14 DAY TRIAL // While a lot of games seem very distinct, with different stories or gameplay mechanics, you can almost always see a kind of recipe in some genres, like shooters or Role Playing Games. Due to their popularity, RPGs, especially Japanese-developed ones, have begun to be criticized by analysts for using the same stereotypes.
Square Enix has had a lot to do with this, as its very popular Final Fantasy franchise almost always featured some teenager-like lead character, whose gender you can't easily make out as they all have long hair, but who ultimately becomes this big hero who saves the world all by himself or, sometimes, with the help of his friends.
But such a recipe is tried and true, says Yusuke Naora, one of the developers who worked on the Japanese company's latest RPG, The Last Remnant. He goes on to defend especially the teenage main characters, which are created in such a way that their epic journey takes them not only from zero to hero but also from a small teen to a man.
“The format of the RPG lends itself well to having a teenage protagonist. Usually you’re playing for many hours, taking a character on a journey from a relatively weak state to one of power and maturity, a gameplay journey that mirrors that of a teenager moving into adulthood. That’s certainly one of the reasons it works well having young protagonists. We sometimes wonder what we’re doing dealing with such young protagonists in our games, characters who don’t necessarily speak to us as adults. There’s no pressure internally on how you have to make a character. But you do find that there’s an expectation of how a protagonist must look for Japanese gamers.”
So there you have it, Square Enix at least will continue to use young characters in its future games. Hopefully, in next iterations we will see some of the heroes grow up a bit and realize how previous adventures have helped them mature not only physically but also mentally.