I recall being surprised back when i did a post analyzing my game collection when it hit 100 games a few years ago to find out that RPG was the second-biggest genre in my collection, but composed entirely of RPGs of Japanese origin (Phantasy Star Online, Pokemon, Xenoblade, The Last Story, a Final Fantasy or two). Until this year, only one Western-developed RPG in my entire repertoire: Sonic Chronicles, developed by BioWare.
Now, the broken promises of Sonic Chronicles are readily apparent, first in their horrible efforts to remake classic Sonic music, and second for the fact that half the story had jack-all to do with Sonic (the part where they left for outer space. It seemed like the C-team placed on Sonic Chronicles was jealous that they couldn't do Mass Effect, so they decided to do Mass Effect anyway, making it seem very nonsensical).
(who is the guy in the bottom pic and what is he doing in my Sonic game?)
So it was at some point in the past that, in a VGChartz thread about BioWare, i ended up dissing them for Sonic Chronicles, drawing the attention of one Khuutra, who, years later, resolved to make me get a Steam account and foist a gift copy of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on me, to see something of why BioWare is as respected as they are.
Pictured: Khuutra. Horns may not be to scale.
This leads into my story, which relates to how out-of-sorts i felt in the environment of a WRPG
1) Different terminology. I had no idea what the hell "fortitude" or "will" meant, and so a lot of the perks of different moves, armors, and sundry enhancements had no bearing on me, leading to me often bearing poorly-optimized equipment
DC 10? WTF is that?!?
2) Much higher expectations on me to take more initiative
It has long been said that the appeal of KOTOR was in its strong characterizations, similar to the strength of later BioWare work Mass Effect, and the best way to enjoy the game was by talking to other characters, similar to Fire Emblem's "support" system, or Xenoblade's "Heart to Hearts," both of which i often went well out of my way to pursue. In KOTOR, you figure it would be even easier. The characters are there, right? Just talk to them. Well, the question is "when can i talk to them?" Here, in an effort to make myself look less stupid, i would blame KOTOR for not telling me when new conversations were availbale, and further condemn BioWare for deceiving me about it by deliberately prompting me to talk to characters the first time a conversation was available. But that's not really an excuse, is it?
I never even knew they were in love...
3) I thought the game was smart enough to take care of my character for me.
This one came around when i started to have wicked severe difficulties on Korriban, trying to kill stuff. I sat down with Khuutra and discussed my progress, to which he naturally asked what build i had been going with for my character. When i described that i had been going "Recommended" every single time i leveled up, letting the game pick what (I assumed) was the best move for my character to get in my situation, he exploded.
disclaimer: Khuutra may not actually be Twilight Sparkle
Claiming that the game was giving me very poor choices for my chosen class the whole time, so i had to mod my save file to salvage the poor-decision making that the game I made. Again, not really something i had to deal with before in an RPG, where the games usually give you moves appropriate to your class on demand.
4) Mechanics? What Mechanics? (also glitches)
I found that the gameplay of KOTOR was sub-par, even as the game itself was enjoyable due to strong characterization (which would have been stronger had i known what the hell i was doing) and solid world-building, with combat being very clunky, such as targeting being very wonky when faced with large numbers of enemies, or the game having poor direction for automatic movement. Or the ill-advised decision of having your entire combat queue get cleared if you so much as move.
Or, hell, just look here for more. Problem after problem. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/archive/index.php/f-707-p-2.html
Some recommended reading for the team that made KOTOR
In all, the experience has finally shown me what they mean when they talk about how different the WRPG and JRPG genres are. WRPGs expect the user to take a much bigger hand in how they approach the game, moreso than even some more customization-heavy series (Monster Hunter and Pokemon were some of my favorites, for instance). The mechanics of D&D-styled RPG gameplay are also heavily different than the JRPG standard, and the game really doesn't seem to sweat the small stuff when it comes to making sure combat is a smooth or seamless experience.
So now i know. And knowing is... something...
Monster Hunter: pissing me off since 2010.
