‘What Makes an RPG' Is Not a Great Philosophical Debate

Dark Souls II

Don’t ask the internet about role-playing games. You’ll only get some nonsense that says nothing, like this post underneath Polygon’s review of Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII (Square Enix, 360, PS3): “You can ask ten people what an RPG is and… you’re going to get ten different answers. ‘What makes an RPG?’ is one of the great philosophical debates.” Take the concept of role-play literally and a lot of video games qualify: you’re in the shoes of Sonic and you’re supposed to spin that way; you’re Nathan Drake, clinging to every glittery ledge with your shirt suggestively half-tucked; you’re a slim Tetris block and your only goal is to sink silkily into that skilfully sculpted slot. There’s no great philosophical debate to be had – games-makers have long taken character-progression elements from traditional RPGs and incorporated them into other genres. Lines will always blur. One trait pretty exclusive to RPGs, though, is the option to craft your own avatar. Many of these creations are based on stock starting blocks – a build, race or gender. Not having this latter choice proved problematic for Capcom earlier in 2014, when VG24/7 journalist Brenna Hillier penned a heated article on the Japanese studio’s forthcoming free-to-play PS4 title Deep Down’s omission of playable female characters. “I cannot believe that you can seriously expect to keep me, and literal millions of other like-minded female gamers, on board with this bullshit,” she wrote. Hillier makes some pertinent points regarding the depiction of females in video games in her piece, adding details to an important debate, but I wonder how many XX-chromosome’d gamers have truthfully been alienated by a lack of a female protagonist. I’ve never been a teenage girl with a slow-growing crush on a best friend who’s about to leave me forever, but I didn’t enjoy the new DLC for Naughty Dog’s amazing The Last of Us, the heart-breaking Left Behind, any less for having been born with balls. Equally, playing through Lightning Returns as the titular female “saviour” – out to save as many souls as she can before Him Upstairs presses restart on a corrupted world – never made me feel awkward. She carries the kind of sizeable, shlong-stand-in swords synonymous with Square Enix’s enduring series, but Lightning is very much a woman, and a kick-ass one at that. Is my masculinity threatened when she tears up a monstrous meanie thrice her size in a few seconds? Hardly. I’m in the role, and to paraphrase 1990s indie act Mansun, being a girl never tasted sweeter. Lightning Returns is one of several high-profile RPGs out now or coming soon, and a generally fine conclusion to the XIII trilogy, featuring vastly improved real-time combat mechanics. Its shortcomings include some grim textures courtesy of an aged game engine and a narrative coming apart with claptrap, but at its best this is still the closest a contemporary series has come to presenting a living, breathing vision of a Roger Dean landscape. Dressing up as a girl to get into the rather more Hieronymus Bosch-like aesthetic of Dark Souls II (Software, Windows, 360, PS3) – a penis is an entirely optional appendage – is a very different experience. The game follows from Software’s 2011 original in offering the same risk-and-reward gameplay. It’s tougher than leather wrapped around a titanium-coated diamond, with any runt capable of murdering you. And yet, this comprises its core appeal. “Prepare to die!” shouts publisher Namco Bandai’s marketing. And die I did, several times, during a hands-on preview of
the game – sometimes for a laugh, sometimes because of my own stupidity and sometimes because, as I may have suggested, it’s harder than a bare-knuckle brawl with a brought-to-life Mike Haggar gnawing at an infinite supply of garbage-can roast chickens. Your guy, or girl, who you construct from a variety of constituents but always looks like an Ed Wood ghoul gone gangrenous once you’ve died (and who doesn’t want to rock the Stubbs the Zombie-in-armour look?) has to painstakingly battle through increasingly tough enemies until you reach… I’ve not a clue, frankly. Between learning that the undead don’t swim well, murdering NPCs who were only there to assist me and running away from knights built like double-decker buses, I didn’t progress much during my few hours with the game. Sorry about that. While I’ve never been a teenage girl, I was once a nine-year-old boy into HeroQuest and Fighting Fantasy. Which is probably why the RPG I’ve best connected to these last few weeks is Obsidian Entertainment’s South Park: The Stick of Truth (Ubisoft, Windows, 360, PS3). You play as a customisable mute newcomer to the quiet little mountain town, and are thrust immediately into a playtime turf war between Cartman-led humans and other kids dressed as elves, led by Kyle. It pokes fun at the fantasy genre, before spilling over into anal probes, a Nazi zombie invasion, Zelda-style sequences set in Canada and an all-you-can-scoff buffet of bad-taste broadsides. It’s a very funny game, even if you’ve not seen the show in years. Combat is turn-based, encouraging grumbles from opponents impatiently waiting to gross you out with a handful of ginger pubes. Obsidian’s strengths as an RPG specialist are on show, with a raft of perks, upgrades, costumes and summon attacks available. It’s never overly complicated, though, and its casual difficulty makes it more of a splendid 15-hour episode of South Park than a game to really test one’s mettle. Child of Light (Ubisoft, Windows, PS3, PS4, Wii U, 360, XBox One) is another Ubisoft (developed and published) game that takes the company’s UbiArt Framework visuals, showcased on the last two Rayman titles, and applies them to a side-on RPG. It looks beautiful, and is out on multiple formats at the end of this month. Before then, fans of more retro-styled titles can pick up HD versions of yesteryear classics: Square’s Final Fantasy X and X-2 are remastered and released now for the PS3 and Vita, and Namco’s Tales of Symphonia and its sequel Dawn of the New World are packaged together for the PS3, and out now as Chronicles. These oldies are definitely RPGs. I think. Right?