History of role-playing video games

The role-playing video game genre began in the mid-1970s on mainframe computers, inspired by pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons. Several other sources of inspiration for early role-playing video games also included tabletop strategy wargames, sports simulation games, adventure games such as Colossal Cave Adventure, fantasy writings by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, and ancient epic literature dating back to The Epic of Gilgamesh which followed the same basic structure of setting off in various quests in order to accomplish goals.

After the success of console role-playing games such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, the role-playing genre eventually diverged into two sub-genres, Japanese role-playing games and Western role-playing games, due to cultural differences, though roughly mirroring the platform divide between consoles and computers, respectively. Finally, while the first RPGs offered strictly a single player experience, the popularity of multiplayer modes rose sharply during the early to mid-1990s with action role-playing games such as Secret of Mana and Diablo. With the advent of the Internet, multiplayer games have grown to become massively multiplayer online role-playing games, including Final Fantasy XI and World of Warcraft.

Mainframe & personal computers

Mainframe computers

See also: Chronology of roguelike video games

Simple overhead monochrome graphics of dnd on the PLATO mainframe system.

The earliest computer role-playing games began in the mid to late 1970s as offshoots of early university mainframe text-based RPGs on PDP-10, PLATO and Unix-based systems, starting with Dungeon (1975 or 1976), pedit5 (1975) and dnd (1975). These early games were inspired by pen-and-paper role-playing games—particularly Dungeons & Dragons, which was released shortly before in 1974, and J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Some of the first graphical CRPGs after pedit5 and dnd included orthanc (1978, named after Saruman's tower in Lord of the Rings), avathar (1979, later renamed avatar), oubliette (1977, French for "dungeon"), dungeons of degorath, baradur, emprise, bnd, sorcery, moria (1975), and dndworld (19??)—all of which were developed and became widely popular on the PLATO system during the latter 1970s, in large part due to PLATO's speed, fast graphics, nationwide network of terminals, and large number of players with access to those terminals. PLATO, being a mainframe system with multiple users, also allowed multiple, simultaneous players to play at the same time—a feature not commonly available to owners of home personal computer systems at the time. These were followed by—but did not always lead directly to—games on other platforms, such as Temple of Apshai (1979, originally for the TRS-80, and later followed by two add-ons), Akalabeth (1980, which gave rise to the well-known Ultima series), Wizardry (1981) and Sword of Fargoal (1982). Additional influences during this time period would come in the form of text adventures like Colossal Cave Adventure (1976) & Zork (1976), early MUDs, tabletop wargames like Chainmail (beginning in 1971), and sports games like Strat-O-Matic (beginning in 1961).

Gary Gygax [co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons] was pivotal to the development of the gaming industry, and to my own career. (...) Millions upon millions of players around the world live and play in imaginary worlds built on the back of what Gary first conceived.

— Richard Garriott, following Gygax's death in 2008

In 1980, a popular dungeon crawler called Rogue was developed for Unix-based systems by two students at Berkeley. Featuring ASCII graphics, a deep system of gameplay, and lots of randomly generated items and locations, it was later distributed as free software with the BSD operating system and followed by a whole genre of "roguelikes" that were inspired by and emulated the original game's mechanics, as well as later titles such as Diablo. Of particular note is 1987's NetHack, an update of Rogue that arguably surpassed the original in popularity, complexity and sense of humor—as well as through its continuous extensions and updates over nearly two decades. Other and later examples of roguelikes include Angband (1990), Ancient Domains of Mystery (1993) and Linley's Dungeon Crawl (1997).

All of these games featured simplistic, often monochrome graphics and/or keyboard-only input—and in the case of Rogue, representations of objects using text characters, such as '@' for the main character and 'Z' for zombies. In addition, certain games, such as avatar, moria, and oubliette experimented with a first-person view; while others, such as orthanc and Rogue, featured an overhead view with branching corridors more reminiscent of table-top RPGs. However, they all more or less featured characteristics that we recognize today, such as exploring subterranean dungeons, equipping weapons and items, "leveling up" and completing quests, and in some cases—such as Dungeon—parties composed of multiple characters that you could control and order individually.

Ultima & Wizardry

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Ultima III introduced tile-based graphics to RPGs. The NES version (1987) is shown here.

The early Ultima (originally Ultimatum) and Wizardry games had perhaps the largest influence on RPGs that came afterward. For instance, many innovations of the early Ultimas—in particular Ultima III: Exodus (1983)—by developer Richard Garriott eventually became standard among later RPGs in both the console (if somewhat simplified to fit the gamepad) and the personal computer markets. These included the use of tiled graphics and party-based combat, its mix of fantasy and science-fiction elements, and the inclusion of time travel (borrowed from the movie Time Bandits) as a plot device. Some of these elements were inspired by Wizardry, specifically the party-based system. The game was also revolutionary in its use of a written narrative to convey a larger story than was typically found in the minimal video game plots common at the time. Most games—including Garriott's own Akalabeth—tended to focus primarily on basic gameplay mechanics like combat without venturing much further into story and narrative.

In addition, Garriott would introduce in Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar a theme that would persist throughout later Ultimas—a system of chivalry and code of conduct in which the player, or "Avatar", tackles such problems as fundamentalism, racism, and xenophobia, and is tested periodically in both obvious and unseen ways based on his or her actions. This code of conduct, partly in response to efforts among some Christian groups to stem the tide of popularity behind Dungeons & Dragons and covering a range of virtues including compassion, justice, humility and honor, would continue until Ultima IX (1999), and would even be turned on its head in later titles as unintended and unforeseen consequences would start to become apparent in the surrounding world. This system of morals and ethics was unique, in that in other video games players could for the most part act and do as they wished and still be lauded as "heroes" by the game worlds' denizens, whereas in Ultima IV players were forced by the designer to consider the moral consequences of their actions. According to Garriott, Ultima was now "more than a mere fantasy escape. It provided a world with a framework of deeper meaning?a level of detail [and] diversity of interaction that is rarely attempted." "I thought people might completely reject this game because some folks play just to kill, kill, kill. To succeed in this game, you had to radically change the way you'd ever played a game before."

Ultima VII is still my favorite game. It's hard not to look at Oblivion and see the Ultima influence.

— Todd Howard, executive producer of the Elder Scrolls series

Originally published for the Apple II and considered by many to be the first modern CRPG, Ultima III would go on to be ported to many other platforms and influence the development of later titles, including such console RPGs as Excalibur (1983) and Dragon Quest (1986). The series as a whole would go on to span over a dozen titles, including the spin-off series Worlds of Ultima (1990–1991) and Ultima Underworld (1992–1993), as well as the landmark multiplayer online series, Ultima Online (1997). Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992) would offer players a full 360 degree view of the game world, and Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992) would be the first real-time title in the series, and could be played entirely using the mouse. Richard would later leave Origin Systems and Electronic Arts to form Destination Games under publisher NCsoft, and either created or worked on a number of NCsoft's MMORPGs, including Lineage (1998) and Tabula Rasa (2007), before splitting with the publisher in 2009.

Beginning roughly around the same time in 1981 on the Apple II, the Wizardry series would feature a 3D, first-person view, an intuitive interface, party-based combat, and pre-constructed levels that encouraged players to create their own maps. As with many other games of this time period, characters could be imported from previous games (in Wizardry's case, with their experience levels reduced); and a novel feature was the introduction of moral alignment to characters, which limited the areas players could visit. The series was also extremely difficult when compared to other RPGs of the time. Wizardry IV (1986) in particular is considered one of the most difficult CRPGs ever created. (It is also unique in that the player controls the evil wizard from the first game in an attempt to fight his way out of his prison dungeon and gain freedom in the world, above.) And, unlike Ultima which evolved and grew considerably with each installment, the Wizardry series retained and refined the same style and core mechanics over time, being updated only with improved graphics and level design as the years progressed. The series' most famous titles would also not come until years later (the series' latest installment would be published as recently as 2001).

Further innovations would be introduced by games like Dungeons of Daggorath (1982) and Telengard (1982, re-written in BASIC from an earlier version named DND for the PDP-10), which featured real-time instead of turn-based combat; and Tunnels of Doom (1982), which introduced separate screens for exploration and combat.

The Golden Age

Many early RPGs, including avatar, moria and Wizardry, used a primitive form of first-person perspective; and games like Dungeons of Daggorath and Dungeon Master also featured real-time gameplay. Pictured here is Dungeon Master: Chaos Strikes Back (1989).

Beginning with the release of Might and Magic: The Secret of the Inner Sanctum for the Apple II in 1986, the Might and Magic series would prove to be highly popular in the 1980s and onward. Featuring a mix of complex statistics, large numbers of weapons and spells, enormous worlds in which to play, the Might and Magic series would spawn a total of nine games—the most recent of which was released in 2002—as well as the popular turn-based strategy series Heroes of Might and Magic, making it among the most long-lived series of CRPGs along side Ultima and Wizardry. The series is also notable for making race and gender an important aspect of gameplay.

Starting in 1988 with Pool of Radiance for the Apple II and Commodore 64, Strategic Simulations, Inc. produced a series of "Gold Box" CRPGs, the first widely successful official video game adaptation of TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons license and rules. These games featured a first-person display for movement and exploration, combined with an overhead tactical display for combat that tried to model D&D's turn-based mechanics. The Gold Box series is probably what SSI are best known for; and is considered one of the defining series of the "Golden Age" of CRPGs. The games spawned a series of novels, and titles continued to be published up until 1993, when the game engine was finally retired (though users were still able to create their own adventures that could be played using the Gold Box engine if they purchased Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures). The latter titles were developed by Stormfront Studios, who also produced Neverwinter Nights, a multi-player implementation of the Gold Box engine for America Online which ran from 1991 to 1997. Just like the Wizardry series, characters could also be imported from one game into another.

In 1985, prior to the release of the Gold Box games, SSI also released Wizard's Crown, a "hardcore" RPG featuring parties of eight characters, a skill-based experience system, highly detailed combat mechanics, dozens of commands, injuries and bleeding, and strengths and weaknesses versus individual weapon classes. The game did not, however, feature much in terms of role-playing or narrative beyond buying, selling and killing. Wizard's Crown was followed by The Eternal Dagger in 1987, which was mostly the same except for the removal of a few of the more complicated elements.

Starting in 1987, FTL Games' Dungeon Master for the Atari ST introduced several user-interface innovations, such as direct manipulation of objects and the environment using the mouse, to first-person CRPGs. It was also one of the first series to popularize the real-time, first-person viewpoint as seen in more recent games like The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and first-person shooters. The game featured a complex magic system whereby magical spells could be created by combining runes in specific sequences. Working sequences were not detailed beforehand in the game manual; instead players would have to discover them on their own or through trial and error. Two sequels would follow in 1989 and 1993, and the game's first-person, real-time mechanics would be copied in SSI's "Black Box" series, starting with Eye of the Beholder in 1990. (1993's Betrayal at Krondor would also feature a magic system highly reminiscent of Dungeon Master's.) The game would sell 40,000 copies in its first year of release alone, and would go on to become the ST's best selling product of all time, reaching a market penetration of more than 50% of all the Atari STs ever sold.

Sierra Entertainment, known for its point-and-click adventure games, would produce the Quest for Glory series beginning in 1992, combining CRPG and adventure game mechanics together into a highly unique mix. Featuring involved stories, complex puzzles, as well as (lamentably, to some) arcade-like combat, the series would continue for a total of five titles, the most recent of which was released in 1998. Originally, the series was supposed to be a tetralogy, consisting of four games and containing the following themes and cyles: the four cardinal directions, the four classical elements, the four seasons and the four mythologies. However, when Shadows of Darkness was designed, it was thought that it would be too difficult for the hero to go straight from Shapeir to Mordavia and defeat the Dark One. To solve this problem, a new game, Wages of War, was inserted into the canon, causing a renumbering of the series.

Beginning with Betrayal at Krondor in 1993, Sierra would go on to publish the Krondor series, basing it upon the Midkemia setting created by author Raymond E. Feist. Featuring turn-based, tactical combat and a skill-based experience system, the game would unfortunately suffer due to outdated, polygonal graphics apparently unchanged from developer Dynamix's earlier flight simulators. Feist was heavily consulted during the development of the game, and would later go on to create his own novelization based upon the game. Two sequels would follow: Betrayal in Antara (1997), which would re-use the engine of the first game, but would be set in a different universe due to Sierra losing the license to the Krondor setting; and Return to Krondor (1998), which used a brand new engine, but was set once again in Feist's fictional universe.

Interplay, BioWare & Black Isle

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Interplay popularized the use of an overhead, axonometric projection in its RPGs during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Pictured here is Fallout 2 (1998).

Beginning in 1985, Interplay Productions would develop a string of hits in the form of The Bard's Tale and its sequels under publisher Electronic Arts, originally for the Apple II. Combining colorful graphics, a clean interface and simple rules, the series was one of the first CRPG series to reach a mainstream audience—including a series of spin-off novels by authors such as Mercedes Lackey—something that arguably did not occur again until the release of Diablo in 1997. The series was also remarkable at the time for allowing players to explore cities in detail instead of relegating them to simple menu screens with "buy"/"sell" options. Like the Gold Box series, a construction set was released in 1991 allowing players to create their own games, and the engine was re-used once again in Interplay's 1988 post-apocalyptic CRPG, Wasteland.

In the late 1990s, Interplay (now known as Interplay Entertainment and a publisher in its own right) produced several RPG titles through two new developers: Black Isle Studios and BioWare. In 1997, Black Isle released the groundbreaking Fallout, set in an alternate history future America following a nuclear holocaust. One of the few successful video game RPGs not set in the swords-and-sorcery setting, Fallout was notable for its open-ended, largely non-linear gameplay and quest system, tongue-in-cheek humor, and pervasive sense of style and imagery highly reminiscent of Interplay's earlier Wasteland. The game afforded players numerous moral choices to shape the world based on how NPCs reacted to the player, much like the original Ultimas. According to developer Chris Avellone, "I think there are a few reasons for Fallout's success. It gave you tremendous freedom to let you wander wherever you chose. This freedom—to take whatever quests you want and solve them however you choose—is what an RPG was always supposed to be about." Black Isle soon followed up with a sequel, and a tactical RPG based on the franchise by third-party developer Micro Forté would be published under Interplay's strategy division 14 Degrees East in 2001. Lastly, another critically acclaimed D&D title, Planescape: Torment, would be developed by Black Isle and published by Interplay in 1999, and would become known for its moody, artistic air and extensive writing.

BioWare's Baldur's Gate series, beginning in 1998, was no less important, being the most significant D&D series to be released since the Gold Box era. At the time—and despite being real-time instead of turn-based—the games created the most accurate and in-depth D&D simulation to date, and featured support for up to six-players in co-op mode. Baldur's Gate provided an epic story including NPC followers and written dialogue that continued through both titles and two expansion packs, solidifying BioWare's reputation as one of the premier designers of RPGs in the late '90s and into the next decade. An even more combat-oriented series, Icewind Dale—this time developed by Black Isle instead of BioWare—quickly followed. Collectively, Interplay's Fallout, Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate (particularly the last) are considered examples of some of the finest RPGs ever made.

Black Isle's games during this time period often shared engines to cut down on development time and costs, and most feature an overhead axonometrically projected third-person interface. Except for the two Fallout games, the rest of their titles used various versions of the Infinity Engine developed for Baldur's Gate by BioWare. The collapse of Interplay resulted in the shutdown of Black Isle and the cancellation of the third games in both the Fallout and Baldur's Gate series, as well as of an original title, Torn. Instead, they published a trio of console-only action RPGs based on the two franchises: Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (2001), Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II (2004), and Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel (2004). One of the last CRPGs released before Interplay seemingly went defunct was the poorly received Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader (2003) by developer Reflexive Entertainment, notable for using the SPECIAL system introduced in Fallout.

Beginning in 2008, using money from its sale of the Fallout intellectual property to Bethesda Softworks, and following a sale of its controlling interests to a Luxembourg-based firm, Interplay announced that it was going to restart its in-basement game development studio and develop sequels to some of its classic console series, including Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, as well as Wii Virtual Console versions of some of their other titles. It is also believed that Interplay intends to develop a massively multiplayer online game based on the Fallout franchise, though their contract with Bethesda stipulates that they must do so before 2011. In 2007 Bethesda attempted to file an injunction against Interplay in an attempt to prevent them from developing the game, though the dispute has since being taken out of court.

Diablo & action RPGs

See also: Action role-playing game

Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed RPG released by Blizzard Entertainment on January 2, 1997 in the midst of a stagnant PC RPG market. Set in the fictional Kingdom of Khanduras in the world of Sanctuary, Diablo has the player take control of a lone hero battling to rid the world of Diablo, the Lord of Terror, in a fast action, point-and-click environment. While Diablo in some ways resembles a roguelike game in its focus on dungeon crawling and its procedurally generated levels (Diablo's development was influenced by Moria and Angband), major differences include the commercial quality of the game's graphics, its simplified character development, and the fact that it plays in real-time rather than being turn-based. Not least of all contributing to Diablo's success was its support for online, collaborative play through its online service, Battle.net (as well as over a local area network using the IPX protocol, a telephone line with the use of a modem, etc.), thus greatly extended its replay value, though cheating remained a major factor.

Diablo's effect on the market was significant; it had many imitators and its style of combat went on to be used by many games that came after. For many years afterwards, games that closely mimicked the Diablo formula were referred to as "Diablo clones", and games of its type are still frequently referred to as "action RPGs". Typically action RPGs feature each player controlling a single character and a strong focus on combat and action with plot and character interaction kept to a minimum. For instance, the majority of commands in Diablo—such as moving and attacking—are executed using mouse clicks (though learned spells can also be assigned to hotkeys); and in many action RPGs, non-player characters have only one purpose—be it to buy or sell items or upgrade the player's abilities, or issue them with combat-centric quests. Unlike many of the classic "Golden Age" RPGs, there are also few or no puzzles, with most problems instead having an action-based solution (such as breaking a wooden door open with an axe rather than finding the key needed to unlock it).

An expansion pack to Diablo, titled Diablo: Hellfire, was released in 1997; followed by a sequel, Diablo II, in 2000. The sequel later received its own expansion, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction, in 2001; and three of the four titles are commonly sold together in stores as part of the Diablo Battle Chest. A third game, Diablo III, was announced on June 28, 2008, and is currently in development. Other examples of action RPGs include Dungeon Siege (2002), Sacred (2004), Torchlight (2009), Din's Curse (2011) and Hellgate: London (2007)—the last of which was developed by a team headed by former Blizzard employees, some of whom had participated in the creation of the Diablo series. And, like Diablo and Rogue before it, Torchlight, Din's Curse and Hellgate: London made use of procedural generation to generate game levels.

New millennium

The new century saw a trend toward ever-improving graphical quality, combined with increasingly detailed and realistic game worlds, particularly in the move to 3D game engines; as well as an increasing number of multi-platform releases.

In a nod toward the burgeoning mod scene for first-person shooters—and like other RPG construction kits that came before it—the Aurora and Electron (pictured here) toolsets for Neverwinter Nights and Neverwinter Nights 2 allowed users to create and share their own custom modules online with their friends.

BioWare went on to produce Neverwinter Nights (2002) for Atari, which was the first CRPG to fuse the third-edition Dungeons & Dragons rules with a 3D display in which the user could vary the viewing angle and distance. New game content could be generated using the Aurora toolset supplied as part of the game release, and players could share their modules and play cooperatively with their friends online. Based in part on experiences while playing Ultima Online, one of the goals during development was to reproduce the feel of a live pen-and-paper RPG experience, complete with human dungeon master. NWN was very successful commercially, spawning three official expansion packs as well as a sequel developed by Obsidian Entertainment (described below). BioWare later went on to produce the highly acclaimed Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which married the d20 system with the very popular Star Wars franchise; as well as the original titles Jade Empire (2005), Mass Effect (2007), Dragon Age: Origins (2009), and Mass Effect 2 (2010)—all of which were released for multiple platforms. Dragon Age II is scheduled for release in 2011.

During the production of Fallout 2, some of Black Isle's key members left the studio to form Troika Games, which released Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (2001), followed by the highly anticipated The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003) based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition rules and Greyhawk setting. This was soon followed by Troika's last game, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (2004), based on White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade setting. Although these games developed an enthusiastic fanbase, none of them were financially successful or sold particularly well. ToEE in particular was heavily criticized for shipping with numerous bugs, and caused an outcry when Atari dropped early support for the game. 2005 saw Troika Games in financial trouble, and most of the developers left for other studios, rendering the group dead.

When Black Isle closed down, several employees formed Obsidian Entertainment, who in early 2005 released Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, the sequel to BioWare's successful Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Obsidian later created another BioWare game sequel, Neverwinter Nights 2, released on Halloween of 2006 and featuring the 3.5 Edition D&D ruleset. It was later followed by two expansions and an "adventure pack" in 2007 and 2008. Also beginning in 2006, Obsidian Entertainment was developing a role-playing game based on the Aliens film franchise, but it was later canceled along with an original title with the working name of Seven Dwarves. Obsidian's most recent RPGs are Alpha Protocol (2010), a modern day spy thriller released for multiple platforms; and Fallout: New Vegas (2010), the latest installment in the Fallout franchise. The company is currently working on Dungeon Siege 3 as well as a second, un-named title.

The 2000s also saw the release of the Gothic series by German developer Piranha Bytes, starting with the first title in 2001. Lauded for its complex interaction with other in-game characters and attractive graphics, it was nonetheless criticized for a difficult control scheme and high system requirements. The third game in particular was notable for its "ton of quests, rewards exploration and approachable combat", but also for its "system hogging, feeling unfinished[sic] and atrocious voice acting". After disagreements, Piranha Bytes split from publisher JoWood Productions in 2007; and due to a contract between the two companies, JoWooD retained some rights to the Gothic name and to current and future games released under that trademark. Piranha Bytes have since gone on to develop a new series, Risen, under a different publisher; and a fourth, "casual" installment of the Gothic series—this time by developer Spellbound Entertainment—was released by JoWood in 2010.

Bethesda

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The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion exemplifies the switch toward real-time polygonal graphics during the past decade.

Since 1994, Bethesda Softworks has been dedicated to developing CRPGs in The Elder Scrolls series, with 1996's Daggerfall being a notable 3D first-person RPG with an expansive world. The series began a focus on sandbox gameplay, focusing on the player's wide choices of free-roaming activities unrelated to the main game's storyline. According to Todd Howard, "I think [Daggerfall is] one of those games that people can 'project' themselves on. It does so many things and allows [for] so many play styles that people can easily imagine what type of person they'd like to be in game."

The series' popularity exploded with the release of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002), released for the Xbox and PC. This game became an award-winning and highly successful CRPG due to its open-ended play, a richly detailed game world, and flexibility in character creation and advancement. The title's sandbox gameplay often inspired comparisons to Grand Theft Auto III. Two expansions were released: Tribunal in 2002 and Bloodmoon in 2003. The next installment, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006), released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as well as the PC, was a much-enhanced sequel featuring scripted NPC behaviors, significantly improved graphics, as well as the company's first foray into micro transactions—a recent trend among Western RPG makers. A total of two expansion packs, Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine, were eventually released, as well as several, smaller downloadable packages costing each between $1–3.

The decision by the original creators of Fallout to scrap plans for Fallout 3 (noted now as the Van Buren project), and Bethesda's subsequent acquisition of the Fallout brand, left Fallout's significant fan community with mixed feelings towards Bethesda working on the project. However, Bethesda released Fallout 3 in North America on October 28, 2008 to favorable reviews and much fanfare; and the game was quickly followed by a total of five "content packs". Another installment, titled Fallout: New Vegas, was created by Obsidian Entertainment using the same engine as Fallout 3 and released to generally favorable reviews in 2010.

Independent games & Eastern Europe

Finally, the new millenium would see a number of independently published RPGs for the PC, as well as a number of CRPGs developed in Europe and points farther east—leading some to call Eastern Europe a hotbed of RPG development in recent years. Examples of independent, or "indie", RPGs include Spiderweb Software's Geneforge (2001–2009) and Avernum (2000–2010) series; Pyrrhic Tales: Prelude to Darkness (2002) by Zero Sum Software; Eschalon: Book I (2007) and Book II (2010) by Basilisk Games; Depths of Peril (2007) and Din's Curse (2010) by Soldak Entertainment; and Knights of the Chalice (2009). Examples of Eastern and Central European RPGs include Belgian developer Larian Studios' Divinity, series starting with Divine Divinity (2002); Russian developer Nival Interactive's series of tactical RPGs, starting with Silent Storm (2003); German developer Ascaron Entertainment's Sacred series of action RPGs, starting with Sacred (2004); Polish developer CD Projekt's The Witcher (2007); Polish developer Reality Pump's Two Worlds (2007); as well as a number of less successful titles. Examples in hybrid genres include Russian developer Elemental Games' hybrid RPG/strategy game/space sims Space Rangers (2002) and Space Rangers 2: Dominators (2004); Ukrainian developer GSC Game World's hybrid RPG/first-person shooter, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl (2007); and Turkish developer TaleWorlds' hybrid RPG/medieval combat simulator, Mount&Blade (2008).

In 2009, a pair of Obsidian developers left to form their own company, DoubleBear Productions, and begin development of an RPG utilizing Iron Tower Studios' The Age of Decadence game engine (also in development). Lastly, veteran game designer Cleve Blakemore's "Golden Era" retro-RPG, Grimoire, would become notorious for having been "close to release" for over a decade, leading many to label it as vaporware and saying it would never be released (which Blakemore staunchly denies—and beta test versions have in fact been seen and played by members of the gaming press).

Video game consoles

1982-1986: Origins

Dragon Warrior (1986) combined the Ultima series' overhead exploration with the Wizardry series' menu-driven combat to produce a recipe that persisted throughout many later series and iterations in Japan.

The earliest role-playing video game on a console was Dragonstomper on the Atari 2600 in 1982. That same year, Koei released an early Japanese role-playing video game, Danchizuma no Yuwaku, an NEC PC-8001 title with adult eroge and adventure game elements. Another early console RPG was Bokosuka Wars, originally released for the Sharp X1 computer in 1983 and later ported to the NES in 1985. The game was responsible for laying the foundations for the tactical role-playing game genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan, with its blend of role-playing and strategy video game elements. The game revolves around a leader who must lead his army against overwhelming enemy forces, while recruiting soldiers along the way and with each unit able to gain experience and level up through battle. The game was also an early example of a real-time, action RPG. In 1984, The Black Onyx was released in Japan on the NEC PC-8801. It soon became one of the highest selling titles of that year, and it was considered to be the game of the year by the largest Japanese game magazine at the time. This game is credited with bringing the genre into the mainstream in Japan.

The cyberpunk RPG Psychic City, released by HOT・B for the FM7 and PC-8801 in 1984, departed from the fantasy theme common in early RPGs (such as Hydlide and The Black Onyx) in favour of a science fiction plot, set in a post-apocalyptic city devastated by World War III and where the protagonist fights using psychic/telepathic abilities. Square also created their first RPGs around that time, including several early futuristic sci-fi RPGs for the PC-8801, such as 1985's Genesis: Beyond The Revelation which featured a post-apocalyptic setting, and the 1986 game Cruise Chaser Blassty where the player controlled a customizable mecha robot from a first-person view. Other sci-fi RPGs released in 1985 include The Earth Fighter Rayieza by Enix, and Kogado Studio's MSX game Cosmic Soldier, which introduced an early dialogue conversation system, where the player can recruit allies by talking to them, choose whether to kill or spare an enemy, and engage enemies in conversation, similar to the later more famous Megami Tensei.

Yuji Horii and his team at Chunsoft began production on Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) in 1985. After Enix published the game in early 1986, it has become regarded as the template for future console RPGs released since then. The game was influenced by the first-person random battles in Wizardry, the overhead movement in Ultima, and the mystery storytelling in Horii's own 1983 visual novel game Portopia Serial Murder Case. Horii's intention behind Dragon Quest was to create a RPG that appeals to a wider audience unfamiliar with the genre or video games in general. This required the creation of a new kind of RPG, that didn't rely on previous D&D experience, didn't require hundreds of hours of rote fighting, and that could appeal to any kind of gamer. Compared to statistics-heavy computer RPGs, Dragon Quest was a more streamlined, faster-paced game based on exploration and combat, and featured a top-down view in dungeons, in contrast to the first-person view used for dungeons in earlier computer RPGs. The game also placed a greater emphasis on storytelling and emotional involvement, building on Horii's previous work Portopia Serial Murder Case, but this time introducing a coming of age tale for Dragon Quest that audiences could relate to, making use of the RPG level-building gameplay as a way to represent this. It also featured elements still found in most console RPGs, like major quests interwoven with minor subquests and an incremental spell system, alongside anime-style art by Akira Toriyama and a classical score by Koichi Sugiyama that was considered revolutionary for console gaming. The gameplay itself was non-linear, with most of the game not blocked in any way other than by being infested with monsters that can easily kill an unprepared player. This was balanced by the use of bridges to signify a change in difficulty and a new level progression that departed from D&D, where in the 1st and 2nd editions, players are given random initial stats and a constant growth rate. Dragon Quest instead gave the player some extra hit points at the start and a level progression where the effective rate of character growth decelerates over time, similar to how the more recent editions of D&D have balanced the gameplay. Dragon Quest also gave players a clear objective from the start of the game and a series of smaller scenarios to build up the player's strength in order to achieve that objective. The ending could also be altered depending on the moral dialogue choice of whether or not the protagonist should join the antagonist on his evil conquest towards the end of the game. The game also had a limited inventory requiring item management, while the caves were dark, requiring the use of a torch to display a field of vision around the character.

With Dragon Quest becoming widely popular in Japan, such that local municipalities were forced to place restrictions on where and when the game could be sold, the Dragon Quest series is still considered a bellwether for the Japanese video game market. Dragon Quest did not reach North America until 1989, when it was released as Dragon Warrior, the first NES RPG to be released in North America. The release of Dragon Quest was followed by NES remakes of the early Wizardry and Ultima titles over the next several years by Pony Canyon.

The mid-1980s also saw the emergence of the action role-playing game subgenre on Japanese computers and arcades, and then consoles. The company initially at the forefront of this was Nihon Falcom. Their 1984 game, Dragon Slayer, was a simple real-time treasure grab game that laid the foundations for overhead action RPGs. Its 1985 sequel, Xanadu, was a full-fledged RPG, with character stats and a large quest. What set Xanadu apart from other RPGs was its action-based combat, incorporating a side-scrolling platform game view during exploration and an overhead view during battle, as well as its innovative gameplay mechanics such as individual experience for equipped items. The Dragon Slayer series made its debut on consoles with Faxanadu, an early action RPG for the NES, released in 1987 as a side-story to Xanadu. The way the Dragon Slayer series reworked the entire game system of each installment was possibly an influence on Final Fantasy, which would do the same for each of its installments. Other notable early action RPGs included two of Namco's 1984 arcade games: The Tower of Druaga, which was ported to the NES in 1985, and Dragon Buster, the first video game to feature a life meter (called "Vitality" in-game), also ported to the NES in 1987. These titles, alongside the early Dragon Slayer games, laid the foundations for future action RPG series like Hydlide, Ys and The Legend of Zelda. Hydlide, released for the NEC PC-8801 computer in 1984 and the Famicom in 1986, introduced several innovations, including the ability to switch between attack mode and defense mode, quick save and load options which can be done at any moment of the game through the use of passwords as the primary back-up, and the introduction of a health regeneration mechanic where health and magic slowly regenerate when standing still, a feature also used in the Ys series from 1987 onwards. Magical Zoo's The Screamer, released for the PC-8801 in 1985, was the earliest example of a real-time shooter-based RPG. Set after World War III, the game also introduced elements of post-apocalyptic science fiction as well as cyberpunk and bio-horror themes.

An important influence on the action RPG genre came from the 1986 action-adventure game, The Legend of Zelda, which was not itself an action RPG since it lacked key RPG mechanics such as experience points, but had many features in common with RPGs and served as the template for future action RPGs. In contrast to previous action RPGs such as Dragon Slayer and Hydlide which required the player to bump into enemies in order to attack them, The Legend of Zelda featured an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. It was also an early example of non-linear open world gameplay, and introduced innovations like battery backup saving. It was largely responsible for the surge of action-oriented RPGs released since the late 1980s, both on consoles as well as computers; it was often cited as an influence on action-oriented computer RPGs, such as the 1988 Origin Systems game Times of Lore, for example.

1987-1989: Evolution

In 1987, console RPGs came into their own with the release of various notable console RPGs distinguishing themselves from computer RPGs. Shigeru Miyamoto's Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for the Famicom Disk System was one of the earliest action RPGs, combining the action-adventure framework of its predecessor The Legend of Zelda with the statistical elements of turn-based RPGs. Dragon Quest II introduced a party system where, instead of beginning the game with an entire party like in previous computer RPGs, the player begins the game with only one character and gradually recruits more party members during the course of the game. The game also introduced a sailing ship that could be landed anywhere, allowing the entire game world to be explored in an open-ended manner, and an expanded inventory management system giving each character an individual inventory that holds up to eight items, placing a greater emphasis on conservative item management between the characters. Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei by Atlus for the NES abandoned the common medieval fantasy setting and sword and sorcery theme in favour of a modern science-fiction setting and horror theme. It also introduced the monster-catching mechanic with its demon-summoning system, which allowed the player to recruit enemies into their party, through a conversation system that gives the player a choice of whether to kill or spare an enemy and allows them to engage any opponent in conversation. Sega's original Phantasy Star for the Master System established a number of genre conventions, with its "strong plot that involved quest for revenge and corruption by power, background stories for party members, individual spells that required magic points," and combined sci-fi & fantasy setting that set it apart from the D&D staple. It was also one of the first games to feature a female protagonist and animated monster encounters, and allowed inter-planetary travel between three planets. Miracle Warriors: Seal of the Dark Lord was a third-person RPG that featured a wide open world and a mini-map on the corner of the screen. That same year also saw the release of Nobunaga's Ambition for the NES, originally released for Japanese computers in 1983. It was an early attempt at combining role-playing, turn-based grand strategy and management simulation elements, setting the standard for future simulation RPGs.

The Magic of Scheherazade, released in 1987, was notable for several innovations, including a unique setting based on the Arabian Nights, time travel between five different time periods, a unique combat system featuring both real-time solo action and turn-based team battles, and the introduction of team attacks where two party members could join forces to perform an extra-powerful attack. Dragon Slayer IV: Legacy of the Wizard was an early example of a non-linear open-world action RPG, featuring some "Metroidvania" elements. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest was an action RPG that combined the platform-action mechanics of the original Castlevania with the open world of an action-adventure and RPG mechanics such as experience points. It also introduced a day-night cycle that affects when certain NPCs appear in certain locations and offered three possible multiple endings depending on the time it took to complete the game. Square's Cleopatra no Mahou was an adventure RPG with a unique plot revolving around archeology. Square's original Final Fantasy for the NES featured several unique features, including an experimental character creation system that allowed the player to create their own parties and assign different character classes to party members; the concept of time travel; side-view battles, with the player characters on the right and the enemies on the left, which soon became the norm for numerous console RPGs; and the use of transportation for travel, "by ship, canoe, and even flying airship." While creating Final Fantasy, Hironobu Sakaguchi took inspiration from certain elements in Hayao Miyazaki's anime films, such as the airships being inspired by Castle in the Sky. Some of these 1987 releases proved popular and went on to spawn their own RPG franchises, particularly the Megami Tensei, Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy series. In particular, the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series remain popular today, Final Fantasy more so in the West and Dragon Quest more so in Japan.

In 1988, Dragon Quest III introduced a character progression system allowing the player to change the party's character classes during the course of the game, and keep a character's stats and skills learned from previous classes. This class-changing system shaped the gameplay of future RPGs, especially the Final Fantasy series, while a similar class-changing system later also appeared in Wizardry VI and VII. While the earlier Dragon Quest games were also non-linear, Dragon Quest III was the most substantial example of open-world gameplay among the early Dragon Quest games. It also allowed the player to swap characters in and out of the party at will, and another "major innovation was the introduction of day/night cycles; certain items, characters, and quests are only accessible at certain times of day." Final Fantasy II, is considered "the first true Final Fantasy game", introducing an "emotional story line, morally ambiguous characters, tragic events," and a story to be "emotionally experienced rather than concluded from gameplay and conversations." It also replaced traditional levels and experience points with a new activity-based progression system that required "gradual development of individual statistics through continuous actions of the same kind," a mechanic that has been used in a number of later RPGs such as the SaGa and Grandia series, Final Fantasy XIV, and The Elder Scrolls series. Final Fantasy II also featured open-ended exploration, and introduced an innovative dialogue system where keywords or phrases can be memorized and mentioned during conversations with NPCs, the theme of an evil empire against a small band of rebels (similar to Star Wars), and the iconic chocobo, a fictional creature inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

In 1989, Phantasy Star II for the Genesis established many conventions of the genre, including an epic, dramatic, character-driven storyline dealing with serious themes and subject matter, and a strategy-based battle system. The game's science fiction story was unique, reversing the common alien invasion scenario by instead presenting Earthlings as the invading antagonists rather than the defending protagonists. Tengai Makyo released for the PC Engine CD that same year was the first RPG released on CD-ROM and the first in the genre to feature animated cut scenes and voice acting. The game's plot was also unusual for its feudal Japan setting and its emphasis on humour. Capcom's Sweet Home for the NES introduced a moden Japanese horror theme and laid the foundations for the survival horror genre, later serving as the main inspiration for Resident Evil (1996). Like Resident Evil, Sweet Home featured the use of scattered notes as a storytelling mechanic and a number of multiple endings depending on which characters survived to the end. That same year saw the released of Dungeon Explorer, developed by Atlus for the TurboGrafx-16, which is considered a pioneer title in the action RPG genre with its multiplayer cooperative gameplay, allowing up to five players to play simultaneously. That year also saw the release of Super Hydlide, the Mega Drive port of the 1987 MSX action RPG Hydlide 3: The Space Memories, which adopted the morality meter of its 1985 predecessor Hydlide II: Shine of Darkness where the player's alignment changes depending on whether the player kills humans, good monsters, or evil monsters, and expanded its predecessor's time option, which speeds up or slows down the gameplay, with the introduction of an in-game clock setting day-night cycles and a need to sleep and eat. It also made other improvements such as cut scenes for the opening and ending, a combat system closer to The Legend of Zelda, the choice between distinct character classes, and a weight system affecting the player's movement depending on the weight of carried equipment. The Final Fantasy Legend, the first in the SaGa series, adopted Final Fantasy II's activity-based progression, expanding it with weapons that shatter with repeated use, and added new ideas such as a race of monsters that mutate depending on which fallen foes they consume. The game also introduced the concept of memento mori, with a theme revolving around death, while the plot consisted of loosely connected stories and sidequests rather than an epic narrative.

1990-1994: Early Golden Age

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Final Fantasy IV (1991) was a pioneer of dramatic storytelling in RPGs (alongside the earlier Phantasy Star games) and introduced the hybrid "Active Time Battle" system.

The 1990s is often considered the ‘golden age’ of console RPGs. Console RPGs distinguished themselves from computer RPGs to a greater degree in the early 1990s. As console RPGs became more heavily story-based than their computer counterparts, one of the major differences that emerged during this time was in the portrayal of the characters, with most American computer RPGs at the time having characters devoid of personality or background as their purpose was to represent avatars which the player uses to interact with the world, in contrast to Japanese console RPGs which depicted intricately related characters who had distinctive personalities and traits, with many of them, such as Final Fantasy and Lufia, seeming to offer more of the traditional role-playing, with players assuming the roles of people who cared about each other, fell in love or even had families. Romance in particular was a theme that was common in most console RPGs but alien to most computer RPGs at the time. During the 1990s, console RPGs had become increasingly dominant, exerting a greater influence on computer RPGs than the other way around. Console RPGs had eclipsed computer RPGs for some time, though computer RPGs began making a comeback towards the end of the decade with interactive choice-filled adventures.

In 1990, Dragon Quest IV introduced a new method of storytelling: segmenting the plot into segregated chapters. While this made the game more linear than its predecessor, it allowed for greater characterization, with each chapter dedicated to a particular character's background story. The game also introduced an AI system called "Tactics" which allowed the player to modify the strategies used by the allied party members while maintaining full control of the hero. Final Fantasy III introduced the classic "job system", a character progression engine allowing the player to change the character classes, as well as acquire new and advanced classes and combine class abilities, during the course of the game. That same year also saw the release of Nintendo's Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Tsurugi, a game that set the template for the tactical role-playing game genre and was the first entry in the Fire Emblem series. Another notable strategy RPG that year was Koei's Bandit Kings of Ancient China, which was successful in combining the strategy RPG and management simulation genres, building on its own Nobunaga's Ambition series that began in 1983. Several early RPGs set in a post-apocalyptic future were also released that year, including Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II, and Last Armageddon, a 1988 NEC PC-8801 computer game ported to the PC Engine CD and NES that year, featuring an innovative storyline set in a desolate future where humanity has become extinct and the protagonists are demon monsters waging war against an alien species. Another post-apocalyptic RPG that year was Crystalis, which was inspired by Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Crystalis also made advances to the action role-playing game genre, being a true action RPG that combined the real-time action-adventure combat and open world of The Legend of Zelda with the level-building and spell-casting of traditional RPGs like Final Fantasy. Star Cruiser, released for the Mega Drive that year, was another innovative action RPG that year. Originally released for the PC-8801 computer in early 1988, it was notable for being a very early example of an RPG with fully 3D polygonal graphics, combined with first-person shooter combat. That year also saw the release of Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom, which featured an innovative and original branching storyline, which spans three generations of characters and can be altered depending on which character the protagonist of each generation marries, leading to four possible endings. Data East's Gate of Doom was an action RPG that combined beat 'em up gameplay with fantasy role-playing and introduced an isometric perspective. Hideo Kojima's SD Snatcher abandoned random encounters and introduced an innovative first-person turn-based battle system where firearm weapons (each with different abilities and target ranges) have limited ammunition, the player can aim at specific parts of the enemy's body with each part weakening the enemy in different ways, and an auto-battle feature could be enabled. Such a battle system has rarely been used since, though similar battle systems based on targetting individual body parts can later be found in Square's Vagrant Story (2000), Bethesda's Fallout 3 (2008), and Nippon Ichi's Last Rebellion (2010).

In 1991, Final Fantasy Adventure, the first in the Mana series, introduced the ability to kill townspeople, something that most RPGs still lack today. The most important RPG that year, however, was Final Fantasy IV, one of the first role-playing games to feature a complex, involving plot, placing a much greater emphasis on character development and personal relationships, and pioneering "the whole concept of dramatic storytelling in an RPG." It also introduced a new battle system: the "Active Time Battle" system, developed by Hiroyuki Ito, where the time-keeping system does not stop. On the battle screen, each character has an ATB meter that gradually fills, and the player is allowed to issue a command to that character once the meter is full. The fact that enemies can attack or be attacked at any time is credited with injecting urgency and excitement into the combat system. The ATB combat system was considered revolutionary for being a hybrid between turn-based and real-time combat, with its requirement of faster reactions from players appealing to those who were more used to action games. That same year, Crea-Tech's Metal Max was an early non-linear, open-ended, post-apocalyptic, vehicle combat RPG that lacked a predetermined story path and instead allowed the player to choose which missions to follow in whatever order while being able to visit any place in the game world. The ending also can be determined by the player's actions, while they can continue playing the game even after the ending. The game also allowed the player to choose the character classes for each player character as well as create and modify the tanks used in battle. The Metal Max series continued to allow tank customization and open-ended gameplay, while also allowing the player to obtain an ending at almost any time, particularly Metal Saga, which could be completed with an ending scenario just minutes into the game, making it the shortest possible RPG. Telenet Japan released a console remake of its 1988 action-platform RPG Exile, which was controversial, with a plot revolving around a time-traveling Crusades-era Syrian Islamic Assassin who assassinates various religious/historical figures as well as modern-day political leaders, with similarities to the present-day Assassin's Creed action game series, while the gameplay of Exile involved taking drugs that increase or decrease statistics and affect the player's heart-rate, displayed using a heart monitor.

In 1992, Final Fantasy V improved on the ATB system by introducing a time gauge to indicate to the player which character's turn is next, and it expanded the job system by offering more customization options with more than 22 job classes and giving each character greater flexibility by allowing them to learn secondary abilities from each job before changing classes. The job and ATB systems continued to be used in later Final Fantasy titles. 1992 also saw the release of Dragon Quest V, a game that has been praised for its involving, emotional family-themed narrative divided by different periods of time, something that has appeared in very few video games before or since. It has also been credited as the first known video game to feature a playable pregnancy, a concept that has since appeared in later games such as Harvest Moon, The Sims 2 and Fable II. Dragon Quest V's monster-collecting mechanic, where monsters can be defeated, captured, added to the party, and gain their own experience levels, also influenced many later franchises such as Pokémon, Digimon and Dokapon. In turn, the concept of collecting everything in a game, in the form of achievements or similar rewards, has since become a common trend in video games. Dragon Quest V also expanded the AI "Tactics" system of its predecessor by allowing each ally's AI routines to be set individually. Shin Megami Tensei, released in 1992 for the SNES, introduced an early moral alignment system that has an impact on the direction and outcome of the storyline. It gave the player the freedom to choose between three different paths: Chaos, Law, and Neutral, none of which is portrayed as right or wrong. The deep personal choices the player makes throughout the game affects the protagonist's alignment, leading to different possible paths and multiple endings. This has since become a hallmark of the Megami Tensei series. Another non-linear RPG released that year was Romancing Saga, an open-world RPG by Square that offered many choices and allowed players to complete quests in any order, with the decision of whether or not to participate in any particular quest affecting the outcome of the storyline. The game also allowed players to choose from eight different characters, each with their own stories that start in different places and offer different outcomes. Romancing SaGa thus succeeded in providing a very different experience during each run through the game, something that later non-linear RPGs such as SaGa Frontier and Fable had promised but were unable to live up to. The SaGa series has since become known for its open-ended gameplay. The series is also known for having an activity-based progression system instead of experience levels, and since Romancing Saga, a combo system where up to five party members can perform a combined special attack. Unlike other RPGs at the time, Romancing SaGa also required characters to pay mentors to teach them abilities, whether it's using certain weapons or certain proficiencies like opening a chest or dismantling a trap. Data East's Heracles no Eikō III, written by Kazushige Nojima, introduced the plot element of a nameless immortal suffering from amnesia, and Nojima would later revisit the amnesia theme in Final Fantasy VII and Glory of Heracles. The TurboGrafx-CD port of Dragon Knight II released that year was also notable for introducing erotic adult content to consoles, though such content had often appeared in Japanese computer RPGs since the early 1980s. That same year, Game Arts began the Lunar series on the Sega CD with Lunar: The Silver Star, one of the first successful CD-ROM RPGs, featuring both voice and text, and considered one of the best RPGs in its time. The game was praised for its soundtrack, emotionally engaging storyline, and strong characterization. It also introduced an early form of level-scaling where the bosses would get stronger depending on the protagonist's level, a mechanic that was later used in Enix's The 7th Saga and extended to normal enemies in Square's Romancing Saga 3.

In 1993, Square's Secret of Mana, the second in the Mana series, further advanced the action RPG subgenre with its introduction of cooperative multiplayer into the genre. The game was created by the team behind the first three Final Fantasy titles: Nasir Gebelli, Koichi Ishii, and Hiromichi Tanaka. It was intended to be one of the first CD-ROM RPGs, as a launch title for the SNES CD add-on, but had to be altered to fit onto a standard game cartridge after the SNES CD project was dropped. The game received considerable acclaim, for its innovative pausable real-time battle system, the "Ring Command" menu system, its innovative cooperative multiplayer gameplay, where the second or third players could drop in and out of the game at any time rather than players having to join the game at the same time, and the customizable AI settings for computer-controlled allies. The game has influenced a number of later action RPGs. That same year also saw the release of Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, which introduced the use of pre-programmable combat manoeuvers called 'macros', a means of setting up the player's party to deliver custom attack combos. Madou Monogatari, a 1989 MSX and PC-98 computer RPG ported to the Game Gear handheld console in 1993, had several unique features, including magic-oriented turn-based combat that completely lacked physical attacks, and the replacement of numerical statistics with visual representations, where the protagonist's condition is represented by her facial expressions and sprite graphics while experience is measured in jewels that encircle the screen, with the only visible numerical statistic being the collected gold. That same year, T&E Soft released Sword World SFC, the Super Famicom version of the PC-98 game Sword World PC released a year earlier. It was officially based on Sword World RPG, a popular Japanese table-top role-playing game. The video game versions were multiplayer titles and early attempts at recreating an open-ended, table-top role-playing experience on video game platforms, being set in the same world as Sword World and implementing the same rules and scenarios. That year also saw the release of Romancing Saga 2, which further expanded the non-linear gameplay of its predecessor. While in the original Romancing Saga, scenarios were changed according to dialogue choices during conversations, Romancing Saga 2 further expanded on this by having unique storylines for each character that can change depending on the player's actions, including who is chosen, what is said in conversation, what events have occurred, and who is present in the party.

In 1994, Final Fantasy VI moved away from the medieval setting of its predecessors, instead being set in a steampunk environment, and dealing with post-apocalyptic themes. The game received considerable acclaim, for improvements such as its broadened thematic scope, plotlines, characters, multiple-choice scenarios, and variation of play. Square's Live A Live, released for the Super Famicom in Japan, featured eight different characters and stories, with the first seven unfolding in any order the player chooses, as well as four different endings. The game's ninja chapter in particular was an early example of stealth game elements in an RPG, requiring the player to infiltrate a castle, rewarding the player if the entire chapter can be completed without engaging in combat. Other chapters had similar innovations, such as Akira's chapter where the character uses telepathic powers to discover information. That same year saw the release of the 3DO console port of the 1991 PC RPG Knights of Xentar, which had introduced a unique pausable real-time battle system, where characters automatically attack based on a list of different AI scripts chosen by the player. Robotrek by Quintet and Ancient was a predecessor to Pokémon in the sense that the protagonist does not himself fight, but sends out his robots to do so. Like Pokémon, Robotrek was designed to appeal to a younger audience, allowed team customization, and each robot was kept in a ball.

1995-1999: Late Golden Age

Final Fantasy VII (1997), the first title in the series to be rendered in 3D, is one of the best-selling RPGs, retaining its popularity to this day and spawning the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII in recent years.

In 1995, Square's Chrono Trigger raised the standards for the genre, with certain aspects that were considered revolutionary in its time, including its nonlinear gameplay, branching plot, more than ten different endings, plot-related sidequests, a unique battle system with innovations such as combo attacks, and lack of random encounters. It also introduced the concept of New Game+, though this game mode has its origins in the original Legend of Zelda. Chrono Trigger also re-introduced the concept of time travel in RPGs, which had rarely been dealt with in video games since the original Final Fantasy. That same year, Square's Romancing Saga 3 featured a storyline that could be told differently from the perspectives of up to eight different characters and introduced a level-scaling system where the enemies get stronger as the characters do, a mechanic that was later used in Final Fantasy VIII. Enix's Dragon Quest VI introduced an innovative scenario with a unique real world and dream world setting, which seems to have had an influence on the later Square role-playing games Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy X. Dragon Quest VI also improved on the inventory management of its predecessors with the addition of a bag to store extra items. Meanwhile, Quintet's Terranigma allowed players to shape the game world through town-building simulation elements, expanding on its 1992 predecessor Soul Blazer, while Square's Seiken Densetsu 3 allowed a number of different possible storyline paths and endings depending on which combination of characters the player selected.

In 1996, the tactical RPG Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu gave players the ability to affect the relationships between different characters, which in turn affected the storyline as these relationships led to different characters appearing in the second generation of the game's plot. That same year, Enix released tri-Ace's sci-fi action RPG Star Ocean, which also gave players the ability to affect the relationships between different characters through its "private actions" social system, where the protagonist's relationship points with the other characters are affected by the player's choices, which in turn affects the storyline, leading to branching paths and multiple different endings. That same year, Treasure's Guardian Heroes allowed players to alter the storyline through their actions, such as choosing between a number of branching paths leading to multiple different endings and through the Karma meter which changes depending on whether the player kills civilians or shows mercy to enemies.

The next major revolution came in the late 1990s, which saw the rise of optical disks in fifth generation consoles. The implications for RPGs were enormous—longer, more involved quests, better audio, and full-motion video. This was first clearly demonstrated in 1997 by the phenomenal success of Final Fantasy VII, which is considered one of the most influential games of all time, akin to that of Star Wars in the movie industry. With a record-breaking production budget of around $45 million, the ambitious scope of Final Fantasy VII raised the possibilities for the genre, with its more expansive world to explore, much longer quest, more numerous sidequests, dozens of minigames, and much higher production values. The latter includes innovations such as the use of 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds, battles viewed from multiple different angles rather than a single angle, and for the first time full-motion CGI video seamlessly blended into the gameplay, effectively integrated throughout the game. The extensive use of cinematics has since become one of the genre's trademarks. Gameplay innovations included the materia system, which allowed a considerable amount of customization and flexibility through materia that can be combined in many different ways and exchanged between characters at any time, and the limit breaks, special attacks that can be performed after a character's limit meter fills up by taking hits from opponents. Final Fantasy VII continues to be listed among the best games of all time, for its highly polished gameplay, high playability, lavish production, well-developed characters, intricate storyline, and an emotionally engaging narrative that is much darker and sophisticated than most other RPGs. The game's storytelling and character development was considered a major narrative jump forward for video games and was often compared to films and novels at the time.

The Pokémon franchise's colorful, cartoon-like graphics and simple gameplay helped make it the best-selling RPG series of all time, especially among younger players.

The explosion of Final Fantasy VII's sales and the ascendance of the PlayStation represented the dawning of a new era of RPGs. Backed by a clever multi-million dollar marketing campaign, Final Fantasy VII brought the first taste of CRPGs to a much wider audience and played a key role in the success of the PlayStation gaming console. Following the success of Final Fantasy VII, console RPGs, previously a niche genre outside of Japan, skyrocketed in popularity across the world. The game was soon ported to the PC and gained much success there as well, as did several other originally console RPGs, blurring the line between the console and computer platforms. The game was also responsible not only for popularizing RPGs outside of Japan, but its high production budget played a key role in the rising costs of video game development in general, and it led to Square's foray into films with Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Later in 1997, Square released SaGa Frontier, which expands on the non-linear gameplay of its Romancing Saga predecessors. It has a setting that spans multiple planets and an overarching plot that becomes apparent after playing through each of the different characters' quests that tie together at certain places. The characters have several different possible endings each, and there can be up to 15 characters in the party at the same time, organized into three groups of five characters. The ambitious amount of freedom the game offered was a departure from most RPGs in its time, but this led to a mixed reception due to its lack of direction. Quintet's 1997 release The Granstream Saga was an early fully 3D action RPG that had a unique third-person one-on-one combat system and a storyline that, while being mostly linear, offered a difficult moral choice towards the end of the game regarding which of two characters to save, each leading to a different ending.

In 1998, Square's Xenogears was acclaimed for the ambitious scope of its storyline, which spanned millenia and explored themes rarely dealt with in video games, including topics such as religion and the origin of mankind, and social commentary dealing with racism, poverty, war, and human psychology, along with narrative references to the philosophies of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Friedrich Nietzsche. It is today considered one of the greatest examples of video game storytelling. That year also saw the rise of monster-collecting RPGs which, although originating from Megami Tensei, Dragon Quest V, and Robotrek, was further advanced and popularized by Pokémon, which featured multiplayer gameplay and was released in North America that year. Pokémon has since become the best-selling RPG franchise of all time.

In 1999, the cinematic trend set by Final Fantasy VII continued with Final Fantasy VIII, which introduced characters with a proportionately sized human appearance. The game also featured a level-scaling system where the enemies scale in level along with the player's party, a mechanic that has since been used in a number of later RPGs such as The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Silverfall, Dragon Age: Origins, Fable II, Fallout 3, and the upcoming Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. Square also expanded on the non-linearity of SaGa Frontier with their 1999 action RPG Legend of Mana, the most open-ended in the Mana series, allowing the player to build the game world however they choose, complete any quests and subplots they choose in any order of their choice, and choose which storyline paths to follow, departing from most other action RPGs in its time. That same year, Square's survival horror RPG Parasite Eve II featured branching storylines and up to three different possible endings, while the sci-fi RPG Star Ocean: The Second Story boasted as many as 86 different endings, with each of the possible permutations to these endings numbering in the hundreds, setting a benchmark for the amount of outcomes possible for a video game. Using a relationship system inspired by dating sims, each of the characters in Star Ocean had friendship points and relationship points with each of the other characters, allowing the player to pair together, or ship, any couples (both romantic heterosexual relationships as well as friendships) of their choice, allowing a form of fan fiction to exist within the game itself. This type of social system was later extended to allow romantic lesbian relationships in BioWare's 2007 sci-fi RPG Mass Effect. However, the relationship system in Star Ocean not only affected the storyline, but also the gameplay, affecting the way the characters behave towards each other in battle. Another 1999 RPG, Persona 2, also featured dating elements, including the option to engage in a homosexual relationship.

A new Internet fad began towards the end of the 1990s, owing to simplistic software development kits such as the Japanese RPG Maker series, which began in 1988. Influenced by console RPGs and based mostly on the gameplay and style of the SNES and Sega Genesis games from this period, a large group of young programmers and aficionados began creating independent CRPG games and sharing them online. In an interview with GameDaily, MTVN's Dave Williams remarked that, "Games like this [user generated] have been sort of under the radar for something that could be the basis of a business. We have the resources and we can afford to invest more... I think it's going to be a great thing for the consumer."

2000s: Recent consoles and multi-platform titles

While in the very early days of RPGs multi-platform releases were common (especially between personal computer systems like the Apple II, Commodore 64 and Atari ST, as well as between early Japanese console systems and home computer systems like the MSX and FM Towns), there was a period during the 1990s when this was not generally the case. With the sixth generation of home gaming consoles, however, many PC game developers once again began releasing for multiple platforms, sometimes even opting to develop primarily or exclusively for consoles. For instance, both the Fallout and Baldur's Gate series of PC RPGs produced more console-friendly, Diablo-style action titles for the PS2 and Xbox as their respective PC series ended. In particular, the combination of the Xbox and DirectX technologies swayed developers to release PC ports of console-developed titles or (conversely) Xbox ports from the PC, due to the systems' architectural similarities and availability of programming tools.

As a result, several major PC RPG releases were affected by the system, mostly due to console-exclusivity publishing deals with Microsoft. Following Neverwinter Nights, BioWare's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic was developed primarily for the Xbox and ported to the PC several months later. Their followup, Jade Empire (2005) was also an Xbox exclusive, and did not receive a Windows version until Jade Empire—Special Edition (which included bonus content) was released on Feb 26, 2007. Obsidian's KOTOR sequel similarly was released in December 2004 for the Xbox, and followed by a PC version in February 2005; and Fable (2004) by Lionhead Studios received a PC port at the same time it was being reprinted as a Platinum Hit in 2005. Bethesda's Oblivion, while released simultaneously for console and PC, was considered a major launch title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Sequels to many of the above titles were also developed for next-gen systems, including Lionhead's Fable II (2008) and Fable III (2010); and BioWare continues to produce launch-exclusive RPG titles for the Xbox 360, such as Mass Effect (2007) and Mass Effect 2 (2010). Finally, Piranha Bytes' Risen and CD Projekt's The Witcher also saw console releases; though in Risen's case the initial release for the Xbox 360 was later followed by another version that repaired a number of issues present in the original, and in The Witcher's case the console version was released subsequently to the PC version.

Some have criticized the change of focus from the PC platform to console systems, citing the concessions needed to adapt games to the altered interfaces and control systems, as well as a need to appeal to a wider demographic. One notable developer, Josh Sawyer, lamented the decline of high-profile computer-exclusive RPGs, claiming that there were "no pure CRPG developers left" anymore outside of small companies like Spiderweb Software following the collapse of Troika Games. Bethesda developers Ken Levine and Todd Howard also remarked that one of the difficulties in developing for consoles is that, "[console gamers just] don’t have the patience to wade through the introduction of [new] systems" when compared to PC gamers, but were careful to qualify the remark with, "[But] once they’re into the game, the console guys want just as deep of an experience as the PC guys." Other criticisms include the increasing emphasis on video quality and voice overs, and their effect on budgets and the amount and quality of dialogue offered.

Further, there have been more subtle shifts away from the core influences of Dungeons & Dragons in the 1980s and 1990s. Whereas games were originally closely tied to the system's basic mechanics such as dice rolls and turn-based tactical combat, games are increasingly diverging in the direction of real-time modes, simplified mechanics and skill-based interfaces. Examples include the lack of an inventory system in Mass Effect 2 and the Dialogue Effect System in Alpha Protocol. Even Dungeons & Dragons is diverging from its roots, with the 4th Edition rules being compared by some to an MMORPG and the systems MMORPGs use. And, while some non- role-playing games are incorporating more RPG elements, there is still a stigma associated with the term "RPG" that developers and publishers would like to avoid. Whereas previously pen-and-paper RPGs would influence their video game counterparts, the reverse according to some appears to be occurring now.

However, innovation and quality need not necessarily be stymied. Europe—in particular Germany—remains slightly more receptive to PC-exclusives, as well as to older, more "hardcore" design decisions in general. Further, independent developers can still be successful as long as they focus on delivering what "big" companies cannot; and developers for new platforms such as handheld and mobile systems do not have to operate under the pressure of $20 million budgets and the scrutiny of publishers' marketing experts.

For instance, Nintendo handhelds—in particular the Nintendo DS—have featured a number of innovative RPGs: Konami's Boktai (2003) had a unique stealth-based action gameplay that made use of a solar-power sensor. Square Enix's The World Ends With You (2007) featured a unique dual-screen action combat system that involves controlling two characters at the same time. Level-5's Inazuma Eleven (2008) introduced unique soccer football RPG gameplay incorporating sports game elements. The Atlus title Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (2009) blends together both traditional and tactical RPG gameplay along with non-linear adventure game elements as well as an innovative demon auction system and a death clock system where each character has a specified time of death and the player's actions has consequences on who lives and dies. The 2010 Atlus title Radiant Historia introduced unique take on the concept of non-linear branching storylines that gives the player the freedom to alter the course of history through time travel across two parallel timelines. The 2010 PSP version of Tactics Ogre features a similar "World" system that allows players to revisit key plot points and make different choices to see how the story unfolds differently. Half-Minute Hero (2009) is a PSP role-playing shooter featuring self-referential humour and a 30-second time limit for each level and boss encounter. Imageepoch's upcoming Saigo no Yakusoku no Monogatari (Final Promise Story) for the PSP has a strategic command-based battle system where enemies learn from previous skirmishes and where characters can die permanently during gameplay which in turn has an impact on the game's storyline.

Multiplayer online RPGs and genre blurring

Tactical RPGs

Main article: Tactical role-playing game

See also: Chronology of tactical role-playing games

File:Langrisser2-1.png

Typical tile-based, overhead gameplay of tactical RPGs from the 1990s. Pictured here is Langrisser II (1994).

A number of early Western computer role-playing games used a highly tactical form of combat, including parts of the Ultima series, which introduced party-based, tiled combat in Ultima III: Exodus (1983), as did Bokosuka Wars, released that same year. Conventionally, however, the term tactical RPG (known as simulation RPG in Japan) refers to the distinct subgenre that was born in Japan; the early origins of tactical RPGs are difficult to trace from the American side of the Pacific since so much of the genre developed there. Tactical RPGs are descendents of table-top role-playing and wargames, such as Chainmail, which were mainly tactical in their original form. The format of a tactical CRPG is also like a traditional RPG in its appearance, pacing and rule structure.

Many tactical RPGs can be both extremely time-consuming and extremely difficult. Hence, the appeal of most tactical RPGs is to the hardcore, not casual, computer and video game player. Traditionally, tactical RPGs have been quite popular in Japan but have not enjoyed the same degree of success in North America and elsewhere. However, the audience for Japanese tactical RPGs has grown substantially since the mid-90s, with PS1 and PS2 titles such as Final Fantasy Tactics, Suikoden Tactics, Vanguard Bandits, and Disgaea enjoying a surprising measure of popularity, as well as hand-held war games like Fire Emblem. (Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1 is often considered the breakthrough title outside of Japan.) Older TRPGs are also being re-released via software emulation—such as on the Wii's Virtual Console—and hand-held systems, giving games a new lease on life and exposure to new audiences. Japanese console games such as these are as a result no longer nearly as rare a commodity in North America as they were during the 1990s.

Examples of tactical RPGs for 8-bit and 16-bit Japanese systems include: Bokosuka Wars (1983), considered the progenitor of the strategy/simulation RPG genre with its blend of RPG and strategy video game elements, originally a Sharp X1 computer game later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985; Nobunaga's Ambition (1983), an early strategy RPG that featured a blend of role-playing, turn-based grand strategy and management simulation elements, originally an MSX computer game that was later ported to the NES in 1987; Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Tsurugi (1990), released and published by Nintendo for the NES, and generally accepted as the first tactical RPG made for consoles, with a highly tactical turn-based combat system that resembles those of the later 3rd and 4th editions of Dungeons & Dragons; Master of Monsters (1991), originally released by SystemSoft for the MSX and NEC PC8801 and later ported to a variety of other platforms; Sega's Shining Force (1992) for the Sega Genesis (possibly the first TRPG played among Western audiences); and Tactics Ogre (1995), originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and later ported to the PlayStation. Examples for fifth- and sixth-generation consoles consoles include Konami's Vandal Hearts (1996), Square's Final Fantasy Tactics (1997), and Square's Front Mission 3 (1999)—all released for the PlayStation. Even more recent examples include Sega's Valkyria Chronicles (2008), a quasi-turn-based/real-time game for the PlayStation 3.

File:Toee 2.jpg

Some full-fledged CRPGs also featured a highly tactical form of combat. Pictured here is The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003).

However, Western PC games have utilized similar mechanics for years, as well. Differences include greater freedom when interacting with the surrounding environment. Notable examples include the Jagged Alliance (1994–2009) and Silent Storm (2003–2005) series, with many other titles owing considerably to X-COM and its sequels (1994–1997). Other examples for the PC include: Incubation: Time Is Running Out (1997), part of the Battle Isle series, and one of the first strategy titles to use fully 3D graphics and support hardware acceleration on the 3dfx Voodoo; Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel (2001) a spin-off of the Fallout series of CRPGs; Irrational Games' super hero comic games, Freedom Force (2002) and Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich (2005); and Russian developer Apeiron's Brigade E5: New Jagged Union (2006) and 7.62 (2008), a real-time tactical series that evokes the Jagged Alliance series in setting, mechanics and tone. Examples of Western-style tactical RPGs for video game consoles include: Dungeons & Dragons Tactics (2007) for the PlayStation Portable, Gladius (2003) by LucasArts, and Rebelstar: Tactical Command (2005) by X-COM developers, Julian and Nick Gollop, for the Game Boy Advance.

Further, there are a number of "full-fledged" CRPGs which could be described as having "tactical" combat. Examples from the classic era of CRPGs include parts of the aforementioned Ultima series; SSI's Wizard's Crown (1985) and The Eternal Dagger (1987); the Gold Box games of the late '80s and early '90s (many of which were later ported to Japanese video game systems); and Sierra's Betrayal at Krondor (1993) and Return to Krondor (1998) based on Raymond Feist's Midkemia setting. More recent examples include Troika Games' The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003), which featured an accurate implementation of the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition ruleset; Knights of the Chalice (2009), which implements the D20 Open Game License; and Pyrrhic Tales: Prelude to Darkness (2002). According to some developers, it is becoming increasingly difficult in recent years to develop games of this type for the PC, though several have been developed in Eastern Europe (with mixed results). Reasons cited include Western developers' focus on developing real-time and action-oriented games instead, and even Japanese console developers are beginning to complain about a supposed bias against turn-based systems.

MMORPGs

Further information: [[:MUD]] and [[:History of massively multiplayer online games]]

Though many of the original RPGs for the PLATO mainframe system in the late 1970s also supported multiple, simultaneous players, the popularity of multiplayer modes in mainstream RPGs did not begin to rise sharply until the early-to-mid 1990s. For instance, Secret of Mana (1993), an early action role-playing game by Squaresoft, was one of the first commercial RPGs to feature cooperative multiplayer gameplay, offering two-player and three-player action once the main character had acquired his party members. Later, Diablo (1996) would combine CRPG and action game elements with an Internet multiplayer mode that allowed up to four players to enter the same world and fight monsters, trade items, or fight against each other.

Multiple players conversing in Final Fantasy XI (2003).

Also during this time period, the MUD genre that had been spawned by MUD1 in 1978 was undergoing a tremendous expansion phase due to the release and spread of LPMud (1989) and DikuMUD (1991). Soon, driven by the mainstream adoption of the Internet, these parallel trends merged in the popularization of graphical MUDs, which would soon become known as massively multiplayer online role-playing games or MMORPGs, beginning with games like Meridian 59 (1995), Ultima Online (1997) and EverQuest (1999) and leading to modern phenomena such as Final Fantasy XI (2003) and World of Warcraft (2004).

Though superficially similar, MMORPGs lend their appeal more to the socializing influences of being online with hundreds or even thousands of other players at a time, and trace their origins more from MUDs than from CRPGs like Ultima and Wizardry. Rather than focusing on the "old school" considerations of memorizing huge numbers of stats and esoterica and battling it out in complex, tactical environments, players instead spend much of their time forming and maintaining guilds and clans. The distinction between CRPGs and MMORPGs and MUDs can as a result be very sharp, likenable to the difference between "attending a renaissance fair and reading a good fantasy novel".

Further, MMORPGs have been criticized for diluting the "epic" feeling of single-player RPGs and related media among thousands of concurrent adventurers. Stated simply: every player wants to be "The Hero", slay "The Monster", rescue "The Princess", and obtain "The Magic Sword". But when there are thousands of players all playing the same game, clearly not everyone can be the hero. This problem became obvious to some in the game EverQuest, where groups of players would compete and sometimes harass each other in order to get monsters in the same dungeon to drop valuable items, leading to several undesirable behaviors such as kill stealing, spawn camping, and ninja looting. In response—for instance by Richard Garriott in Tabula Rasa—developers began turning to instance dungeons as a means of reducing competition over limited resources, as well as preserving the gaming experience—though this mechanic has its own set of detractors.

Single-player games are great, and I love them. They have a great feature. Your life is very special. You are the hero and you get to save the whole world. (...) [Tabula Rasa] is like Disney World... You can go to shops and get food, but when you get on the boat for the pirate ride, you're in your own version of reality. Once the ride starts, you are blissfully unaware of the boats in front of you and behind you.

— Richard Garriott, regarding the use of instancing in Tabula Rasa

Lastly, there exist markets such as Korea and China that, while saturated with MMORPGs, have so far proved relatively unreceptive to single-player RPGs. For instance, Internet-connected personal computers are relatively common in Korea when compared to other regions—particularly in the numerous "PC bangs" scattered around the country where patrons are able to pay to play multiplayer computer games—possibly due to historical bans on Japanese imports, as well as a culture that traditionally sees video games as "frivolous toys" and computers as educational. As a result, some wonder whether the stand-alone, single-player RPG is still viable commercially—especially on the personal computer—when there are competing pressures such as big-name publishers' marketing needs, video game piracy, a change in culture, and the competitive price-point-to-processing-power ratio (at least initially) of modern console systems.

Hybrid genres

See also: Action role-playing game

Finally, a steadily increasing number of other non-RPG video games have adopted aspects traditionally seen in RPGs, such as experience point systems, equipment management, and choices in dialogue, as developers push to fill the demand for role-playing elements in non-RPGs. The blending of these elements with a number of different game engines and gameplay styles have created a myriad of hybrid game categories formed by mixing popular gameplay elements featured in other genres such as first-person shooters, platformers, and turn-based and real-time strategy games. Examples include first-person shooters such as parts of the Deus Ex (starting in 2000) and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (starting in 2007) series; real-time strategy games such as SpellForce: The Order of Dawn (2003) and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (2009); puzzle video games such as Castlevania Puzzle (2010) and Puzzle Quest (2007); and turn-based strategy games like the Steel Panthers (1995–2006) series, which combined tactical military combat with RPG-derived unit advancement. As a group, hybrid games have been both praised and criticized; being referred to by one critic as the "poor man's" RPG for omitting the dialogue, choices and story-driven character development of major AAA titles in order to cut costs, and by another critic as "promising" for shedding the tired conventions of more established franchises in an attempt to innovate.

Western and Japanese role-playing games

Cultural differences

After the success of console role-playing games in Japan, the role-playing genre eventually began being classified into two distinct sub-genres, Western role-playing games and Japanese role-playing games or JRPGs, due to stylistic, gameplay and cultural reasons; with the latter having become popularized and heavily influenced by early Japanese games such as Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy.

Though sharing fundamental premises, Western games often tend to feature darker graphics, older characters, and focus more on roaming freedom and realism; whereas Eastern games often tend to feature brighter, anime-like graphics, younger characters, and focus more on scripted linear storylines. Japanese RPGs today are also more likely to feature random, turn-based battles; while Western RPGs today are more likely to feature real-time combat. In the past, it was often the reverse: real-time action role-playing games were far more common among Japanese console RPGs than Western computer RPGs up until the late 1990s, due to gamepads usually being better suited to real-time action than the keyboard and mouse. There are also a number of exceptions today, such as Final Fantasy XII (2006) and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (1995 onwards), which feature real-time combat; and The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003), which features turn-based combat.

JRPGs' tightly orchestrated, linear narratives emphasize intricate plots and development of a single character within the story, but usually lack the option to create or choose one's own playable characters or make decisions that affect the plot. This brings an impression that JRPG is very similar to adventure games. In contrast, Western RPGs tend to focus more on open-ended, non-linear gameplay, with less emphasis given to narrative, dialogue, and plot development; and are also more likely to allow one to create and customize characters from scratch. One reason given for this is that many early Japanese RPGs can be seen as forms of interactive manga (Japanese comics) or anime wrapped around Western rules systems.

Finally, the largely secular nature of Japanese culture results in heavy usage of themes, symbols, and characters taken from a variety of religions, including Christianity and Japanese Shinto. This tends to be problematic when JRPGs are exported to Westerns countries where the topics of religion and blasphemy remain sensitive, such as the United States. It is not unusual for a JRPG to exhibit elements that would be controversial in the West, such as Xenogears or Final Fantasy Tactics featuring antagonists that bear similarities to the Abrahamic God and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively; and Nintendo has made efforts in the past to remove references such as these prior to introducing their games into the North American market.

Controversy

Within the RPG community, some have criticized JRPGs for not being "true" RPGs due to heavy usage of scripted cut scenes and dialogue, and due to many of them having a lack of branching outcomes.^[Turner] Likewise, some have criticized recent Western RPGs for "becoming less RPG-like and more [like] true action games" due to the "removal of numbers and rules" that make "the genre an RPG." Japanese RPGs are also occasionally criticized for having relatively simple battle systems in which players are able to win by repetitively mashing buttons,^[Turner] though it has been pointed out that Japanese RPG combat systems such as in Final Fantasy X and Xenosaga have become increasingly complex over the years, with more of an emphasis on strategy and timing, and with each new game often introducing their own rules and systems.^[Nutt] In contrast, Western RPGs' greater control over the development and customization of playable characters has according to some come at the expense of plot and gameplay, resulting in generic dialogue, lack of character development within the narrative, and poor battle systems.^[Nutt] Lastly, it has been argued that Western RPGs tend to focus more on the underlying rules governing the battle system rather than on the experience itself, and that Western RPGs as a whole are generally not as finely tuned and polished as their Japanese counterparts.^[Nutt] In recent years, however, Western RPGs have tended to move away from the "numbers and rules" associated with RPGs and more towards tightly-structured narratives and combat systems that resemble action games.

As a result, Japanese-style role-playing games are held in disdain by some Western gamers, leading to the term "JRPG" being held in the pejorative. Likewise, it is not uncommon for Western RPGs to be called "crap games" by Japanese players, where the vast majority of console role-playing games originate, and where Western RPGs remain largely unknown. Further, there is a belief among some—particularly in the West—that Japanese RPGs are stagnating or declining in both quality and popularity, including remarks by BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk and writing director Daniel Erickson that JRPGs are stagnating—and that Final Fantasy XIII is not even really an RPG; criticisms regarding seemingly nebulous justifications by some Japanese designers for newly changed (or, alternately, newly un-changed) features of recent titles; calls among some gaming journalists to "fix" JRPGs' problems; as well as claims that some recent titles such as Front Mission Evolved are beginning to attempt—and failing to—imitate Western titles. Finally, one recent advertisement by Obsidian Entertainment in Japan openly mocked Japanese RPGs' traditional characteristics in favor of their own Western title, Fallout: New Vegas.

This has produced responses such as ones by Japanese video game developers, Shinji Mikami and Yuji Horii, to the effect that JRPGs were never popular in the West to begin with, and that Western reviewers are biased against turn-based systems; as well as an outcry among members of the sizable Japanese Internet discussion forum, 2channel. In response, reviewer Tom Battey of Edge Magazine noted that the cited problems are not limited to Japanese RPGs, but also apply to many Western RPGs as well as games outside of the RPG genre, and that series like Pokémon are still doing well. Finally, in an interview held at the American Electronic Entertainment Expo, Japanese video game developer Tetsuya Nomura stated that role-playing games should not be classified by country-of-origin, but rather described simply for what they are: RPGs. And, despite any criticisms, there still remain many fans of the genre.

See also

• Action role-playing game
• Role-playing video game
• Tactical role-playing game
• List of role-playing video games

References

• Barton, Matt (2007-02-23). "The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 1: The Early Years (1980–1983)". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
• Barton, Matt (2007-02-23). "The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 2: The Golden Age (1985–1993)". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-09-12.
• Barton, Matt (2007-04-11). "The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part III: The Platinum and Modern Ages (1994–2004)". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
• Loguidice, Bill; Barton, Matt (2009), Vintage Games: An Insider Look at the History of Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, and the Most Influential Games of All Time, Focal Press, ISBN 0240811461
• Vestal, Andrew (1998-11-02). "The History of Console RPGs". GameSpot. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
• Vestal, Andrew (1998-11-02). "The History of Final Fantasy". GameSpot. Retrieved 2009-09-11.
• Roschin, Oleg (March 26, 2006). "The World of Asian RPGs". MobyGames. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
• Barton, Matt (2008). Dungeons & Desktops: The History of Computer Role-Playing Games. A K Peters, Ltd. ISBN 1568814119. Retrieved 2010-09-08.
• King, Brad; Borland, John M. (2003). Dungeons and Dreamers: The Rise of Computer Game Culture from Geek to Chic. McGraw-Hill/Osborne. ISBN 0072228881. Retrieved 2010-09-25.

External links

• Drunken Irishman (2008-07-21). "The World of Western RPGs". MobyGames.
• Kalata, Kurt (March 19, 2008). "A Japanese RPG Primer: The Essential 20". Gamasutra.
• Harris, John (July 2, 2009). "Game Design Essentials: 20 RPGs". Gamasutra.
• Crigger, Lara (2009). "Chasing D&D: A History of RPGs". 1UP.com.