Recent comments by Yoshinori Kitase about the Move's unsuitability for RPG play due to masses of motion-controlled fighting over 40 or 50 hours of gameplay got us thinking here at Movemodo.
Some games are marketed purely on the level of their physical exertion and its benefits – Zumba Fitness will no doubt fit into this category – others shy away from the idea. What if the two worked together – what about an RPG that made fitness a part of the gameplay? Imagine a fitness game with a story that used familiar game elements to represent your progress.
The Joy of Stats
Numbers are the best part of any RPG: HP, MP, ATK, EXP and more allow you to track your hero's progress from lowly swordsman to world-conquering giant slayer. Once certain milestones are passed, you advance to the next level and stage of difficulty, yielding greater rewards, so you're always making progress forward.
Athletes and those into personal fitness recognise that keeping tabs on your performance allows you to keep moving forward too, progressing from short bursts of exercise to longer periods of exertion as your fitness – let's call it the FIT statistic – improves. If your FIT isn't high enough, you won't be able to last long enough in battle to defeat enemies and reap the rewards; the fitter you are, the more ass you'd be able to kick.
Battles Are Changing
RPGs have been using menu-based battles for years, but with the advent of motion control there's a chance for new, more varied battle sequences to take place. Combining these with a fitness game also subscribes to the theory of "burst training", where periods of low exertion are punctuated with short bursts of strenuous exercise, like a random battle in the field.
Move can be used to represent a sword or a gun, has a wide range of motion for a series of magical attacks and much more, so would be a perfect fit for almost every RPG battle system ever devised as well as plenty of new ones.
The Story of Fitness
Many people drop out of exercise regimes due to boredom; a lack of progression can hurt your ambitions. The same can be said of RPGs, but by providing an overarching story perhaps the genre could boost commitment from players: objectives and missions to be completed would provide tangible milestones, helping players to recognise their achievements.
By the time you reach the final epic battle your party's FIT would have reached a high enough level to allow you to defeat the evil overlord and end the world.
Then What?
That's a good question. You've trained long and hard over hours and hours, coming from a lazy nobody to a fitness powerhouse; you've saved the world and recovered the ancient artefact. What comes next?
Fitness is a long-term goal, not a finite experience. How would players react to completing the story and finishing their training? Would they be satisfied or eager for more; would they see their exertion as something worthwhile outside of the game or just another form of controlling the game?
What would it take for you to play an RPG with motion controls? Would you play a fitness game if it had a story and interesting characters?
Comments 10
A very interesting pitch, but it presents a problem: Would already being fit when you started destroy the difficulty curve? How would the game determine your starting stats? How would it quantify the increase over time? If they could tackle these issues, I'd probably buy the game.
How about an opening fitness exam? Many RPGs start out with training battles, so perhaps some sort of Q&A - "rate your fitness between 1 and 10" - could take place to assess your initial fitness. Of course, very fit players wouldn't necessarily see the same benefits as unfit players unless extra resistance were added, weights etc.
Loving this idea. The whole problem (for me at least) with training is the lack of motivation to get started. I have tried doing it for periods, but before long I get bored and give up. A game with constant rewards for training coupled with an engaging story seems like a perfect match. The game wouldn't really require increased fitness to reward you, it could simply give you experience points in the game based on HOW MUCH you workout, not necessarily on HOW WELL you perform. That way everybody would be rewarded, not only people who are fit, or people who increase their performance over time (hard for someone who is already very athletic to boost his fitness with some "casual" workouts).
If this game was to be made (and good), I would pick it up in a heartbeat. I still intend to buy EA Active 2 for either Move or Kinect, but I fear I might get bored with that too in a short time.
Welcome to Movemodo, AlexWideScreen!
Some great ideas in that post; I really do think this could work. iPhone has RPGs that reward players for doing chores, so I'm sure a home console could support an RPG about fitness!
Looking forward to EA Active 2 - the first one was really superb, so I'm sure it'll be even better on Move.
@James... really cool pitch. Maybe something like this could get my wife to actually use her EA Active I spent $60 bucks on.
Training with those cross-dressers in Final Fantasy VII will feel all that more realistic with the PlayStation Move.
Also, whoa, a new Norwegian, welcome to MM/NL, AlexWideScreen.
sounds like an awesome idea! i've tried to play fitness games before but they aren't really fun
Interesting idea James but RPG fans are a lethargic lot aren't they? Surely they would recent having to do some exercise to level up! haha
That would be awesome!!
I always found way too much potential in motion games to let us get off our couches and shed some serious calories.. and a game with a proper story progression and motivation to get you working out sounds like a fantastic idea... and when u complete the story, why not have multiplayer type games like with a ranking system as in COD or KZ2? The one that keeps track of how many times a day you play the game and how many calories you shed each day... in that way everyone will be motivated enough to play everyday.. and keep bettering themselves and moving up in rank..
This is a great idea and it needs to be made, if there was a way to incorporate a RPG story line with a fitness model for leveling up i would be on it right now or i would be going to buy it... i can see it being a very inspiring game for families and individuals. I would like to see an incorporation of voice control and gestures also for when you want to send off spells and other options. EXP could be assigned for doing physical based activities that the motion sensor can track. i.e. you could get 1 EXP for every push-up or sit-up done correctly or if you could scan in different weight amounts and do curls or give points for cardio work... and possible we could use a tracking system that could be uploaded from a daily work outs at gyms and such like the nike + so that all our hard work could be utilized and you would not feel like you have to be in front of your tv all the time to get results. I think the best option would be for a MMO-RPG where you can pick a race like in WOW and many other games and be able to see them run around on a screen and depending on your attention to your exercise your character would resemble in game actions. i.e. more weight baring excercises could help increase strength and cardio would improve stamina just like real life. Its a gaming style that needs to be considered due to the large % of obesity in society and especially obesity in children.
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