Square Enix's Wada On The 'First Tide' Of The Gaming Revolution

[Betelgeuzah]

Your very wrong saying that the reason rpgs did well is because action games were weak, action games were actually very strong in that era. Those action games have been made and remade and marketed to new users and still sell well, look at mario, megaman castlevania, all have ports that have sold well in the past 5 years, with virtually the same mechanics and playstyle.

You see no difference between 2D sidescrolling platformers and action games like Devil May Cry, God of War and MGS4?

The latter style of gameplay did not become successful before the PS2. There were 3D versions of Zelda and Mario but frankly they have not aged well, and the gameplay is clunky and dated. It was easy for RPG turnbased combat to still compete. The early 3D era just wasn't that good for action games, even if some classics hail from that time period.

The jump in quality from PS1 to PS2 was huge, and became even more refined in the PS3 era.

[Wolfie]

You see no difference between 2D sidescrolling platformers and action games like Devil May Cry, God of War and MGS4?

The latter style of gameplay did not become successful before the PS2. There were 3D versions of Zelda and Mario but frankly they have not aged well, and the gameplay is clunky and dated. It was easy for RPG turnbased combat to still compete. The early 3D era just wasn't that good for action games, even if some classics hail from that time period.

The jump in quality from PS1 to PS2 was huge, and became even more refined in the PS3 era.

This is another thing to keep in mind about modern game development. A lot of play styles and gimmicks that were popular in the 90's and early 2000's don't translate well with modern game engines that have physics, detailed graphics, etc. And in actuality, a lot of the gimmicks that older games had were only there because of limited technology and a generally inexperienced and young industry.

Menu-driven gameplay is one of those things that worked with older games, but not so much with newer games.

[Physic]

You see no difference between 2D sidescrolling platformers and action games like Devil May Cry, God of War and MGS4?

The latter style of gameplay did not become successful before the PS2. There were 3D versions of Zelda and Mario but frankly they have not aged well, and the gameplay is clunky and dated. It was easy for RPG turnbased combat to still compete. The early 3D era just wasn't that good for action games, even if some classics hail from that time period.

The jump in quality from PS1 to PS2 was huge, and became even more refined in the PS3 era.

yeah, but there was just as much as a jump from dragon quest 1 to ffvii. Honestly there hasnt been much new in gaming in a long time. FPS arent that different from what they were back in the 90s, neither are action games. I think devil may cry was a great game, but devil may cry isnt really killing rpgs. Truth is imo we havent really gotten anything new out of games in a long time, other than graphics and some polish. Metal gear solid as game can totally complete with metal gear 4 imo.
And the fact is my 11 year old and 6 year old neice still enjoy a mario game which is essentially just combining all the marios that existed before. I remember a 17 year old cat a few years ago i met who played the hell out of megaman and found it awesome. The truth is making a good game isnt about insane textures, and 3d mechanics, its about making a good game.

Im just saying i dont think the rpg genre is suffering because devil may cry is a cool game, I think if the rpg genre is suffering its because they arent making good games, or they arent marketing thier good games. Production value of todays games is highly overated, the sad truth is, a 2d platformer remake from a 1980 game can outsell a multimillion dollar 3d game, simply because its a better game overall. The best selling games of today are just really simply, good games usually.

I dont think the mechanic of having a story intensive game with a large world to explore, and progression system that focuses on growth is not marketable, or that it is directly competing with action games, unless the problem is the action games have taken on rpg elements, and are doing it better than rpgs are. Thats the fault of the game designers, not the technology or genre.



btw, the jump in quality from ps1 to ps2 was huge, but honestly i saw ps1 as a step back from snes/genesis. It was a necessary change to make way for the next generation, but people basically got caught up on polygons, but didnt have the now how to make games as polished as they used to with sprites, So visually for most of that era, 2d games actually looked better than 3d games, and usually played better, because the developers needed to refigure out a lot of things. By the ps2 era, you had games that could compete with old 2d games in terms of pesentation and control, but only a few of those games were pushing any boundaries.