The Triangle

Issue date: 4/18/08 Section: Arts & Entertainment

Let's not forget the religious symbolism, though, which was particularly overstated in the Xenosaga series. Xenogears may be one of the best jRPGs ever released, but its de facto prequels in the Xenosaga games… A number of cross shaped devices with Hebrew characters on them? It's an excuse for the lack of any actual meaning or weight in the plot of the game, the false positive of the industry. Throw in religion and people will be too busy trying to relate symbols in the game back to Judeo-Christian theology to pay attention to the plot vacuum your characters are filling with way too many words.

Bioware and Bethesda, two of the biggest names in Western RPGs (hereafter cRPGs), have found new and interesting ways to not only create likeable, sympathetic characters, but have given their players unprecedented choice both in how they play their games and how those choices affect the course of the story. Bethesda's Oblivion provides one of the most immersive, open-ended experiences in gaming. Bioware's games offer multiple endings depending on choices made in these games.

All of this is not to say that Japanese developers have not made progress, but this progress is often overshadowed by the staggering number of genre conventions the developers cater to and the templates into which they lock their games.

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