ABSTRACT

This chapter argues, in fact, that Cleopatra no Ma Takara complicates conventional assumptions of musical style and function in Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs), suggesting that conventional tropes may only apply to games with a quasi-medieval-European fantasy setting. It explores how many games it would take to establish generic conventions. The chapter argues that the first two Dragon Quest games were the foundational JRPGs, and the source of many of the conventions of the genre. The notable departure from traditional ludomusical signifiers in this game makes the moment where Uematsu follows the expected trope all the more intriguing, potentially meaningful as an instance of subtle Occidentalism or counter-exoticism coding the music of the West as antiquated, esoteric, or funereal. Koichi Iwabuchi writes that, “while Orientalism enjoys the mysterious exoticism of the Other, self-Orientalism exploits the Orientalist gaze to turn itself into an Other.”.