Maximum Letdown: Legend of Dragoon & RPG Game Development Algebra

Welcome back to Maximum Letdown, Powet’s go-to guide on games that either had that one fatal flaw, didn’t quite live up to the hype, or just plain suck. Because today is St. Patty’s day, I’m gonna give you something extra: a math lesson. If you’re an RPG fan you’ll want to pay attention to this, as I’ll tell you the formula to making a good game (hint: the exact opposite of this). There is even some homework, so break out your pencils and notepads, because there will be a pop quiz on all of this.

With Final Fantasy VII, Square found the winning formula to solve a longtime problem they had: how to get a Japanese RPG over with an American fanbase that was more accustomed to faster paced FPS, fighting, and sports title. What is it, first we need to do a little extrapolation:

G = ((A good plot with interesting characters * good gameplay mechanics that are well implemented) + Audio and visual ‘pizzaz’)/ Intuitiveness of the implementation of all of the above

Breaking it down further, we get

G = ((P/R + C/U) * (M *I) + (V + A))/E

Where G is the likelihood of the game being successful, P/R represents the epic scale of the storyline (represented by variable P) divided by amount of themes recycled from other games (R), C/U represents the quality of characters (C, and that includes playable characters, NPCs, villains and bosses) and their uniqueness (U), M * I represents the amount of unique gameplay mechanics (M) times the intuitiveness of said gameplay mechanics(I), V + A represents the visual (V) and audio (A) flash (as you can see, they aren’t weighted as much as the other variables as good graphics don’t necessarily make a good game) and E represents the overall effectiveness of the implementation of said elements. E can be broken down further into:

E = (R * X) – (M *I)

Where R, M, I are the same as above and X represents gameplay and interface issues. The lower that number the better, as higher numbers signify gameplay problems, interface issues, and I could go into greater detail and whittle it down with proofs and theorems, but I imagine if you wanted algebraic formulas, you’d be reading your math book instead of a gaming/comics/movie/action figure/anything else to do with geekdom. So instead, I present an example, the widely popular Final Fantasy VII. It presented a profound theme (evil corporations, magic vs technology, cloning), cool characters (Sephiroth, Cloud, Cid, Barret, and Vincent), a solid gameplay mechanic (materia and weapon customization slots), and had beautiful polygon graphics and CGI cinemas. So not only was FF VII was successful, it ushered a brand new age for the RPG genre. Gamers even checked out games such as Suikoden and Vandal Hearts that came out before FFVII simply because they had similar play styles and hooks of their own. Of course the JRPG genre suffered the same issues as other gaming trends: developers got lazy. Instead of paying complete attention to Square’s formula, they simply decided to eschew innovate gameplay and storylines in favor of cramming as many fancy CG cinematics as they can. For every Xenogears and Vagrant Stroy we got, we got 10 more Legend of Legaias. One such copycat is Sony’s 4-disc Legend of Dragoon. Sony hyped it up as its answer to FFVII & FFVIII (which was funny considering both were already available on the system), but it instead ends up being the RPG equivalent of Waterworld.

You play as a guy whose village has been destroyed by a black demon. You and your two friends set out for revenge. Along the way, you come across a mysterious power that grants its users a mysterious power. Of course I’m not going to spoil the whole thing, so as long as you are keeping your hands on your notebook paper, here is a link to the wikipedia plot summary, and here is a link to the grand list of RPG cliches. Your assignment is to look through the wikipedia page, then see how many of the list’s cliches you can find in the article. Then take another JRPG of your choice, and do the same (Hint: At least one shows up twice).

While Suikoden had players seek out 108 characters (most of which were playable), Persona had players capture monsters and merge them into cards, and Xenogears had players use combo attacks and mechs to defeat their enemies, LOD has players use times button presses to preform chain combos. Yeah, it’s fun to chain together hits, but it gets increasingly frustrating after a while, and otherwise its the same old menu-driven random encounters seen in many other RPGs. Players can activate their dragoon forms to give themselves increased stats, but even this doesn’t make for much difference in the gameplay.

Now for what it’s worth, the visuals are fairly pretty and the CGIs are well done. Also, there was plenty of potential for the dragoons to spin off into a Power Rangers-esque toy line complete with a Saturday morning cartoon show/anime. In fact, I think there were some collectible action figures that can be found on e-bay. Sadly though, Sony dropped the ball on what could have been the next huge kids franchise. Even if the game bombed, at least they would have other merchandising to fall back on.

Now, while the game isn’t completely terrible and it does have a decent following, it’s clear that rather than taking the RPG genre in another new direction, Sony simply decided to do what everyone else was doing and throw some polish over it. However, few people were able to see this game for what it really was: part of the reason why JRPGs today aren’t drawing in players like they used to. Moreover, with games such as Jade Empire, Mass Effect, and Oblivion, American RPG developers such as Obsidian and BioWare have found a successful equation of their own:

G = ((P/R + C/U) * (M *I)) + (V + A)/E

Where M = ((S * F) + m)
S = character customization
F = freedom allowed to player
m = other good gameplay mechanics

As you can see, by providing more choices and options to players (as opposed to forcing them to follow a linear plot), American RPGs have gotten much stronger than they have in recent years. By studying titles such as Fallout 3 and Neverwinter Nights, other RPG and game developers can pick up on things that made them so excellent. Sony should too, especially if they are planning to develop another RPG.