General News - Origins of JRPGs

[HiddenX]

PC Gamer tells us that J-RPGs have their roots on the PC platform:

The forgotten origins of JRPGs on the PC

While the golden age of JRPGs was on the console, their genesis started on the PC.

Long before Dragon Quest would ignite a golden age of Japanese roleplaying games, there was Seduction of the Condominium Wives. Forget genre tropes like heroic knights and evil dragons: this proto-JRPG was about a salesman going door-to-door trying to peddle condoms to lonely women while battling off Yakuza gang members and ghosts. Released in 1982, Seduction of the Condominium Wives was one of the first Japanese RPGs—if you can even call it that.

[…]

The origins of Japanese RPGs is often attributed to Wizardry, a hugely successful western RPG designed by Robert Woodhead in 1981. There's no denying that Wizardy—and to a similar extent Richard Garriott's Ultima—had a huge impact on JRPGs. In the September/October issue of Computer Gaming World, columnist Roe R. Adams describes Woodhead's and Garriott's fame in the East: "Both Wizardry and Ultima have huge followings in Japan. The computer magazines cover [Richard Garriott] like our National Inquirer would cover a television star. When Robert Woodhead, of Wizardry fame, was recently in Japan he was practically mobbed by autograph seekers."

But the truth is that before either game was imported to Japan, a thriving development scene of proto-RPGs had already taken hold. In 1982, Japan's videogame industry was booming. Arcade games like Nintendo's Donkey Kong had come out a year earlier and sparked a golden era of videogame mania. While Japan was allegedly facing a shortage of 100 yen coins from the success of arcade games, its personal computing industry was also booming. Companies like Nippon Electric Company (NEC) were coming out with innovative hardware like the PC-8001, which is where the first Japanese RPGs would arrive.

[…]

Thanks henriquejr!

More information.

 

[JDR13]

You forgot to include a link.

http://www.pcgamer.com/the-forgotten-origins-of-jrpgs-on-the-pc/

It's a fairly interesting article, even if you're not a fan of the genre.

 

[henriquejr]

PCGamer correctly recognize they could not produce the aforementioned article without the work previously done by some people:

"This article could not have been possible without the work done by Hardcore Gaming 101 and game preservationists like John Szczepaniak and Felipe Pepe."

 

[luj1]

good one

 

[NewDArt]

Wouldn't it have been easier to just write "the toilet"?

 

[duerer]

"This article could not have been possible without the work done by Hardcore Gaming 101 and game preservationists like John Szczepaniak and Felipe Pepe."

Szczepaniak did an amazing work on documenting Japanese game developers. He published two invaluable tomes on the subject (The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers Vol 1-2). Very hard to read, but absolutely full of information.

 

[lostforever]

I just got myself PS Vita so trying out some JRPGs but I have to say I am not too keen on them so far... they seem to have wired rule systems which I don't like but may be i just need to find one which is similar to WRPG to ease me into stuff.

 

[wolfsrain]

There were some nice articles, recently, on PC Gamer, dedicated to japanese gaming. And this one is no exception. Kind of strange to see that quality level on PC Gamer, as usual their articles are mediocre or boring. This time, for a change, the articles were actually quite interesting (Japan's week on PC Gamer).

 

[Dasale]

It's always been very well known that JRPG are coming from Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy and both are coming from Wyzardry and perhaps Ultima, and nothing influenced more JRPG than DQ and FF.

This article is just a bizarre one.

EDIT: For the quote DQ started in 1986, and FF 1987.

 

[duerer]

It's always been very well known that JRPG are coming from Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy and both are coming from Wyzardry and perhaps Ultima, and nothing influenced more JRPG than DQ and FF.

Yes, this is a fairly common misconception.
However…

The very first significant jRPG was Hydlide that came out before DQ.
In fact, according to the interview with Hydlide's designer in the aforementioned book by John Szczepaniak, he was actually never played any of the western forerunner games, and Hydlide was inspired by even earlier proto-jRPGs - most notably, Tower of Druaga, which was inspired by …
… drum roll …
PAC-MAN!

History is such a fascinating thing

 

[Carnifex]

Speaking as someone that has been playing and replaying about nine different Final Fantasy games since Christmas, I'm a big fan of the genre. I've played many other of the Japanese role playing games as well, I'd really like to get my mitts on their Wizardry titles for the pc someday. To a one I pretty much despise how they look, but the combat and stories just work for me. Those crayon colours do take some getting used to, though!

 

[Dasale]

List of first JRPG released, this change nothing, JRPG classic style is coming from huge commercial success of Dragon Quest and later Final Fantasy, plus both series, having quality and innovative elements, and selling a lot, had good reason to have such influence, unlike some obscure past release.

And ok, Wyzardry and Ultima series was influence for both, history rewriting through some codex delirium and friend article changes nothing.

I don't mean it's wrong facts, just non relevant facts.

 

[JDR13]

Speaking as someone that has been playing and replaying about nine different Final Fantasy games since Christmas, I'm a big fan of the genre. I've played many other of the Japanese role playing games as well, I'd really like to get my mitts on their Wizardry titles for the pc someday. To a one I pretty much despise how they look, but the combat and stories just work for me. Those crayon colours do take some getting used to, though!

You might want to check out Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land for PS2 and Wizardry: Labyrinth of Lost Souls for PS3, if you have those consoles. If not, the former is easy enough to play via emulator.

 

[duerer]

List of first JRPG released, this change nothing, JRPG classic style is coming from huge commercial success of Dragon Quest and later Final Fantasy, plus both series, having quality and innovative elements, and selling a lot, had good reason to have such influence, unlike some obscure past release.

And ok, Wyzardry and Ultima series was influence for both, history rewriting through some codex delirium and friend article changes nothing.

I don't mean it's wrong facts, just non relevant facts.

Hmmm, disagree a bit.
Hydlide was one of the top RPGs in Japan for a veeery long time. It remained a very strong contender after DQ and FF came out - and actively influenced such permier action jPRGs such as the YS-series. Needless to say, it is fairly unknown outside of Japan (but this does not diminish its historical significance)

Three small obstervations:
1. Hydlide was the granddaddy of action RPGs, so it has nothing to do with Ultimas and Wizardrys (DQ and FF are more akin to the golden standard turn based "traditional" template set by Wizardry and Ultima)

2. Most of the Japanese game developers dismissed Western games, because of cultural pride ("Video games were invented in Japan", etc, etc). Hence, the Western influence in the early years of Japanese video game development is very limited.
Horii-san (DQ) and Sakaguchi-san (FF) were true pioneers because they actually looked beyond this selfish attitude and found gold in the West.

3. Wizardry influence is much more prominent in the early Shin Megami Tensei games. These are superbrutal dungeon crawlers, sadly remained unknown by the Western audience for a long time (recent entries are available though - ABSOLUTELY recommended for jRPG fans!)

Need some historical jRPG info? Just ask - I'm sorta expert in this field

 

[Dasale]

1: You are just proving how Hydlide had an infignificant influence on JRPG so how wrong is this article.

There's no need to be a wizard or knowing some forgotten game to detect the huge influence of DQ and FF on JRPG and certainly not Wizardry and Ultima both only very indirectly through DQ and FF. Even less some action RPG, just see how Dogma isn't considered as JRPG.

2: Ok, I always knew Japan was Xenophobe, so it's not just a cliché. It's even more incoherent that I think it's more USA that created first consoles of any type, with one game, with fixed set of games, and with cartridge or similar system. It's all USA first isn't it?

3: Good to know, but it's pretty clear Ultima combats didn't influenced JRPG and Wizardry did, and at reverse dungeon crawling aspect of Wizardry could have influence on some JRPG but in whole JPRG history it's pretty insignificant.

 

[duerer]

1: You are [...] insignificant.

I have absolutely no clue what you just wrote, but it must be important... I guess

 

[Dasale]

I .. must be important… I guess

Yeah sure, sigh.