DS RPGs: Where’s My Plot?

By Ishaan . September 13, 2009 . 1:20pm

I first considered buying a DS back in late 2005. I’d played my fair share of GBA games and was I excited for the system’s successor. Like most people, I found the thought of a portable system with two screens incredibly curious. I wasn’t a skeptic though.

 

DS RPGs: Wheres My Plot?I’d had a chance to play the French version of Feel the Magic: XY/XX – aptly named “Project Rub” — which I’d loved and I’d seen screenshots of Mario Kart DS, which had also impressed me to no end. It was Mario Kart in 3D! On a portable! There was also the promise of the inevitable new Pokémon games, which alone would have driven me to buy whatever system they were released on, were it not for the fact that I was in college and had next to no money.

 

You tend to be a lot more conservative with money when you’ve just started to earn it. I decided I’d wait and see if the DS was really worth it. What I was hoping for was that, like the GBA before it, the DS would grow into a great RPG system. And so, over the next year, a couple of IRC friends and I watched the DS’s growth, debating every other week what the chances were of it actually picking up where its predecessor left off. We wondered if there would ever be a sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and what the chances were of seeing another Super Robot Taisen: OG.

 

Fast forward to 2009: Final Fantasy Tactics A2 sucked and I didn’t really like Pokémon Diamond. Oh, and we have to see a true SRT: OG game. Regardless, I own a DS and it’s easily my favourite current-gen system. There’s an extremely diverse range of genres on the DS, and it has more to offer in the way of RPGs than even the GBA did.

 

DS RPGs: Wheres My Plot?The problem is, while the DS offers enough role-playing games to satisfy just about anyone, most of them have one glaring flaw in common: they suck from a story perspective. I can count the DS RPGs that really impressed me with their story on one hand. Soma Bringer had some nice characters and Echoes of Time had a pretty passable story. However, those are both ARPGs, which means you have the constant action to fall back on even when you tire of their narrative.

 

Turn-based RPGs are a whole different story. The only one that comes to mind is Devil Survivor. Sure, people will argue that Chrono Trigger, Disgaea and Final Fantasy IV address my concerns, but those are all ports of older games. Much older in the case of Chrono Trigger and FFIV.

 

I’d really like to know what’s going on here.

 

Did people just…forget how to write good RPG stories after the PS2 era? This is a complaint one could aim not only at DS RPGs but this generation’s role-playing games in general. Here’s the thing though: I’m sure a lot of us are willing to excuse bad plots in high-def games. Current gen game development is tough and often expensive. You’ve either got to worry about new control schemes or about finding the most efficient way to churn out normal maps and get your fancy dynamic lighting system working correctly. It’s cool guys, we understand, really.

 

However, this is not excusable when you’re developing for a system that is roughly around the PS1 benchmark. Not only is it cheaper and (technologically) easier than console development, it’s also a heck of a lot faster and leaves you with enough time in your production schedule to work on a somewhat satisfactory story. So what exactly is the problem?

 

DS RPGs: Wheres My Plot?

 

Is it laziness? Is it some sort of misconception that the portable nature of these games makes up for the lack of a coherent plot with interesting, relatable characters? It’s certainly not due to a lack of good writers. I’ve been very pleased with nearly every visual novel-esque or adventure game I’ve played on the DS.

 

Here you have a system that’s bound neither by the restrictions of graphical expectations nor the lack of unique hardware. And it’s been out for five years! Why is no one experimenting?

 

I’d like to remain optimistic and say we need to look to the future. That the return of great stories that will truly impress us is right around the corner. But honestly, aside from Ni no Kuni and Infinite Space, I can’t think of much to look forward to in this regard. Am I the only one?


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  • http://www.siliconera.com Ishaan

    First off, awesome post. :)

    I agree, developers really need to sit down and think of how to approach narrative in portable games. They've all been so busy trying to compete with their Western brethren in trying to push hardware, it seems a lot of them have forgotten why we love games from Japan in the first place.

    As a lot of people in the comments have already pointed out, yes, the DS has taken us back to the days when gameplay was king and everything — story included — served as fluff rather than a driving force for the player. Etrian Odyssey and Dark Spire are great examples of this. While I'm personally not a fan of super hard games like those, I can see why people appreciate them and I understand the importance of preserving a genre.

    But I'll have to disagree on the topic of adventure. For me, narrative is the primary driving force in RPGs. I need to know that I'm working toward something and maxing out my stats or equips doesn't cut it (unless we're talking Diablo 2). I need good character development or interaction, even if it's without the greatest plot in the world, in order to remain interested in RPGs. I like knowing what I'm fighting for, who my friends are, what their motives are. I WANT to role-play and to lose myself in the world, even if only for a few short hours. Both Persona 3 and 4 really, really impressed me in that regard.

    Now, I'm all for sense of adventure and going off in pursuit of the unknown. Hell, I loved chasing after Ruby and Emerald Weapons in FFVII and I had an absolute blast trying to track down the legendaries in Pokémon Crystal. But again, I want some context when I do these things. I need them to be given a place within the world I'm part of and their relevance at least touched upon in some way.

    I totally get where you're coming from when you say you're burnt out on plot-heavy RPGs. Aoshi said above that we're all getting jaded as we grow older and play more games but I think it's also that developers have failed to realize that they need to stop relying on what made for effective storytelling a decade ago if they want to keep our interest. Atlus are one developer that I'd say fully understand this understand this concept. I think — for all the haters he might have — Tetsuya Nomura understands this as well, and I'm really looking forward to Versus XIII for this reason.

    Something I'm very interested in seeing developers do is treat plot advancements like chapters in portable games. Or like episodes of an anime, if you'd prefer. Give me enough incentive to play for the next, say, one or two hours, instead of dangling the carrot at the end of a 40-hour grindfest. Give each chapter a beginning and an end but make sure it ties into the overall narrative in some way. It doesn't matter if shorter chapters aren't even about the overarching plot. Make them about the characters. Use something similar to social links if you need to.

    Devil Survivor is absolutely great at this. I find myself with reduced patience for JRPGs these days but I love watching the plot twists in Devil Survivor after every single major battle. They give you enough incentive and they do it often. That's what I'd like to see more of.

  • kylehyde

    I think that I know how you feel. If you refer that the protagonist is annoying for his “peculiar” way of talk, I'm 100% agree, is really annoying, but fortunately the voice actor improved a little later in the game, but is a shame that the protagonist's voice acting is maybe the worst in the game, because the other characters has from decent to good voice acting. But actually I have a two little complaints with this game, and is that it has a simple gameplay and frecuent but easy random battles, I love random battles, but not so frecuently and I love challenge. BTW, nice article, even that I think that we already hace good plots, you are right about that the DS still needs the RPG game(s) that give us an amazing story.

  • EmmyG

    … Revenant Wings had a fantastic plot? Revenant Wings *bored me to tears*. It's entirely possible the plot picks up later, I was only about four hours in when I just couldn't be bothered to continue. But with the exception of wondering what had become of Balthier, everything seemed painfully generic fantasy-world-in-peril, magic-crystals-of-blah, being a “real” sky pirate, even a couple of new characters for the party with so little personality that I can't remember their names.

    To me, *Partners in Time* had a better plot than that. That plot was dumb but at least it was entertaining to read!

  • Joanna_T

    they cut stuff out of FFIV DS? like what? maybe I haven't played enough or I don't recall very well, but I don't remember anything being cut out. Actually the put stuff into it (like Whyt, Augments, those mini games to boost Whyt's stats, ect.)

    So I don't see what the problem would be. FFV is pretty big as well, with 3 distinct worlds, but I still think they can fit it into a DS cart if they wanted, there are bigger sizes, like 2G. So I don't see a problem. Maybe you just want FFVI remake on a different system and are projecting this desire into arguments about FFVI DS not being possible, when it is (theoretically of course, no confirmation from Square yet).

  • QBasic

    Oh god… I can't name everything off of top of my head, since I didn't play either version of IV in a while…but I know for certain the overworld was considerably scaled down. The GBA version got an additional dungeon, and several other small areas opened up in the world map. That was absent in the DS version.

    A few story elements were also removed, but I can't recall which ones; then again, if I can't remember, shows how memorable they were. :P

    But even so, yeah, VI is simply too big to be 3Dfied and slapped onto a DS cart; they'll definitely need to move to something else.

    I'm thinking even a PSP port wouldn't be easy and fun to make. The idea thing is to move it to a current-gen console…but, like that'll happen. :P

  • Joanna

    they cut stuff out of FFIV DS? like what? maybe I haven't played enough or I don't recall very well, but I don't remember anything being cut out. Actually the put stuff into it (like Whyt, Augments, those mini games to boost Whyt's stats, ect.)

    So I don't see what the problem would be. FFV is pretty big as well, with 3 distinct worlds, but I still think they can fit it into a DS cart if they wanted, there are bigger sizes, like 2G. So I don't see a problem. Maybe you just want FFVI remake on a different system and are projecting this desire into arguments about FFVI DS not being possible, when it is (theoretically of course, no confirmation from Square yet).

  • QBasic

    Oh god… I can't name everything off of top of my head, since I didn't play either version of IV in a while…but I know for certain the overworld was considerably scaled down. The GBA version got an additional dungeon, and several other small areas opened up in the world map. That was absent in the DS version.

    A few story elements were also removed, but I can't recall which ones; then again, if I can't remember, shows how memorable they were. :P

    But even so, yeah, VI is simply too big to be 3Dfied and slapped onto a DS cart; they'll definitely need to move to something else.

    I'm thinking even a PSP port wouldn't be easy and fun to make. The idea thing is to move it to a current-gen console…but, like that'll happen. :P

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