State of the RPG: GameCube

The RPG label has become so vague and all encompassing that it no longer accurately describes anything. Think about what those three letters mean. Role-playing game. That term effectively explains just about every recent videogame on the market. Aren't you role-playing when you become a mercenary in a first-person shooter or catch a football in the latest Madden sequel? Go ahead. Take a minute and try to explain to your girlfriend why Game A is an RPG while Game B isn't and you'll likely be greeted by a dull, blank stare. And yet, for those of us who grew up playing Dungeons & Dragons or spent the better half of our afternoons exploring a world in Final Fantasy, there's a clear separation between a true RPG and every other genre. That's great. But how do you define it?

It's not always easy because with any subject open to interpretation, people come up with different definitions for the standard. It's a little easier to illuminate the boundaries when the genre is, say, action or, better yet, sports. But when defining what makes a role-playing game, whose very description encapsulates seemingly every genre, where do you draw your cut-offs? Perhaps you don't. For instance, do you know that Nintendo's famous figurehead Shigeru Miyamoto has openly referred to the Legend of Zelda titles as role-playing games? There are, on the other hand, fanatical PC owners and long-time RPG purists who would no doubt chuckle out loud at such a boast.

What Makes an RPG
The RPG moniker is a malfunctioned descriptor, but it still conjures instantaneous images of games like Dragon Quest, Oblivion, and Paper Mario for those schooled in the history of the genre, whose roots date back to the 1970s. RPGs today are oftentimes epic, story-driven affairs, but their humble beginnings lay on the dining room tables of players and not on their television screens. Once upon a time, the RPG came together with a pen, some paper, and a set of dice. It was from these comparatively archaic gatherings that the guidelines for today's RPGs were born -- namely, character development, stat management and, of course, story progression. A defining trait of many RPGs today also rests in the '70s, and this is the turn-based play style that naturally originated with the roll of the dice.

Bearing all of this in mind, the second Zelda game is a widely regarded as a legitimate RPG, but the new games in the series do not typify the accepted description of what qualifies the genre. Nintendo's heroic character Link is drawn forward by a storyline and players are challenged to find and use new weapons in his adventures. These are elements found in RPGs. But on the other hand, Link himself is not bound by a stats-based system, which has always been the backbone of the genre. In fact, apart from upgrading hearts, players cannot manipulate the character's stats at all because he doesn't have any. Nor do his enemies. There's very little management to be found -- the emphasis is on action and adventure -- and therefore the franchise can only loosely take shelter under the RPG umbrella, if at all.

Regardless, Nintendo has dabbled in the genre over the years and so has its partners. And the company's choices, both on the hardware and software front, have helped define the very nature of the RPGs on its various systems.

Square, Enix and Nintendo
Newcomers to the videogame industry undoubtedly associate massive, Japanese RPGs with Sony's PlayStation consoles. The company after all has a very tight relationship with Square Enix, whose Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games have for almost two generations graced PS1 and PS2 exclusively. But that wasn't always the case. Both franchises were born and raised on Nintendo systems.

In 1986, when Enix and Square were still two separate companies, the former released Dragon Quest for the Famicom. (The game was released for NES in the US under the Dragon Warrior brand in 1989.) Just as Japanese anime was influenced by Disney productions, the popular Ultima RPGs out of America inspired Dragon Quest's fundamentals. The game quickly became a gigantic hit in the homeland and single-handedly set in motion the wave of Eastern-style RPGs that dominate the genre even today.

Dragon Quest brought a new level of complexity to the table during an era when videogames where largely simplistic endeavors. The RPG boasted a storyline that revolved around an evil villain named Dragonlord who kidnapped the country Alefgard's princess along with the magical Orb of Light. Players were challenged to embark upon a quest to save the princess and retrieve the Orb. To do so, the hero of the game engaged in one-on-one combat, traveled to five towns and conquered five dungeons. The game was a hit.

1987, Enix released a sequel. By the time Dragon Quest 3 debuted for Famicom in 1988, Japanese newspapers reported that teenagers had robbed kids of their copies, and schools around the country showed widespread absentees. As a result, Japan established a new law, which stated that forthcoming Dragon Quest games could only be released on Sundays or holidays. Incidentally, the next three titles in the series, which shipped for Famicom and Super Famicom (Super NES, US) respectively, all debuted on national holidays.

When Square saw how popular the first Dragon Quest game was, it decided to release a similarly styled RPG with a different theme. The title, Final Fantasy, debuted on Japan's Famicom in 1987 to critical and fiscal success. Final Fantasy's storyline, which dealt in mythological archetypes and confusing time loops, was deeper and more engaging than the one that powered the original Dragon Quest. Square's RPG also established left-against-right turn-based battle and magic systems that have been copied by competitors ever since. The game was a phenomenal success.

Over the years, Square released five more Final Fantasy games for Famicom and Super Famicom, all of them to commercial success. The sixth installment in the series, known as Final Fantasy III in America, is widely regarded as one of the best console RPGs ever made.