A History of RPGs
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The mid-'80s and '90s introduced a slew of gameplay innovations that are evidenced in some of the big-budget blockbusters titles of today. This era gave gamers their first tastes of truly compelling gameplay and serious story development.
The Shin Megami Tensei series is credited with ushering in a morality and alignment system that led to branching storylines and multiple endings.
Chrono Trigger built on that by introducing a storyline that would be considered dense even by today's standards. The game's time-traveling protagonist waded through the story by tackling the plot in whatever order you preferred. The New Game + feature allowed gamers to return to the start to tie up those loose ends without sacrificing all their hours grinding levels. And the combat system added dynamic combos that were a wonder in the mid-'90s.
Tactical RPGs such as Ogre Battle, Shining Force, Fire Emblem and their respective sequels grew RPG battles from individual or small team-based affairs to full-on warfare as you controlled your army of shuffling pixels against enemy troops.
And Final Fantasy IV and the Active Time Battle system truly changed the game by striking a common ground between the real-time combat of action RPGs and turn-based battles of most Japanese RPGs.
These developments spurred RPGs into myriad directions, including massively multiplayer and handheld formats.
