Can I play in your sandbox?

Over the last decade sandbox games have become arguably the most popular form of video game on the market. What's a sandbox game? A game like Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, Morrowind, Fallout, and other games like this where there's a central plotline to follow, however for the most part, the gamer has the freedom to explore the entire game world from the beginning of the game, and can partake in just about any quest from the beginning of the game until the end of the game. It's a cool concept. Personally speaking I only like sandbox type games if there's a semi-coherent narrative driving the main story. After finishing the main narrative (or getting close to the end of it) it's fun to explore the game world.

This got me wondering - why don't we see more of this in JRPG's? (JRPG = Japanese RPG like Final Fantasy). Instead the genre is driven by linear stories and lack of freedom to explore. In fact, it's becoming more and more like that's the norm. The World of Ruin in the second half of Final Fantasy VI is probably the closest thing we've seen to a sandbox type game and that was released back in what? 1994? No wonder the genre is lacking innovation and ultimately dying after the boom it experienced from 1997 through 2005ish. Developers are sticking with the same tried and true formula's they've been using since the mid 1980's to woo gamers. They may throw seemingly complex battle systems and stat building systems at us, but ultimately it's the same thing dressed up in a different color and is simply trying to be different for the sake of being different rather than actually trying to innovate. Final Fantasy is the biggest culprit when it comes to "innovative" stat building systems. The crystarium system in Final Fantasy 13 and the license board in Final Fantasy 12 are just plain boring and all they do is give gamers an incentive to grind levels in order to get the fanciest equipment and magic.

Ironically the game that I think did one of the best jobs in recent memory of taking the JRPG genre, and at least adapting it to the present day was Square-Enix's Dragon Quest VIII. Dragon Quest is a series long known for it's 1980's roots and dedication for level grinding and simple battle systems. But this game got it right. The battle system was simple - but had enough depth that forced you to think. The level grinding was there, however in this case it didn't bother me, because I was so busy exploring the overworld. I literally would sit down and play the game for an hour and do nothing but battle and explore the map because I wanted to make sure I found every treasure chest, didn't overlook any secrets, and quite frankly, I wanted to see the game world. The developers made sure it was well designed, detailed, and beautiful. Each tree, blade of grass, mountain range in the horizon, bird flying across the screen, and fence post looked, or at least felt real. I felt like I was traveling across a real world in a video game. That's something that seems to be lost on this generation of JRPG's. Final Fantasy 13 is the biggest culprit of this. Over the course of the game you go from location to location to location, but there's no world in between. It's just locale after locale. You don't have the opportunity to get a sense or a feel for the game world. This is where the developer's really missed out on this game and ultimately robbed the game of it's soul.

So now to come full circle and tie this all to the idea of sandbox games. Why can't see this in JRPG's? The concept has been done before. Look at Bethesda studios and the Morrowind series. Look at the Fallout series. Even the first Mass Effect does this to a certain extent (albeit in a flawed manner). All it would take is a large game world like the one we saw in Dragon Quest 8. Add in some more depth to the world such as guilds in towns, NPC's who have missions for you, recruitable characters that aren't part of the main story (to be fair we see this in the Suikoden series)and other secrets of the course of the game. Another option would be to go the route of a game like Disgaea where you can do stupid things like battle in the Item World (the Item World is where the player can go inside a random dungeon inside the Items in their inventory and fight monsters to power up the Item).

The current generation of consoles are easily capable of handling what it would take to make this successful. With the major consoles connecting to the internet it would be very easy to make downloadable content available to gamers (ala Fallout 3, Mass Effect, and Mass Effect 2) that would help expand on the game world. Adding more to the game worlds of most modern day JRPG's can only help the genre. At this point it certainly can't hurt it.