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Ah, Japanese RPGs. Once considered the most "hardcore" genre in all of gamedom; now just another game type, like sports and strategy, that you either love or hate. The developers understand, though. They always want to get better, and in this week's issue of Famitsu magazine, four of them held a roundtable to discuss where they see JRPGs going in the future. Here's what they had to say:
- Ryutaro Ichimura was the producer on Dragon Quest IX, and as you'd expect, he takes a pretty conservative approach -- in fact, much of what he talks about as being "the future" has been the norm in Western games for about half a decade now. "Expressing yourself has become the norm, and therefore I think 'original' elements will be a major keyword," he said. "Instead of having a single, unified experience for all players, establishing a common base but giving each player a unique experience, letting them say 'I did this to get past it' or 'I used this crazy set of equipment,' will be important."
Ichimura does see one more original advance coming, though: a rise in 3D visuals, like what we see creeping into movie theaters today. "I've been excited about 3D graphics for a long time," he said. "If we could ever put perfect 3D into an RPG, then it'd very literally put you into the world of the game. We expressed that in a very simple way with Dragon Quest Swords; that was our way of using Dragon Quest to say 'Wouldn't it be neat if we could do a game like this in the future?' I know I'd like to do that, but we'll need to go just one step further technology-wise before we have perfect 3D imagery."
- Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama is more pragmatic. "I think consoles and portable systems will continue to co-exist in the Japanese marketplace for a while," he said. "There is a userbase for both styles of play, just like there's one userbase for single-player RPGs and one for multiplayer. It's up to developers to put their prejudices aside and figure out which user they want to target."
Does he see any real major advances coming, then? "If there's any technological revolution ahead for RPGs, it lies in AI," Toriyama responded. "This was something we concentrated on for FFXIII; it plays a part in the field, during events, and in battles. I'm always amazed at FPSes that control tons of AI characters covering a massive game field in realtime, and I'd like to make a title that works like that in the future. I want a deep story and deep characters working in a truly living world."
- Kazuya Nino, chief guy behind 7th Dragon, takes the low-key approach that you'd expect for someone whose main opus of work has been on portable systems. "I want to produce RPGs that are more than just so-called 'epics,'" he stated. "A lot of developers see low-budget as low-quality, but I don't see low-budget as a bad thing. A lot of great games are the result of a long, painful cutting process. If we can keep costs down and make it easier to turn a profit, I think that'd be a solution to the current situation, where all we get to make are games meant to appeal to the largest number of users possible."
Nino doesn't want to see too much change to JRPGs, though: "I think there are parts of RPGs that are unflappable and shouldn't be changed. In the end, RPGs are still about raising your level and beating the evil overlord."
- Takayuki Suguro (Resonance of Fate) agreed with Nino, but saw his stick-to-basics approach in a more nuanced fashion. "I think there's a tendency lately for all games, not just RPGs, to try and simulate the real world," he said. "A massive amount of progress has been made in that direction with the power we have at hand, but I think we're beginning to hit a dead end. I think a back-to-basics approach, or one that takes a more abstract look at the elements of gameplay, will become key once people start to look for direction elsewhere."
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- Ryutaro Ichimura was the producer on Dragon Quest IX, and as you'd expect, he takes a pretty conservative approach -- in fact, much of what he talks about as being "the future" has been the norm in Western games for about half a decade now. "Expressing yourself has become the norm, and therefore I think 'original' elements will be a major keyword," he said. "Instead of having a single, unified experience for all players, establishing a common base but giving each player a unique experience, letting them say 'I did this to get past it' or 'I used this crazy set of equipment,' will be important."
Ichimura does see one more original advance coming, though: a rise in 3D visuals, like what we see creeping into movie theaters today. "I've been excited about 3D graphics for a long time," he said. "If we could ever put perfect 3D into an RPG, then it'd very literally put you into the world of the game. We expressed that in a very simple way with Dragon Quest Swords; that was our way of using Dragon Quest to say 'Wouldn't it be neat if we could do a game like this in the future?' I know I'd like to do that, but we'll need to go just one step further technology-wise before we have perfect 3D imagery."
- Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama is more pragmatic. "I think consoles and portable systems will continue to co-exist in the Japanese marketplace for a while," he said. "There is a userbase for both styles of play, just like there's one userbase for single-player RPGs and one for multiplayer. It's up to developers to put their prejudices aside and figure out which user they want to target."
Does he see any real major advances coming, then? "If there's any technological revolution ahead for RPGs, it lies in AI," Toriyama responded. "This was something we concentrated on for FFXIII; it plays a part in the field, during events, and in battles. I'm always amazed at FPSes that control tons of AI characters covering a massive game field in realtime, and I'd like to make a title that works like that in the future. I want a deep story and deep characters working in a truly living world."
- Kazuya Nino, chief guy behind 7th Dragon, takes the low-key approach that you'd expect for someone whose main opus of work has been on portable systems. "I want to produce RPGs that are more than just so-called 'epics,'" he stated. "A lot of developers see low-budget as low-quality, but I don't see low-budget as a bad thing. A lot of great games are the result of a long, painful cutting process. If we can keep costs down and make it easier to turn a profit, I think that'd be a solution to the current situation, where all we get to make are games meant to appeal to the largest number of users possible."
Nino doesn't want to see too much change to JRPGs, though: "I think there are parts of RPGs that are unflappable and shouldn't be changed. In the end, RPGs are still about raising your level and beating the evil overlord."
- Takayuki Suguro (Resonance of Fate) agreed with Nino, but saw his stick-to-basics approach in a more nuanced fashion. "I think there's a tendency lately for all games, not just RPGs, to try and simulate the real world," he said. "A massive amount of progress has been made in that direction with the power we have at hand, but I think we're beginning to hit a dead end. I think a back-to-basics approach, or one that takes a more abstract look at the elements of gameplay, will become key once people start to look for direction elsewhere."
source