I've been playing RPGs since back in the SNES days, my first one being Super Mario RPG. Now to this day, I thoroughly enjoy JRPG games (why else would I still be playing Blue Dragon and trying to get all classes up to 99?). Upon having a discussion with a friend of mine though, despite a little resistance from my end, I have found myself agreeing with him.

The JRPG is far too simplistic and lacking of most strategy these days. He mainly used Final Fantasy as the example, which is why I was resistant because I am a huge fan of the FF series. He pointed something out that was very true though. The games usually consist of mindless grinding that offer no strategy at all, followed by sometimes interesting boss fights that implement strategies that you have never had the opportunity to develop over time. In actuality, he was just saying the combat overall was really dumb, which is when I brought boss fights into the picture and he agreed with me there. Still, boss fights do not consist of the highest volume of combat in the game.

I then argued that a lot of these JRPGs have some of the most engrossing stories out there, especially the FF games. He didn't disagree with me, stating that he actually watched a friend play through all of FFX and loved the story in that game (which made me happy considering that is one of my all-time favorite RPG stories). He made another strong point though, that though the stories are oftentimes fantastic, the formulaic combat is just too boring in order to hold his attention. Leaving the argument a little angry, I gave myself some time to reflect on this.

Let's take the Final Fantasy series as a starting example. Back when FF1 came out, there is no arguing against the fact that it was revolutionary for its time, was a totally new type of game and most definitely was great. Then FF2 came along and completely revamped the combat system with the skills system, though it wasn't necessarily executed properly. FF3 came along and recycled the style of FF1 with the classes of FF2 in order to make a reasonable mix in gameplay mechanics, though lacking in the story department (which FF2 did a better job of). Combat was still reasonably fresh with the idea of turn-based combat where you have elemental attacks and you have to figure out what is good against certain monsters. Abilities and stat spells were there, but still not overly essential. FF4 came along and introduced an in-depth story into the mix, along with interesting stat and effect spells that were genuinely useful in combat. Also, adding the Real-time battle effect was neat, but essentially was still a turn-based battle at it's core. Still, the combat from that point on started to suffer, because it suffered from the problem of unoriginality. You fight a ton of monsters as you progress through the story in order to level up and be ready for semi-challenging boss fights. The random encounter was starting to lose it's flair.

Luckily Squaresoft realized this and proceeded to release 3 fantastic games that took combat in a fairly new direction. Super Mario RPG had you fighting enemies that didn't magically pop out of nowhere and start a battle, but you actually saw the monsters on the field so you could choose to avoid or engage, not be forced into combat. It also introduced interactive battles, where the core combat was classic turn-based, but you pressed buttons in order to add effects to attacks which forced you to stay on your toes and not just take a nap and press the A button to initiate an attack. Along came Secret of Mana as well, that also did the monsters on the field thing. The great part was that if you saw a monster on the field, you fought it then and there in real-time combat. No touching a monster to go into a special battle screen. No selecting an attack and waiting for it to happen. You pressed a button and attacked when you pressed it. You moved away and were able to dodge an attack. Though there were other action-rpgs at the time, SoM was the main flag bearer and fire-starter for the genre. That is most definitely innovation. You also had Chrono Trigger, which also did the monster-on-the-field thing, though it borrowed the core combat system from FF4. Its main draw was the ability to basically have practically every decision you make affect the ending (there were 10 or so endings if I remember correctly).

Those last 3 games definitely were innovative in their own way and added much to the RPG scene. It was from then on that things started to go downhill though. The SNES was realistically the last location for JRPG innovation. There was FF5 that added a fun and interesting class system, but retained the boring combat from the past. FF6 added one of the most emotional and in-depth stories ever (up 'til that point), but still retained a boring combat system. Granted FF6 did add a little variety to the moves by allowing different ways to activate moves (timer bars, button presses, button hold, etc.), but the combat was essentially the same.Then the N64 and PS1 came along, adding little to nothing to the formula (I keep on Tactics games because they are unique and are more like an interactive chess, though those haven't changed much over time either). FF7 took everything from the past and threw it into one pot. FF8 came along and tried to innovate a little by allowing you to keep 'pets' (summons) that levelled up with you and added special abilities. Not to mention the introduction of enemies that scaled to your level, so you could never overlevel and could always enjoy a challenge. The core of the combat was still the same, with enemies requiring only attack usually and bosses requiring unique and fun strategies (though I will admit, because of the combat system various encounters did require various strategies...8 was probably the most innovative out of the post SNES-era). Though I haven't played FF9, from what I read it is a throwback to the classics, which means it adds nothing new really. FF10 added another in-depth and emotional story, and it added this new sphere grid system. It allowed you to choose how you level up by taking your character through a maze that gives you stat raises and abilities depending on what path you choose. That was really neat, but the combat was still the same. FFXI was definitely innovative, but I won't include an explanation merely because it being an MMORPG puts it in a different category. FF12 I haven't played much of but seemed mostly the same as far as core combat went.

The main problem here isn't that the combat wasn't changed (most every game introduced its own interesting twist), the problem was that 85% of the game revolved around regular monster grinding that was never interesting because most could be beaten by mindlessly pressing Attack. Interesting combat means nothing if it isn't used outside of the minority battles (bosses). Then I started to think about Western RPGs. The main one that comes to my mind is Morrowind. Now there is a game that takes the skill system from the class-based JRPGs and multiplies it tenfold. You have full customization over how your character develops. In-fact, only the abilities you use are what will progress in skill (like in real life...if you don't practice, you will lose it). The best part is that most enemy encounters are challenging. This means you are almost always fighting for your life. So a lot of those 'useless' abilities may suddenly prove useful as you experiment and try last-ditch strategies in order to survive. I have clocked in about 15 hours so far and found myself only using attack on measly little creatures, who I usually easily avoid anyway. That is only one WRPG though. Others I could name off are Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Diablo and more.

Now my heart still lies with JRPGs, so I decided to start looking at reviews and noticed that overall, WRPGs have been getting much higher ratings than JRPGs have. Now there is no denying that many JRPGs add very interesting concepts, but most of the time they are very poorly executed and fall back on an age-old formula that is starting to get very boring (Blue Dragon is what hit me hardest with this). While WRPGs try to experiment quite a bit more. It seems like though we wouldn't have the Role-Playing game were it not for the Japanese, the West seems to be the place to go for innovation in that genre now (not to mention other genre too...but I'll save that for another rant). It's time the Japanese rethink their strategy, especially with the West being such a larger player in the gaming market these days. Let's hope the land of the rising sun picks it up sometime soon (Demon's Soul looks like a promising start).