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What Should We Expect From RPGs In The Next Generation?

Ben-Dutka 30 Comments

Considering that the next generation of gaming is looming large, I figured I'd dedicate at least one topic to all you avid role-playing buffs out there.

There's no denying that RPGs have undergone continual transformations over the years. This will undoubtedly continue as the industry keeps shifting about; Japanese developers continue to try to cater to growing Western audiences, old-fashioned mechanics are dying (or dead), and the current trends include social/multiplayer elements, open-world and sandbox constructs, and choice and freedom superseding linearity and storytelling.

So that being the case, what should we expect from the next-gen RPGs? Should we simply anticipate something larger and more detailed than The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ? Will they continue to expand in terms of size, scope, and lore, but at the expense of a central plot and a protagonist that actually develops? See, you can't really have a character with no writing behind him; if it's all up to the player, that character must be faceless, so we can have the most amount of freedom possible. The more we script that character, the less the player will be able to do. I like that, but most don't.

And what about gameplay? It seems that just about every genre has elements from other categories of gaming, which is why the genres seem to be bleeding together. My guess is that it will become increasingly difficult to correctly apply the "role-playing" label in the new generation. Then again, maybe they'll be so markedly different from other titles, it still won't be that tough to spot an RPG. What say you on this subject?

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Forget Halo, There’s Only One Game I Care About On The 360

Ben-Dutka 21 Comments

For the record, I've played every Halo to date and I fully intend to play Halo 4 . I expect it to be fantastic.

I have also played and enjoyed every Gears of War , and I have 15 other Xbox 360 games in my collection as well. I've got maybe 70 PS3 titles but that's because- 1. I work for a PlayStation-centric website and I get a lot of PS3 review copies, some of which I keep, and 2. There are simply waaaaaay more worthwhile exclusive titles on the PS3. And for the latter reason, the 360 mostly just gathers dust these days.

However, there is one game I'll go back to and play. There's one game that will force me to keep my Xbox 360 and amazingly enough, it's because this title allows me to relive the glory days of the PS1, when the JRPG ruled. The game, of course, is Lost Odyssey , which featured a true turn-based mechanic ('gasp'), a pretty decent story, strong characters, beautifully drawn environments, and perhaps strangely, some of the finest writing of the generation. I'm not talking about the actual script; I'm talking about the wonderfully penned dream sequences that were essentially short stories. A professional did those, I'm fairly certain.

At any rate, I definitely want to go back and play it again, and I can't say that about any other 360 game. Hell, I'm willing to keep the 360 plugged in and ready to go until I have time to play Lost Odyssey again. If you were a hardcore JRPG fan in the PS1 days like me and you haven't played the game in question, buy a 360. No, I'm not kidding. You can thank me later.

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The All-Star Dev Team That Would Make The Best RPG Ever

Ben-Dutka 34 Comments

See this picture here? It's from a game they don't really make anymore; a style of role-playing that has irrevocably changed.

And it appears that Square-Enix is in no position to reclaim former glory. So what to do? Well, there are other developers out there who have produced top-notch RPGs this generation, so it's merely a matter of selecting the best parts of each team and creating an All-Star Design Studio.

So here's what we've come up with:

Story: BioWare, Quantic Dream, Naughty Dog, and Hideo Kojima

The most important element (in our eyes) will receive the most help:

We'll take BioWare for all-around scripting and scene creation. We will tap Naughty Dog for the intense cinematic awesomeness that Uncharted is well known for; we'll grab Quantic Dream for their unparalleled strides in the realm of maturity and emotion, and we'll take Hideo Kojima for character creation and the background history and fantasy aspect. We could ask David Cage to supervise, though, just in case Kojima has one of those attacks where he doesn't know when to end a scene.

World Design, Setting, Cinematics: Irrational Games, Square Enix, BioWare

We figure if we take Bioshock 's ridiculous creativity and innovation (of which there seems to be an infinite supply), BioWare's historically amazing fantasy creations, and Square Enix's patented Japanese flair (lotsa flashy stuff and drop-dead gorgeous CGI), we figure we'll get a production that is beautiful, immersive, and utterly, endlessly compelling. If we need to, we'll bring in more open-world assistance from Rockstar.

Combat Design: Nippon Ichi (or Atlus), Bethesda

Here's what we're going to do: We're going to take all the combat designers from Nippon Ichi and Bethesda, throw them in some sort of colossal cage deathmatch, and the resulting mess will actually be the perfect blend of Japanese-influenced, quasi-turn-based mechanics and the real-time, first-person, modernized mechanics Bethesda utilizes. If this doesn't work, we'll throw Atlus and BioWare into the cage next.

On-Call Alternates

At any given time, all the best studios will be on call to provide their services. Rockstar, Naughty Dog and BioWare are at the top of the list, although we might tap talented individuals at the major publishers, too (Activision, SCEA, Ubisoft, EA, etc.). Oh, and we might give Blizzard a call, provided they understand they don't have a decade to deliver what we ask of them. Gotta get sh** done.

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