NieR:Automata – a very unique RPG (pic: Square Enix)
Readers discuss their favourite styles of role-playing game, from action types like Elden Ring to strategy RPGs and classics like Skyrim.
The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Marbon, who was inspired by this year’s glut of big name RPGs, such as Final Fantasy 16 and Starfield. There are many different types of role-playing game though, so we wanted to know which you prefer and why.
Although there was no general consensus, one common theme was changing tastes between Western and Japanese games and vice versa, with the games themselves evolving with new technology and shifts in fashion.
Back and forth
I used to think I didn’t like role-playing games, as I couldn’t stand Japanese role-players during the SNES days. I never liked Final Fantasy 7 either, but Skyrim was the game that got me into Western role-players and ever since I’ve slowly expanded my horizons. I still don’t like the majority of JRPGs but I have enjoyed Persona 5, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Dragon Quest 8, and Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
At the same time, I’ve got kind of bored with Western examples as they’ve all become very samey. I liked Fallout 3 but not 4, and BioWare don’t seem to have done anything since the awful Mass Effect Andromeda. I think Western role-players are more interested in open world design nowadays, rather than anything actually to do with role-playing.
By contrast, Japanese games have got much more interesting, I think because they realised things were getting stale. My absolute favourite is NieR:Automata, which I’m not sure I would’ve even counted as role-player if it was left to me, but everyone seems to call it that. It’s got great action though, a really clever plot, and memorable characters. Importantly, for me, it’s completely unpredictable, which is what I like from a game and haven’t got from a Western role-player in a long time.
Benson
It all counts
The Fallout series of games is top of my list. Played the second one up until 4. Glad they ditched the isometric view and made it more player friendly by not having me die every five seconds. Mostly great dialogue, interesting characters, some ropey graphics and mechanics, but overall there aren’t any stinkers in the bunch. I’m even playing Fallout 76 and it has improved a lot. There’s a creeping sense that it has turned into a Fallout game, almost.
Special mention to Final Fantasy 7 and 9. Really enjoyed going through these two.
Most recently, and I don’t know if it counts, but Elden Ring was pretty spectacular to Soulsborne fans.
In conclusion, as usual, I can’t pick one type of game. I just love them all.
Bobwallett
Slowing down
I usually prefer turn-based Japanese role-playing games. This is because I can take my time with decisions, such as whether to attack or defend the next move. My reflexes are not what they used to be, since I am now well into my 40s, so turn-based still gives me that competitive edge in gaming.
I find some action based JRPGs too hectic for my liking, as I struggle to keep up with what is going on, when there is too much happening on screen. That does not mean to say I never play action JRPGs. Games like Xenoblade Chronicles 3, for example, plays at a slow but good pace, which I find very enjoyable. It gives me the impression I am more in control of what I am doing and I hope more action JRPGs adopt its style of combat in future.
As for Western RPGs, the only ones I like are from the Elder Scrolls series, such as Skyrim. The favourite though is Oblivion, thanks to its vast exploration and fantastic soundtrack.
orionz25
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Particular tastes
My favourite type of role-playing game is the strategy RPG) and even then I prefer a very specific type of SRPG, the kind where every character is gained in some way via the story (probably the best examples of these being Shining Force and Vandal Hearts 1). This is as opposed to SRPGs like Disgaea and Tactics Ogre, which will give you a few story-based characters and then let you go off and create the rest yourself or drown you in jobs. I don’t personally enjoy going into the weeds for the large amount of time it takes to tweak these to my satisfaction (especially in the Disgaea games, with their added Item World time sink).
In contrast, games like Shining Force and Vandal Hearts 1 let you concentrate on the battles themselves. They do, of course, generally have some level of customisation (Shining Force 3, for example, lets you choose between three different weapon types per character, with different ranges or attributes, and in Vandal Hearts 1 you can choose between two somewhat different jobs when you promote your characters).
I find myself enjoying the battle scenarios far more in these type of SRPGs, where I can quickly go from battle to battle, safe in the knowledge that my party configuration isn’t going to mess me up too badly and it’s all down to making the best use of the team the developer expects me to have at that point in the game.
Other than SRPGs I just tend to enjoy traditional turn-based RPGs like Dragon Quest. Though I do especially like them when the developer has done something special with the battle system, such as with Grandia or Panzer Dragoon Saga, which place special emphasis on move cancelling and positioning, respectively.
I do wish we had more of these rather than action RPGs with cooldown abilities like Xenoblade – which I do enjoy as well, but variety is nice. I am a bit worried about Dragon Quest 12, since the last time Horii made comments about shaking up the battle system we almost got that odd action RPG Dragon Quest 9. In that instance, when the first trailer came out the Japanese fans hated it so much that Horii delayed the game and completely changed it.
Hopefully the changes this time are more innovative, such as how Grandia once was, rather than just yet another shift into ARPG land.
Lord Darkstorm
Different flavours
I haven’t really thought about how many sub-genres of RPG there are but the three obvious ones to me have pretty clear highlights.
For JRPG, it’s Chrono Trigger. I’ve only played a tiny handful of JRPGs because so many suffer from similar problems with length, pace, convoluted plot, etc. Chrono Trigger is lean, as you can probably finish it in under 20 hours, its combat is fast-paced, as you don’t need to sit through fanfares heralding the beginning and end of every enemy encounter.
Plus, special moves don’t trigger pointless self-indulgent cut scenes every time and the writing isn’t overly complex, but it’s compelling. The fact even the most well-regarded JRPGs released are still compared unfavourably with it sort of discourages me from trying most of what’s come out since.
For open world RPGs, it’s Fallout 3. The best thing I think Starfield has going for it is there’s still something distinct about Bethesda RPGs and that feeling of wandering alone across the Washington DC wasteland, exploring monuments, learning a bit about US history, and listening to all that old-timey music would be difficult for other series to reproduce. Obviously, that’s not what Starfield will be about, but it’ll be interesting to see if that Bethesda RPG feeling has been overtaken during the flood of open world games last gen.
For action RPGs, it’s probably Elden Ring. It might not be my favourite FromSoftware game but since it really represents the culmination of everything they put into the Souls games (while Bloodborne and Sekiro aren’t quite as RPG-ish), that’s my pick. One reason is that stats and equipment are actually just about as meaningful as they can be in these games, while in many other modern RPGs they’re often little more than gestures in the spirit of customisation and player choice.
Bringing up a stats or inventory screen in something like The Witcher 3 was something I’d put off to the point where I’d just avoid levelling up or equipping new items because I found it all a bit boring. In the Souls games, I’d bring those menus up without delay as even just one or two levels of XP could influence how the game plays.
Thinking about it, Bloodborne would qualify as an action RPG and I’d probably rate it more highly but I wanted to have at least one representation of that Dungeons & Dragons type setting for the topic, and Elden Ring nails that, and pretty much everything else.
Panda
West to East
I would have said that around generation 6 and 7, my favourite role-playing games would be from Western developers, à la BioWare. They ruled the top of my personal shortlist of all-time greats with Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic for what felt like an eternity… Prime. Then add in things like Fable 2, Mass Effect 2, Oblivion, and Skyrim and it would seem that the Western method was just superior.
But, hold your horses, what do they have in common? Well, they typically offer a greater deal of player freedom than you would find in their competitors from Japan. Freedom of play styles, freedom of morality, freedom within a large game world, freedom to change the narrative, greater levels of interaction with party members or non-player characters.
Japanese role-players will still give you some level of freedom – usually a large world to run around in. You could see that as early as the first Phantasy Star. It’s also present in Skies Of Arcadia, Dragon Quest 8, and the vast majority of Final Fantasies. However, there’s usually only something to do when the story says so.
Then came along Persona 3, my first experience with the series. Not as impenetrable as Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne (aka Lucifer’s Call) – it provided much more depth of interaction with not just your team-mates, but also fellow students and more! It wasn’t just about sex or romance either. Now, Star Wars was and still is much better – but Persona 5 is very special. Still no morality system outside of being a minor jerk and you still can’t really change the narrative, but hey.
Persona 5 is currently my second favourite role-player. My first is Undertale. Whilst made by an American, it’s very much done in the Japanese tradition. And here you can change the story as well as have more interactions with other characters besides combat.
So, I suppose that role-players that give me as much player freedom as they can code are my favourite. Which should mean that the Divinity: Original Sin games would be paradise for me and yet I never felt free in either title. Or, perhaps more accurately, I felt they were both taking far too long in letting me have the run of the game.
Dragon Knight Saga took a very long time for me to feel like I’d reached that point, specifically once the game had given me my tower. Each RPG is different as to when this point happens and I’m sorry that it’s so nebulous, because without me finding that from the Original Sins I found them to be quite… gruelling, actually.
Sorry.
DMR
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Changing tastes
I’d say my role-players have definitely changed regarding Japanese and Western styles. They were 100% JRPGs until Oblivion from The Elder Scrolls series came out. I was so used to turn-based battles and looking at stats and numbers getting longer on the screen, as I powered up my characters, that anything other than this style of gameplay did not enter into my mind.
This was normal to me as playing tabletop role-playing games and books which involved turning to a page of your choice and using hit, damage, health, and magic points, etc. seemed the way to me.
But when The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series came out with a first person shooter viewpoint and more in-depth conversational trees, my mindset changed for the free roaming Western role-player.
Skipping ahead to the Fallout series, and especially New Vegas, the stat building, perk-adding, and the morality of your personal characters was extremely exciting, and it felt real if you killed either the enemy or an innocent bystander.
Exploring the terrain whilst befriending folks and forming alliances and making oneself a helpful or being a nasty person, laying waste to the communities you come across or causing discord through the fantastic conversational tree choices! Whatever you did, it had an impact and mattered.
The world of JRPGs already had the story played out as you progressed, with no altering it, and so they must be followed along a rather linear path for the most part. But I could not complain when the linear journey was as epic and so very beautiful to look at, with the awesome soundtracks and watching characters interacting so emotionally with one another. It could not get any better than Final Fantasy 7!
The future Bethesda games are certainly getting me excited, but the Japanese are definitely, I feel, turning more Western in some areas. The recent Final Fantasy 16 seemed easier and less like the classics, and it felt more a perfectly nuanced meeting between the action and turn-based fighting styles, from the two gaming cultures’ different takes on the RPG genre.
Either way, these are amongst my favourite games ever, with Fallout: New Vegas being the key one. I played this game doing two huge playthroughs – one supporting Robert House and the next was helping Caesar’s Legion. Both so very memorable, with different experiences and outcomes on each session. Mind blowing at the time and still an amazing achievement from the developers. Good times.
Alucard
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Readers discuss their favourite styles of role-playing game, from action types like Elden Ring to strategy RPGs and classics like Skyrim.
