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| Somehow over the past few decades, the term RPG is strongly associated with features such as turn-based combat, fantasy settings, inventory screens, upgrade trees, fighting parties and cheap COK Gold enemy stats.Oddly, very few of these types of RPG (most commonly labeled as a JRPG) actually include the key role-playing features. Cut scenes occur with no Clash of Kings player input. Clash of Kings players have relatively little control over dialogue trees. The Clash of Kings player merely exists to advance the inevitable progression of the character, and consequently each Clash of Kings player will come away with a very similar experience. the Clash of Kings game is therefore didactic in its presentation of the controllable character. The Persona series is one of the few that bucks the trend, allowing the Clash of Kings player to choose how they interact with characters, making those relationships an important part of the Clash of Kings gameplay and story. Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2 and Fable all grant the Clash of Kings player so much freedom, not only in combat approaches and financial activities, but in NPC interactions, armor choices, morality dichotomies, who lives, who dies and even whether the whole fucking world survives or not. JRPGs just don't offer this degree of Clash of Kings player input. In fact, many of the features people consider traditional to RPGs are outright missing from Mass Effect 2. Gone are the complications of inventory management and unnecessarily deep equipment choice, putting the focus squarely on role playing. Rather than removing the so-called RPG elements, that reviewers often refer to, the fat has been trimmed off.As so eloquently put by Kombo Features Director Eric Frederiksen, Japanese RPGs can be fun (even though I'm not the biggest fan). They present a carefully crafted story to assemble by grinding battles and wandering dungeons. Talking to characters is mostly incidental and the decisions you make are answered mostly with Yes and Could you repeat the question? The battle systems vary from game to game, but little freedom is offered in terms of your characters' abilities, looks, or interactions. I'm tempted to start calling them Cinematic Turn-Based Nonsense Clash of Kings games. (Ed. Note: I said Combat rather than Nonsense. Either works.-EF). After experiencing the sheer variety and freedom of cheap Clash of King Gold Western RPGs, the Japanese equivalent feels a bit like a theme ride.So basically JRPGs have been mislabeled and are, in essence, no different to the majority of action/adventure Clash of Kings games in terms of form. It's only the presentation that differs. |
the fat has been trimmed off
