Congrats on finishing this exhaustive overview of American CRPGs. Any plans to look at Japanese RPGs and find their connections? (or to perhaps team up with someone who knows a lot about Japanese RPGs?)
I think the biggest barrier to looking at Japanese CRPGs is that many of the games are so obscure and require extensive knowledge of Japanese (if they haven't been translated). One of the best hubs I've seen for this kind of information is at Hardcore Gaming 101 ( http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ ), but as far as I know there doesn't seem to be a solid survey of Japanese games. Power Up seems to be the closest, but it overlooks PC gaming. Further, if studying early computer game history is difficult enough in the US, it is even harder in Japan because Japanese computer games don't appear to be very well documented.
This barrier in specialty between console historians and PC historians is a big problem as there doesn't seem to be much cohesion between the two. At least it hasn't resulted in the sort of brutality you find between PC gamer fans and console gamer fans over 'which is better' when it's really a matter of taste.
I'd also like to hear your take on 'hybrid' games such as Capcom's Dungeons and Dragons arcade games and King of Dragons (both brawlers with the ability to level-up your character, though D&D has a greater focus on narrative) and also other action games with 'RPG elements' such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. These games tend to be shorter and more linear and place greater focus on action. Their origins really lie within their respective genres (brawler and action/adventure) but were infused with 'RPG elements' like experience points to make the games a little more dynamic. These types of 'mixed genre' games are an interesting puzzle.
Congrats on finishing this exhaustive overview of American CRPGs. Any plans to look at Japanese RPGs and find their connections? (or to perhaps team up with someone who knows a lot about Japanese RPGs?)
I think the biggest barrier to looking at Japanese CRPGs is that many of the games are so obscure and require extensive knowledge of Japanese (if they haven't been translated). One of the best hubs I've seen for this kind of information is at Hardcore Gaming 101 ( http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/ ), but as far as I know there doesn't seem to be a solid survey of Japanese games. Power Up seems to be the closest, but it overlooks PC gaming. Further, if studying early computer game history is difficult enough in the US, it is even harder in Japan because Japanese computer games don't appear to be very well documented.
This barrier in specialty between console historians and PC historians is a big problem as there doesn't seem to be much cohesion between the two. At least it hasn't resulted in the sort of brutality you find between PC gamer fans and console gamer fans over 'which is better' when it's really a matter of taste.
I'd also like to hear your take on 'hybrid' games such as Capcom's Dungeons and Dragons arcade games and King of Dragons (both brawlers with the ability to level-up your character, though D&D has a greater focus on narrative) and also other action games with 'RPG elements' such as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin. These games tend to be shorter and more linear and place greater focus on action. Their origins really lie within their respective genres (brawler and action/adventure) but were infused with 'RPG elements' like experience points to make the games a little more dynamic. These types of 'mixed genre' games are an interesting puzzle.