Reader Question: The Roots Of JRPG Standards

This one was inspired by one of Brandmeister’s comments on my Suikoden III deconstruction. His question:

“I’ve always wondered how the JRPG ‘standard’ evolved. Was there one critical success, and then every other game was patterned after that? Did they start with D&D and its encounter tables?”

Great question! It’s easy to assume that there simply have always been JRPGs, in the same way there’s always been the wheel and there’s always been Keith Richards. Tabletop wargames begat tabletop role-playing games, which begat the computer and console RPGs. Dragon Quest (or Dragon Warrior for us unapologetic Americans) is the common ancestor from which the modern JRPG grew, and most of what we now take as red from the genre – level progression, turn-based battles, quests and side-quests, item management, even a ‘moral choice’ that changed the ending – was developed with this game. The outrageous success of Dragon Quest and its sequels led to the development of Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, and every other property in the genre. So in essence, the answer is “Yes”, both statements are accurate.

Each new property that came along claims some advancement or tweak to improve the player’s experience. Phantasy Star (not Final Fantasy, surprisingly enough) brought out individual spells that required magic points, as well as a focus on plot and character development (as well as character advancement). Legend of Zelda II was the first ‘true’ action RPG – the one God of War and Marvel Ultimate Alliance and the Diablo series are all based on – with a leveling system and real-time combat. Final Fantasy gave us character creation choices through their class (excuse me, “job”) system.

After this point, though, the vast majority of development stopped focusing on genre innovation, instead shifting towards creating storylines and characters and making slight tweaks to their UIs and customization systems. JRPGs splintered into brands and canon, using the same turn-based, random monster fighting, Dudes Save World setup. Except now the World had a steampunk aesthetic (Final Fantasy VI), or the Dudes use a time machine to Save World (Chrono Trigger). Refinements came in the various existing systems, like changing relationships altering the storyline (Fire Emblem), multiple different storyline perspectives (Romancing Saga 3), and scaling monsters with players (Lunar: The Silver Star, The 7^th Saga). At the end of the day, all JRPGs are still playing through bigger versions of Dudes Save World, however well-portrayed the Dudes are, or how detailed the World is, or how pretty the special attacks are the Dudes use to Save World.

There’s something to be said for picking a standard and refining it to its logical level of perfection. Iteration is as important as innovation, since no one gets it perfect on the first try. However, simply putting a new skin on an old framework won’t work forever. Eventually, the basics of the genre will get stripped down for parts and reconstructed into something truly new.

Related to Brandmeister’s second comment:

“…[random encounters] kind of presume your bad guys are awfully dumb. Why fight a band of heroes in small, sequential groups?”

Depending on the specific themes and aesthetics of the world, I tend to think of random encounters as mindless creatures of one stripe or another, especially when you’re wandering between towns. In other words, if it’s not in a town, it’s a beast, and you’re invading its habitat. So, yes, the majority of your bad guys do tend to be awfully dumb, as in animal-level dumb – even things like goblins, which are ostensibly humanoid, have bestial intelligence. This breaks down when the random encounters are with things that should have higher intelligence, but if they’re attacking you, odds are the game presents you as either Totally Justified in killing things (they’re enemy soldiers, they’re ordered to kill you, etc.), or as simply wandering into dangerous territory. All of the characterization is reserved for the main characters, after all, so you are somewhat forced into filling in the logical gaps.

Thanks for the comments, and for giving me post fodder!