So far this generation of hardware has seen a dearth of quality RPGs.  And by RPGs, I mean actual RPGs (aka JRPGs), not Mass Oblivion.  I have nothing against those games or their ilk, but for me they belong in a different genre.  So, as for ‘actual’ RPGs, the only reasonable options that come to mind are Lost Odyssey (2008), Star Ocean 4 (2009), Tales of Vesperia (2008) and Eternal Sonata (2007).  All are decent games, but none is particularly memorable or deserving of the large amount of time required to complete it.

In fact, the best RPG of the last few years is a PS2 game, Persona 4.  There are several conclusions to be drawn from this observation.  There is the possibility that Persona 4 (2009 Europe) just happens to be a particularly outstanding game and all the RPGs released for Xbox 360 and PS3 just happen to be poor.  Similarly it could be that because the PS2 has been around for so long and so many RPGs have been released on it, the quality of those RPGs has gradually improved to the point of Persona 4.  Perhaps though it could also be that the technological difference between a PS2 and a PS3, or an Xbox and an Xbox 360 is so great that developers simply haven’t been able to transfer the good bits of RPGs from the former generation into the latter.  I mean, what exactly is a next-gen RPG supposed to be?

Persona 4: Last-gen perfection?

You would think that RPGs as a genre would be among those with the most potential gain from any advances in hardware.  After all, RPGs are by their nature reliant on successfully transporting the player from the real world to another.  What better way to do this than with more emotive visuals and larger, more convincing environments.  Yet still we find RPGs on this generation of consoles living or dying by their stories and their combat.  Admittedly these are two of the staple elements of RPGs and very important parts to get right, but they have a small bearing on the overall feel or atmosphere of the game.  This bit, the feel or atmosphere, comes from the game’s designer.  If they are unable to craft the game in such a way that all the stories, characters, music and artwork are parts of the same idea, the feeling of immersion is lost and you may as well be reading a novel interspersed with sudoku.

Incidentally, we shouldn’t ignore the fact that Persona 4 is actually an exceptional game and would probably still be the best RPG of the last few years even if the current-gen releases weren’t so terribly average.  Likewise Atlus did have Persona 3 to practise with and none of the current-gen RPGs has had a sequel yet, so I may be jumping the gun a little.  However, what all this says to me is that the great RPG designers at the great RPG developers are still finding their feet on the new consoles.  A strange thing to say maybe considering the Xbox 360 has been around for over four years now, but there really has been that much of a stagnation.  It appears that for RPGs to truly take the next step in the progression of storytelling in games, someone is going to have to release something epic.

Something epic in the sense that the Final Fantasy series has always been epic.  So we come to Final Fantasy XIII.  It’s the first Final Fantasy of the generation and represents what may be the sole opportunity to save real RPGs from an endless repetition of mediocrity that slowly merges into one big glut of Western action RPGs.  I should be confident then that this opportunity falls to Square.  I mean if they can’t think of a way to push RPGs into the next decade, we are really in trouble.

This is why I’m dreading it, because of what it means if they can’t do it; if Final Fantasy XIII is similarly as bog standard and boring as the rest of them.  And from what I’ve seen and played so far, the outlook may be bleak.  Still, the budget is there, the experience of breaking new ground is there, the significant staff are there, so let’s remain hopeful for now.  Finally, if anyone at Square happens to read this, please give us English speakers the option of subtitled Japanese voices.  A tiny option, I know, but its inclusion just might go someway to safeguarding the future of the RPG.

Final Fantasy XIII is released in North America, Europe and Australia on March 9th 2010.