I know that japanese RPG’s are all quite different from each other, and you could probably divide out a bunch of different subgenres and so on, but I’m talking about the most representative series like Final Fantasy. In general, Japanese RPG’s have a completely different thing going on than western fantasy.
Where did it come from? What influenced JRPG’s?
Obviously, there’s a lot of western fantasy influence going on, but things like steampunk, mechas/giant robots, and weird (japanese-derived?) religious mysticism also always seem to crop up. There seems to be a generally accepted mish-mash of sci-fi, fantasy, religion and metaphysics, and so on.
What has this approach gone on to influence? The only thing I can immediately think of is China Mieville’s novels, which bring together a bunch of similarly disparate genres and motifs and make them all work together. Perdido Street Station in particular feels like it could have come right out of a Final Fantasy game.
The original Final Fantasy was pretty much a direct D&D rip-off - to the point that several monsters had to have their sprites and names changed in the translation. The Evil Eye was a Beholder, Kari was a Marilith, etc.
The (slightly) earlier Dragon Quest was less directly ripped from D&D, although the influence was there, in the level system, as well as the general world.
The worlds of the early Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games are most influenced by the D&D style Medieval Fantasy, though DQ is strongly influenced in how that is displayed by the style of Akira Toriyama, who did the designs for it, and ended up lending it a distinctive feel. The later FF games, and games in other series (Xenogears, Xenosaga, Chrono <X>) have gone further afield, adding in sci-fi elements, less common religious and mythological references, both Western and Eastern, innovations of their own, and various general references drawn from popular culture (again, both Eastern and Western).
There’s a certain amount of cyclical influence in Japanese geek culture, actually - anime and manga influence games, which in turn influence them, and the cycle goes on. (Look to the .Hack franchise for a really recursive case.)
As to what they’ve influenced, other than each other, the influence has gone full circle in the RPG realm, and western RPGs are, both officially and unofficially, bringing in elements from console RPGs (as well as anime and manga).
It’s gone even fuller circle than that (so to speak): in the latest incarnation of D&D, the Eberron campaign world incorporates various sci-fi/steampunk/anime elements that are obviously inspired by Japanese computer RPGs.
I’d hesitate to say Miéville was influenced by FF as you seem to be implying. I think he arrives at his milieu the same way the Japanese do - by being an eclectic borrower and integrator. Miéville collects old RPG Monster Manuals and the like - there are enough genres out there that you’d build up quite a mixed setting if you threw them all in like he does.
I don’t know if this is strange because the average Western fan adheres to more rigid genre boundaries or not - I have noticed some people do tend to fixate on one element of their geekery, like Trekkies, Tolkies or Browncoats, but I’m pretty certain that’s not always the case, or I wouldn’t be working on a Steampunk/Firefly crossover LARP. Which I am.
I think the difference is that Miéville strives for a certain level of consistancy. He’s throws a lot of outlandish ideas together, but he takes care to make them work together in a coherent, logical world, which is something that I rarely see in J-RPGs. There, the only consideration seems to be: “Does it look cool? Yeah? Then let’s throw it in.” I’ve never seen a Japanese RPG world that actually makes sense.
JFTR, steampunk is western fantasy; it was developed by Tim Powers, James P. Blaylock, and K. W. Jeter. (Incidentally, it could be argued that Jeter also invented cyberpunk with his book Dr. Adder.)
And a mixture of fantasy and SF in games has been going on for a long time; one of the early versions of D&D (in the small box) had a spaceship in the adventure. And it’s been going on a lot longer than that in literature–the books that are responsible for the D&D magic system (the Dying Earth stories by Jack Vance) are decidedly fantasy-oriented but have SF elements in them.
I thought that’s what I said, just with a specific example…