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From the Arctic to Shibuya: RPG Settings

How a well-utilized setting can have a powerful impact on every aspect of an RPG.

By Kat Bailey Apr 21, 2010 12:21PM PST

Tags: The World Ends With You (NintendoDS) Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey (NintendoDS)

One of the biggest reasons I've been enjoying Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey so far is the setting. Back in March we were lucky enough to get two great sci-fi RPGs in Strange Journey and Infinite Space, each with a completely different take on the genre. Whereas Infinite Space adhered more closely to anime space opera, Strange Journey feels like something out of The Thing; that is, sci-fi horror.

RPGs have perhaps adhered more closely to the swords and sorcery model than other genres over the years. That holds true on both sides of the ocean, whether we're talking about Elder Scrolls or Dragon Quest, Ultima Online or Lineage. Given that many RPG can trace their roots back to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons, that's perhaps not too surprising. But when an RPG begins to branch out and truly embrace its setting, I can't help but take notice, because the results are often very interesting.

On one end of the spectrum we have Final Fantasy. Ultimately, this is a series built around swords and sorcery, and that holds true from the first game to the last. It doesn't matter that there are guys with guns, because there are still powerful magicks and even more powerful godlike creatures lurking about. While the addition of technology changes a few things up, it's still a series that wouldn't be significantly different in terms of gameplay if it were dropped into a hard fantasy setting.

On the other end of the spectrum are games like The World Ends With You and Fallout, which would be fundamentally different games if taken out of their particular contexts. The one that I know best is The World Ends With You, so that's the one I'll discuss here. Much of that game revolves around Shibuya and its culture, from the story to the way the shops are handled. But apart from the unique battle system, I feel like the biggest impact is simply on the way the exploration is handled.

Basically, the entirety of Shibuya can be explored through The World Ends With You, and it's a pretty accurate representation. At the same time though, it's also a relatively self-contained world. The game does a good job of parceling out new areas and ensuring that things don't get repetitive, but there's still a degree of intimacy that's difficult to find outside of The World Ends With You.

The World Ends With You also does a good job of establishing numerous background characters. There are the various shop owners of course, but there's also the Tin Pin Slammer Kid, the nervous salaryman and the high school girls, all of whom serve the useful function of giving the setting a face. It makes it that much easier to roll with the characters when they start waxing poetic about the "pulse of Shibuya," simply because you feel like you've gotten to know the city and its people so well yourself.

Going back to Strange Journey, I think I have an easier time buying into the setting than I do with Final Fantasy because the game goes out of its way to ensure that everything makes sense. Even random elements like healing springs and save points are explained away at some length, which only intensifies the feeling of exploring this strange and terrifying world outside of the ship. Atlus might have gone and further than the generic gun/sword combination with the weapons (who knows, maybe they did), but at least what's there generally makes sense in context.

These are just a few examples of how the creative use of a setting can influence the character of a given RPG, but in many ways what Strange Journey does is no different than what BioShock does with Rapture. What's interesting though is that while BioShock might be superficially similar to Modern Warfare, RPGs that make clever use of their settings can be vastly different from one another. Strange Journey, Infinite Space and Knights of the Old Republic are all nominally "sci-fi RPGs," but the mechanically driven nature of the genre means that each one offers a wholly unique experience from the other.

In other words, you can put stats and a level up system on pretty much anything. That's how Alpha Protocol and Infinite Space end up falling under a relatively similar umbrella despite being two completely different games.

I would like to see RPGs continue exploring a variety of settings, whether it be grim sci-fi horror in the arctic or the modern world. There's certainly nothing wrong with a good fantasy RPG like Dragon Age, but when the sky is the limit, why limit yourself? I hope there are as many RPG like Infinite Space in our future as there are games like Elder Scrolls. Let's make it happen.

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Comments (25)

  • Zomber
  • Star Wars is not Sci-Fi

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Zomber

    Not really. I mean, sure, lazers and space and aliens, but it's just magic and alternate dimensions and fantastical creatures by different names. Mass Effect is sci-fi (he says, only having read about it and watched some online stuff).

    The genre definitely needs to move en mass away from the LOTR-inspired fantasy milieu. I could not stand Dragon Age for a lot of reasons, but a huge part of it were the elves and dwarves and mages. Sick of it, ham-handed allegory to racism notwithstanding.

    Elves and dwarves need to be retired.

    blogizard is very right - we need a piratey RPG. The Wind Waker remains my favourite Zelda entirely because of the setting (and graphics) - which, though it's not an RPG per say, it's a great example of worldbuilding.

  • The_Nintendo_Us
  • realistic settings....

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  The_Nintendo_Us

    help me buy in a ton more, it reduces the amount of suspention of disbelef i have to do... but fantastical setting, the swords and spells stuff, are normally based of realisic, historical settings, thats part of there seeding not just table top D and D

  • turkish101
  • Too bad

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  turkish101

    Rise of the Argonauts was an atrocious game, because the use of classical Greece (or Rome) as the setting for an RPG is an excellent idea. I understand there's a new Heracles RPG for the DS, but I haven't played it, and it didn't really get a good reception. In any case, there are a lot of ideas to explore in the Classical world. Gladius is maybe the only one that came close to getting it right.

    And I agree with the above - a real pirate RPG is definitely in order. Not 'space pirates' or crap like that. Real pirates. In the Caribbean. Like Sid Meier's Pirates!, except, you know, with an actual game to play.

  • botcocker
  • Cyberpunk

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  botcocker

    I want a cyberpunk RPG epic. Playing a fully upgradeable cyborg in a sprawling megalopolis naturally lends itself to RPG style play. Maybe somebody will actually make a proper Shadowrun game at some point in the not too distant future. Probably not. And Jade Empire 2. It may just be typical fantasy with one culture's tropes supplanted by another's, but I want more of it.

  • rhombus
  • Reality Check

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  rhombus

    I'd like to see a major Western RPG set in a modern day, non-military setting. While all RPGs have thoroughly mined the realm of fantastic settings (be they fantasy, sci-fi, or some combination of the two), it seems that the Japanese developers have experimented alot more with modern day "civilian" settings, in games like Earthbound, Shin Megami Tensei, etc. Western devs on the other hand have turned to the open world genre to explore modern or period settings, and that's a shame. Yes, I love open world games, and there've been a ton of great ones in recent years with unbelievably detailed and immersive settings, but I think it would be extremely interesting to see something along the lines of a Western developed Persona game.

  • musim
  • I agree

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  musim

    A lot of my favorite RPG's all have pretty unique settings (ie Shin Megami Tensei, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Mass Effect, Front Mission, etc). 

  • turkish101
  • rhombus

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  turkish101

    GTA is probably the closest we'll ever get to a Western, modern-day RPG. 

    And even though it's made by Square(soft) Enix, you might be interested in Parasite Eve. Horror-RPG set in New York. Now that I think about it, this game is pretty unusual in a lot of ways, especially for 1998.

    Also, isn't Alpha Protocol supposed to be a modern-day spy RPG or something?

  • Refa
  • Shin Megami Tensei Is Diverse As Hell

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Refa

    The Shin Megami Tensei series encompass a vast array of genres. For example, Devil Survivor takes place in Shibuya (well, and all of the other parts of Tokyo) and the Persona games also take place in modern day Japan. In comparison, Digital Devil Sagas are based around an entirely unique world, the originals seem to be based off of the present (but it feels so much different from Persona because they're post apocalyptic; before Fallout was even born :)), and Devil Survivor takes place in retro Japan. Shin Megami Tensei pretty much encompasses every general setting of an RPG that I can think of....It really is a diverse series.

  • Sinfullyvannila
  • Yep...

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Sinfullyvannila

    Sci-fi revolves around the science.

    (Space)Fantasy revolves around cosmology and magic(The Force).

  • BananaJane
  • Strange Journey takes place in the antartic.

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  BananaJane

    Get your story straight, Kat.

  • Chacranajxy
  • Totally agree

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Chacranajxy

    Personally, I think setting is the absolute most important element of setting your RPG apart.  If I'm going on an adventure, I want to be somewhere that doesn't bore the hell out of me.

  • Ashborne
  • @Zomber

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Ashborne

    It is science fiction. It's technologically advanced, there's the science. It's fiction. What the hell more do you need? It's ignorant comments like yours that ruin the film and gaming industry.

  • Demiath
  • Fableous

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Demiath

    I liked Fable 2 for being more fairy tale than high fantasy. The distinction might seem like a strange one to make, but the vibrant storybook visuals and light-hearted moralism of Lionhead's game really does stand out from the myriadds of ponderous, humorless, "epic" RPGs such as Oblivion and Morrowind.

      Oh, and if Star Wars is "science fiction" then I'm a little green fire-breathing rodent from the dark side of Mars...

  • Crimson-Hrist
  • Star Wars

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Crimson-Hrist

    Magic ("The Force") does not disqualify something from being "science fiction." Battlestar Galactica had literal deus ex machina, for heaven's sake.

  • gerrenlaquint

    Posted: Apr 21, 2010 12:00AM PST by  gerrenlaquint

    I'd actually say The World End's With You had one of the more creative settings in recent memory primarily because of where it was set.

    We've seen the high fantasy magic forest and kingdoms time in and time out since the beginning of RPGs. That's nothing new and rarely have any truly stood out aside from maybe visual fidelity or sheer area. I love Mass Effect but aside from the Citadel in the orginal most of the setting at least feels like most space operas/sci-fi stores I'd seen before.

    TWEWY took a city with personality, tapped into mark of what makes that city what it is and made elements of it important parts of the overall experience. Even some of the best tradtionally set rpgs don't do that well if at all. I would love to see more rpgs go that route. Personally as a person that's not a fan whatsoever of high fantasy or space operas outside of a few video games, I'd love to see more games set like what TWEWY or Yakuza does. Truthfully, I'd love to see a good, well-set present day urban rpg set in the US. I'd personal have also wanted and envisioned something of an ubran rpg, something along the lines of FFVII, less stream-punk that never left Midgar set in a L.A. or Dallas or some city of the sort.


  • Zomber
  • Star Wars is Space Fantasy

    Posted: Apr 22, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Zomber

    Space ships ("The Millenium Falcon") do not qualify something as "science fiction". I never watched Battlestar Galatica, because I saw half of an episode and was terribly bored, so I can't speak to it. Science fiction, on some level, has to treat the science seriously - it also has to, on some level, be about how technology has impacted the human condition. Star Wars does neither of these things - aggressively and enthusiastically. It uses the trappings of sci-fi as an aesthetic.

    Which is okay. Nothing to be threatened over. At the end of the day I think it goes beyond semantics, because science fiction, as a genre, has an important role to play in our culture, and I think as a genre there is an integrity to the intellectual rigour of 'true' sci-fi - but if it makes you happy to believe Star Wars is science fiction, have at it.

  • lokifeyson
  • Atlus

    Posted: Apr 22, 2010 12:00AM PST by  lokifeyson

    Atlus is one of my favorite publishers, have been for quite some time

  • gerrenlaquint
  • Semantics

    Posted: Apr 22, 2010 12:00AM PST by  gerrenlaquint

    Not that I particularly care either way - I dislike most of what falls into "Sci-Fi," "Space Fantasy,"  whatever the heck else terms you want to throw out there. But seriously, this is starting to creep into Ebert levels of pretentiousness.

  • Sinfullyvannila
  • Science Fiction...

    Posted: Apr 22, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Sinfullyvannila

    Generally bases the story around one or more assumptions based on theoretical or proven scientific principals. In Star Wars, the story isn't about the science or technology at all, nor is any of the technology based on any scientific principals. The technology may as well be powered by magic.

    I'm not saying one is superior to the other in any case, but there is a huge difference. And I do enjoy both.

  • magicmidget
  • modern day rpg

    Posted: Apr 22, 2010 12:00AM PST by  magicmidget

    don't you all mean you want to see Earthbound? present day RPG where nothing nothing was too "fantastical", just a couple of kids discovering they're psychic and putting a beat down on some aliens. whoa...did i just describe a modern day sci-fi rpg? hidden technology manipulating mankind and nothing buy mind power to get rid of it? too bad we will probably never see an official release of the game stateside besides what we already have. illegal roms and devout fans are the only way we can play those games...i'd really dig a cellshaded remake though. maybe in the action/RPG element..that'd fun

  • turkish101
  • @demiath

    Posted: Apr 22, 2010 12:00AM PST by  turkish101

    While I never played Fable 2, the first game had an excellent setting that is often overlooked. The stained glass window cut scenes, the Danny Elfman score, the animation, everything about it stood out from the typical western fantasy setting. 

    Also, it's OK to knock on Oblivion's bland world... until you play the expansion, Shivering Isles. If anyone plays it, I recommend saving it for last, because once you go there, you won't want to go back to the old world. 

    And I'm tellin yas, GTA games aren't that far removed from being an RPG. You have: branching missions, a long cinematic journey, stat-building, weapon upgrades, dating sims, side quests, mini-games, and the ability to build your character and his empire by purchasing buildings, homes, etc. (i.e. playing a 'role'). All that's missing is an RPG-type battle system, and really, would anyone play GTA if it had turn based combat?

    How about Shenmue? That game used small-town Japan way before Persona 4. It's also a bit unusual in that it's not entirely modern - it takes place in the mid 80s. Too bad it was so focused on its atrocious plot, which also happened to be atrociously paced.

  • Demiath
  • Sci-fi doesn't begin with "A long time ago"...

    Posted: Apr 22, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Demiath

    Genre distinctions are of course always somewhat arbitrary, but in general I agree with Zomber and see the well-known differences between Star Trek and Star Wars as useful ways of separating "science fiction" from "fantasy with lasers".

    There are always going to be hard cases, though. Is Terminator sci-fi despite its luddite-style paranoia about technological progress? Is Battlestar Galactica sci-fi despite its murky metaphysics and similarly skeptical vision of how human inventions profoundly affect the trajectory of history? I'd say the former is still sci-fi - if only because its supposed themes are buried beneath thick layers of time travelling and non-stop action with robots - while BSG is much more of a drama/thriller series (the BSG screenwriters stated lack of interest in conventional sci-fi is an important indication here).

  • parklife444
  • Impressed

    Posted: Apr 23, 2010 12:00AM PST by  parklife444

    Strange Journey has really impressed me so far. I get what Kat's saying about the setting -- everything is explained. I'll add that the game features a bit of intentional old sci-fi movie campiness, which actually adds to the plausibility -- that is, it works as a campy sci-fi movie where, if you were asked to take it 100% seriously, it would feel a bit forced (save points? that's, uhm, alien technology). It's strange -- even the entirely low-tech way they show multiple dead bodies (the game flashes a single body on the screen in different poses) kind of grows on you.

    Also, Atlus really out-did themselves with the dungeon art. The dungeons are usually the ugliest parts of their games (and so repetitive). While that hasn't exactly changed (still repetitive) the art style is really pleasing and they've added enough animation to keep the tile sets from feel dead.

    In short, if you're an adult, play this instead of Pokemon.

  • gerrenlaquint

    Posted: Apr 25, 2010 12:00AM PST by  gerrenlaquint

    I see where you were saying in terms of unimaginative in terms of, okay let's use this city that exists. Not creating the entire setting can by a definition be seen that way. I just so happen to look at creativity as not just what you build/create but also how someone uses something that's already there in a creative way - guess that's the growing up poor and being in the hip-hop generation speaking, when you're broke you reappropriate a lot as a kid.

    Where I was going in terms of the creativity is that that took a place that does exist  - as opposed to the stock cut and paste galaxy or parochial towns with the same tired cliches - and used it in a very creative way. Much more, I'd say than most games, RPG or otherwise, used the character and personality of a real city to influence so many other elements in the game that was creative.

    I guess we were looking at things from different perspectives. But I understand the point you were making.

  • Wasd+Right_Trigger
  • Set it straight.

    Posted: May 09, 2010 12:00AM PST by  Wasd+Right_Trigger

    The post is magnificent but also requires the following to be said, "What a great setting brings to the table can also be taken away with a bad setting." A particular example the floats to the top of my mind would have to be the original Darkcloud set in generic land at the mouth of generic cave as opposed to the much better Darkcloud 2 where the city and areas felt as though they were apart of one another and the character. Maybe too few games have the issue of a bad setting but that doesn't warrant an overlook of the fact that it happens.

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