Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s director recently did an interview with Final Fantasy XV creator Hajime Tabata. In the discussion, Guillaume Broche revealed to the FF15 developer why Western RPGs are sometimes “lacking” compared to JRPGs.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Director explains “lacking” elements of Western RPGs
In an August 15 interview, Guillaume Broche and Hajime Tabata had an interesting conversation about the difference between RPGs and JRPGs. According to the FF15 director, Japan-based games have significant cultural differences in how they handle storylines. In particular, he gave an example of how JRPGs often end with the antagonist “having a change of heart” by the end of the game.
The Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director then reacted to Tabata’s perspective and revealed what he thinks is one of the most significant differences between JRPGs and RPGs. “In Europe, I think RPG endings tend to be more gruesome, with all the enemies dying (laughs).” Broche then followed up his statement with an anecdote about how JRPGs handle protagonist growth.
“There’s a common Western joke that goes, ‘In Japanese games, you start off defeating rats, but in the end you end up defeating God.’”
Guillaume Broche also claimed that Western RPGs are lacking at times due to focusing too much on realism.
“Western RPGs tend to maintain a serious tone from start to finish. They often depict a consistently down-to-earth, realistic worldview from A to Z. This approach certainly has a sense of realism, but honestly, sometimes I find it a little lacking. On the other hand, JRPGs offer the thrill of immersing yourself in a spectacular world you’ve never seen before.”
Players Want to Decide Their Ending in Western RPGs
The conversation between the two developers also turned towards how the genre handles player choice. In particular, Broche said that players in the West tend to have a say in how the game is going to end, whereas JRPGs tend to have a more cinematic story that is more focused, as they don’t have to worry about in-game decisions.
“In Western RPGs, the ending changes depending on the choices you make, and so there’s a strong impression that the player creates the story. I think that Japanese RPGs tend to be linear, in both a good and bad sense, precisely because they have such a strong story. I think being able to experience the character’s choices as a ‘viewer’ is a big difference in terms of expression.”
The Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 director told the FF15 creator that JRPGs were a major influence on his debut 2024 game. Although without getting into spoilers, it’s interesting that Clair Obscur has an ending that is ultimately impacted by player choice.
Then again, as someone who has beaten the potential game-of-the-year RPG, I think it also finds a bit of a middle ground. It has an incredible cinematic story that is linear, yet leaves you with a final choice at the very end.
I guess you could say the French studio managed to find the best of both worlds.
The post Why Western RPGs Just Aren’t as Good as JRPGs, According to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Director appeared first on VICE.
