| Mummelmann said: I can relate to what you're saying here. WRPG's vs JRPG's is often non-linear vs linear progression, be it in the story, leveling up the character or exploration. The trouble can arise when non-linear games (Oblivion, Fallout 3) are an open expanse of sameness, a world filled with bland, repeated scenery and content as opposed to the more heavily scripted and directional linearity of many JRPG's. Then there are those who fall inbetween, these are the worst imo, Mass Effect series is a great example of this, it lends the illusion of great freedom while relying on fairly linear progression and in actuality limiting your freedom a great deal. It seems like a lot of folks have faulty logic when it comes to the term "freedom", many seem to see it as "great distance traveled" or even "two or three different choices". This is not freedom, not complete freedom. Bethesda seems to have learned a great deal from Oblivion and Fallout 3 and have since become a lot more focused on creating a more varied environment and game world, Skyrim is a very good example of this, Fallout New Vegas a lesser one. However, the core mechanics of the game are still strikingly similar to that of Oblivion, combat is pretty much the same, quest structure is somewhat changed but still very familiar (keeping track of the them is a lot easier now, though) so you might be taken aback by all this. Furthermore, if you enjoy deep RPG elements, this might not be for you, they have taken a lot away from previous installments in the series, there are roughly half as many skills and no stats, regenerating health etc, the markings of a somewhat action oriented title. Then again, if you enjoy FFXIII, that kind of speaks against that point to begin with... As far as story goes; this might not impress you at all. I find myself not getting immersed into the lore and world at large, I skip dialogue to get quests underway and generally care little for the populace, other than getting angry when the dragons kill the vendors I need to pawn my stuff on... If you want a tip from me, have you tried the Gothic series? It might be a good series to get you into free-roaming WRPG's. Gothic (with the exception of the action-fest that is Arcania) and Risen games are superior to The Elder Scrolls is nearly every way in my opinion, its just so rich and fresh and extremely varied, the locations in Gothic 3 were absolutely mindblowing when the game launched. It was riddled with bugs, however, but that is no longer an issue. Risen 2 is right around the corner, how about you have a gander at that? |
The Elder Scrolls games never had very good stories, with the exception (imo) of Daggerfall and the focus lies rather heavily on exploratory gameplay.
This analysis seems to be spot on. Since I do not have a gaming PC those games do not seem to be an option for me.
As for FF XIII, I really like how every installment follows a different approach. The battle system is something different and I liked the paradigm system somehow. But where Final Fantasy XIII really shines is the deep story and the characters. I like how they went from the simple 1 main hero vs 1 main villain... (à la Cloud vs. Sephiroth) into deeper structures. in FF XII or FF XIII the characters felt somehow equal and you could run around as each character. So you can enjoy the whole story through the eyes of 6 characters instead of 1 or 2.
I liked the idea that the people of cocoon see you as enemy and it felt natural that I couldn't go shopping in the cities whenever I want. It may seem as linearity, but it was a clear sign of how important the main story was to the developers. It wouldn't fit otherwise. One moment you go shopping without any problems and in the next cutscene the same people are trying to kill you or are running away in fear...
That was something that I totally missed in Oblivion. You have to save the world and are trying to close these gates to save the world... and the world doesn't seem to matter. This impactless main story somehow ruined the whole experience for me... The world is on the brink of destruction.... but first I want to become the guildmaster of each guild and try to solve little problems for the ordinary citizen. It would have been more believable when you first had to finish the main story and then could continue with the rest of the sidequests/guildquests in free roam mode.
Final Fantasy VII had a similar moment. On the last CD, you could go straight to the last battle... or you could find the most powerful materia, weapons and limit breaks and pass your time in gold saucer. But you could always see the imminent impact of the meteor and get a feeling that you should hurry up because you are running out of time. That was a clever decision to fit the side quests in a context to the main story.
Due to the linear nature of FF7 the developers could be sure that you have reached a certain point in the game and so they could connect the sidequest with the main quest. The non-linear structure however... since the developers can't be sure that you have seen certain story elements before you take on a sidequests they can't connect the sidequests with story progress. And thats why the sidequests seemed so meaningless to me. They do not feed into a wider context of the game. So in this area linear story-telling is somehow necessary for deeper storytelling. In Oblivion, you had to "make your own story" to get something out of the game.
Thats maybe the whole problem when you are going from Final Fantasy to Oblivion. You are missing the immense strength of Square in story telling and character development. And when you are going from Oblivion to Final Fantasy, you miss all this "freedom of doing what you want when you want how you want". Final Fantasy tells a story and you should think about what the characters think and feel... they are all independant and are acting with their given personality. It is a role play approach like a theatre play (not the movie theatre) where you watch the play and should connect with each role to understand various sides of the conflict that deals with deep philosophical problems... In Oblivion you personally take over a role and play like you want.
So in a typical JRPG you should not try to put your own opinion into the game. You should instead try to get a bigger perspective of the whole conflict and learn through the different characters. Take Final Fantasy IX. You would never feel sorry about the black magician if you would not see the story through the eyes of Vivi. I was amazed how Vivi could look terribly sad when he saw the black magicians dying although you really can't see his mimics... only that black face with the glowing yellow eyes. That was the magic of being able to connect to his feelings.
The typical dialogue scenes in the WRPGS I have seen so far showed the portrait of a relatively emotionless character, that seems to always make the same moves in an endless loop. Especially the facial expressions always seem terrible. The whole story felt so static. And you have never enjoyed the godawful german translations... the voices and the intensity of the voices almost never seem to be appropriate... Sometimes I got the feeling that the voice actors did not even play the game.
