finalark
SNORLAX
Link to original post: [drupal=4119]Why my love for JRPGs has diminished[/drupal]
I used to adore JRPGs, I grew up playing them on my PlayStation as a kid and played them to death on my GBA when I had the chance. When I was younger, I got a hold of as many JRPGs as a could and beat them all (or at least got as far as I could before I got bored). But lately I’ve noticed that they aren’t what they used to be to me. And I don’t mean the genre’s recent decline as a whole, I mean that they don’t mean what they once meant to me. And I believe this can be traced back to the day I got a game by the name of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
I was always a console gamer. My parents never needed a computer for anything more than doing taxes and such so it wasn’t particularly powerful meaning that we rarely had any games on it. So I grew up playing my games on consoles, mostly with my older cousin who we often visited. I was through him that I was introduced to RPGs a whole thanks to Final Fantasy on the PS1 and a game that I would later learn was Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall on the PC. It was through him that I played numerous NES, SNES and N64 in addition to a few Game Boy games on his GBC (including Pokemon Red and Gold). However, it eventually came time for him to head off to collage and as parting gifts he gave me Final Fantasy Origins (containing FFI and II), Final Fantasy Chronicles (Chrono Trigger and FFIV) and Final Fantasy IX. I played and loves these games to death on my own PS1 which I got for Christmas a year or so prior. These games where like nothing I had ever seen before at that time. They had massive worlds that sucked me in as I almost felt like I was their alongside the characters. I didn’t boot up my PlayStation to play games, I did it to go on an adventure.
My adventures in JRPGs didn’t stop there, though. I got a GBA for Christmas in 2002 or so. Even though I had a Game Cube, which severally lacked in good JRPGs (TALES OF SYMPHONIA IS BLAND, GENERIC AND FORGETTABLE), the GBA thankfully let me continue playing. It was on the GBA that I played Breathe of Fire, Golden Sun, Sword of Manna and numerous other JRPGs. I loved them all (except for Riviera, that game sucks) and they still bring some great memories.
But then my parents decided that it was time for a new computer, so they went out and bought one. This new computer, while not mind-blowing awesome, was enough to run a good number of games. I bought Starcraft and one or two more games for it over the course of the year. But then I got Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for my birthday. It was absolutely mind-blowing, an RPG where I can go and explore. It was an RPG where I wasn’t restricted to the storyline, I could go anywhere, talk to anybody, and do whatever I wanted. For once I actually felt like I was my character, this was something absolutely new to me. The idea of an RPG where I wasn’t restricted to a linear storyline and a pre-made protagonist with a personality set in stone. At the time I had a friend who was pretty into PC gaming, RPGs in particular, who gave me several suggestions. Among these games he suggested that I ended up borrow or buying were Never Winter Nights (which actually got me into Dungeons and Dragons) and Knights of the Old Republic. All of these games immersed me into their world and did exactly what JRPGs once did for me only ten times better.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like JRPGs. I enjoy their dungeon crawling, their approach to character customization, their foreign worlds and sometimes (well, closer to rarely) even their stories and characters (when they’re not trying to shove a million anime clichés down your throat). But at the same time I also love western RPGs, perhaps a little more, for what they do. They draw me into their worlds and stories and make me care about the characters. They let me be myself in fantastic scenarios the truly feels like escapism. I love their game play, their diverse character customization and everything that makes them what they are.
tl;dr: I used to love JRPGs to death then I played Morrowind now I don’t like them as much as I used to.
I used to adore JRPGs, I grew up playing them on my PlayStation as a kid and played them to death on my GBA when I had the chance. When I was younger, I got a hold of as many JRPGs as a could and beat them all (or at least got as far as I could before I got bored). But lately I’ve noticed that they aren’t what they used to be to me. And I don’t mean the genre’s recent decline as a whole, I mean that they don’t mean what they once meant to me. And I believe this can be traced back to the day I got a game by the name of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind.
I was always a console gamer. My parents never needed a computer for anything more than doing taxes and such so it wasn’t particularly powerful meaning that we rarely had any games on it. So I grew up playing my games on consoles, mostly with my older cousin who we often visited. I was through him that I was introduced to RPGs a whole thanks to Final Fantasy on the PS1 and a game that I would later learn was Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall on the PC. It was through him that I played numerous NES, SNES and N64 in addition to a few Game Boy games on his GBC (including Pokemon Red and Gold). However, it eventually came time for him to head off to collage and as parting gifts he gave me Final Fantasy Origins (containing FFI and II), Final Fantasy Chronicles (Chrono Trigger and FFIV) and Final Fantasy IX. I played and loves these games to death on my own PS1 which I got for Christmas a year or so prior. These games where like nothing I had ever seen before at that time. They had massive worlds that sucked me in as I almost felt like I was their alongside the characters. I didn’t boot up my PlayStation to play games, I did it to go on an adventure.
My adventures in JRPGs didn’t stop there, though. I got a GBA for Christmas in 2002 or so. Even though I had a Game Cube, which severally lacked in good JRPGs (TALES OF SYMPHONIA IS BLAND, GENERIC AND FORGETTABLE), the GBA thankfully let me continue playing. It was on the GBA that I played Breathe of Fire, Golden Sun, Sword of Manna and numerous other JRPGs. I loved them all (except for Riviera, that game sucks) and they still bring some great memories.
But then my parents decided that it was time for a new computer, so they went out and bought one. This new computer, while not mind-blowing awesome, was enough to run a good number of games. I bought Starcraft and one or two more games for it over the course of the year. But then I got Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind for my birthday. It was absolutely mind-blowing, an RPG where I can go and explore. It was an RPG where I wasn’t restricted to the storyline, I could go anywhere, talk to anybody, and do whatever I wanted. For once I actually felt like I was my character, this was something absolutely new to me. The idea of an RPG where I wasn’t restricted to a linear storyline and a pre-made protagonist with a personality set in stone. At the time I had a friend who was pretty into PC gaming, RPGs in particular, who gave me several suggestions. Among these games he suggested that I ended up borrow or buying were Never Winter Nights (which actually got me into Dungeons and Dragons) and Knights of the Old Republic. All of these games immersed me into their world and did exactly what JRPGs once did for me only ten times better.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like JRPGs. I enjoy their dungeon crawling, their approach to character customization, their foreign worlds and sometimes (well, closer to rarely) even their stories and characters (when they’re not trying to shove a million anime clichés down your throat). But at the same time I also love western RPGs, perhaps a little more, for what they do. They draw me into their worlds and stories and make me care about the characters. They let me be myself in fantastic scenarios the truly feels like escapism. I love their game play, their diverse character customization and everything that makes them what they are.
tl;dr: I used to love JRPGs to death then I played Morrowind now I don’t like them as much as I used to.
