Cultural differences in role-playing video games

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Due to cultural differences between game developers, historically different inspirations and origins, distinct target audiences, and hardware with dissimilar capabilities, two main trends or "families" of role-playing video games (RPGs) exist: the Western RPG (also known as the Computer RPG) and East Asian RPG (also known as the Console RPG). Each follows a certain pattern in terms of art style, storyline, and game mechanics. Both are discussed below.

Contents

[edit] Western

Fallout, one of the most highly acclaimed Western RPGs
Fallout, one of the most highly acclaimed Western RPGs

[edit] Story Elements

The Western (American/European) family of digital RPGs frequently employ dark and serious fantasy settings. The personalities of the characters are usually more subdued than those of their Japanese counterparts, with fewer cackling villains and comic relief characters. Stories often deal with ancient struggles for power that rarely end with a total victory for any given faction. The races featured in most of western-style fantasy computer RPGs are based on the many characters that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote about, such as dwarves, orcs, and elves.

[edit] Game Mechanics

Western RPGs are often based directly on the rules and settings of pen and paper game systems (Dungeons and Dragons being the most common), often showing die rolls and other game mechanics normally hidden from players' eyes. Level advancement systems in Western RPGs also tend to feature lower level limits and slower progression rates than in Eastern RPGs. Many western games also incorporate skill-based character progression on top of a level-based system. Within a skill-based progression system, players invest experience or some other progression points into specific skills and abilities in order to specialize their characters for a particular style of play.

[edit] Notable examples of Western RPGs

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[edit] East Asian

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete screenshot, a typical Japanese RPG
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete screenshot, a typical Japanese RPG

East Asian RPGs, typically called Eastern RPGs (or Japanese RPGs, after their place of origin) have been traditionally made for video game consoles, creating a distinct "Western" and "Eastern" (or "Japanese") divide in game style.

[edit] Story Elements

Many Eastern RPGs are usually more tightly scripted, and are often bright and colorful in appearance, though the plot can also have dark themes. These games often employ settings that are a fusion of Eastern history and mythology, European folklore and traditions, modern Japanese comics (Manga) and animation (Anime). Fantasy & science fiction hybrid settings are very common in various console RPGs, including the popular Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series. The characters in these games are often designed in the same style as in Anime and often carry light-hearted tones. The storyline in these games usually involves an epic, ultimate battle between the forces of good and evil, with the player's characters fighting for the good cause. Character races tend to be limited to humans. In those cases when the player is given a choice, traditional Tolkien races such as elves, dwarves, and halflings are usually not included, in favor of races specific to the game's setting.

An Eastern RPG plot is usually crafted in an intricate fashion into a highly dramatic, strictly-directed and linear construct, relying on the viewer to experience most of its twists and turns at predetermined specific times and certain ways. In this sense, a console RPG's execution is quite akin to that of a movie or a novel, using scripted sequences. Few games in the genre offer branching plots, though some titles such as Final Fantasy VII and Tales of Symphonia do feature alternate storylines depending on the player's conversational choices to characters in his party. Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross were notable for offering a multitude of decidedly different endings.

[edit] Game Mechanics

Japanese developers tend to create new (but similar) systems for every single game rather than implementing existing role-playing game systems. A slight variation of this family exists in mainland China, Taiwan, Korea, and other neighboring areas. The mechanics (i.e. combat and class/job selection) of this family of games is largely the same as the Japanese one. Differences lie in the graphics and plot. These games use a different, Chinese-influenced art style and the storyline is told with a Wuxia style inspired by novels. One famous example is Sword of Xuan Yuan.

[edit] Notable examples of Eastern RPGs

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[edit] Comparisons

A fundamental difference between Western RPGs and Eastern RPGs (or Japanese RPGs) is the way the games’ stories are structured. Western RPGs often allow the player to make moral and/or strategic choices when solving many problems relevant to the whole story, thus making them less linear. This often means that player-created characters start with unknown motivations and vague background stories; these are usually left for the player to decide, which can be considered either an advantage or drawback. Eastern RPGs are usually more tightly scripted, which allows for more detailed characterization and highly dramatic events to unfold as in a book or a movie. However, since the progress of the plot has been predetermined, the player's choices usually have little or no effect on the direction of the game. Some players argue that it is inappropriate to call linear games “role-playing games” because of this inability to influence the outcome of a story. A fair number of exceptions exist on both sides; for instance, Romancing SaGa is an example of a Japanese RPG with a fairly open and non-linear storyline, and Nox is a Western RPG featuring a strictly linear story and no dialogue choices. Furthermore, although most Western RPGs have been made for the computer and most Eastern RPGs have been made for the console, there are some important exceptions due to porting and market diversification. For example, Final Fantasy VII appeared on PCs and Arx Fatalis was available on the XBox.

[edit] Similarities

  • Death is almost always the final solution employed by the protagonists to prevent the antagonist from achieving his or her goals, often after reason fails.
  • Both families commonly feature a variety of “status effects” that may affect characters during battles. These usually come into play when special powers and abilities (such as spells) are used. Some of these provide a character an advantage (boosted attributes, defensive barriers, regeneration) and are commonly referred to as buffs. Others hinder the character (decreased attributes, incapacitation, disease, loss of control) and are called debuffs.
  • Music plays a strong role in the creation of atmosphere in both subgenres.
  • Player character death is trivialized to some extent in both genres. Particularly in Japanese RPGs, death is usually no obstacle to a character and easily cured (with a common "Phoenix Down" item in the Final Fantasy series for example).
  • Final bosses typically are magical or divine entities, or characters empowered by these forces. Rarely is a final boss merely a powerful fighter.
  • While the base humanoid races in a game setting may differ, the magical or fantastic creatures that are fought and summoned in both Western and Eastern RPGs are often drawn from international lore (European, Asian, Native American, etc) and coexist in one reality of the game's world. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn mages (from the Western RPG tradition) can summon Djinns, which are a race of creatures drawn from Arabic mythology, whereas in Final Fantasy VI (from the Japanese RPG tradition), characters can summon a being reminiscent of Odin, a god of Norse mythology.
  • Combat is typically heavily abstracted in both subgenres, with characters often not depicted dodging or blocking.
  • Both Western and Eastern RPGs usually place a strong (though different) emphasis on plot in comparison to other genres like FPS or RTS. Because of this, Western and Japanese RPGs are frequently compared to the adventure genre.

[edit] Differences

  • RPGs inspired by the Dungeons and Dragons P&P tradition typically allow the player to generate and completely customize a character, whereas other (eastern) RPGs typically force the player to use a predefined character and background to complete the game. Character progression in Western RPGs is typically a long, involved process requiring a careful selection of attribute, spell, feat, and/or skill advances. In many traditional Japanese RPGs, a simpler level-up system with fewer choices was often used, though many are now using more complex character development systems.
  • In most Japanese RPGs, the four classical elements of fire, earth, air and water are incorporated into the game's setting. Any spell, item, or creature may be associated with one or more of these elements. Fire may be considered strong or weak against Water, depending on the situation; the same relation applies to Air and Earth. Additional “elements” (energy types in most cases) are often introduced as well, such as electricity (lightning), light and darkness, and aether, as well as more radical “para-elements” such as acid and poison. Finding and exploiting an enemy’s weakness against a certain element is often crucial (and sometimes the only way) to defeat an opponent in battle. Western RPGs, on the other hand, rarely incorporate the elements of earth, air, and water into their games. However, they include systems that classify weapons by damage type, such as “piercing”, “slashing”, and “bludgeoning."[citation needed]
  • In Japanese RPGs, it is common for lead characters of opposite sex who are seen interacting early on to end up romantically involved or implied to be so in the future. The earliest games to portray romantic love between protagonists were Final Fantasy IV (1991) and Lunar: The Silver Star (1992). The first game to make the characters fall in love or drift apart based on the player's actions was Treasures of the Savage Frontier (1992). Western RPGs rarely feature such dramatic relationships between main characters, although there are some notable recent exceptions such as Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
  • The main heroes of Japanese RPGs are most often warriors (that is, not healers or wizards) wielding swords (i.e. not spears or staves), though there are exceptions such as Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy IX. In most Western RPGs, and a number of earlier Japanese RPGs (such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest III), character creation allows players to choose their main hero’s class and weapons, resulting in more variety. It should be noted, however, that if a Western RPG has a sequel and must have an “official ending”, a male warrior is typically said to be the hero of that story for canon purposes.
  • Western RPGs, in part due to their ability to have more complicated keyboard-driven interfaces, frequently have deeper levels of character and environment based interaction in both skills and spells. For instance, in Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, a character can conjure spirits of the dead in non-scripted deaths to communicate with the decreased. Characters in roguelike games (like ADOM or NetHack) can often swim or break through walls.
  • The characters in Japanese RPGs tend to be more talkative and deeply explored than in Western RPGs. The major reason for this is that in many Western RPGs, NPCs may not end up accompanying or even meeting the player character for various reasons:
    • Characters may permanently die in non-scripted events. For instance, a character hit by Disintegrate in Baldur's Gate 2 is gone unless the player loads an earlier saved game. Most Japanese RPGs prevent permanent non-scripted death, short of a "game over" situation.
    • Many Western RPGs allow the player to attack NPCs at will, or even accidentally in the case of area-effect attacks. Most Japanese RPGs limit combat to enemies only.
    • Some characters in Western RPGs are not naturally found except through heavy exploration, such as Franklin Payne from Arcanum. Most NPC allies in Japanese RPGs are mandatory, and are introduced by the main storyline.
    • In most Western RPGs, players are even given the choice of dismissing party members. These NPCs generally remain in a certain location until they rejoin the party, and cannot participate while not in the party. Most Japanese RPGs allow the player to select a party, but some may enforce NPC participation by requiring the player to include certain NPCs in the party at times. Some have all NPC allies travel as a group, meaning any NPC ally can participate in any scene; the party is only used for combat.
Consequently, Western RPG developers can waste a lot of effort for nothing if the player chooses eventually not to bother with the NPC, and so usually a minimal amount of effort is spent on character exposition. There are a few notable exceptions to this, the major one being Planescape: Torment.
  • Cutscenes are more frequently utilized in Japanese RPGs to advance the plot than in most Western RPGs.
  • Spell systems tend to work very differently in Japanese RPGs and Western RPGs. In many Western RPGs it is possible to cast spells outside of battle, to unlock a door for example. In Japanese RPGs this is rarely possible, other than for healing. "Summons" are usually beautiful, powerful, one time direct-damage spells in Japanese RPGs caused by invoking a supernatural or magical entity. In Western RPGs, a "summon" spell may also invoke a supernatural or magical entity, but this invocation usually conjures the presence of a persistent, usually autonomous ally that attacks for many turns alongside the caster rather than disappearing after a single powerful attack.
  • There are some differences between the character development in Western RPGs and Japanese RPGs. In many Western RPGs, the player is forced to make difficult decisions between many different abilities which could have serious long-term effects on the success of his character. In many traditional Eastern RPGs, character development was less strenuous and more limited with different players playing the same game often ending up with the same character abilities, though recent character development systems in Japanese RPGs have become more complex and flexible.
  • Character-unique abilities and spells unavailable to any other character are more commonly seen in Eastern RPGs. For example, Aeris' first level limit break "Healing Wind" cannot be attained by any other character in Final Fantasy VII.
  • Combat in traditional Western and Japanese RPGs tends to be very different. Movement and position is more emphasized in Western RPGs due in part to their wargaming roots. Other realistic tactical features like friendly fire and area of effect spells are also more prevalent in Western RPGs than Japanese RPGs.
  • Eastern RPGs tend to resort to random battles, where the players characters are randomly whisked off to battle without warning. This is a holdover from the days when consoles and computers didn't have enough power to render enemies on screen before a fight that later became a genre staple. It is rare in modern Western RPGs, although it was quite common in the 1980s and to a lesser degree in the early 1990s. Some games however have done away with this, notable examples include Lunar and Chrono Trigger. Final Fantasy XII takes this a step further by allowing free movement and positioning as well as the possibility of NPCs, both friendly and hostile, joining in the battle.
  • The main characters in modern Western RPGs tend to be exclusively composed of adults or occasionally young adults. In contrast, modern Eastern RPGs more often feature young adults and teenagers, and sometimes even children. Some main characters in Eastern RPGs start the story as children and finish the story as adults.
  • Although Western RPGs allow for significant customization, male characters are typically seen as strong, powerful, and (sometime overly) masculine. Male main characters in Eastern RPGs may be statistically powerful as well, but visually appear younger and more lithe (since they are also usually younger); in addition, these main characters almost never have facial hair. These aspects of Eastern RPG male characters are often derisively thought of as effeminate and androgynous by advocates of Western RPGs.
  • Various skills often do not make sense in Japanese games. For example, stealing from enemies in many games (the Final Fantasy series, for example) will yield items that will not be received by simply defeating the enemy; Western RPGs tend to make stealing more realistic (in the Baldur's Gate series, players can steal from normal townspeople, face the consequences when caught, and do not obtain items that would not be found by simply killing the townspeople). Other thief skills like hiding, opening locks, and so on are often poorly implemented or not implemented at all, even when playable thieves are present.
  • Western games often contain unique pantheons of deities from which priests receive their (often specialized) powers and spells; Japanese games instead tend to either not elaborate the means by which priests receive spells (the Dragon Quest series, for example), or else simply avoid deities completely by allowing normal magic-users to cast healing magic (white magic in the Final Fantasy series, for example).

[edit] References

    [edit] See also

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