Annals JRPG // 1986 // – The origin of the genre – Dragon Quest

Good afternoon, dear readers. From today I have been launching the story of the whole genre – role -playing games from Japan, in other words, Jrpg. I was prompted by an entire avalanche of interesting information, forgotten, but legendary games, a unique Japanese culture and a rather banal phrase “But there’s no”. I will try not only to list all the titles, but to tell about the genre through the people who made games and put their souls in them. How they gathered together in the studio and developed to large companies or went into oblivion. Why their projects were extolled and forgotten. I want you to see JRPG not just like games, but as a cultural heritage of your time.

The Japanese would not be themselves if there were no erotica among the first role -playing games. Meet Seduction of the Condominium Wives. Here you have to seduce single housewives and sell condoms to them.

However, in order to start, you need to deal with the genre itself. Why did he separate and formed precisely as we know him. So, we climb into our time used by the time machine and drove into the beginning of the 80s straight to the office of the serious businessman Yasikhiro Fukushima. Back in 1975, he founded a real estate tabloid, but things were not so hot as it was necessary to get out of the pit. And then he just tumbled down the boom on computer games that interested the entrepreneur. He created a subsidiary called Enix. Why ENIX? This is a combination of the words “Phoenix”, because the phoenix is ​​cool and also symbolizes the revival, and Eniac is the name of the first supercomputer. She had to publish video games, and to publish them, developers are needed. A programming competition was held, where the participants needed to show their games, but suddenly there were somehow few people who wanted. I had to advertise well and tell the population that the winner received not only honor and glory, but also quite a tangible and considerable amount of money – a million yen was played out. The people immediately threw the people and, as a result, the first places took Koiti Nakamura with his Door Door and Eugi Khoria with Love Match Tennis. Moreover, the first lucky one still studied at school. It seems to me that he fulfilled the dream of any teenager: he received an immense dough for personal expenses, became famous, made games and literally a couple of years later became the boss. Enix also did not lose and, having received the right to crafts of young people, was able to sell them well. As a reward, Eugi and Koiti were sent to Applefest 83, where they saw Wizardry and Ultima. This event was so impressed that the Japanese decided to do something similar at all costs, but in their own way. The importance of this is evidenced by the fact that they made a manga describing the details of that trip on it

Ultima and Wizardry are rightfully considered the parents of all RPG.

And now we change our deployment and move to Shueisha, whose name is probably nothing to you. However, it is she who releases magazines on the topic of manga, including the famous Weekly Shōnen Jump. The young editor Kazukikho Torishima works in the sweat of the face. Once upon a time he stood in front of Pisuar and looked at the moon through the window. Then the Japanese realized that it was necessary to change something in his life and decided to get to Shueisha in the hope that he would be determined in the Playboy team (the company published a magazine in its country). However, Fortune refused Torishima and he became the editor of the manga in which he did not understand at all. Nevertheless, he could not hit the mud in his face and was closely engaged in studying this unfamiliar topic, wasting free time in the company’s archive and reading the material. When the guy has already become more experienced, he was determined by the beginning of Mangaku to Akir Toriyam and here everything rushed. The relationship of these two people is worthy of a separate blog.

When Toriyama painted a villain for DR.Slump, he was at a dead end, not knowing how the head of the head should look like. Torishima advised him to simply imagine the most hated person and use his image. Mangaka did not give up work for the long time until they began to squeeze the deadlines and there was no time for the editing, and then issued the editor of the evil scientist as two drops of Torishim to the court.

However, it is worth pointing out that Torishima greatly influenced the work of his protege. The main characters Dr.Slump and Dragon Ball in essence his idea. A rather interesting story happened to the latter. Toriyama argued for a long time with his editor about which direction they move, in fact they did not have a single suitable idea. Once Torishima came to visit Mangaka and there his wife (also mangaka) began to tell which her husband is wonderful, he even watches TV during drawing, while other artists usually can only listen to music. Talking with Toriyama, the editor found out that he loved militants with Jackie Chan and invited him to come up with a manga and a hero in the style of Kung Fu. So actually Dragon Ball was born. I tell all this so that you understand what relations were between these people.

The JUMP weekly journal in Japan is one of the largest manga publishers. It is so popular that in honor of it they built an amusement park j-depend tockyo.

With the development of the popularity of Torishim’s games, he began to pay more and more attention to them, he was delighted with them, and in the wake of his hobby he met Khorya, who published his work in Shueisha magazine. Torishima, with the support of his new friend, decided to open the Famicom Shinken column, where the cheat codes and cunning began to publish.

In 1985, he realized that his column could not compete with the popularity of Famitsu, and he wanted something like that. And then a plan arose. But if not just talk about games, but describe the development in real time. He agreed with Khoria, which was already in Enix, to create such a project, and at the same time take Toriam. Mangaka does not know at all about games and especially RPG, but still agreed, despite the busy schedule, and all thanks to the persuasion of Torishim. As he later said in a letter, if he knew how much this would drag on, he would probably refuse. So, the essence was that Enix finances their undertakings, but in no case is Shueisha, the bosses of which, in principle, did not understand the games. This would give the developers freedom of action without all this bureaucratic red tape, but at the same time their person worked in their ranks, which gave SHōNEN JUMP an exclusive and full right to write about the not yet released game and at the same time not to pay Enix.

Thanks to this smiling old https://gamblingsitesnotongamstop.co.uk/review/madcasino/ man, Dragon Quest acquired a famous artist and advertising in the best magazine of manga. And, who knows, maybe there would be nothing without him.

To realize your dreams, a studio called Chunsoft (in honor of the hero Door Door), which was headed by Koiti Nakamura, was collected. There is very little left before the creation of Dragon Quest, but the Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken remake came out to it, which Yuji Khorya Started in 1983 independently. It was a detective story where the main character should investigate the crime, interviewing people and seeking evidence. It was not by chance that I touched this creation of a young developer, because it was this game that made its creator the famous. She diverged with a huge circulation of 700,000 copies, but this is not the main thing, the important thing is that it was here and now that the genre of visual novels and detective quests were fully originated. And after the remake of the remake in 1985, after a year, Chunsoft finally dumped the Dragon Quest, the icon of all Jrpg, titanium, which all developers will be equal to the Japanese. Now imagine that in the world there is a person who has become a dad for three genres. Where is the title of genius, we have a new contender here?

If at the sight of this picture you want to shout "Objection!", Now you know where your favorite games of the Games grow from.

Most likely it is naive to assume that someone does not know about Dragon Quest. But decency for the sake of still should tell what we are dealing with. This is a role -playing game with an open world, by which the main character can move freely. The only barrier is the landscape and monsters, which become the stronger, the further the protagonist departs from the castle. In a collision with them, a battle window appears, where in step -by -step mode the enemy will be defeated using weapons and magic. Each battle is random and begins after you pass a certain number of steps. The plot is simple and uncomplicated. A person who discovered a force capable of taming dragons decided to bring a rustle in the nearest state. He stole the sphere of light and the local princess. And to us, the descendant of the great hero, we must decide whom to save and whom to punish. Personally, I always wanted to save the dragon who stole the girl. Well, you understand, he has all his life ahead, why does he need a princess.

It is generally accepted that for the series Dragon Quest are responsible for Euggi Khoria, Akira Toriyam and Koiti Sugiyama. The first designed the idea and script, the second is responsible for the visual component, and the third gave magnificent music. However, many forget about the contribution of Koiti Nakamura, because it was he who belonged to the studio, and Yukinoba Chida as a producer made his contribution. By the way, he is now the director of Squareenix and the work on the first Jrpg was his debut.

When the idea of ​​a new role -playing game was formed. Yuji Khoria at the forefront put simplicity and maximum friendliness to the player. Now it’s easy to talk about it as a chip, but then it was a necessity. In the West, role -playing for the most part obeyed the D&D rules, including Wizardry, with which the battleship was copied. But in Japan there was no this culture, and no one would have become to fall into complex rules and nuances, which is why the maximum simplification seemed the best way out. With each level of characteristics of the hero increased by automatic, the magic itself appeared, and the player only needed to grind, without really thinking about playing. As compensation for this, Akira Toriyama gave the game of enemies gorgeous in visual terms and no less impressive cover, and Koiti Sugiyama – unique music.

Ali Baba and forty remakes or as Dragon Quest cloned for almost 35 years.

At this point, he had already worked for Enix, so his presence was quite justified. However, the appearance of the composer was quite curious. He wrote a fan letter by hand to the Enix office for the game of the shogi (Japanese chess) and impressed the leadership of his knowledge and love for games. In addition, the musician was already quite famous thanks to his work in the anime and as a conductor. He was invited to work on games, and Sugiyama agreed. But on their own conditions, the rights to all the music belong to him, which in the future allowed him to hold his employer’s eggs and dictate the conditions. In particular, an additional disc with orchestral compositions for Dragon Quest was sold only in Japan, the rest were content with MIDI music. And in general, Western players received the instrumental only in the eighth part. Grandpa in this regard is adamant. But it is thanks to him that the whole world knows the title theme of Dragon Quest and pleasant melodies in the game itself.

In 1987, Koiti Sugiyama held the world’s first video class concert in which compositions from Dragon Quest were presented.

After the creation of these people came out of the conveyor on MSX and FAMICOM, it blew up the Japanese game community. Western role -playing games did not reach the country of the rising sun, and therefore the usual gamer was content with domestic rather mediocre projects in this genre. And here is a huge open world, the development of your character, magic and dragons, secrets and great potential for research, advertising from Jump. Dragon Quest dispersed of a circulation of 2,000,000 copies, which at that time was incredibly a lot. Unfortunately it did not shoot in the West. Firstly, because it appeared there only in 1987, when the average user was spoiled already by four parts of Ultima, Might & Magic and other suit. The Japanese novelty looked like something casual and outdated. Nintendo’s leadership did not expect such a situation and, in order to sell the unexplored cartridges, give them as a gift for a subscription to the Nintendo Power magazine.

The reader who was sewn in this topic will surely ask why it all started with this game, because before it the Japanese knew about role -playing elements and used them. And this is true, only they practically did not affect the genre itself and its identity. It all started with a dragon quest. And here we come to the point. What is JRPG? Why is it distinguished by WRPG? What is its feature.

As you already understood from what I said, Western role -playing games appeared from Dungeon and Dragons, which, in turn, developed from Wargam. All this time, a persistent fan community was formed there, which later became consumers of computer role -playing games. That is why in WRPG in the first place is always worth playing. Everything about the customization of the floor, race, class, choice in dialogs – this is necessary to associate yourself with the protagonist. And only in second place is the plot, music and other paraphernalia and atmosphere.

WRPG: I make a little finger on my left leg 2 millimeters less to show a long -standing children’s injury.

JRPG: I am transmitted!

With jrpg everything is exactly the contrary. Due to the fact that in Japan there are no significant role-playing systems, they are freely treated, and they put the history and disclosure of the characters in the first place. The main character is already formed as a person, and the appearance is rarely allowed to change, except in terms of costumes and hairstyles. This is about the ideological component. In practice, Japanese role -playing is the adventure of the hero and his team on the main map, where he takes quests, talks with NPC, explores the dungeons. As well as individual combat areas, where he with his partners fights with opponents. At first it was so, but over time, the framework of the genre became more blurry.

The main problem was ARPG, which were distinguished by battles in real time. You know many of them from a series as mana and ys. So, over time, the developers began to experiment and eventually received such game studies as Final Fantasy XII and Trails of Mana, whose gameplay is not much different. But the first is attributed to JRPG (final box), and the second to Action RPG (mana). I’m already silent about Live A Live, it seems like a formally role -playing game, but in fact its belonging is extremely difficult to determine. And we will still consider this Japanese game. Believe me, she is worth attention.

Despite the visual differences, the principle of battles remains the same: the frequency of strokes still does not depend on the speed of pressing the button, but is no longer tied to some scale like the ATB. Just after each attack the character waits a little.

And what do we get? Foggy and uncertain. Even the place of production is no longer a panacea and miserable Hajzins also make their Jrpg. Therefore, the definition will be appropriate.

Japanese role -playing game is a product of the work of people and companies based on the legacy of Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star, operating ideas for the study of the world, developing characters and stopping the plot.

That is why Seiken Dansetsu 3 (Trails of Mana) belongs to a completely different genre. Its ancestor was Dragon Slayer, whose evolution in the end led to this result, and not a dragon quest at all. And in the future it evolves in a completely different direction.

The pilot release is finished on this. Although I wanted to cover the period until 1989, it turned out that there was too much information and you probably would not want to read another “war and peace”. But do not worry, in the future I will talk not only about the famous series, but also about completely unknown projects that struck me with the imagination of my authors. So you find out about them and think: “What boring games do we play today”
For all good!