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

[Betelgeuzah]

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.

The thing is, that these action games could as well have large worlds to explore. But they don't, because the developers realize, that a large world adds nothing to their game. And the games are better off for it, almost universally.

There is not really much of a difference between an "RPG" and an action game at the end of the day. Everything can be switched and the games would retain their respective genres. Progression systems exist in every game. In action games you may get new weapons or skills to play with (button combos). In RPG's it's mostly numbers that increase.. but nothing states that number-based progression is a native trait of an RPG, while more button combinations means what you're playing is an "action game".

The only difference would be having actual choices, as in.... role-playing. You can play Dante or Cloud in any action game, but you can not affect your decisions. That's one of the few things that separates RPG's from action games, and Japanese RPG's don't have these traits. They are long action games with inferior action and more HD cutscenes. The line is even more blurred with games like Zelda.

JRPG's have really nothing to do with RPG's, and they're closer to Metal Gear Solid than Mass Effect or Dragon Age. When you realize the connection it becomes painfully apparent just how dated this turn-based PS1 era action gameplay is when compared to current-gen action gameplay. It could compete back then, but PS2 changed it all.

Only an old fart like Sakaguchi would be blind enough to miss the obvious and still make a NES game in 2006.