Japanese RPG's, Are They Basically The Same?

I know it's a topic thats been tossed around a bit lately but is the Japanese market falling behind?

I recently picked up a copy of Lost Odyssey and while I do have to say that I am loving it, I also have to say that it feels almost as if I have played it before. While writing up this post I have to tell you that I think RPGs are played for the story and not revolutionary game play ( if you want that it seems like it's the shooting games that are jumping ahead with the bigger leaps in innovation).

Now I am not going to mention Final Fantasy because I do know the guy who produced and worked on Lost Odyssey is the original inventor of the Final Fantasy games, as well as the fact that I simply do not have the heart to mess with a game series that I so love and adore.

Now I am going to mention themes that do seem to have been recurring elements in Japanese RPG story elements:

Effeminate Men
Amnesia
Demons
Sappy Love Story's
Almost exclusively follow Campbell's hero quest
The Near Slutty Female Character
If It Is A Heroine Then She is Helpless
Save the World From Ultimate Evil
Poofy Evil Villain
Being of Vast Power that Resides as a shadow over the Entire Game
Swords and Sorcery
Did I mention the love story

Now for the repetitive game play elements:

Turn Based Combat
Tactical Turn Based Combat
Side Scrolling Combat
Once again, did I mention the love story?


Its all just becoming so much of the same and I have to wonder why that is. Part of me has always held the adoration Japanese gamers throw at franchises. I am not sure whether or not this is true, but they say that some schools close whenever a new DragonQuest game comes out because kids will skip school just to play it. Now I know that can be mirrored here in America at the fact the number of school bomb threats increased a large amount on the day Halo 3 came out so kids could stay home and play it.

However, I know little as an outsider and I can only offer this opinion based on my time as an Otaku, but it seems as if Japanese gamers are almost more concerned with repetition of the elements I mentioned above almost to the point where innovation is left in the dust. I cannot pretend to understand as to why this seems but it does seem apparent to me.

As anyone who has payed attention to anime will know: in Japan, a name can sell anything regardless of content. A simple uttering of a Cowboy Bebop Movie or a new Gundam Series can set fans ablaze with excitement and I think the same thing can be said about the Video game market there. Just for an example, look at Dynasty Warriors Gundam, in my opinion I guess it was fun, but look at it in Japan where it was on the top selling list for a good three weeks. Before you right three weeks off as nothing, you should remind yourself that this was a 360 exclusive and very few play the 360 in Japan, so the conclusion that I have to draw is that the game sold well on the pedigree of Gundam and Dynasty Warriors alone.

I don't think the same can be said for the western RPGs though. I mean we all know it started with video game adoption's of D&D that effectively started the RPG market and was the basis for all the first RPGs, but I believe we have innovated much since then. Obviously, most WRPGs no longer feature a turn based combat system. The innovations have actually set the grade and improvements are made each time. Most notably are the recent releases of Mass Effect and Assassins Creed which feature a more open road and a very little linear game play that isn't optional.

Hey in the end I guess it's all speculation and preference though huh?

- Ichi

P.S ( I love JRPG's, I just wanted to comment on their similarities, I don't need any fanboy hate for this)