The full article with screenshots and miscellaneous tid-bits was originally posted on the game design blog Significant-Bits.
Introduction
In the previous entry, I analyzed ten notable turn-based JRPGs from the 16-bit era. Each title was measured on how long it took to reach 12 different milestones common to the genre. My goal was to help quantify the amount of time required to "get into" these games by obtaining a certain level of comfort with their mechanics.
An additional goal was to measure how these metrics changed over time, which we can now observe with the 5th generation of consoles.
CD-ROM extensions existed in the previous generation, but this was the first time the medium became the prevalent storage format. This resulted in much more space for base assets as well as new elements such as prerecorded movies and voice overs. The extra production values sometimes came at the cost of loading times, but most games embraced the approach, especially for narrative purposes.
Another aspect of the 5th console generation that helped blur genre-lines was the memory card. Obtaining permanent upgrades and saving one's progress was no longer the sole domain of JRPGs. This provided titles such as Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil room to breathe and pace out their experiences without relying on password systems or built-in battery backups.
JRPGs also started to include more real-time elements, and not just in their minigames. Series such as the Tales and Star Ocean showcased a more action oriented approach to combat and finally got Western releases. In fact, pretty much everything made it out to the West, including more offbeat JRPGs such as Koudelka, the SaGa games, and the Persona series.
During the 5th console generation I was catching up on classic CRPGs like Ultima VII and Betrayal at Krondor, and enjoying more contemporary PC releases like Fallout and Planescape: Torment. However, I was still firmly entrenched in the JRPG genre and checked out most of these titles upon release.
Final Fantasy VII - January 31, 1997
Starting off with a bang, Final Fantasy VII is largely credited with making JRPGs a mainstream genre in the west.
Following a dramatic split with Nintendo, SquareSoft embraced the CD-ROM and created the best selling and arguably the most beloved entry in the series. It was a huge production -- and the first JRPG I recall seeing ads for on prime time TV -- that ended up spawning a slew of side-games and leading to an ill-conceived CG movie.
Behind the scenes, FF VII was a bit of a rickety mess. Characters lacked texturing, FMVs were inconsistent, various parts of the game ran at a different FPS rate, and entire chunks were coded in isolation becoming separate executables launched by the main engine (I once worked with someone involved in the PC port, and he lamented trying to backtrace assembly variables from the minigames named "a", "aa", "aaa", and so on).
Despite these technical issues, the fan community is still modding the game, and SqaureEnix itself has recently announced a full blown remake.
FF VII starts off with a vary patient 46-second view of a starry night before the FMV kicks into full swing. The famous sweep over Midgard city quickly transitions to full player control as Cloud and the rest of Avalanche make their way to a Mako reactor.
The first enemies are felled in a cutscene and yield an item, and a scripted combat encounter follows right after. When the opponents are dispatched, Cloud levels-up and joins his companions as the party enters the dungeon-proper. The first save spot is encountered about 2/3 of the way through, and in just over 15 minutes the first boss battle takes place.
It's a blistering pace, and when it finally slows down for some character development, it does so while providing a rest spot and an equipment store. The first ability-granting materia is eventually "unlocked" as well, but the quick pace and grandiose scale sputter as the player is forced to do a squats minigame to obtain a blonde wig -- among various banal objectives -- so that Cloud can crossdress as an escort for a local crime boss.
The game picks up yet again with another Mako reactor sabotage and a storming of the excellent Shin-Ra Tower, but it takes significantly more time to enter the overworld map.
FTC: NA
Breath of Fire III - September 11, 1997
I snubbed the first two Breath of Fire games on the SNES as the third entry proved to be highest ranked overall.
Taking the opposite approach of FF VII, BoF III uses fully 3D backgrounds with sprites representing characters and enemies. These are a big step up from the 4th console generation, appearing larger, more detailed, and fully animated. They also work really well with the colourful, cartoony environment textures -- something that's an issue for many PSX titles that relied on low-res CG environments and bland 3D models.
Breath of Fire III never won any major awards, but it cemented the series as Capcom's flagship JRPG property.
Breath of Fire III is the first game to start off in the middle of a battle, but it's not a challenging one. The player takes control of a baby dragon newly excavated from a giant crystal. The little drake proceeds to char all the miners he encounters, but is eventually knocked out and captured.
Following his imprisonment, the baby is shipped out of the mines in a little prison cart, but he shuffles around in the cage and eventually topples down a cliff... where he awakens as a naked little baby boy! It's a great intro that sets up an interesting mystery, but the narrative immediately abandons it for unfocused, slice-of-life vignettes.
The protagonist is adopted by a small group of vagrants and the group attempts to steal some food, fails, tries again, fails again, gets punished with minigame-chores, then splits up to explore a side-area in a somewhat contrived fashion.
The meandering progression feels all the longer due to how text is handled in the game.
Even at the fastest speed, the text prints out slowly and can't be sped up/skipped with button presses. It also has an animation for exiting out, and the whole text window animates in and out as different speakers say their lines. It's painfully slow and is used to tell a rather mundane story, at least in the early parts of the game.
Mechanically BoF III comes in below the median for most 5th-gen gameplay milestones, but even there it comes across as unnecessarily prolonged. The player wakes up in a bed, but can't rest there again until an arbitrary narrative point is reached. Boss encounters take place early on, but their conclusions are scripted and play out as gimmicky cutscenes. The first piece of gear is actually obtained in the intro segment, but can't be equipped as the player doesn't gain access to the entire in-game menu until roughly twenty minutes into the game!
It's a bit of shame that BoF III felt like such a grind as it introduced various gameplay elements that firmly positioned it as a next-gen JRPG.
FTC: 1:42:14
Xenogears - February 11, 1998
It seems SquareSoft was hedging its bets with Xenogears by taking a completely different development approach from Final Fantasy VII. FF VII had pre-rendered backgrounds, Xenogears was fully 3D; FF VII used 3D models for all characters, Xenogears used sprites; FF VII was filled with CG cutscenes, Xenogears relied on 2D anime clips.
In the end, both games had a bumpy development process. The latter parts of Xenogears were largely skipped over, replaced with simple sequences that narrated what should have been experienced by the player.
However, the game's parallels to the hugely popular Neon Genesis Evangelion (the mechs, waxing philosophy, religious overtones, etc.) greatly resonated with fans. Xenogears became hugely successful, and even launched a spiritual successor in Xenosaga.
Xenogears has the first somewhat lengthy intro, but it still relinquishes control less than 10 minutes into the game. Resting and item acquisition happen right after, but exploring the town is a lengthy process.
Much like BoF III, text prints out at a painfully slow rate, and there's no way to speed it up. It's a common complaint that fans tried to address through a bit of hacking.
Text boxes are typically 4 lines tall, accommodate portraits where applicable, and can often be walked away from to terminate the dialogue à la Chrono Trigger. However, playing in a completionist fashion prevents this, and the NPCs have a lot to say. Their dialogue sequences are longer and more involved than in the last generation, and they often have secondary dialogues once the initial one is processed.
The biggest offender of this is a Lucca cameo where she takes a whopping 23 large text boxes (more than 4 lines), to explain game saving. Her diatribe could've easily been summarized as "You can save your game on the overworld map or at special markers."
Fully exploring the starting town takes about 35 minutes, delaying various other milestones. Once the game finally proceeds to the first dungeon, random battles happen at a fairly high rate. The first level-up doesn't take long to reach, and after some cutscenes a scripted mech fight takes place. The first special ability is awarded at its conclusion, and the player proceeds to get kicked out to the overworld map.
A second dungeon follows soon after wherein the first companion joins the party, the first piece of gear is found, and the first true boss is fought at just under 2 hours.
FTC: 1:42:16
Legend of Legaia - October 29, 1998
Out of the 5th generation list, Legend of Legaia is a game that best exemplifies a cult-classic. It's also the one that most resembles a 4th generation JRPG, albeit upgraded to full 3D for both characters and environments.
It's often brought up as an underrated PSX gem, and although it did get a PS2 sequel, Sony did not continue with the series afterwards.
In a setup reminiscent of the Mistborn series, the protagonist starts off in a small town isolated by dangerous mists and the monsters that come with them. Once the intro finishes, the player can save their game, get an item, participate in a combat tutorial, and gain a new ability all within 10 minutes.
A slew of narrative cutscenes follow, but these are quite short and spread out with plenty of freedom in between. The narrative does a good job of introducing the gameworld and its characters, and the text can be skipped instantly with a button press. NPCs also say only one or two lines, and simply repeat the same text upon subsequent conversations.
Eventually a scripted encounter with the antagonist takes place, the protagonist levels up and gains some new equipment, and the overworld map opens up. It takes another 15 minutes or so to reach the first resting spot and the first dungeon.
Combat itself is quite frequent, takes a while to load, and lasts a fairly long time. Despite the battles often involving only two or three combatants, a lot of effort is spent on looking up combos, selecting attack inputs, and watching characters run up to each other and attack.
When the initial dungeon is conquered, a new PoV character is introduced. Since they eventually join the party, I noted this as the point at which they're obtained. More narrative scenes and dungeon exploration follows, capped off by the first two boss battle.
FTC: 1:46:56
Suikoden II - December 17, 1998
More so than any other game on the list, Suikoden II managed to recaptured my nostalgic love of JRPGs. I first played it well into the 6th generation, but Konami's flagship series instantly clicked with me.
In a way it makes perfect sense as Suikoden II feels most like a direct evolution of 16-bit era JRPGs. The sprites are bigger, there are tons more custom animations, proper shading gives the tile maps an extra visual touch, the storyline focuses on political intrigue rather than an ancient evil, and the epic conflict is well represented with heavily scripted SRPG battles.
Suikoden II is widely considered the best of the series, and it was a big inspiration for this series of posts. My memories of it were certainly rose-tinted, so I definitely wanted to see how it stacked up against its contemporaries.
Suikoden II starts off very quickly, setting off international strife with an ambush on a young group of military recruits. The event is a sham orchestrated by the boys' senior officers in order to provoke a war with the neighbouring nation.
The first 10 minutes bring mobility, items, combat, and a level-up. Text prints out almost instantly and NPCs don't have a whole lot to say, although their dialogue often changes when new story beats are reached. Combat is also blistering-fast as all actions are queued up ahead of time and executed in a staggered, semi-simultaneous fashion.
Attack order, successful hits, damage amounts, etc., seem to be calculated when the player finishes their inputs, with the actual combat round simply playing the calculated animations. There are some delays here to show enemy strikes and mass-damage spells, but there's a very quick flow to the battles and they allow for a maximum of 12 combatants -- a huge increase over the typical 6-7 participants common to this generation.
When the opening finishes, the protagonist is captured by members of the enemy state and imprisoned. This section proved a lot longer than I remembered, lasting around 30 minutes as the protagonist is forced to perform various menial chores. However, none of it felt as aimless as BoF III's post-opening as it was used for worldbuilding that directly tied into the political conflict of the intro.
There's also plenty of new gameplay while serving the captors, with the first companions joining the party, gear upgrades being made available, the overworld map opening up, and the player finding a place to rest and save.
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