streets was meticulously labored over. But otherwise, I get the sense that it's just been done to death already. As such, I have a real appreciation for the games that take the setting into the more familiar realm of the real world.
I think that my preference towards stories placed in our world may be partially to the smaller amount of knowledge I'm required to ingest. I enjoy fantasy, but at the same time find it to be something of an endurance trial since there's always so many details that need to be understood (pertaining to characters and plot). You have to learn about original locations, created creatures and races, the natural and societal laws governing the particular world, and so on. If the game takes place in the real world, I have an easier time focusing on the story without having to back track in my mind to remember why that particular character hates that particular race, or what the societal taboo in this village was that prevents that character from venturing outside it's boundaries, blah, blah, blah.
Of course, the number of RPGs that take place in reality rather than fantasy is relatively small. The Shin Megami Tensei series often uses modern Japan for its setting. Nocturne began in the normal world before reverting to a post apocalyptic version of it. The Persona games are placed in Japanese high schools, and Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army was set in the Taisho era of Japanese history. The Shadow Hearts series ranged its setting all over the place, first throughout Europe in the first two games, and then in the Americas in the third game. Also worth mentioning is Jeanne d'Arc, which of course took artistic license with the story of Joan of Arc and was centered in France.
I feel like I'm being a hater on fantasy lately, but it's more that I just feel like I've been saturated by it in RPGs as of late. The real world can be just as interesting and involving as fantasy ones. I think that it could be great to see more games that take our average world and twist it into something extraordinary. Maybe see how developers can envision the world a little differently?
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