Last time we looked at how 'role' in Role-Playing Game refers to a specific character role. However, this time we'll be looking at the other common interpretation of 'role', as a vague or outright undefined role in a world.
This is by far at least currently the more popular interpretation of role in the Western market, and it's fairly easy to see why as it places a stronger emphasis on 'freedom' and 'individuality'. Such a take on 'role' usually still has a small amount of background attached to it, such as being 'the chosen one' or 'the savior' or more mundane backgrounds such as 'the new squire for Sir So-and-so', but even in these incidents players often are given a choice of background during character creation, such as in Dragon Age: Origins.
While there is often a main quest, the player is not tied to a predefined character so the world tends to be far more open to exploration right from the start. This lack of a predefined character also opens up more options for just what 'role' the player chooses when actually bothering with the main quest; the player can act as a villain, a hero, a neutral figure, or even forsake a 'realistic' character role altogether and instead focus on chaotic fun, making whichever choices seem to lead to the most amusing results. In some games, such as Dark Souls, the main quest isn't even a 'chain' and instead allows players to decide which order to tackle the various parts of it in.
Since the role is undefined, many such games place an emphasis on interacting with the supporting cast. While a game with a predefined role usually will develop character relations through non-controllable cutscenes with any choices at most determining which of a handful of endings a player may receive, games with undefined protagonist roles usually have frequent, more casual conversations between the controlled character and the supporting cast, with choices not only helping to solidify a general personality for a player's character, but also often outright determining friends and foes or who lives and who dies.
Although the freedom of an undefined role can be a huge advantage over a predefine character role, it is not without a few downsides. Perhaps the most obvious downside is the complete lack of a memorable main character. Although many may be quick to triumph the freedom granted in games with a player-created character, such freedom results in a lack of a memorable main character, such as Cecil from Final Fantasy IV or Maxim from Lufia II. Even if it played exactly the same way, it would be pretty hard to imagine a Nintendo game with the equivalent of a Mii in the place of their iconic protagonists, such as Mario, Link, or even Olimar. Such games also have great difficulty with making memorable 'scenes'; while it is still quite possible for a game with an undefined protagonist role to have a memorable supporting cast and memorable places, it is far more difficult to make an impressive 'event' take place unless some degree of freedom of choice is removed from the player or said event focuses upon a member of the supporting cast.
However, many of the issues facing both defined and undefined character roles can be fixed, or at least avoided, by the increasing number of games which find a balance between the two. In some games, such as The Witcher, players step into the role of a specific character, yet are still given a wide variety of choices; Geralt will never be a saintly paladin nor a demonic overlord, but the events which occur can change significantly based upon decisions players make while taking on his role. Other games, such as the Shin Megami Tensei series, and especially the more recent entries in the Persona spinoff series, have main plots which generally play out the same way no matter what with just a handful of different ending, but players are given a significant amount of freedom when it comes to shaping the personality of the protagonist and choosing how sidequests play out. Thus, these 'hybrid' games tend to lack or greatly reduce the weaknesses found in games which take a more focused interpretation of 'role', but it can be argued that such games may also lack either of their strengths as well.
In the end, which interpretation of 'role' is better will ultimately come down to personal preferences as each has its own set of strengths and weaknesses, but by being aware of the general traits for these interpretations, we can perhaps all learn to respect and enjoy every type of role even more than before.
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