Three RPGs That Blur the Lines Between East and West
Kat Bailey: I find all three of these games interesting because they give lie to the notion that the Japanese only make a certain kind of RPG. Wizardry and Rogue in particular are dark, difficult, and notably devoid of either extensive stories or elaborately coiffed protagonists. Dragon Quest was famously a reaction to Wizardry–an attempt to make it more accessible to the general public. But though the popularity of Yuji Horii's opus has hardly waned over the years, a not-insignificant chunk of the Japanese gaming public still love a good, raw dungeon crawler.
