Himuro
Member
So.
This doesn't mean anything to anyone here probably but I decided to abandon the video game genre of my youth: the RPG. Jrpg, wrpg. Didn't matter. I loved the genre although my preference was the jrpg because of its emphasis on mechanics. I love dungeon crawlers and deep mechanical games and unfortunately they're just not made anymore. Experimental games like Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter, Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2, Dark Cloud, Persona 3 even Suikoden games provided a ton of variety within the genre. In between you had games like Xenogears, Grandia, Earthbound. If you wanted to go with theatrics you could play the 3d Final Fantasy games. If you wanted adventure Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger. Horror Shin Megami Tensei. If you wanted something strategy oriented you could go with Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre. There was so much room for so many takes. I love turn based combat but action was an option too if you enjoyed things like Terranigma, Ys, side scroller RPGs like Faxanadu, Zelda II, or Wonder Boy in Monster World.
I haven't even touched on wrpgs. Fallout and Baldur's Gate and KOTOR and Vampire: Bloodlines and fuck yes.
I mention all of this because I went to Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy the other evening. It was okay but the biggest thing is that it made me feel old.
Aside from FFXII, I haven't enjoyed an FF truly since FFX which came out in 2001. I saw the FFXVI trailer the other week and it doesn't even look like Final Fantasy. It looks like a Devil May Cry clone. For nearly twenty years I've waited and I just can't wait any longer. I felt like my time at the concert was a nice bookend for my love for the genre and that it's perfectly acceptable to move on.
Long story short, I feel I waste my time with the genre now. Either they're too fucking long or too fucking casualized.
The RPG genre seems to be complete regression.
I was really taken aback when people praised Witcher 3 as being the best RPG and when I played it had the RPG depth of a baby in one of those plastic ring kiddie pools. The RPG depth in Witcher 3 is so paltry it makes Mass Effect look like Baldur's Gate.
And that's a part of the problem. What even is an RPG anymore? Because when games like God of War have equipment and loot and skill trees, what's the difference to the casual observer? Too many ascribe an RPG with like, picking up loot or branching storylines instead of the mechanics. Like the mechanics of choice. When you start Fallout you get a choice of picking your characters attributes through SPECIAL. That's a choice. When you build a party in Final Fantasy V out of a myriad of jobs. That's a choice. But too often now they've made the choices redundant and are more about the things almost every genre has now. The RPG genre has become so neutered and so picked apart it barely stands on its own anymore.
More and more games restrict the player in a genre that used to be about full freedom. RPGs these days are often glorified Visual Novels and Choose Your Own Adventure games. Games like Dragon Quest are now less about the adventure and more about the cutscenes. Today's RPG developers really, really, REALLY want you to enjoy their stories to the point where they jam pack every scene with as much unnecessary padded bullshit as possible.
A game where you truly control every element like Elden Ring is rare.
I keep getting facebook ads for Soul Hackers 2 and my heart gets smaller every time I see it. Gone is the grit of the original and replaced with placid anime twink bullshit. Is it even still a dungeon crawler? I don't want to find out the answer to that question. Yet when I do sink my teeth into an RPG it's often the last thing I want to do now because of how long they take to get started or how much content there is. I've seen the trailers to Starfield and it looks excellent but I'm also aware I won't have the time nor inclination to dive into a game like that now that I'm in my 30's. It's like RPGs are now a mix between being so neutered they barely resemble the genre or they're for people that don't have a life and you have to play 200-300 hours to beat it. There's no balance.
So as it is, I decided to not bother with new RPGs after leaving Distant Worlds. Not with my time nor money.
Yet somehow FPS games are saving my interest in the hobby. I've been going through the Halo games for the first time and they're riveting fun romps. They don't require too much dedication. I can pop in, pop out and beat the games fast and move on to the next difficulty. What's even more striking to me is the variety in the genre. You've got the campaign oriented romps like Wolfenstein and Doom and Titanfall, but also the multiplayer games like Rainbow Six, Counter Strike, Valorant, Team Fortress, Destiny, and Overwatch . Then there's the hybrid games like Halo titles. Even still, the variety reminds me of my RPGs of old. If you just want pedal to the metal action you can play Doom or Bullet Storm. But if you want resource management and every bullet counts style you have Metro and Stalker. If you want RPG elements and loot you can play Borderlands games. Want puzzle games? Portal and other games come to the rescue. There's so much variety and experimentation going on here from Half Life Alyx to shit like Midnight Ghost Hunt.
I don't know. These games make me excited to play games again. For so long I waited for RPGs to love me back the way I loved them and they just continued to spit in my face. Why invest in a genre that doesn't want you but wants the money people that don't even like you and want you to change as much as possible. If RPGs don't want to be RPGs anymore then why should I continue to buy them? Why not just embrace a genre that's clearly proud of its lineage and doesn't have to sacrifice itself to make ends meet?
The old RPG genre isn't coming back. We still have those old games and that's fine. I've accepted it and decided to move on. Anyone else feel that way? While making this thread I noticed
samoilaaa
made a thread that's kind of adjacent to what I'm talking about here.
My favorite part is that because FPS was for the most part a genre I neglected I get to experience nearly 20 years of FPS games fresh while also appreciating the modern games. I've been going through Halo 2 and it's a blast. As of now, shocking as it is to say, I will not be buying FFXVI. But I'll definitely get the next Halo.
This doesn't mean anything to anyone here probably but I decided to abandon the video game genre of my youth: the RPG. Jrpg, wrpg. Didn't matter. I loved the genre although my preference was the jrpg because of its emphasis on mechanics. I love dungeon crawlers and deep mechanical games and unfortunately they're just not made anymore. Experimental games like Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter, Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2, Dark Cloud, Persona 3 even Suikoden games provided a ton of variety within the genre. In between you had games like Xenogears, Grandia, Earthbound. If you wanted to go with theatrics you could play the 3d Final Fantasy games. If you wanted adventure Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger. Horror Shin Megami Tensei. If you wanted something strategy oriented you could go with Final Fantasy Tactics or Tactics Ogre. There was so much room for so many takes. I love turn based combat but action was an option too if you enjoyed things like Terranigma, Ys, side scroller RPGs like Faxanadu, Zelda II, or Wonder Boy in Monster World.
I haven't even touched on wrpgs. Fallout and Baldur's Gate and KOTOR and Vampire: Bloodlines and fuck yes.
I mention all of this because I went to Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy the other evening. It was okay but the biggest thing is that it made me feel old.
Aside from FFXII, I haven't enjoyed an FF truly since FFX which came out in 2001. I saw the FFXVI trailer the other week and it doesn't even look like Final Fantasy. It looks like a Devil May Cry clone. For nearly twenty years I've waited and I just can't wait any longer. I felt like my time at the concert was a nice bookend for my love for the genre and that it's perfectly acceptable to move on.
Long story short, I feel I waste my time with the genre now. Either they're too fucking long or too fucking casualized.
The RPG genre seems to be complete regression.
I was really taken aback when people praised Witcher 3 as being the best RPG and when I played it had the RPG depth of a baby in one of those plastic ring kiddie pools. The RPG depth in Witcher 3 is so paltry it makes Mass Effect look like Baldur's Gate.
And that's a part of the problem. What even is an RPG anymore? Because when games like God of War have equipment and loot and skill trees, what's the difference to the casual observer? Too many ascribe an RPG with like, picking up loot or branching storylines instead of the mechanics. Like the mechanics of choice. When you start Fallout you get a choice of picking your characters attributes through SPECIAL. That's a choice. When you build a party in Final Fantasy V out of a myriad of jobs. That's a choice. But too often now they've made the choices redundant and are more about the things almost every genre has now. The RPG genre has become so neutered and so picked apart it barely stands on its own anymore.
More and more games restrict the player in a genre that used to be about full freedom. RPGs these days are often glorified Visual Novels and Choose Your Own Adventure games. Games like Dragon Quest are now less about the adventure and more about the cutscenes. Today's RPG developers really, really, REALLY want you to enjoy their stories to the point where they jam pack every scene with as much unnecessary padded bullshit as possible.
A game where you truly control every element like Elden Ring is rare.
I keep getting facebook ads for Soul Hackers 2 and my heart gets smaller every time I see it. Gone is the grit of the original and replaced with placid anime twink bullshit. Is it even still a dungeon crawler? I don't want to find out the answer to that question. Yet when I do sink my teeth into an RPG it's often the last thing I want to do now because of how long they take to get started or how much content there is. I've seen the trailers to Starfield and it looks excellent but I'm also aware I won't have the time nor inclination to dive into a game like that now that I'm in my 30's. It's like RPGs are now a mix between being so neutered they barely resemble the genre or they're for people that don't have a life and you have to play 200-300 hours to beat it. There's no balance.
So as it is, I decided to not bother with new RPGs after leaving Distant Worlds. Not with my time nor money.
Yet somehow FPS games are saving my interest in the hobby. I've been going through the Halo games for the first time and they're riveting fun romps. They don't require too much dedication. I can pop in, pop out and beat the games fast and move on to the next difficulty. What's even more striking to me is the variety in the genre. You've got the campaign oriented romps like Wolfenstein and Doom and Titanfall, but also the multiplayer games like Rainbow Six, Counter Strike, Valorant, Team Fortress, Destiny, and Overwatch . Then there's the hybrid games like Halo titles. Even still, the variety reminds me of my RPGs of old. If you just want pedal to the metal action you can play Doom or Bullet Storm. But if you want resource management and every bullet counts style you have Metro and Stalker. If you want RPG elements and loot you can play Borderlands games. Want puzzle games? Portal and other games come to the rescue. There's so much variety and experimentation going on here from Half Life Alyx to shit like Midnight Ghost Hunt.
I don't know. These games make me excited to play games again. For so long I waited for RPGs to love me back the way I loved them and they just continued to spit in my face. Why invest in a genre that doesn't want you but wants the money people that don't even like you and want you to change as much as possible. If RPGs don't want to be RPGs anymore then why should I continue to buy them? Why not just embrace a genre that's clearly proud of its lineage and doesn't have to sacrifice itself to make ends meet?
The old RPG genre isn't coming back. We still have those old games and that's fine. I've accepted it and decided to move on. Anyone else feel that way? While making this thread I noticed
samoilaaa
made a thread that's kind of adjacent to what I'm talking about here.My favorite part is that because FPS was for the most part a genre I neglected I get to experience nearly 20 years of FPS games fresh while also appreciating the modern games. I've been going through Halo 2 and it's a blast. As of now, shocking as it is to say, I will not be buying FFXVI. But I'll definitely get the next Halo.
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