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Where East meets West...

For many years, I've internally begged developers from Japan, Europe and the US to come together and create the ultimate Role Playing Game (RPG).  Both styles of RPG have their similarities and differences.  But what if you could take your favorite parts of both and make them into the Dalai Lama of RPG sweetness (read - Horrible Metaphor). 

I've suggested this in smaller circles before and been met with mixed emotions.  One of the stronger sentiments was that of the purist.  The gamer who wants his Japanese RPGs (JRPGs) to be JRPGs and his Western RPGs (WRPGs) to be WRPGs.  I can respect that.  Both schools of development can give you a completely different experience. 

But humor me....

What if all that is sexual about Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion could come together with the dopeness of Final Fantasy 7?  (Feel free to substitute your own games if those don't hit your sweet spot) 

European and American made RPGs often lack certain freedoms that JRPGs bring to the table.  This isn't true in every case, but take Divinity 2 as an example.  The freedom to move about the world was juxtaposed to the limited skill development system.  In other words, you were forced to choose what type of combatant your character would become early in the game due to the level cap and the limited skill points the game gives.  Mass Effect and Risen fit into this category as well. On the flip side, I could customize all of my characters to have any skill I wanted in Final Fantasy 13 - conceptually speaking of course.

Japanese made RPGs also lack certain freedoms.  How about the freedom to roam about the countryside at your leisure?  Even in older RPGs, the open world map had built-in obstacles to keep you from traveling to certain places until you hit the story trigger to unlock them.  However, JRPGs are notoriously more colorful and house more charming soundtracks that infect the listener and pull them into the game in ways that very few WRPGs I've played can do. (Shenmue and Chrono Cross immediately comes to mind)

For the sake of allowing the reader to invision their own dream Mash-Up RPG (I'm taking credit for MRPGs when this gets hot) we'll leave the combat up to your own imaginations.  I prefer action based, but I don't dislike turn-based if it is fast moving and fun like FFX-2. 

So here's my dream Mashup:

1.) Open World Exploration - Oblivion and Two Worlds Style

2.) Unlimited Leveling and Customization - Think Star Ocean or Final Fantasy 13

3.) Soundtrack - Get the brothas from Chrono Cross, Shenmue and Mass Effect together in the studio

3.) Combat - Action Based Party Battles where I control the character of my choice and let AI handle the rest of the team.  Mix Risen's lock-on action battles with Final Fantasy 12's Gambit Party control meshed with the level of detail Dragon Age gave with the tactics system. 

Aight Bethesda, Atlus, SE and Bioware...   Get on it and hit me on twitter when you are done - @TheSecondLetter

Thanks!

What would YOUR dream Mashup be?