What is REAL Meaning Behind the “J” in J-RPG?

JAPANESE, Duh.

Well... yes, if you analyze it literally J-RPG is an initialism of “Japanese Role-Playing Game” and technically refers to the diverging style and gameplay mechanics that characterize RPGs developed primarily in Japan. This harks to the good 'ol days to classics like the Final Fantasy Series, Xenogears, Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, and even Super Mario RPG. Classic turn-based action and vibrant graphic animations.

But so often left out of the conversation is besides the technical or locational reasoning of calling it a “J”-RPG – the cultural reasoning. Over my almost 19 years of playing dozens of JRPGs and overall Japanese culture, I've understood more and more how the societal factors of the country had/have a potential heavy impact on the way these games are produced in terms of story, progression, mechanics, and purpose.

The recent release and widespread high acclaim of Persona 5 re-sparked my absolute adoration of the genre. For the past several years, I had neither the time nor patience to invest the 60, 70, 100+ hours into the latest epic Japanese journey as I had last did with Final Fantasy 10 during my high school years. It motivated a reflection of my almost 2-decade relationship with JRPGs and why they were so compelling to me.

Finally on Steemit, I get to spill out some of my findings/understandings.

The Digital Art of Storytelling

Besides the technical idiosyncrasies of gameplay, the most general defining factor of JRPGs vs. “western” RPGs is the umbrella of a 3rd-person narrative. Western counterparts by-and-large emphasize personalization and custom character development by choice, leading into avenues like open-world settings (i.e. Fallout, the Elder Scrolls series, Horizon Dawn) or “Choose Your Own Adventure”-type scenarios (i.e. Baulder's Gate, Torment). European and American sentiments of independence and autonomy are in full force here.

Japanese storylines are much more scripted and any semblance of choice is subsumed under a certain trajectory. Final Fantasy 15 is iconic in the genre for its open world but the reality is that the main body of the story is immovable and largely unaffected by your side quests or temporary divergences like fishing or cooking. In this way these games are much more like movies or a television series and the main experience is getting to know the character(s) you control.

When we start to treat JRPGs as narratives, we have to employ a little understanding of international differences in media as well. Hollywood productions are known for their diversity and being for the most part untethered by the environment they are produced in. That's why we see anything and everything in terms of genres produced from Ghost in a Shell remakes to Transformers 5. My deduction would be American/European media has typically enjoyed a greater sense of freedom from cultural anchors.

Compare that to international film producers like Bollywood or the film industries of Japan or Korea. It is almost impossible to evaluate or even fully understand them without a relationship to the cultural ground. Some of Japan's seminal film productions such as Battle Royale beg the audience to understand an existing social climate.

- The Cultural Contextualization of Battle Royale

I've begun to port that over to Japanese games as well. Just as in the way Battle Royale can be evaluated as a dystopic critique of contemporary rifts between generations, Persona 5 takes on a very burdensome theme of capitalistic influence on human ambitions and relationships. Under the fantastical colors and sound effects, the design direction of the game is deeply rooted in modern-day Japan.

Gamers and thus readers of a complex novel, following a path that will ultimate lead to narrative conclusions. Challenges are not physical or statistical; they're equally emotional.

“Critiquing” Games

After I posted my first analysis of the Souls series, a number of Steemit users who actually do reviews for a living gave me some great feedback and got me thinking of how I can think of and produce something different from the accustomed numerical review system that we're so used to. Champions like Gamespot, IGN, ACG, and the compilation site of Metacritic already do an incredible job scoring sound, gameplay, story, and all the expected evaluations of produced games.

So I thought, why not try a game critique instead of a review. Much in the way you cannot critique a piece of art unless you understand the artist, his/her historical context, the internal procedures that produced the work, and all the external influences on its final production, I don't think you can truly weigh a game's worth in history without the proper contextualization.

- Kusanagi Studio's Concept Sketch for Final Fantasy I

As a result, I think the way I'll try to contribute to the gaming community on Steemit is by providing a bit of background and analysis of how the game sits in the stream of development that is the gaming world.

Let me know what you think!

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