I have seen the future of D&D4e...

[nockergeek]

...and it is the JRPG*.

I've been playing Tales of Vesperia lately, and as I get further into the game I've increasingly become aware of how closely it (and many of its JRPG ilk) fits some of the Fourth Edition tropes:

- A Points-of-Light setting where there are pockets of civilization surrounded by dangerous wilderness (and in ToV, this is a major focus of the plot).
- Ruins of past civilizations containing little-understood magic treasures.
- Dungeons that have puzzles that must be solved/devices that must be operated to complete the task at hand (skill challenges, anyone?).
- Monsters always attack in groups, save for the rare solo boss monster. Even major NPC fights have weaker minions running around and distracting you from the elite leader.
- Magical damage is divided into elemental subtypes, including radiantlight and necroticdarkness.
- Combat is tactical, with movement, placement, combos, knockdown effects, and status effects being major factors.
- Characters have clearly-defined roles, and have named, repeatable attacks/powers to reinforce those roles.

On that last note, I can even guess the D&D4e classes of each character:

- Yuri (the male protagonist) is a straight-up Fighter, advancing into the Swordmaster paragon path
- Estelle (the female protagonist) is a Cleric, advancing into something healing-related (or the Radiant Servant, if that's unavailable)
- Rita is a Wizard through-and-through, advancing into a Battle Mage
- Karol is a Fighter with the Warrior of the Wild multiclass feat, possibly taking Ranger as his second class (and trained in Thievery as well).
- Raven is a Ranger (who manages to fight with bows and dual-wield) with the Sneak of Shadows multiclass feat, advancing into the Master Infiltrator paragon path
- Judith is (and I'm guessing here; haven't seen much of her) another straight-up Fighter, going Kensei and focusing on the spear/polearms

In all honesty, playing this game makes me see just as many elements of JRPGs (or at least those of the Tales series) in 4th Edition as I see elements borrowed from MMOs like World of Warcraft. The fact that JRPGs are mostly focused on telling a story (albeit one that admittedly doesn't vary much at a fundamental level from JRPG to JRPG) reassures me you can easily have 4e-style combat and not lose any of the roleplaying or storytelling from past editions. If anything, ToV is inspiring me to try running a 4e campaign set in Terca Lumireis (the world of ToV) or something directly inspired by it. I think that there are some interesting opportunities for adventure there, and with some tweaking and twisting to make it my own, it sounds like something I'd like to run.

* Japanese Role Playing Game, for those who are don't know the acronym.

Comments

[werewolfpaladin.livejournal.com]

If the animal companion rules are like the rules they released for figurines of wondrous power, there still won't be a way to play a dog. Basically, the creature summoned by the figurine gives you a benefit for being close and you can give up one of your actions for the creature take one of its actions (for example, give up your move action to let the creature take a move action).