• Posted March 8th, 2013 at 17:07 EDT by Joseph Fait
• 1 Comments

One famed JRPG director has noticed a growing divide between Western and Eastern role-playing experiences, and cites influence from the former in developing the latter.

Earlier today, PSU sat down with Yoshito Okamura, Gust Game Director behind Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk, an RPG that released this week exclusively on PlayStation 3. During the interview, Okamura-kun expressed that the current RPG market has largely divulged into two sectors--one being realistic, and the other involving 'traditional systemic game play.' "I feel that the RPG genre is already split in two between those that seek more reality, and those that seek the traditional systematic game play," Okamura-kun explained.

"The Atelier series will probably continue to expand in the latter tradition, but personally I have a small dream to present a more precise RPG that has role playing elements other than battles and criminal acts, and also differs from the future direction of RPGs that the Elder Scroll series presents."

Obviously, this represents the difference seen between most Western and Eastern RPGs, but Okamura-san was more than willing to say that, as director, he has taken inspiration from Western games. "For me, I love Bethesda's Elder Scrolls and Fallout series and 2K Games' [Irrational Games] BioShock and play them often. I am more inspired by the game world, overall feel and atmosphere rather than the game elements." He continued, "For example, the world in Atelier Ayesha is one that is nearing the end, and although the direction is completely different, I cannot deny that there is some influence from Fallout."

For more on Atelier Ayesha, and more from our interview with Okamura-san, stay glued to PSU.com.