In a recent rather creative article, eToychest imagined a world where Tidus of Final Fantasy X fame would be stuck in Fallout's post-apocalyptic wasteland, or in other words, "[w]hat if Tidus’ Zanarkand never actually existed, and instead, this spiky haired hero had woken up in Vault 13". This rather unique exercise of the intellect seems to be a veiled attempt to illustrate the strength and weaknesses of Western cRPGs versus Japanese cRPGs;<blockquote>After escaping the sewers and emerging in the desolation above, Tidus would probably have his first panic attack. The vault, after all, was a constricting place. Having been born there, most dwellers likely wouldn’t know what a wide, open space even meant, really. Conceptualization is nothing compared to visualization. Being thrust into Fallout’s open-ended, non-linear world would undoubtedly make Tidus piss his pants. Spira, it seems, was constructed with invisible guardrails, and Tidus seemed to feel right at home, merrily going along the path that was set for him. Here, Tidus could go anywhereat any time. For a young, spiky-haired boy of unnatural attire, that can be a frightening prospect.
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Unlike on Spira where everyone gets a somewhat-equal chance at jabbing endlessly at each other until someone dies (temporarily or permanently depending on where you are in the land), the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout is much less forgiving, as Ian would have likely found out. Action points rule the day after World War 3, but how could Tidus know? He’d been locked in a vault for 16 years where the only conflicts that existed were over who gets to pour the water for the community. And, no, a phoenix down won’t fix a shotgun blast to the crotch. Sorry, Tidus, it must be disconcerting to witness such a bloody mess and not be able to do anything about it. Mostly, though, sorry to Ian. What a way to go.</blockquote>Link: What Would Tidus Do, I Roll Twenties on eToychest
Spotted on RPGWatch.
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Unlike on Spira where everyone gets a somewhat-equal chance at jabbing endlessly at each other until someone dies (temporarily or permanently depending on where you are in the land), the post-apocalyptic world of Fallout is much less forgiving, as Ian would have likely found out. Action points rule the day after World War 3, but how could Tidus know? He’d been locked in a vault for 16 years where the only conflicts that existed were over who gets to pour the water for the community. And, no, a phoenix down won’t fix a shotgun blast to the crotch. Sorry, Tidus, it must be disconcerting to witness such a bloody mess and not be able to do anything about it. Mostly, though, sorry to Ian. What a way to go.</blockquote>Link: What Would Tidus Do, I Roll Twenties on eToychest
Spotted on RPGWatch.
A western RPG is the only rpg, the japRPG are not RPGs by any diffinition, they are closer to a playable movie (make that a playable manga style movie). For some reason people have this preconcieved notion that "if you can collect new armour and go up levels then it must be a rpg" Well you can collect armour and new weapons in Doom but I would call that a RPG. The JapRPGs have less freedom than ultima 1. real rpgs should be an electronic version of a paper game where the player can do anything, you imagine trying to play a paper based rpg with a group of friends where the dungeon master/game master would only let you follow his exact script .