Cliché fantasy Options

[Svea Rike]

This is a huge nitpick of mine but it seems that almost every western RPG (and some Japanese RPGs) follows a very clichéd and predictable pattern when it comes to creating their universes. It's always the same damn things: Elves, dwarves, wizards, big castles, shiny plate armor, cultures based around Medieval Europe, dragons, centaurs, fairies, big battles with fancy swords and catapults, technology that looks the same milennia ago, gods and demons, and of course the same old shiny, technocolored magical abilities. Oh and necromancy. Why does every damn fantasy RPG have to follow this stereotypical formula? Why not make up some of your own stuff? Oh sure we've got games that rewrite the formula and put in their own twists, like The Elder Scrolls dwarves being actually elves but it's still basically the same. Why is this? Is anyone else annoyed by this?

I was so pumped to see new footage of Scalebound from GameScom and it... was basically every Japanese fantasy RPG I've ever seen, complete with edgy spiky-haired teenage dude who wears moden clothing next to fantasy armor for some reason. Damn bullshit the lot of it.

[(USA)Bruce]

Well the reason comes with already present fanbases having prior knowladge or experiance with such themes.

It basicly sells and having an original inovative idea in the the tripe A market wont get you any investors.Yet something like a rehased shooter or sports series simulator with barely any diffrence will cause its a safe bet.

Knowing that things like spec ops the line comes out here and there that takes chances.So your right I would like an RPG with an egpytian or other mythology theme yet the question is if the general public would find it interesting? On a second note theres a market for RPG's and RTS's thats slowly shrinking and going off to Mobs or MMO's...Yet the fastest growing one and appealing to new minds is like I said FPS's and Sports games....

So If I have a 100 milion dollars in a big pouch to give to a game developer rather then giving it to a guy who could possibly make the next mona lisa of RPG's with everything new.The market and potential for it is a limited dying breed.

MGS 5 had this proble on launch, stealth just didnt appeal to alot of players....At all.So they went in guns blazing just like any mainstream game

[Shiro]

The fantasy concepts you mentioned are well-known to every fantasy gamer. It's not just Video Games either, it's also the same in Anime, Cartoons, Comics, Films, Manga, Pen'n'Paper RPGs, Tabletop Games, Visual Novels, Web Comics... Now if you want an RPG that is different, that's hard to come by if we are strictly speaking "fantasy" here, unless you include "urban fantasy", then we have much more freedom. The Persona series for example. Another series (take this with a spoon of salt since I only heard about it) seems to be Suikoden, based on a Chinese novel.

As a fantasy RPG player and someone who ever so slowly makes an RPG, I can confirm that it's hard to break out of the customs and in the game I am participating to make there still are a few of the elements you mentioned (dragons first and foremost because dragons are awesome). But I can agree that there could be something new. Have you played Jade Empire? It's set in a China-Japan-Laos kinda mix fantasy culture and it was definitely a refreshing experience both in themes and visuals. What does baffle me a bit is how the Japanese produce so MANY Middle-Ages-Europe Fantasy Counterpart Culture RPGs. Final Fantasy for the most part, Dragon Quest, Fire Emblem, Etrian Odyssey... They all are mostly about this. Some of them may include a "foreigner" kinda character/class (who pretty much always, without fail, with be from their version of Japan). Hell, the game I am playing these days, "Recettear - An Item Shop's Tale" is just like that too, as it's set in kinda-sorta Renaissance-era Fantasy France and indeed there is a character from Fantasy Japan.

Now why is this done? As I said above, it's familiar. Familiar stuff sells since people don't have to learn about new stuff. To the Japanese even more so since for them, Middle Ages Europe is "exotic and wonderful". Making an RPG about Middle Ages Japan, say the popular Sengoku Era (Warring States) is usually not wanted. If a Sengoku game is done, it's usually a Hack'n'Slay like Samurai Warriors... which is actually a spin-off of Dynasty Warriors, which is based on "Romance of the 3 Kingdoms", one of the Chinese culture-defining novels.

That said, making an RPG about something else entirely (which the aforementioned Suikoden seems to be doing) is a possibility. Ancient Egypt? Middle/South American mythology? Something Chinese/Thai? Or maybe Middle-Eastern. There would be many possibilities, but unless you actually know some stuff about these, it gets difficult. On the other hand, not many people seem to be aware that, say, Bahamut is a FISH, not a DRAGON, which is a portrayal popularized by and pretty much entirely taken over from, Final Fantasy.

[Graion Dilach]

The whole fantasy concept got revolutionised by Lord of the Rings books, and the cliché part is just the LotR influence. Or D&D, because Gygax could throw together stuff before market oversaturation.

I don't really mind it tbh - although I'm not that into RPG to consider this as the issue - Age of Decadence is ancient Roman, Arcanum is Victorian steampunk and I picked Baldur's Gate because D&D. I also don't even care about the settings of hack'n'slashes, they have to be a mix'n'match to provide variety in terms of enemies thrown in.

[Stalker]

It's because it works and it's therefore low risk. This scenario is established and people are more likely to buy the game. But it's also because this scenario is very good. No matter how often I see Dragons, Elves, Dwarves, etc. it just never gets old. I much more often find myself disliking a game in a unique alternative scenario than the other way. This kinda proves the game designers (or movie producers) right (Or it proves that I'm a boring individual ).

It's not only fantasy though, those cliché scenarios exist everywhere (Modern Military, Sci-Fi, Post-Apocalyptic, etc.). There's almost always that one formula that is used over and over again. I noticed that none of them (except maybe the realistic scenarios) are as similar to each other as Medieval Fantasy. Well known universes such as LotR, Elder Scrolls, Warhammer, Warcraft, D&D, Might and Magic, etc. are all very similar. The way Dragons, Elves or Orks are portrayed is almost identical. Obviously LotR was first and I have honestly no idea how popular this scenario was back then, but it has obviously been copied over and over again.

Personally I like the LotR based cliché version, but I actually prefer a human-centered universe, without Elves, Dwarfes, or Orcs. It's mostly Humans fighting Monsters, Undead or Demons (while fighting other Humans). Good examples would be games like Diablo and Path of Exile or universes like A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones). Maybe we might see a shift towards that over the years.

This post has been edited by Stalker: 24 Sep 2015, 16:58

[Die Hindenburg]

I dislike "Standard Medieval Fantasy" and "Final Fantasy" esque settings, so overdone completly.
Still hoping for a shooter hack/slay from the bird perspective.