Japanese Role-Playing Games

Genre, Representation, and Liminality in the JRPG

Rachael Hutchinson, Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon (Herausgeber)

Buch | Softcover

336 Seiten

2024
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-1-7936-4356-8 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

This book examines the origins and boundaries of Japanese digital role-playing games. A geographically diverse roster of contributors introduces English-speaking audiences to Japanese video game scholarship and applies postcolonial and philosophical readings to the Japanese game text.

Japanese Role-playing Games: Genre, Representation, and Liminality in the JRPG examines the origins, boundaries, and transnational effects of the genre, addressing significant formal elements as well as narrative themes, character construction, and player involvement. Contributors from Japan, Europe, North America, and Australia employ a variety of theoretical approaches to analyze popular game series and individual titles, introducing an English-speaking audience to Japanese video game scholarship while also extending postcolonial and philosophical readings to the Japanese game text. In a three-pronged approach, the collection uses these analyses to look at genre, representation, and liminality, engaging with a multitude of concepts including stereotypes, intersectionality, and the political and social effects of JRPGs on players and industry conventions. Broadly, this collection considers JRPGs as networked systems, including evolved iterations of MMORPGs and card collecting “social games” for mobile devices. Scholars of media studies, game studies, Asian studies, and Japanese culture will find this book particularly useful.

Rachael Hutchinson is professor of Japanese studies at the University of Delaware. Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon is postdoctoral researcher at Université du Québec à Montréal.

Acknowledgments
A Note on Names and Sources
List of Figures and Tables
Introduction
Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon and Rachael Hutchinson

Part One: Genre

Chapter 1: Evolution of a Genre: Dragon Quest and the JRPG
Yuhsuke Koyama
Chapter 2: Japan’s Hard(ware) Power: Consoles, Culture, and the Mass Appeal of Japanese Role-Playing Games
Nökkvi Jarl Bjarnason
Chapter 3: Tutorial Characters and Rhetorical Strategies: Comparing Mother and Final Fantasy
Fanny Barnabé
Chapter 4: Challenging Linearity: Microstructures and Meaning-making in Trails of Cold Steel III
Joleen Blom
Chapter 5: “Is JRPG Old Fashioned?”: Genre, Circulation, and Identity Crisis in Black Rock Shooter: The Game
Jérémie Pelletier-Gagnon

Part Two: Representation

Chapter 6: Harmonized Dissonance: Parodies of Japan’s America in Earthbound
Benjamin Whaley
Chapter 7: From Cleric to Daemon: Narrative and Ludic Agencies of Female Characters in the Tales of Series
Loïc Mineau-Murray
Chapter 8: Beyond Status Effects: Disabili

Erscheinungsdatum	20.01.2024
Co-Autor	Fanny Barnabé, Nökkvi Jarl Bjarnason, Joleen Blom
Zusatzinfo	23 b/w photos; 3 tables; 1 charts;
Sprache	englisch
Maße	150 x 228 mm
Gewicht	526 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Informatik ► Weitere Themen ► Computerspiele
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Kommunikation / Medien ► Medienwissenschaft
ISBN-10	1-7936-4356-3 / 1793643563
ISBN-13	978-1-7936-4356-8 / 9781793643568
Zustand	Neuware