RPG's and Visual Novels (part 1)

I encountered a really interesting dichotomy this week when considering a blend of RPG video game combat for the visual novel (VN) I'm writing. If you've ever played video game RPG's, especially JRPG's (J=Japanese), then you'll nod in understanding when I mention that many of these RPG's use a distinctly VN style of storytelling. You may wander around an open world fighting random monsters in an RPG, but without a story to move the game along and give you incentive to wander the world and fight monsters, there wouldn't be much of a compelling reason remaining for you to play the game. Sure, the combat has to be good, the loot system compulsively addictive, and the monsters entertaining, but most people play RPG's because they like immersing themselves in a fantasy or scifi story. One important factor to note is that in RPG's, the story usually revolves around you and the character you create, but in JRPG's, the story is almost always about a protagonist that is already a pre-written character. In a JRPG, you might get to control the protagonist in battle, but you're sort of along for the ride a little more as an observer of an established character. That's very similar to most VN's, so it's no coincidence that VN's have also their origins in Japan.