Editor's note: Final Fantasy and Pokémon: At first they seem like an unlikely pairing. But if you consider the proximity of their release dates and the fact that the Japanese role-playing game's American standing is in shambles, it actually makes a sense to compare the similarities and differences between these two flagship JRPG releases. -James

They are two widlly different games: One takes a different approach to the conventions of its franchise, and one stays in lockstep with its established formula. Final Fantasy 13 created an astounding firestorm of debate in its wake and started an important discussion about Western and Japanese game design. Meanwhile, Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver have begrudgingly united people.

I find it interesting that both games come from well-established franchises, and both have enormous expectations to measure up to. Yet the initial response to each was essentially two sides of the same coin: guarded excitement.  I wanted to run through the differences and similarities between these two Japanese role-playing games and see if there's anything that can be divined from them.

Story

The Final Fantasy series has always focused on strong narrative. I won't dwell on Fantasys past, but I'm fine with FF13's story. I regularly watch anime, and I've become accustomed to melodrama. After sticking with the game for a while, I grew to love Lightning's war-torn instincts and Snow's goofy and misguided idealism.

On the other hand, Pokémon doesn't exactly put story first. They've always tried to put in a fun hook with the lore about legendary pokémon and the exploits of quirky criminal organizations, but in the end, the point is to have fun in Nintendo's Pokéverse while catching and fighting every critter you can find.

Battle

Despite any shortcomings, the thing I love most about FF13 is its combat system. Battles don't grind on forever. Instead they flow quickly through offensive and defensive decisions. Say what you will about the auto-battle function, but the Paradigm Shift system is my single favorite feature of FF13. After you select roles for your characters and lay out a few predefined configurations, it's a ton of fun to switch between relentless offensive styles and defensive formations that include tanks and healers. Going back to simple, turn-based combat feels slow compared to this.

Speaking of turn-based combat, Pokémon embraces it. Though the fighting is a little sluggish, a complicated system of elemental weaknesses and resistances fill in the gap. In FF13 it is useful to know elemental weaknesses, but each character generally has access to every elemental power in one of their various skill trees. In Pokémon, you construct a team of six, each with specific strengths, weaknesses, and attacks. Also, FF13 has fewer elements than Pokémon, and swapping characters out in the latter carries grave risks.

Freedom and Choice

Where this topic concerns FF13, it inevitably fosters debate, but I'm not drawing the title out for its linearity. When you think about it, Pokémon is much the same thing. It funnels you through different Routes and forces you to fight "optional" trainer battles. This bears a striking similarity to the way that  FF13 presents itself as a long path populated with "optional" enemy encounters.

The difference I want to address here is freedom of choice -- more specifically, how FF13 limits adventuring, leveling, and party choices until nearly the end of the game. (I wasn't able to choose the party I wanted until the 19-hour mark.) In that light, the game is telling me a specific story by restricting my character options. In some areas, I'd be stuck with Sahz and Vanille for long stretches -- in desperate need of a brawler like Lightning. And God knows how many hours flew by without sight of Snow.

Pokémon lacks a specific story structure, so you're free to choose whatever team suits you. The game doesn't even oblige you to stick with your starting pokémon. For example, at a mid-game gym in Olivine City, you fight a steel-type pokémon. I could have used my fire-type starter, Quilava, but I could have just as easily used a fighting-type like Hitmonlee.

I think what I've gathered from the discussions blazing across the Internet is that FF13's developers had to put a tight rein on the story in order to tell it their way. Pokémon doesn't worry itself with story. The developers encourage choice and experimentation by offering literally hundreds of options for team building.

Isn't it just crazy that no one complains about the linearity of Pokémon, yet everyone argues about the its effect on FF13? It's funny how Pokémon -- of all games -- has offered some context to the JRPG debate while FF13 struggles to do so.