A commonly held distinction is that the Asian-influenced RPG features a pre-determined protagonist, while the Western style leans towards a customized character. The former offers an ability to let the gamer play a greater role in the plot of the game, but the latter is where we can find actual personal involvement and emotional attachment. Sure, on the average customization boils down to a handful of numbers with no inherent meaning, but those are our numbers, and it does imbue the title with a sense of personal investment.
Wouldn’t it be great if we had both?
Edward Pollard @ eToychest has posted part two of his piece on the state of RPG Gaming - It’s an enjoyable read, and the questions he asks are important ones. I myself have always been a much bigger fan of Western RPGs, cutting my teeth with Pen and Paper RPGs, and then moving to computer gaming at a young age. But as i evaluate it more and more, i have to be honnest, i’ve had some of my best gaming experiences, with Eastern style RPGS, FF7 blew me away… Zelda, Dragonquest, Phantasy Star… All of these games featured a fixed main character - i suppose the key element in these is that while the main characters stayed the same you were able to customize his skills, magic, weapons, etc.
In Phantasy Star 3, one of my all time favorite rpgs, you got to choose who you married, for 3 generations! Then you look at games like oblivion, which offer amazing customizability of your character, but you start to notice that reguardless of how you look, or how long your hair is, or what race you choose, your interaction with the world doesn’t change all that much…
Perhaps us westerners just have more of a ego driven desire for autonomy, even if that autonomy is only an illusion? We exchange a potentially more worthwhile gaming experience for the chance to make our avatars more like ourselves - is there a balance we can strike?
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