The Origins of Electronic RPGs

Nowadays, one of the easiest things that exist is to live a story in another planet, time, or whatever the human imagination desires. Games like The Witcher 3 take us into gigantic worlds filled with things to do. Have adventures like Kingdom Hearts 3 manage to mix the universe of Disney and its many characters with a story and aesthetic straight out of the Land of the Rising Sun.

I could keep saying here a series of games that made history, but, before that, we need to go back many years in the past, directly to a period when the internet was still in its embryo, color TV still managed to be new in many homes and imagination was one of the main driving forces. This is the origin of electronic RPGs.

War games

RPG is an acronym for Role Playing Game ou Character Interpretation Game, in a fairly straightforward translation. That is, the idea is to use the imagination to assume the role of another persona in this world or any other. Usually, you have to follow a series of rules, and in some cases it will be necessary to roll dice to determine whether or not an action can be performed, or actually do it in life, depending on the game.

However, before all this existed, there were only the famous police and robber games that everyone played someday. In the early XNUMXs, wargaming was all the rage. These board games basically consist of putting the player in control of entire armies, fighting battles against other players.

To increase realism, the use of maps of different sizes, miniatures of troops, such as soldiers, cavalry, monsters, plants, and everything that is relevant to compose the scenario, and thus fight battles, has always been encouraged. But one group wanted to go further. Their idea was, so to speak, to be able to control a single member of the army, and thus live an adventure. Like, for example, living the journey of a hero who invades the castle to sabotage the gates and allow his army to enter and win the war. Because of this, the Dungeons & Dragons.

Caves and Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons was invented by the duo Gary gygax e Dave Arneson🇧🇷 Legend has it that the name of the game was chosen by the daughter of Gygax, but no one knows for sure. The first rules were offered for sale in 1974 by TSR (Tactical Studies Rules), a company founded by the duo. However, the game was largely based on another title, the chain mail, created by Gygax and Jeff Perren, when they were part of the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association, a tactics study group they were a part of.

The biggest influence for D&D is the work of J.R.R. Tolkien with the books Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit, and the others that are part of the saga. In addition, other authors were very important, such as HP Lovecraft, Lewis Carroll etc. It was from this set of ideas that the many races available to players emerged, such as Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and also equipment, spells and everything else that is part of the universe of games. For the most part, the names were the same as the original works, but ended up being changed with each new update, mainly to avoid lawsuits for plagiarism.

In the first year of launching Dungeons & Dragons, in 1974, about 1000 copies of the base game, which consisted of 3 books, were sold. The following year, sales increased, rising to 3 copies. And with that, many expansions began to be released, in addition to specific scenarios for players. One of the first was called "Temple of the Frog” (The Temple of the Frog, in literal translation).

It was so successful that a drawing was commissioned, which aired in 1984. Called by the same name as the game, in Brazil it was simply translated to Dragon's Cave🇧🇷 Its original appearance in CBS, one of the largest free-to-air TV channels in the United States, took place between 1984 and 1985, with a total of 3 seasons and 27 episodes.

The story followed the adventures of a group of six teenagers who end up being taken to the world of Caves and Dragons🇧🇷 Each of them has a class of views in games, such as Hank the Ranger, Eric the Knight, Diana the Acrobat, Presto the Wizard, Sheila the Thief, Bob the Barbarian, who always walked with his faithful companion, the Uni, a unicorn, and were guided by the Master of the Wizards🇧🇷 Your mission was to survive the attacks of the Avenger, who is always trying to steal the heroes' magic items, and also looking for a way to get back home.

Originally produced in partnership between Marvel, TSR and Toei Animation (who did the animations), Dragon's Cave never had an ending. The original idea, according to Gygax, was that in the fourth season a new adventure would begin, now with the most experienced and capable sextet. However, this idea was never taken forward, and they ended up canceling the project. It is possible to find versions of the script on the Internet, and thus find out how the adventures of the heroes ended.

All this introduction was necessary to show the size of the influence of Dungeons & Dragons in the culture of the 1970s and 1980s. It was also at this time that the first games produced for the computer began to appear, simulating adventures lived only in the imagination of the players. As there is a very wide range of them, let's focus on two that were the main ones of their time: He didn't speak, which later became Ultima, and Wizardry.

He didn't speak

Imagine being a teenager in the middle to late 1970s. The tabletop RPG is already a reality, but as it is necessary to play with friends, this is not always possible. Richard Garriott was a young man passionate about the hobby. He had the peculiar nickname Lord British, used during roleplaying sessions. At that time, still in high school, he started working on what would become He didn't speak.

The game had everything Dungeons & Dragons it had, like the attributes of strength, charisma and others, equipment, monsters, a world to explore and, mainly, caves. The world was seen from above, but without much detail, and the caves were explored in first person.

This exploration, although quite rudimentary for the period, was extremely important and created a school, so to speak. Titles like Doom, Quake, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon and many others have used the formula to create something unique. In He didn't speak, players could fight monsters in turns, find chests, go through doors, go up and down stairs, in short, many things.

Its official release took place in 1980 and achieved relative commercial success, selling around 30 copies, which earned approximately US$ 150 for Garriott, who was very happy with the result. With that, it was time to think about a sequel, but as the name He didn't speak was originally from Tolkien's books, it was necessary to change the name. Thus was born Ultima.

Now much more advanced than its predecessor, all exploration continued with a superior vision, but much more developed and colorful. The open world really felt like a world, with water, cities, forests and the famous caves. Furthermore, it was now possible to fight monsters on the maps as well, bringing a freshness to the adventure. Cave exploration has also been improved, with greater depth, not only graphically but also in terms of the number of enemies.

From then on, with each new entry, Ultima it was improving and perfecting what it did right. Officially, there are 9 mainline games in the franchise, as well as some spin-offs and MMORPGs. The brand currently belongs to Electronic Arts, and the last game released was Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar in 2013, but its servers were shut down in 2014, and since then we have no news of a possible return.

Wizardry

Originally released in 1981 and developed by Andrew C. Greenberg and Robert Woodhead, published by sir tech, Wizardry was another game that paved the way for western role-playing games. Originally, the game had some story, but in its first version, it was basically shallow, with a focus on exploration.

On the contrary He didn't speak, the player could assemble a team of up to six characters, assign classes and evolve them, races, designate alignments, magic levels, and many other things. The central idea of ​​the game was to cross 10 labyrinths and, as the levels progressed, it became more difficult. At the time of its release, the colorful and detailed graphics were eye-popping. However, only a small portion of the screen was focused on the action, with the rest focused on texts important to the player.

The first game was the beginning of a trilogy, which also included Wizardry II: The Knight of Diamonds and Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn🇧🇷 All titles were ported to different devices of the time, such as the Apple II (where the original release took place), NES, SNES, Turbo Grafx-16, MSX2 and many others. All these versions only helped the game to be even better known, being considered one of the first dungeon crawlers of the story.

After that, the game market began to evolve naturally, with several other games coming. If today we have games like Fallout, Pillars of Etternity, Wasteland, Cyberpunk 2077, Dragon Age and many others, all had influences on Ultima and Wizardry, or else in titles that are based on the two to exist. The same goes for Japan, our next stop being there.

Arrival in Japan

How the games were arriving in Japan is, to say the least, quite curious. We are talking about the mid-1980s, that is, we still do not have the Internet, and communication with the Land of the Rising Sun was not as easy as it is today. Basically, both the Dungeons & Dragons as much as Ultima and the Wizardry they arrived there by “smuggling”, so to speak. Japanese visitors who went to the United States saw the news and took it home. Thus, the games ended up spreading there like wildfire and exploded in popularity.

In the same way as we did above, we will focus on 3 companies that were essential for what we currently have. Remembering that there are many others that could be mentioned, but the idea is to focus on the main ones. So without further ado.

Nihon Falcom

You may have never heard of the Nihon Falcom, but know that it is one of the pioneering companies in action RPGs. It was founded in 1981 by Masayuki Kato, who named the company for the way his country is known, nihon, and also as a tribute to the Millennium Falcon, Star Wars, but with an M in place of the N.

The company's first venture in the genre took place in 1983, with the launch of Toh Panorama🇧🇷 The game already had a day and night system implemented, and put the player to survive on an island. There you had to survive at all costs, being able to negotiate with machine characters, or kill them if you felt like it.

Now, it was in 1984 that things really started to heat up, as one of the company's greatest hits was released: Dragon Slayer🇧🇷 In it the player could really see his character moving around the map, and also the enemies. Everything happening in real time. Still, the gameplay was somewhat rudimentary. Posteriorly, Dragon Slayer got a nickname: The legend of heroes🇧🇷 Over time, and other releases, in 2004, it would be released The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, which is getting new games every year, pretty much. This adventure takes place on the continent of Zemuria, and with each new entry we learn a little more about the conflicts in that region.

but despite Dragon Slayer to be extremely important, it was Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished, released in 1987, which really solidified the foundations of action RPGs. Now with better graphics for the time, a solid story (which needed to be divided into two parts) and a soundtrack that would be one of the hallmarks of nihon falcom🇧🇷 The series features the adventures of Adol Christin, who after retiring wrote a hundred books of his memoirs, each book telling a year of his life. The series is still active today, and its tenth game is expected to be announced next year.

Enix

before being the Enix, the company worked in other areas, but its owner, Yasuhiro Fukushima, changed the focus and also the name. The idea was to release electronic games, but he had a small problem: he didn't know how to create games. It was then that he had a brilliant idea: to announce a contest in the pages of the famous magazine Shonen Jump and launch the best games that participated in the competition. A lot of people showed up, and several games were released. Payment was made through royalties, much better than just receiving a fee for the game, but for that you had to sell a lot of copies.

It was during this period that the Enix had contact with Yuji Horii, and together they released The Portopia Serial Murder Case, an investigation game. But at that time, Horii was addicted to two games: Ultima and Wizardry🇧🇷 He kept imagining what it would be like to do such an adventure for the newly released console of the Nintendo, NES🇧🇷 And so began the production of Dragon Quest.

Responsible for developing the game was Chunsoft, founded by Koichi Nakamura. He was in charge of programming and directing Dragon Quest, while Horii handled the story and design. On the musical part, Koichi Sugiyama kind of volunteered to be in charge of the music, while the illustrations were in the hands of a little-known mangaka: Akira Toriyama, author of Dragon Ball.

Dragon Quest brought together elements of Ultima and Wizardy, but left all the heavier accounts and information to the system, while the player only needed to press a button. There was an open world to explore, but the battles took place in first person, like a painting over the world. The story was pretty linear: Dragon Lord kidnapped the princess, and it's up to the hero to go on a journey through several lands until he is strong enough to save the poor girl.

At first sales were not good, but Horii wrote a series of texts published in Shonen Jump, and this greatly increased sales. The game sold more than 1,5 million copies, which guaranteed a continuation, which would take place a few years after the first game and begin a trilogy.

When the game was released in the United States, instead of the infamous codes that recorded your progress, the cartridge contained a battery. However, the game had to change its name, becoming Dragon warrior, but another game totally overshadowed Yuji Horii's creation in the Land of Uncle Sam, and his name is final Fantasy.

Square Soft

Legend has it that Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of final Fantasy, was about to leave the company when he was given the green light to create his masterpiece. By the time Dragon Quest was released, he was also hooked on Wizardry and Ultima, and was badgering his superiors at Square Soft to be able to do something like that. After the success of the game released by Enix, he finally received the OK and left for work.

Many say the name should be fighting fantasy, but there was already an owner at the time, and as this was his last game before leaving the company and finishing his studies, he decided to name it final Fantasy same.

Regarding the gameplay, the idea was to distance yourself as much as possible from Dragon Quest🇧🇷 In the game, instead of a single hero, we have 4, and we could choose what their classes would be before starting the adventure. Among those available were Fighter, Thief, Black Belt (Monk in later games), Red Mage, White Mage and Black Mage🇧🇷 Each with its own characteristics, with advantages and disadvantages. It was still possible to “class up”, changing appearance slightly and acquiring even stronger powers. The battles took place on another screen, with the heroes on the right side and the villains on the left side.

Not only did the battles differ to escape comparisons with Dragon Quest, as Sakaguchi called it Yoshitaka amano to be responsible for the arts, which left final Fantasy with a unique twist, far from its local competitor, and also far from western games. The story was written by Kenji Terada and the soundtrack composed by the now legendary Nobuo Uematsu.

In the story we follow the 4 Warriors of Light, and each of them carries a darkened orb. Your mission is to “recharge” each of these artifacts and fight against the great villain: Chaos. Its story is much more complex than that, messing with time travel and other elements.

The game's release took place in 1987 and it was extremely well received, not only by critics, receiving a score of 34/40 in Famitsu, as well as in sales, which were a success, which guaranteed not only a sequel, but also the launch of the game in the United States. The game was released there only in 1990, but was very successful selling more than 700 copies. And even though it was released later, it was more successful than its rival. After all, the graphics were more refined and the story more solid.

Final Fantasy continued to be extremely important for RPG lovers, but the bubble only burst in 1997, with the release of Final Fantasy 7. However, that is a topic for another time.

Global impact

One of the great advantages of RPGs is the ability to tell different types of stories, whether adult and violent, or happy and childish. There are a lot of games for all types of audiences, and we see their influence in the most varied genres. An example of this is the training system we see in FIFA 23 coins, which is basically leveling up and gaining attribute points.

The arrival of the franchise games Souls, with its various titles and simulacra, served to give a boost to the genre that will never die, but will always change. We've had times when titles were pretty similar to Diablo, others with final Fantasy ancient in both western and eastern games. Everything that succeeds will create a school, and we will have another flood of new titles to delight in.

In 2023, we will have a new final Fantasy, the sixteenth of its main franchise, which promises to break everything in the PlayStation 5, and we also have Starfield, which will take us to different planets. Anyway, whether western or eastern, RPGs are games that were born from the same source, with a group of kids who wanted the chance to participate in an adventure, whether it was based on their favorite book or not. And thank God it happened.

We can only celebrate RPGs, consume all that is good that they provide us, and also everything else that was born together: books, animations, movies, and electronic games. I know that a good amount of titles that were primordial for the birth of our beloved genre were missing, but I promise that one day I will talk about each one of them. In addition, whether with pen, paper, controller or keyboard, let's enjoy our favorite hobby.

See also:

To stay on top of the world of games, like our list with other games similar to Stardew Valley, and also from the technology universe, keep an eye out here at Showmetech.

Source: Clan of the Gray Wolf, Graham Complete, Hell Fire RPGs, Professor Peachez