Fighting Against Fixations

The Japanese Role Playing Games (JRPG) genre exists since the NES era. The first Final Fantasy games set the tone for the genre for years to come, and the concept remained the same for many years. However, there are some games that belong to the JRPG genre, yet they defied some of the core principles and the way we think about JRPGs. In this post, I will talk about two genre-defying JRPGs from two completely different eras: The first is Mother 3, to which I was acquainted by Michael Abbott, writer of the Brainy Gamer blog, in his post about the new fan English translation for the game (a post I will probably write about again in the future). The second game is The Last Remnant, for which I received a recommendation from the lovely Lauren Wainwright (also known as Atheistium).

Mother 3 is a sequel to a JRPG called Earthbound that was apparently was a big hit on the Super- Nintendo (SNES). Like many of the best games to appear on the SNES (Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger), Earthbound also eluded me because of my location. Long story short, Mother 3 was never released in the English language, until now, when an amazing group translated the entire thing into English. So now, like most western gamers, I was able to play the game. Finally, I understand why so many people worked so hard on translating it, and why so many people love this game so much. The game has a unique writing style, with a quirky sense of humor that does not get in the way of the more serious parts of the story, some of which are truly emotional and heart breaking. It is a campy game, and it knows it, which makes it even more fun to join in.

Don’t expect fancy graphics in Mother 3, this is a GBA title.

What I want to talk about is how the game separates itself from other JRPGs. From the start, the game distinguishes itself from others in a few ways. There is no money. When you enter a store, you can just pick up whatever you want, as long as it is in stock. I was shocked to discover this, because it breaks one of the most fundamental mechanics of any RPG, which is to accumulate wealth. Mother 3, in an attempt to tell its story without compromise, eliminated that mechanism. No longer was I required to hold on to equipment I did not need just to sell it later. If I did not need something, I could just throw it away. To me, it seems like a brave design decision. The best part is that half-way through the game money is introduced into the game as part of the industrialization of society, but instead of making me feel more comfortable with the familiar mechanism, it made me feel… dirty. I think that when a game is able to make me accustomed to new mechanics for the sake of the story, and then for the same reason feel uncomfortable with the old and familiar mechanic, it is impressive. Not only did it defy the genre, it also made the “normal” mechanic less appealing (in the context of the game).

Another way Mother 3 does things differently is the battle system. Sure, every JRPG has its own unique battle system, but most JRPGs rely on grinding. It is true that you can grind your way through Mother 3, which is a legitimate choice. However, the game is designed in such a way that you do not have to grind your way through it. In fact, you don’t need to grind at all. Beating monsters in the game is like solving a puzzle. If you realize their weaknesses and exploit them, you can easily beat the monsters and bosses as they come. On the other hand, a fight that is not fought wisely can be very difficult, if not impossible, even if you did grind the hell out of your party. In any case, if you die, the game lets you continue from the last save frog (yes, frogs are save points) with all your experience and items in tact (as if you never died but only transported back to the frog). The game focuses on telling its story, and therefore does not want you to get stuck for too long on monster battles.

 
The Last Remnant is gorgeous to look at, and the PC version runs smoothly.

The second game, The Last Remnant, does the exact opposite of Mother 3. It is a JRPG for “advanced” JRPG gamers. The story in The Last Remnant takes second place to gameplay, which resembles western RPGs more than it does JRPGs. The Last Remnant is a new Intellectual Property (IP) by Square-Enix, which is the leading company when it comes to JRPGs, and are the creators of the Final Fantasy series. It is a game of epic proportions, designed to be on par with other great names such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. It was released with many technical problems, which made many critics write it off as “average” at best, and I don’t blame them. The shameless way that companies, especially large ones, allow themselves to release defective games just so they can release them on time should not be encouraged, even if they are the biggest names in the industry. Nevertheless, a working version of The Last Remnant was released for the PC, and without the technical issues the game can be played as it should have been from the get go.

 
Where should I go now? The amount of possibilities can make your head spin.

So what could be so “genre-defying” about a game from a company that practically created the genre? First, as I said already, the game is not for beginners. Most JRPGs take you by the hand for a large chunk of the game just to get you started, and some of them guides you through a linear story for most of the game. The Last Remnant does not. It teaches you the basics of the game, but sets you free to do a lot of things that are unrelated to the actual story almost from the get go. In fact, it encourages it, but making you roam the cities and dungeons before calling you back to the story. Beginners to JRPGs may feel a bit lost and overwhelmed by the amount of possibilities. I found it rather refreshing to be able to explore so much of the game world almost from the start. The amount of side-quests is mind-boggling, and many of them are available early on. I would go as far as to say that, in this regard, The Last Remnant can be compared in gameplay to a western RPG.

The battle system in The Last Remnant is also quite interesting. Whereas in JRPGs you control each of your characters individually, in this game you control groups of characters (called unions). This makes it possible to conduct huge battles, and the battles in the game are spectacular for it. The downside is that when controlling a union, you cannot micro-manage individual characters. However, I am not really sure that this is a downside, because micro-managing the units in a large scale battle (of which there are many) could have been quite tiresome. While battles are very strategic in nature, many of your important decisions will be made prior to the battle, when creating unions and choosing formations for them. The battles themselves are fast and dynamic, and choices in battle can quickly determine the result. As with the exploration, combat in The Last Remnant could be difficult for beginners. Dying is not uncommon, even with constant grinding. Sure, grinding can make it easier to win some of the battles with brute-force, but the game is designed so that it is far more satisfying to win by using a good strategy, especially when it comes to tough, large-scale battles.

 
Large-Scale battles can be difficult to handle, but are spectacular to watch.

So these are two games from two completely different eras. They both somehow defied the JRPG genre, and mostly in a good way. I am enjoying these two games, partly because of the fact that they did something different, and showed that JRPGs do not have to repeat the same formula over and over again in order to be good. In fact, sometimes the old mechanics are just there because everyone are used to them (such as the linear JRPG storyline). I am glad to see that a big company, Square-Enix, took the chance on a JRPG that employs new battle mechanics and did not dumb it down for beginners. It probably hurt their sales, but it made me, and I assume other regular JRPG gamers, appreciate the game for providing a good challenge and not wasting hours on tutorials. As for Mother 3, I must say that to me it seems that the fan translation is amazing. Coupled with another fan collaborative effort to create an amazing strategy guide, Mother 3 was one fun ride.