Eastern Role-play Videogames is a videogame genre where the player takes on the role of a character in a vast fantasy world and embarks on a quest to, usually, save the land.
First appearing during the late 1980s, based on the Dungeons and Dragons table-top role-playing game and popularized by videogame consoles, the Eastern Role-play Videogame genre can be differentiated from Western Role-play Videogames by having several or more of the following features:
- Created in Japan (or in China, Taiwan, or South Korea).
- Generally found on consoles (and more recently, handhelds) rather than a PC.
- Tend to follow linear plots, with less of a Wide Open Sandbox setting. Many will not feature discrete "quests".
- The player usually controls a party of pre-designed characters. The player is sometimes offered a choice of what characters to use, but not the option of designing his own protagonists.
- The party members are usually written into the plot, rather than blank slates.
- A linear plot and lack of character creation that, hopefully, allows a more cinematic and tightly-scripted story.
- Later games tend to have one or more elaborate, minigame-like "systems" that allow skill and ability customization.
- "Random Encounters" are a common gameplay element, especially in older games.
- Turn-based combat is also prominent, though action-based combat was more prominent in the past.
- A degree of Level Grinding is strongly encouraged, if not outright required, to proceed through the game.
- Most encounters are resolved through combat or cutscenes. Most quests and abilities are combat-oriented.
- Often contain a few Mini Games.
- Often targeted towards a broader audience, including female audiences (hence the Bishōnen characters often found in this genre).
- Characters posses an "overdrive" or "limit break" ability which allows them to access special attacks during battle.
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