BioWare: JRPGs suffer from 'lack of evolution'

[vlad321]

r505Matt said:

vlad321 said:

--OkeyDokey-- said:
Wow, this coming from Bioware who've been using the exact same template across mutliple IP's since KOTOR.

Jade Empire = KOTOR - Star Wars + Asia
Mass Effect = KOTOR - Star Wars
Dragon Age = KOTOR - Star Wars + Baldur's Gate

JRPGs have evolved plenty. Persona 3 and 4, The World Ends With You, Final Fantasy XII, Valkyria Chronicles and as he mentioned, Demon's Souls are all very innovative recent JRPGs.

Dragon Quest and Pokemon are guilty of staying the same, but they're more popular than ever so I don't see how they can be blamed for the decline.

I think you have all your math mixed up....

 

KOTOR = NWN - Depth + Starwars

 

Your revised math:

JE = NWN + Asia - dpeth

ME = NWN - depth

DA = NWN - depth = Baldur's gate.

Well, depends on what kind of depth you're talking about. JRPGs have deep, but predictable and rehashed stories. Bioware games have depth in choice that let you actually control the outcome (which is part of what a real RPG is to me). For a long time, with FF and CT and SMRpg and other great, fun RPGs, I didn't consider them real RPGs since you don't role-play anything, you just follow the path. Some games these days offer real choices, and that's the beginning of true RPGs coming to video games. It surely isn't an easy thing to do.

The easy thing to do is to make a story and force players on a path to follow that story. That doesn't take much ingenuity. All you need is a good story to grip the players, but the way of presenting that story is cake. It's like you only have to do half the work with that formula.

That said, there are good JRPGs and good WRPG; and, there are bad JRPGs and bad WRPGs. To me, it's more about quality of the product than it being about whether one is innovative or not. Innovation isn't everything, I just want to have fun.

The problem is that you can choose the absolute best JRPG story, and ti will fall short of ANY mediocre book, never mind the great ones. Games have never been about linear stories since they are ALWAYS shitty compared to stories on other media. Gameplay and a changing storyline or extremely deep immersion are the aces of video games as a medium, both things which JRPGs lack heavily.