It’s east versus west again in the showdown between western developed rpgs and their Japanese counterparts. Recently, Bioware co-founder Greg Zeschuk shared his views on why he believes jrps have become stagnant and have lost their appeal. Now Bethesda has tossed their 2 cents into the debate.
Todd Howard’s, executive producer at Bethesda, interview with Inside Games, a Japanese gaming web site:
In terms of the RPG genre, you guys do a fantastic job and a lot of the western developers are leading that charge now; maybe Japan is a little weaker in that area.
Final Fantasy XIII is selling pretty well, but it seems whether it’s you or BioWare, or Peter Molyneux with the Fable series, there’s just a really strong western RPG presence.
Do have any thoughts on the state of the Japanese RPGs? Do you play them personally?
I don’t. I look at them. Artistically, I think they’re really, really good.
I’ve never been one to draw lines, though I think it’s easier in this case to say, “these are the western and these are the eastern ones.” I think, by and large, if you look at Japanese games, overall their mindset is way more fantastical, even if it’s not an RPG.
Personally for me, sometimes I like that and sometimes I have a hard time wrapping my hands around it. A western game… again I’m generalizing, they’re more realistic.
Even if it’s post-apocalyptic America Fallout, there’s this filter on it: well, this could really be happening. It’s got this somewhat of a suspension of disbelief, even when we do fantasy stuff.
If you compare the sci-fi in Mass Effect to the science fiction in a million Japanese games, it just gets really, really out there. I think the two sensibilities break down more like that.
..Because flaming dogs falling from the sky ( a quest found in Fallout 2) and giant ants that breathe fire by expelling flammable venom from their venom sacks, then igniting it with a spark made by clicking their mandibles( also in Fallout 2) is ultra-realistic, isn’t it?
No one game is realistic. That’s why they’re called games. Oh and did I mention that during the same interview, Mr. Howard called Rockstar’s Western Sandbox game, Red Dead Redemption “a great RPG”.
