Variety Friday: RPGs

I recently decided to give tabletop Dungeons and Dragons a try and have been loving it so far. It then got me thinking the state of RPGs in the currently gaming industry, and, specifically, how there seems to be a lot less traditional RPGs coming out now as of, say, 4-5 years ago.  I don’t mean Final Fantasy 13; I mean more like the original Final Fantasies, The Witcher, and The Elder Scrolls.

Now specifically I am talking about the lack of said RPGs on consoles (as I am majorly a console gamer).  If you look at the release schedule for the past months (again, for consoles), the best you will probably find is Dragon Age 2, which I don’t think really counts as a tradition RPG, because a lot of the good RPG elements from Origins were taken away with 2.  The point I am getting at is that console RPGs seem to be slowly fading away, and I contribute this to a few things. 

First is that the market for console RPGs seems to be going away.  With the amount of money Call of Duty and similar games are making, studios are telling developers “Yeah, that’s a great idea, but our stock holders want money, so go make a game like Call of Duty”.  Due to the limitations based on large studios by investors, publishers, and etc. to make games that sell well, the idea of a “Great Game” isn’t as well received as it used to be, people no longer want to take risks, so instead they misunderstand their entire market and want clones, expecting them to sell well.

That is probably part of the reason why Dragon Age 2 was so different from the original, was that they wanted to appeal to broader audiences, but screwed up, and being under strict deadlines couldn’t have helped.  The second reason I can find is that what IS demanded by modern RPGs is a very tall order indeed.  I don’t think most developers are willing to put so much time and effort into a gamble as big as a new IP.  That is why I honestly believe that good modern RPGs are probably better coming from indie studios.  Now so far the only way that a series of RPGs have been good and from a large developer is if they solely focus on RPGs.  My main example being CD Projekt, and my other being Bethesda (who may have done some other games in the past, but still mostly make RPGs).  CD Projekt recently released the sequel to the loved but unknown game The Witcher, and from what I’ve heard, The Witcher 2 is a great computer RPG, with full support for an Xbox controller which gives it the possibility of a future console port.

Because they focus on one game at a time, it really allows them to take the time needed to make a good RPG.  Then my other example, Bethesda, the developers of the very popular franchise, The Elder Scrolls, who also happen to be some of the only people releasing a traditional RPG for consoles anytime soon, and I am looking forward to trying it.  These have been two developers who stick to the traditional RPG style and who I admire for doing so. 

Now, why traditional RPGs are going away seems to be due to the mixing of RPG Progression and other game elements, for example, Mass Effect.  Specifically recently, a lot of games have been mixing RPG elements with other game elements such as First Person shooters.  Ultimately this allows a compromise between Developers and Publishers, which is appealing to the RPG fans and the Shooters, which is exactly what Mass Effect 2 did.  While Mass Effect 1 was much heavily RPG focused, Mass Effect 2 was essentially dumbed down to accommodate more people, something which usually ruins games (*cough*Deus Ex: Invisible War *cough*) but actually worked quite well, even if it didn’t feel as in depth.  Though Mass Effect isn’t the only game that combines another game genre and RPGs, there is Fallout, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, KOTOR years ago, and even in the MMORPG coming from Bioware, SW:TOR.  Though The Old Republic is staying very much and RPG, it still has some elements which makes it more.

Now, I would like to clarify that I’m not saying combining elements of multiple game genres is bad; on the contrary it is actually very good for the industry!  Though what I am saying is I would like to see more traditional RPGs, and not the “Interactive Movies” that Square Enix tries to pull off as RPGs these days.  But it isn’t always good, in cases such as Dragon Age.  In my opinion, Dragon Age: Origins was such a great game!  It may have had slow combat but I was fine with it, I loved how the character wasn’t voiced, so it didn’t seem like you were playing someone else’s story, but yours.  Then there was the great cast of characters and all the choices, it was one of the closest things to my perfect RPG I have played (A full article of my opinions of Origins can be found here).  Then there was Dragon Age 2…a game which tore out the strategic combat for hack-n-slash, it made you play someone else’s story, made loot pretty pointless and over half the game seemed like (or was) pointless side quests.  I didn’t start really enjoying the game till the last few hours of it.  This is a great example of how mixing elements, and especially trying to make RPG fans and Sword Flailing Action fans happy at the same time, can fail horribly.

I see the RPG branching into two paths as the industry progresses.  There are the traditional RPGs which I believe will rise up once more and play a much larger part in the industry than they do now.  And then there will be the hybrids which include games such as Mass Effect.  Though neither of these are “Better than the other” it all comes down to opinion, as more gamers start to try new things, and more developers start to take risks, then the industry can truly grow into something great.