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Many Japanese RPGs are known for having teens and young adults as the heroes. But have you ever wondered why this stereotype exists? Why don't they add a little variety to the characters? Square Enix explains why the heroes in JRPGs are usually so young ...
Yusuke Naora, one of the developers who worked on the Japanese company's latest RPG, The Last Remnant, goes on to defend especially the teenage main characters...
The format of the RPG lends itself well to having a teenage protagonist. Usually youre playing for many hours, taking a character on a journey from a relatively weak state to one of power and maturity, a gameplay journey that mirrors that of a teenager moving into adulthood. Thats certainly one of the reasons it works well having young protagonists. We sometimes wonder what were doing dealing with such young protagonists in our games, characters who dont necessarily speak to us as adults. Theres no pressure internally on how you have to make a character. But you do find that theres an expectation of how a protagonist must look for Japanese gamers.
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Additional sources:
- Sqaure Enix's Magic Youthful Character Formula (kotaku.com)
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Most recently commented on by on Jan 31, 2009
Most recently commented on by on Jan 31, 2009
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That logic Yusuke Naora applies to his defense is completely flawed and here's why:
1.) The characters never age in JRPGs...they start as young men and the game ends with them being young men. In rare occasions like FFVI, it took place over the span of years but most of them weren't young to begin with.
2.) Starting off young and becoming "strong" makes little sense, since most males don't become real badasses until their 30's or 40's.
3.) Even in movies it's rare that young males are kick-butt. And when heroes do start off young by the end of the movie they're usually almost middle-aged (i.e., Hercules, Conan, He-Man, Mad Max, etc.,)
4.) Most of the time Square's characters are pretty boys that stay pretty boys. Grey hair, wrinkles, and ugly battle scars...when do they appear during the game?
So, I'm not sure how playing teenagers makes sense according to Naora's logic if the characters don't start as boys and actually grow into men.
All there is to it.
I would rather have Square Enix explain why so many of their male characters look like women.
High School Musical is the same way: "ALL THE BOYS MUST BE PRETTY BOYS. IN FACT, LET'S MAKE THEM SO PRETTY THEY LOOK LIKE WOMEN!!"
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