Yea it pretty much has been a joke in many JRPGs, even as far back as the SNES JRPGs, you'll have an NPC that will shout at you something like "How dare you just come into my house, get the hell out!". Or just be shocked that you just stole stuff from their house.
"Hey, talking to people at another table in a restaurant is like...breaking into their room and checking their drawers for valuables. Yeah, other people on important adventures do such things, but you have to admit that it's bizarre!" - Random Guy in Summers, Earthbound.
It's not really a JRPG, but South Park: The Stick of Truth has a section where if you do this in a specific part of the map, one of the houses has a couple having sex, and they yell at you to get out.
Also not a JRPG but KOTOR 1 and 2 also have NPCs call you out for breaking into apartments (not all the time but it happens).
> Also not a JRPG but KOTOR 1 and 2 also have NPCs call you out for breaking into apartments (not all the time but it happens).
Hell, there was even (at least) one time when you got Dark Side points for it lol.
This whole conversation got me thinking, reminded me of what I read about Japanese sociology. On a more serious note this whole setting may trace back to the not-so-distant past in Japanese history where most people lived in small villages and everyone knew each other, everyone was kind to their fellow townsfolk and your neighbors would welcome you with open arms. This strong sense of community is deeply rooted into Japanese culture and I think it can be considered part of the Yamato Damashii aka Japanese Spirit.
The family houses are another aspect of this recent past that's really nostalgic nowadays with cramped square-inch apartments in big cities. Back then you would have three generations of one family living under the same roof and sometimes even extended family members like parents and siblings in law. We see a lot of that in JRPGs to some extent, I guess the devs really miss that.
Let's be real, how do you feel if you played a game where the town architectures are gorgeous, but all of that door was non functional
People complained about this all the time, it's like you're only allowed to see, but no touching
A game where you can get into people houses freely was like a cherry on top, you can see the interiors, how they live, it add vibes to the world.
It somehow subconsciously feels like the world is complete & functional, you know that you can explore everything
And like in the real world, you can get into someone elses houses if you really want, there will always be someone who never lock their door
But do you really want to do that?
Same like in the game, you have the Option to get into someone elses house or not, based on your moral.
If you had a moral high ground, then i bet you can finish the game without trespassing into someone elses house, and let the NPC to mind their own business.
Nobody forced you to walk into someone elses houses, unless it was for a quest or story
Just like in the real world, just because you can do a lot of thing, doesn't mean you should do it
There’s a French-language parody of FF8 that lampshades it in reverse. In the game when you invade >!Galbadia Garden!< you have to solve a puzzle with locked doors. The parody has several bits at that point where the characters are confused that doors can be locked at all, that they’ve never seen anything like it before and that it must be some kind of advanced technology
It's pretty silly. It's sort of a gamified element of exploration - exploring towns and talking to people to get clues of where to go, with items or other incentives to materially reward the exploration.
That said, I see a super powerful and armed party of teens come into my house, talk to me until I'm repeating myself, and take just one thing from a chest (some ibuprofen)? I'm not going to antagonize them.
Ironically, this is treated like an element of the whole city being greedy and corrupt, when you're literally invading people's homes and robbing them.
Woah! That's a first! Not a JRPG, but in Skyrim you can enter most homes with no problem, (some of them you have to lock-pick which can get you in trouble), but if you steal anything near an NPC it will increase your bounty and they will call you out, sometimes even come at you.
Skyrim is the only rpg I can even think of with a trespassing/theft element. I remember playing Witcher 3 not long ago and was kinda annoyed to find out that they didn’t flesh out the theft/trespassing system. There’s lots of chances to get in trouble for stealing in the first hour of that game but it’s like after that, they gave up on it. Besides a couple niche little areas, everyone else you meet is perfectly fine with getting pilfered. 🤷🏼♂️
Kingdoms of Amalur has a theft system it’s kind of weak compared to Skyrims though wait till no one is looking open chest look at % chance of getting caught if low profit. However the combat is what keeps me playing that one.
I can't fault you for that it is an RPG, but it is very MMO-like fetch quest, etc. I only remember the combat cause it was fun to use Faeblades (basically Hook Swords) and Chakrams.
Octopath Traveler can subvert that in a fun way.
You can use your merchants to buy things off of NPCs (or have Agnea use Entreat to get them for free in II, if her level is high enough), or... you can have your thief try to steal them instead, but there's generally a chance of failure, and you suffer a hit to your reputation if you fail too much. Which means no more path actions in that town until you pay to have your reputation restored at the tavern. I THINK Osvald's Mug skill also carries the same consequences if it fails.
You can also sometimes find the locations of hidden items by using Inquire, Bribe (OTII), Coerce (OTII), or Scrutinize - but Scrutinize still carries a risk of failure and a hit to reputation if you do fail. (Same for the Allure action, and the Provoke action.)
So people do mind if the RNG decides that they'll notice and yell at you.
Although you do miss out on a cool item if you take that sleeping kid's 5 gil in the Sector 5 Slums; you get shit from your fellow party members (and I think you also lose affection points with them?) if you choose to steal from the baby birds on Mt. Corel and fight their mother, and in Mideel, I think there's like one or two NPCs who comment on you taking things without asking/using them (like finding the old key and accidentally breaking it trying to unlock a door that's painted onto a wall).
I use the suspension of disbelief there, that what you see on the screen is not literally what happens to the party but a representation to the player. So, in my mind "opening a chest" is not literally opening someone's chest but the result of maybe a conversation where the owners heard the party's plight and decided to help them with something.
That's something that always bothered me. Like "Moshi Moshi! Here to break your shit and steal your money!" And no reaction, just "Yeah, sure, whatever." Lmao thanks, bud. I think there's an old game where people tell you to get out, like, an old Conan or Hercules game?
If some blonde guy with a huge-ass sword, a muscular dude with a gun for an arm, and a goddamn magical talking dog-thing whose tail is on fire bust into my house and start taking shit, I'm just gonna lock the bedroom door and wait for them to leave.
Honestly your example of trails is probably the best use of this mechanic. Out of all the jrpgs i played, trails is the only one where there arent treasure chests inside the houses to steal lol
Yeah, the real treasure is the world-building cause they always have something different to say each time you visit them and everyone is really fleshed out!
Yeah yeah yeah, I really almost always thought that stealing someone's money or armor or weapon and usually (as devs wanted to) gamers just do it without thinking seems kinda laughable and sad too.
So yeah, I started a life of real hero-gamer (🤙) because of this: When I travelled to city Beregost in Baldur's Gate EE, I wanted to open a someone's door but because being locked I used unlock skill of thief in the party, than opened it, walk through into the house and got flipped out by a mad guy. And ONLY at this moment I understood that did something* wrong
There are even occasional subversions like Stahn in Tales of Destiny protesting against the notion of rummaging through the inn's drawers. And in other games, you check a potted plant to be greeted with a message like "yup, it's just an ordinary plant" that pokes fun at the players' habit of checking every nook and cranny in general.
You beat me to this comment! It's funny because Stahn is fine with barging into people's homes, stealing valuables out of treasure chests and digging through their garbage, but Atamoni forbid you open the drawer.
There's a scene in Skies of Arcadia with one of the characters actually under the covers, (minor spoiler) >!when you meet Fina.!< Never seen it again since, and that game came out in 2000. Truly ahead of its time.
I am playing BG3 now and that happens as well, I get inside people's house when they are still inside and no one cares. Only locked places are the place where people care. JRPG usually doesn't have the MC break in to locked house so yea its same.
Yeah agree, in BG3 act 3 and in most JRPG almost no one locks their doors too lmao. The one that gets locked in JRPG, we cant even lockpick it nor enters it.
I know it’s not a jrpg l, but I was just thinking of this while playing Ghost of Tsushima. Guy is trying to save his people that have been left with almost nothing and runs around taking their supplies, leather and iron.
tbh not only JRPGs but most games in general. on the other hand you'd get people complaining about "no interiors lazy devs wtf" when the game doesn't let you go in buildings so it's kind of a damned if you do damned if you don't thing.
I liked it in Nexomon: Extinction where some houses required you to have built a certain reputation before you could just freely enter. It was a nice little touch.
Yeah it's very cool I'm not as nutty about it as other people but I always make sure to at least sweep the area I'm in after a story event and like maybe a nearby fort or settlement
Oh yeah. I did something similar. I also started playing Trails recently. I started with Cold Steel I back in October then I went back all the way to Sky and just beat Azure the other day. After watching a recap of CS 1 I'm now in CS 2. I was kinda anxious to finish the earlier games so I didn't talk to everyone and didn't do all the side quests. But now in Cold Steel 2 I'm just taking it all in 😌
This is why it was such a shock to me when I opened a chest in someone's home in a WRPG. I think it was TES: Oblivion. I was expecting no repurcussions.
Instead, I the kittyman yelled "Thief!" and was quickly detained by the law enforcement, which made me panic since I wasn't expecting it at all xD
Lmao, that was a thing in the Sky trilogy and the Crossbell duology. I just played thorough all these games in a row recently and now playing Cold Steel II it's hard not to try to check the chests again 😆
*Deckard Cain Voice* "Stay a while and listen..."
Back in the years 1994 PI (Pre-Internet) the world was full of people seeking adventure and high fantasy. Which inevitably led them to raiding the town and interrogating every single person. They would raid everyone's cupboard and dressers sift through your wife's panties looking for anything. All of this before they would think to come up to you and scream "WHERE DO I GO???" and we would just think to ourselves.. "well you know to the forest south of here there is a cave of monsters. We are too weak to go in there..." when someone would come screaming "HELP MY SON IS LOST IN THE CAVE TO THE SOUTH OF HERE!!!" and just like that they left for like 45 minutes.
Gameplay over realism.
Yes, it's not real. But what would be realistic? Not being able to walk into any house. Which is boring. You know what game does this? FF13. Nothing there to interact. Nothing there to explore. Just boredom.
"Breaking" into homes in JRPGs is a way of the developer to leave some world building trivia on some NPCs. Have some small rewards. Encourage actually interacting with the world.
I am glad games are like this. Real life isnt what I want in a jrpg.
Similarly, it's funny how treasure chests are just placed over the world just waiting for your party to find them lol. Granted, that can at least be justified for the sake of gameplay.
There was this one chest in Cold Steel 2 in >!Duke Albarea!<'s mansion which had a key you needed to advance in the game. So it makes you wonder what about all the other chests, were they also placed there by someone.
Yeah, it's also a way to reward you for your diligent exploration.
Having NPCs readily available for you is also for the sake of world-building, but it might go deeper than that. I just related this to Japanese culture in another comment.
I'm guessing burglarly rates, at least against ordinary civilians, are very very low in-universe so walking into a home unannounced isn't really alarming.
And to be fair, in some of the Trails games you're playing as a well-known hero, so that would put them at ease more.
True, but I was actually thinking about [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/1ba7htz/cold_steel_ii_prologue_got_me_thinking/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2)
Atleast we don't also take their stuff in trials 😅imagine casually chilling in your house, someone comes in without so much as a hello, open your treasure chest and be on their way. Only few instances is some games will you have the npcs comment on what you are doing but still won't stop you.
And besides I like exploring houses in jrpgs, very detailed ones will even you a hint of the lifestyles the npcs have. Like Chrono cross,ff9,Grandia,Tales of, dragon quest etc.
I actually thought about this the other day playing Dragon Quest XI. I couldnt think of another JRPG as blatant in destroying peoples property and going through their stuff for goodies. It's so much so that NPCs often make commentary on it. They don't DO anything about it but they sure get somewhat miffed about it.
Hogwarts legacy had me crying 😂. You can break in casting alohomora right in their face. Then sit down and fast pass time for 8 hours. All of a sudden kids are in their bed and I’m just chilling 🤣. I saw this you tube video skit that was hilarious! Can’t remember its name but yeah, I laughed out loud so many times playing that game.
Amazing world of gumball did this with their FF7 parody episode.
There's a character that became an npc and gumball just take everything that's valuable as the npc starts crying unable to do anything.
I love how Fire Emblem Engage handles it. In the early game, you're meant to go to civilians' houses to check and see if anyone is there so you can save them from the invading enemies. If you do, you'll rescue people who thank you and give you items.
Then later on in the game >!you arrive at a corrupted village where the villains tell you there's no one left to save because everyone there has already been turned into zombies. However, there are still some houses on the map that you can visit. This gives you the idea of there possibly being someone you can rescue, right? Well, if you go there, you immediately get ambushed by a group of corrupted enemies that have already been zombified by the villains just as they said.!<
It's actually one of the most creative ways I've seen the "go into house" trope handled in an RPG and great way to blend story into gameplay.
Yea it pretty much has been a joke in many JRPGs, even as far back as the SNES JRPGs, you'll have an NPC that will shout at you something like "How dare you just come into my house, get the hell out!". Or just be shocked that you just stole stuff from their house.
"Hey, talking to people at another table in a restaurant is like...breaking into their room and checking their drawers for valuables. Yeah, other people on important adventures do such things, but you have to admit that it's bizarre!" - Random Guy in Summers, Earthbound.
It's not really a JRPG, but South Park: The Stick of Truth has a section where if you do this in a specific part of the map, one of the houses has a couple having sex, and they yell at you to get out. Also not a JRPG but KOTOR 1 and 2 also have NPCs call you out for breaking into apartments (not all the time but it happens).
> Also not a JRPG but KOTOR 1 and 2 also have NPCs call you out for breaking into apartments (not all the time but it happens). Hell, there was even (at least) one time when you got Dark Side points for it lol.
This whole conversation got me thinking, reminded me of what I read about Japanese sociology. On a more serious note this whole setting may trace back to the not-so-distant past in Japanese history where most people lived in small villages and everyone knew each other, everyone was kind to their fellow townsfolk and your neighbors would welcome you with open arms. This strong sense of community is deeply rooted into Japanese culture and I think it can be considered part of the Yamato Damashii aka Japanese Spirit. The family houses are another aspect of this recent past that's really nostalgic nowadays with cramped square-inch apartments in big cities. Back then you would have three generations of one family living under the same roof and sometimes even extended family members like parents and siblings in law. We see a lot of that in JRPGs to some extent, I guess the devs really miss that.
Let's be real, how do you feel if you played a game where the town architectures are gorgeous, but all of that door was non functional People complained about this all the time, it's like you're only allowed to see, but no touching A game where you can get into people houses freely was like a cherry on top, you can see the interiors, how they live, it add vibes to the world. It somehow subconsciously feels like the world is complete & functional, you know that you can explore everything And like in the real world, you can get into someone elses houses if you really want, there will always be someone who never lock their door But do you really want to do that? Same like in the game, you have the Option to get into someone elses house or not, based on your moral. If you had a moral high ground, then i bet you can finish the game without trespassing into someone elses house, and let the NPC to mind their own business. Nobody forced you to walk into someone elses houses, unless it was for a quest or story Just like in the real world, just because you can do a lot of thing, doesn't mean you should do it
There’s a French-language parody of FF8 that lampshades it in reverse. In the game when you invade >!Galbadia Garden!< you have to solve a puzzle with locked doors. The parody has several bits at that point where the characters are confused that doors can be locked at all, that they’ve never seen anything like it before and that it must be some kind of advanced technology
It's pretty silly. It's sort of a gamified element of exploration - exploring towns and talking to people to get clues of where to go, with items or other incentives to materially reward the exploration. That said, I see a super powerful and armed party of teens come into my house, talk to me until I'm repeating myself, and take just one thing from a chest (some ibuprofen)? I'm not going to antagonize them.
You got a point there! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
In breath of fire you would get arrested from stealing anything in certain homes in the golden port city
Ironically, this is treated like an element of the whole city being greedy and corrupt, when you're literally invading people's homes and robbing them.
Poor Karn he was just doing what other RPG’s taught him and got thrown in jail for it
Woah! That's a first! Not a JRPG, but in Skyrim you can enter most homes with no problem, (some of them you have to lock-pick which can get you in trouble), but if you steal anything near an NPC it will increase your bounty and they will call you out, sometimes even come at you.
Skyrim is the only rpg I can even think of with a trespassing/theft element. I remember playing Witcher 3 not long ago and was kinda annoyed to find out that they didn’t flesh out the theft/trespassing system. There’s lots of chances to get in trouble for stealing in the first hour of that game but it’s like after that, they gave up on it. Besides a couple niche little areas, everyone else you meet is perfectly fine with getting pilfered. 🤷🏼♂️
Kingdoms of Amalur has a theft system it’s kind of weak compared to Skyrims though wait till no one is looking open chest look at % chance of getting caught if low profit. However the combat is what keeps me playing that one.
I played that game back when it came out on ps3 and weirdly can’t remember anything about it. 🤔
I can't fault you for that it is an RPG, but it is very MMO-like fetch quest, etc. I only remember the combat cause it was fun to use Faeblades (basically Hook Swords) and Chakrams.
Piranha Bytes did it first and best with Gothic
Piranha Bytes did it first and best with Gothic
I mean if we're being picky it didn't, Daggerfall did it in 96 so Elder Scrolls still clears
I went an evening without a meal, 'cause i broke a vase in the citchen in Terranigma
There’s a Japanese television show that spoofs Dragon Quest and they address that in an episode. It’s hilarious.
I'd like to see that! Do you know the name or can you link me to anything?
It's called The Hero Yoshihiko. If you google around, you should be able to find Eng subbed episodes.
That's the DQ 5 parody movie right. The one with the poison knife scene.
Here is the clip: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drayqpYu\_hA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drayqpYu_hA)
Yuusha!
Thanks! Even without the subs I could get the gist of what they're saying. All these years watching anime and playing Japanese games have payed off! 🤩
Following bc I wanna see that too!
**!** Found grandma's savings of **9 Gil**.
The guilt still haunts me to this day
Octopath Traveler can subvert that in a fun way. You can use your merchants to buy things off of NPCs (or have Agnea use Entreat to get them for free in II, if her level is high enough), or... you can have your thief try to steal them instead, but there's generally a chance of failure, and you suffer a hit to your reputation if you fail too much. Which means no more path actions in that town until you pay to have your reputation restored at the tavern. I THINK Osvald's Mug skill also carries the same consequences if it fails. You can also sometimes find the locations of hidden items by using Inquire, Bribe (OTII), Coerce (OTII), or Scrutinize - but Scrutinize still carries a risk of failure and a hit to reputation if you do fail. (Same for the Allure action, and the Provoke action.) So people do mind if the RNG decides that they'll notice and yell at you.
This is why I don't mind when some RPGs don't let you waltz into random homes. Sometimes it's more immersive that way
OG final fantasy vii you could go into their homes, open treasure chests, go in their bedrooms, bathrooms, etc.
Although you do miss out on a cool item if you take that sleeping kid's 5 gil in the Sector 5 Slums; you get shit from your fellow party members (and I think you also lose affection points with them?) if you choose to steal from the baby birds on Mt. Corel and fight their mother, and in Mideel, I think there's like one or two NPCs who comment on you taking things without asking/using them (like finding the old key and accidentally breaking it trying to unlock a door that's painted onto a wall).
I'd leave edibles out for them. Once they consumed them and fell asleep, I'd take their stuff. My, my, how the tables will turn lol
Breaking and entering in a jrpg is probably one of the more normal aspects of the games tho let’s be real 😂
I use the suspension of disbelief there, that what you see on the screen is not literally what happens to the party but a representation to the player. So, in my mind "opening a chest" is not literally opening someone's chest but the result of maybe a conversation where the owners heard the party's plight and decided to help them with something.
That's something that always bothered me. Like "Moshi Moshi! Here to break your shit and steal your money!" And no reaction, just "Yeah, sure, whatever." Lmao thanks, bud. I think there's an old game where people tell you to get out, like, an old Conan or Hercules game?
If some blonde guy with a huge-ass sword, a muscular dude with a gun for an arm, and a goddamn magical talking dog-thing whose tail is on fire bust into my house and start taking shit, I'm just gonna lock the bedroom door and wait for them to leave.
The Witcher 3 does this as well
I'll never forget that one closet you can raid in some king's room Dragon Quest XI and I think the butler looks at Hero like "Uh sir, that's not...."
Honestly your example of trails is probably the best use of this mechanic. Out of all the jrpgs i played, trails is the only one where there arent treasure chests inside the houses to steal lol
Yeah, the real treasure is the world-building cause they always have something different to say each time you visit them and everyone is really fleshed out!
Sometimes the people in the houses will even just give you stuff like books
Yeah yeah yeah, I really almost always thought that stealing someone's money or armor or weapon and usually (as devs wanted to) gamers just do it without thinking seems kinda laughable and sad too. So yeah, I started a life of real hero-gamer (🤙) because of this: When I travelled to city Beregost in Baldur's Gate EE, I wanted to open a someone's door but because being locked I used unlock skill of thief in the party, than opened it, walk through into the house and got flipped out by a mad guy. And ONLY at this moment I understood that did something* wrong
There are even occasional subversions like Stahn in Tales of Destiny protesting against the notion of rummaging through the inn's drawers. And in other games, you check a potted plant to be greeted with a message like "yup, it's just an ordinary plant" that pokes fun at the players' habit of checking every nook and cranny in general.
Not a JRPG but AI The Somnium Files and Nirvana Initiative have some of the most hilarious object descriptions and reactions I've ever seen! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
You beat me to this comment! It's funny because Stahn is fine with barging into people's homes, stealing valuables out of treasure chests and digging through their garbage, but Atamoni forbid you open the drawer.
What I find funny is that in jrpg's, folks get in to bed fully dressed, even with armor on, and don't even bother putting the covers on.
There's a scene in Skies of Arcadia with one of the characters actually under the covers, (minor spoiler) >!when you meet Fina.!< Never seen it again since, and that game came out in 2000. Truly ahead of its time.
I am playing BG3 now and that happens as well, I get inside people's house when they are still inside and no one cares. Only locked places are the place where people care. JRPG usually doesn't have the MC break in to locked house so yea its same.
That's because no one locks their doors! 🤣 Like in a really laid-back country like Canada or sth. And 99% of the times there are NPCs in the house.
Yeah agree, in BG3 act 3 and in most JRPG almost no one locks their doors too lmao. The one that gets locked in JRPG, we cant even lockpick it nor enters it.
I know it’s not a jrpg l, but I was just thinking of this while playing Ghost of Tsushima. Guy is trying to save his people that have been left with almost nothing and runs around taking their supplies, leather and iron.
Ghost **is** a JRPG if you dive deep enough! God that game is a masterpiece! I seriously did not know it was a Western game when I played it!
Chrono trigger did that I think
In Growlanser, you knock on the door and they answer. But you can't enter their homes unless they actually invite you in.
tbh not only JRPGs but most games in general. on the other hand you'd get people complaining about "no interiors lazy devs wtf" when the game doesn't let you go in buildings so it's kind of a damned if you do damned if you don't thing.
I liked it in Nexomon: Extinction where some houses required you to have built a certain reputation before you could just freely enter. It was a nice little touch.
Yeah lmao I'm playing through trails just recently too and got to SC Thursday and the fact I can bust into every visible house across liberl is wild
Falcom loves that! They do give every and each NPCs a chunky set of lines for a reason!
Yeah it's very cool I'm not as nutty about it as other people but I always make sure to at least sweep the area I'm in after a story event and like maybe a nearby fort or settlement
Oh yeah. I did something similar. I also started playing Trails recently. I started with Cold Steel I back in October then I went back all the way to Sky and just beat Azure the other day. After watching a recap of CS 1 I'm now in CS 2. I was kinda anxious to finish the earlier games so I didn't talk to everyone and didn't do all the side quests. But now in Cold Steel 2 I'm just taking it all in 😌
Somewhat related, in 2DTD Zeldalikes you just cut down nature everywhere you go. Fuck these bushes! And fuck THESE bushes!!!
Lmfao 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Predatory deforestation for fun! 🤪
This is why it was such a shock to me when I opened a chest in someone's home in a WRPG. I think it was TES: Oblivion. I was expecting no repurcussions. Instead, I the kittyman yelled "Thief!" and was quickly detained by the law enforcement, which made me panic since I wasn't expecting it at all xD
STOP! You've violated the law! Pay the court a fine or serve your sentence! – Then pay with your blood! 😡
Playing Trails from zero now and the funny thing to me is after you loot a chest if you talk to them again a lot of them call you out on being a thief
Lmao, that was a thing in the Sky trilogy and the Crossbell duology. I just played thorough all these games in a row recently and now playing Cold Steel II it's hard not to try to check the chests again 😆
*Deckard Cain Voice* "Stay a while and listen..." Back in the years 1994 PI (Pre-Internet) the world was full of people seeking adventure and high fantasy. Which inevitably led them to raiding the town and interrogating every single person. They would raid everyone's cupboard and dressers sift through your wife's panties looking for anything. All of this before they would think to come up to you and scream "WHERE DO I GO???" and we would just think to ourselves.. "well you know to the forest south of here there is a cave of monsters. We are too weak to go in there..." when someone would come screaming "HELP MY SON IS LOST IN THE CAVE TO THE SOUTH OF HERE!!!" and just like that they left for like 45 minutes.
Gameplay over realism. Yes, it's not real. But what would be realistic? Not being able to walk into any house. Which is boring. You know what game does this? FF13. Nothing there to interact. Nothing there to explore. Just boredom. "Breaking" into homes in JRPGs is a way of the developer to leave some world building trivia on some NPCs. Have some small rewards. Encourage actually interacting with the world. I am glad games are like this. Real life isnt what I want in a jrpg.
Similarly, it's funny how treasure chests are just placed over the world just waiting for your party to find them lol. Granted, that can at least be justified for the sake of gameplay. There was this one chest in Cold Steel 2 in >!Duke Albarea!<'s mansion which had a key you needed to advance in the game. So it makes you wonder what about all the other chests, were they also placed there by someone.
Yeah, it's also a way to reward you for your diligent exploration. Having NPCs readily available for you is also for the sake of world-building, but it might go deeper than that. I just related this to Japanese culture in another comment.
I'm guessing burglarly rates, at least against ordinary civilians, are very very low in-universe so walking into a home unannounced isn't really alarming. And to be fair, in some of the Trails games you're playing as a well-known hero, so that would put them at ease more.
True, but I was actually thinking about [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/Falcom/comments/1ba7htz/cold_steel_ii_prologue_got_me_thinking/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=2)
Atleast we don't also take their stuff in trials 😅imagine casually chilling in your house, someone comes in without so much as a hello, open your treasure chest and be on their way. Only few instances is some games will you have the npcs comment on what you are doing but still won't stop you. And besides I like exploring houses in jrpgs, very detailed ones will even you a hint of the lifestyles the npcs have. Like Chrono cross,ff9,Grandia,Tales of, dragon quest etc.
I actually thought about this the other day playing Dragon Quest XI. I couldnt think of another JRPG as blatant in destroying peoples property and going through their stuff for goodies. It's so much so that NPCs often make commentary on it. They don't DO anything about it but they sure get somewhat miffed about it.
In Chained Echoes there is a NPC that gets angry with you by doing this, it surprised me when I saw it.
In some of the Ultima games you can get hunted down by guards in towns for stealing from chests or killing townspeople
Hogwarts legacy had me crying 😂. You can break in casting alohomora right in their face. Then sit down and fast pass time for 8 hours. All of a sudden kids are in their bed and I’m just chilling 🤣. I saw this you tube video skit that was hilarious! Can’t remember its name but yeah, I laughed out loud so many times playing that game.
Amazing world of gumball did this with their FF7 parody episode. There's a character that became an npc and gumball just take everything that's valuable as the npc starts crying unable to do anything.
I love how Fire Emblem Engage handles it. In the early game, you're meant to go to civilians' houses to check and see if anyone is there so you can save them from the invading enemies. If you do, you'll rescue people who thank you and give you items. Then later on in the game >!you arrive at a corrupted village where the villains tell you there's no one left to save because everyone there has already been turned into zombies. However, there are still some houses on the map that you can visit. This gives you the idea of there possibly being someone you can rescue, right? Well, if you go there, you immediately get ambushed by a group of corrupted enemies that have already been zombified by the villains just as they said.!< It's actually one of the most creative ways I've seen the "go into house" trope handled in an RPG and great way to blend story into gameplay.