I have been on a quest to expand my taste and experience ever since I started delving deeper into the gaming community.

Games, as I have read, evolve across not only genres but also within cultures. Japanese Role Playing Games is a particular genre I have little knowledge about.

The closest claim I can make of playing a Japanese RPG is Final Fantasy VII. Having said that, I’m sure many purists may argue that FFVII was catered for the mainstream and wasn’t a true reflection of a hardcore JRPG.

What I want to understand by playing more Japanese RPGS is how they differ to its western counterpart.

 Is it to do with the how the animations are drawn? The different attention and length devoted to cut-scenes?

 Or maybe it’s to do with the kind of activities the player is asked to complete in Jrpgs that separates it from the western audience.

I recently read an article about Kojima’s comments on a DS game called ‘LovePlus’. To be honest, it sounds really quirky and slightly bizarre. He claims that this game – a lovesim – has his production crew all excited and twisted up in knots “I think Love Plus is the first one. You see people sneaking in time with it in the bathrooms and so on; I guess they don't want to get caught playing it at their desks”.

What I find peculiar is the fact that his team members are playing the game in ‘bathrooms’ as opposed to the open public space of ‘their desk’. Are they worried of being caught slacking off work or is it because there is sense of ‘Leisure Suite Larry/Benny Hill’ element to it?

Which leads me to Agarest: Generations of war.

It’s recently been released in Europe and I am excited because unlike the States, ‘Japanese import’ doesn’t really exist on this side of the world.

However, I digress from my original inquiry and the purpose of this post; “Is Agarast: Generations of War a good reflection of a JRPG?”

I want to try Jrpg’s but when Agarest is filled with images that might not bold well in western perceptions I can’t help but wonder:

a) Am I being immature and just need to grow up?

Or

b) wtf? Is all this necessary to the game?

Apparently these images are all linked to the element of ‘relationship’ in the game. Agarest boasts a game mechanic known as ‘soul breed’. The idea that you can play a game through generations as opposed to a single life span intrigues me.

The ‘breeding’ concept in games fascinates me. I’ve dabbled in games such as ‘Creatures’ by Gameware and I like the idea of character progression through lineage.

I believe the next Fable has an element of this type of concept tied to its story.

But I have to question the way the Agarest presents this element. Representation of woman and sex in video games is still talked about. But in games such as Heavy Rain and even Mass Effect and Bioware’s Dragon Age, their approach seems “right”. I’m do not feel the mechanic is out of place in those franchises and it seems to be  because the “image” seems acceptable: Mature women being presented in mature circumstances. 

However, I can’t help but find the images used in Agarest a tad disturbing. Cutesy images in what I can only say as suggestive isn’t quite right. I wouldn’t be so concerned if the images didn’t look like young teenage girls coming into age.

Anyway, I don’t want to harp on about images as I’m starting to sound like a puritan. 

Are there any members who are huge Japanese RPG fans? If so, have you heard of Agarest: Generations of War (aka Agarest: Senki)? Am I being prudish or is it a game that will be too great a divide to overcome (due to its cultural subtext of the images)?

Your expert opinion would be highly appreciated.

(NOTE: I’ve also been trying to hunt down an old PC game which a old colleague of mine had bought. You controlled a village of dwarves and had to breed them to make stronger offspring. I think the quest was to explore some sort of mountain for treasure but I never saw enough to ever really know. If anyone has any ideas what I’m raving on about please drop a comment)