I consider Microsoft’s Phantasy Star Online 2 reveal to be the highlight of E3 2019. The game was a long time coming after Sega announced it would release in the West back in 2012 —and then the company acted as though they never made any such promise.
However, while many gamers associate the Phantasy Star license with the MMO genre, the franchise began life as a series of turn-based JRPGs.
The first Phantasy Star game released on the Master System and provided the swords and sorcery turn-based combat of its contemporaries. However, Phantasy Star stood out against other games thanks to a sci-fi setting, 3D dungeons, and female lead. Back in 1987, these features were ahead of their time.
Phantasy Star spawned three sequels that culminated in Phantasy Star IV for the Genesis. The franchise entered hibernation and was soft rebooted in 2000 as Phantasy Star Online (PSO) for the Sega Dreamcast.
Unlike previous Phantasy Star games, PSO adopts an action combat system that, while simple, holds up to this day. Furthermore, the game retains the sci-fi/fantasy hybrid setting —as well as the recurring primary antagonist Dark Falz.
Like Phantasy Star games before it, PSO paved the way for the future, as it holds the title of the first MMORPG on consoles.
Moreover, the game touts the novel feature of being playable offline and online (but only if you connect to fan-run servers since the official ones were shut down in 2008).
The legacy of PSO is alive and well in the modern gaming era. And let’s face facts: Destiny’s races and classes are (probably) heavily inspired by PSO, as shown by Kotaku.
Duke Nukem
Before the title character became synonymous with first-person shooters, one-liners, and Jon St. John, Duke Nukem was a very different hero. Well, maybe Duke himself wasn’t different, but his games were.
Duke Nukem first starred in a game titled, well, Duke Nukem. Developed by Apogee Software, this game features Duke saving the world by platforming in 2D environments. Moreover, instead of collecting iconic weapons, Duke gathers powerups such as grappling hooks and high-jump sneakers.
While the game received a sequel in 1993, Duke himself didn’t enter the limelight until Duke Nukem 3D, which blasted him into the FPS genre and introduced his iconic one-liners, weapons, and enemies.
However, Duke Nukem 3D wasn’t the end of Duke’s genre-hopping story. He truly entered the realm of 3D with Duke Nukem: Time to Kill, a third-person shooter for the PlayStation that, while decent, isn’t as kick-ass as Duke Nukem 3D.
While Duke continued to adventure in the third dimension until 2002 with Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, none of his third-person games ever reached the lofty heights of Duke Nukem 3D. Then again, neither did Duke Nukem Forever
Oddworld
While Oddworld Inhabitant’s library of Oddworld games is rather small, the franchise is consistent on two fronts. Oddworld games are consistently good and odd. If not for one particular entry, they also would consistently be puzzle platformers.
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee, for those who never heard of the game, is a 2D platformer that won numerous awards thanks to its oddball characters, puzzles, unique “Gamespeak” mechanic, and a powerful environmental message.
The sequel, Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus, is more of the same but better. Even the third title, Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee, faithfully translates the other games’ strengths into a 3D setting. However, the fourth game in the Oddword franchise, Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath, is a stark contrast as it eschews puzzle platforming for first-person shooting.
Instead of jumping between platforms, recruiting and rescuing NPCs, the game’s protagonist (the titular Stranger) bags criminals dead or alive. Oh, and he fires live ammunition (literally live, as in fuzzy animals and insects) from a wrist-mounted crossbow.
I would say that odd doesn’t begin to describe Stranger’s Wrath’s change in genres, but odd always has been Oddworld’s bread and butter.
Warcraft
You would be hard pressed to find a gamer who hasn’t heard of Warcraft. Many know it as the king of the MMORPG genre, while others recognize it as a model that was used to study how disease spreads during an epidemic. For me, Warcraft is synonymous with genre-hopping.
Warcraft began life as an real-time strategy game simply titled Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. The game took the video game world by storm and spawned two RTS sequels (each with its own expansion packs), as well as the award-winning MMORPG, World of Warcraft.
Much like Duke Nukem 3D, World of Warcraft needs no introduction. It is the most popular MMORPG on the market, and to be frank, the change from RTS to MMORPG was as unexpected as it was inspired. However, the Warcraft franchise is home to another genre-hopping game, one with quite a storied history.
In 1996, Blizzard began work on a game that would bridge the gap between Warcraft II and Warcraft III. Titled Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans, the game starred a young Thrall, long before he obtained the legendary Doomhammer, and even longer before he became Warchief of the Horde.
While Warcraft II is an RTS, Warcraft Adventures took a left turn into point-and-click adventure territory, complete with weird humor and puzzles.
Blizzard also hired an all-star cast of voice actors, including Clancy Brown, Peter Cullen, and the late, great Tony Jay. And then the company cancelled the game because, as ex-Blizzard vice president Bill Roper stated in an interview, by the time it would have released, “[it] would have been great three years ago.”
Normally, cancelling a game is a black mark for a studio, but for Blizzard, it’s a badge of honor. According to an interview Gameinformer held with executive producer Allen Adham, Blizzard cancels about 50% of its titles, as they treat those games as learning experiences and take what was learned to create the next success.
After all, the uber-popular Overwatch rose out of the ashes of the cancelled Project Titan, but Warcraft Adventures is a special case.
Warcraft Adventures was supposed to release in 1997, but Blizzard announced the game was cancelled in 1998. Its narrative was later re-purposed into the novel Warcraft: Lord of the Clans, which should have been the end of the adventure of Warcraft Adventures.
However, in 2011, a longplay of Warcraft Adventures (without cutscenes) was posted on YouTube. Then in 2016, the game, playable and mostly complete, was unofficially leaked onto the Internet. Many have pirated the game since, but as sites such as Rock, Paper, Shotgun put it, Blizzard made the right decision cancelling Warcraft Adventures.
Grand Theft Auto
Long before Grand Theft Auto solidified itself as the face of the open-world genre, GTA was a very different beast. Sure, it featured all the car-jacking, pedestrian-killing, cop-escaping action the franchise is known for, but instead rewarding players with cold, hard cash, GTA was originally an arcade-like title all about earning points.
Technically, money is used as points in the first two GTA games, but it is earned in a very arcadey fashion. Complete a mission? Earn points. Sell a car? Earn points. Pick up a points multiplier? Earn points faster.
GTA 1 and 2 are divided into districts (i.e., levels), and players can’t complete a district without enough money. Moreover, the games feature a life system. Whenever the protagonist is Wasted (i.e., killed), they lose a life. If players lose all their lives, they have to start a district over from the beginning.
When Grand Theft Auto 3 hit the scene, however, everything changed. Multipliers, lives, and other arcadey mechanics were abandoned for a more narrative experience. Moreover, players could now use money for services other than just saving and upgrading their cars, including buying weapons and houses.
But the genre switching doesn’t end there. We cannot forget Grand Theft Auto Online, which is everything you love about Grand Theft Auto V but with friends. From winning drag races against friends to organizing elaborate (and absolutely nuts) co-op heists, GTAO’s new genre opens up a whole new venue of possibilities.
Fallout
Fallout has always been about role playing as a man or woman who wanders irradiated wastelands, interacts with memorable characters, and fights off everything from simple bandits to giant mutant Jackson’s Chameleons. However, the genre of the Fallout game determines how you fight enemies.
In the beginning, Fallout was a series of old-school tactical RPGs. Every combat action, from moving to attacking, cost Action Points (AP), and each battle was a tightrope walk of decisions.
Do you attack an enemy several times or attack once and run to a safe distance? Do you aim for the body, which is a larger target, or the leg, which is harder to hit but can slow down an enemy? Do you walk into a room guns blazing and risk getting fragged, or do you try diplomacy and avoid bloodshed?
These were essential decisions in Fallout 1 and 2 that solidify its tactical-RPG status.
However, when Bethesda bought the rights to Fallout, the studio turned the series on its head. While its Fallout games retain all of the RPG mechanics and story-altering decisions that made the first Fallout games great, Bethesda opted for a more action-oriented combat system.
Fallout 3 marked the first time a Fallout game featured first-person shooter mechanics (or third-person shooter mechanics, as the game offers both a first or third-person camera).
This change transitioned Fallout into the FPS-RPG genre. However, Bethesda decided to keep of Fallout 1 and 2’s strategic roots intact with the V.A.T.S. system, which lets players target enemy limbs, as well as dialogue options that can prevent battles entirely.
Fallout New Vegas and 4 continued Bethesda’s excursion into FPS RPG territory, and then Bethesda backtracked slightly with Fallout 76. That game retains Fallout 4’s FPS combat, but Bethesda ditched Fallout’s RPG stylings for MMO multiplayer, which is a decision that doesn’t sit well with many gamers, us included.
Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy might be synonymous with classic turn-based RPG combat, but it is also the dictionary definition of a franchise that changes genres on a regular basis.
The series began with a bare-bones turn-based combat system. All the characters and enemies attack each other until one side bites the dust. This system was used until Final Fantasy IV, which adopts the Active Time Battle (ATB) system that lets characters and enemies have their own individual turns instead of acting as one.
However, even with the introduction of the ATB system, Final Fantasy remained a turn-based RPG at heart. But then, Final Fantasy took an unexpected turn into MMORPG territory with Final Fantasy XI. Even Final Fantasy XII, which is a single-player game, features MMORPG-like battles.
After Square Enix’s brief stint with MMORPG combat, the company returned to the turn-based RPG genre with Final Fantasy XIII, XIII-2, and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.
But the studio changed direction again and returned to the MMORPG genre (and style of combat) with Final Fantasy XIV. And then, after ten years of development, Final Fantasy XV hit the stage and brought the mainline Final Fantasy franchise firmly into the action-RPG genre.
Instead of using menus to fight enemies, Final Fantasy XV maps attacks to specific buttons to keep the action as fast as possible. Moreover, the game’s combat promotes proper positioning, as characters deal extra damage while flanking opponents
Given Square Enix’s past history, it’s almost a guarantee that Final Fantasy will change genres yet again, but who knows if the company will return to an existing Final Fantasy genre or try something new.
