Protesting Japanese Role-Playing Games

Japanese role-playing games are different from Western ones. And by "different" some would say, "not as good".

During the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese role-playing games flourished, but some now say that the current JRPGs seem trapped in time. Fans of the games believe that if something is not broken, then why fix.

You are looking at the Japanese ad for American role-playing game Fallout: New Vegas. A group of young Japanese hold protest signs that read:

• "I think it would be good if the hero had missions that weren't only about destroying evil."
• "The player is weak, the enemy is weak. That's way too convenient."
• "When did games become something you watch?"
• "Because the story doesn't change, what's the point of playing it again?"
• "Games nowadays are focusing way too much on photorealism."
• "What's a game that's moving in accordance to the scenario? It's the same as living on rails."
• "Levelling up is time for motivation down!"
• "The stage has been set. After that, you're free to do whatever!"

This ad is arresting, eye-catching. It is, without being too blunt, a publicity stunt.

That doesn't mean the messages on these signs hold any less true.

Source: http://kotaku.com/5604049/protesting-japanese-role+playing-games

Then in the comments section I found this:

I'll give my thoughts on which I believe are correct and wrong for each "Statements"

The Statements Attacking JRPGs:

I agree with the following:
• "I think it would be good if the hero had missions that weren't only about destroying evil."
• "Levelling up is time for motivation down!"

Comment: Yeah sometimes I wish that the whole motive of the hero is not about saving the world. Leveling up becomes annoying when it turns into a grindfest.

I disagree with the following:
• "The player is weak, the enemy is weak. That's way too convenient."
• "When did games become something you watch?"
• "Because the story doesn't change, what's the point of playing it again?"
• "Games nowadays are focusing way too much on photorealism."
• "What's a game that's moving in accordance to the scenario? It's the same as living on rails."
• "The stage has been set. After that, you're free to do whatever!"

Comments: I really don't care about the first point and I don't care whether the game has long ass cutscenes or mini cutscenes every now and then. And how is linerity a problem? I don't expect every RPG to be about free roaming and open world and they don't have to be like that.

The Statements Attacking WRPGs:

I agree with the following:
• "Walking around an empty atmosphere isn't gameplay"
• "Why are your characters ugly, disproportinate and poorly designed"
• "Go fetch this... Go talk to... Go kill..."
• "Your character animations are terrible"

Comments: The first dot point is exactly why I hate Borderlands and why I don't like Fallout 3 or any post apocalptic atmopsheric games. I hate walking around empty deserted areas with no in game music on. Second dot point is only to a slight degree. With BioWare games, you can actually make pretty and hot looking characters ie Mass Effect and Dragon Age but with Bethesda's Games... omg how ulgy can the characters get?!!! Last point I think the character animations are lacking or half assed in some RPGs.

I disagree with the following:

• "Go fetch this... Go talk to... Go kill..."
• "No More Green, Murky, Dark Pallets please"
• "You game ending sucks"
• "Combat should be exciting and rewarding"

Comments: You could easy say the same with JRPGs then. Go to town, found out what troubles there are, enter battles, cutscene, repeat. What's wrong with Kill him, Talk to that guy and see what he thinks, go get this for me so that I can make you a weapon. I have no problems with 'dark' worlds but not post apocalytipc settings. From the WRPGs I've played, most endings aren't bad. The last point should be directed that JRPGs more than WRPGs. That's simply because I love and prefer real time action gameplay over turn based. There's really not much excited with Turn Based when compared to Action RPGs. That's far more rewarding for me.

Funny thing is, so many of those comments could be applied to both WRPGs and JRPGs. I still love both.

Same. Love playing both types and really I wonder if it was the right thing for Bethesda to release such ad in JP...

Depends if the Japanese RPG market really do want something a bit different. I think Oblvion did quite well for a WRPG in Japan, so maybe they really are on to something. If we'd only played WRPGs for the last 20 yrs then we'd probably think JRPGs were amazingly fresh new ideas.

Then again, it might just be all the pervs messing around with the body physics :P

True with what you've said but at the same time, I don't want JRPGs to become WRPG by coping WRPG traits like "Making Moral Choices, Alternate Endings, etc". Somehow JRPGs need to make some changes without becoming a WRPG itself. And lol at the pervs messing arounf with body physics comment :D

I agree and I don't think that'll happen no matter how popular WRPGs become in Japan. The problem I feel JRPGs have at the moment is that they implement changes, but I find myself wishing they'd gone down a more traditional route. Yet when its too traditional, I find myself getting bored before the end. Devs need to innovate without losing that essence that makes JRPGs great.

That's a great ad. 

I used to love JRPGs but now they bore me to death.  WRPGs however draw me in and suck at least 100 hours of my life per game.  I have to give the win to WRPGs.  Do anything you want seems to be a bit more exciting than do this exact thing and then watch a 40 minute cut scene with bad acting.

Also there seems to be a great deal more customization with WRPGs and more of a focus on your single character growth instead of an entire team.  I appreciate that more.  They can say combat is boring and "click fest" but I don't see how that is the case when you could have 100 different characters that all approach the same battle completely different.

But Japanese players seem to detest Western games so I wouldn't expect too much in the way of extra sales to come of this.

I agree with most of those on the ad.

But those posted by some random guy. Argh. I like that "murky palette" and western characters are less annoying than the jrpg characters.

Game endings suck? Haha.

Oh man...