09/07- 12:00PM EST
Welcome to a special brief Labor Day week
edition of Q&A! We've got some more
Nintendo Power memories and an interesting
look at why we play JRPGs.
Let's jump right in!
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Hi Wheels!
Your readers have shared so many wonderful
memories of Nintendo Power. I suppose quite
a few of us classic gamers who were much
younger back then still have fond memories
of the magazine. To me, it represented a
time when you really felt like you could
connect with the company. It seemed far less
monolithic... if that makes any sense?
Maybe I was just being naive, but I have
fond memories about that magazine. I can
still remember writing in as a "Classified
Info" "code agent", and remarkably, finding
the little glitch I had discovered published
in issue 55! That would be the Zelda
Link's Awakening Screen Warp glitch.
Wheels
That
makes perfect sense. Nintendo
Power made them seem more like
our buddies who just happened to
publish all the amazing games we
loved. It helped breed a gaming
culture that still lives on.
Plus in the pre-internet days it
was a great way to find out
about all kinds of new games. I
think I even remember that issue
talking about the Link's
Awakening glitch! A lot of
what Nintendo Power did has now
been replaced by the internet,
but I still think the magazine
had a place.
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Yeah, Nintendo removed the little screenwarp
trick after it was discovered that it could
break the game from the inside out, but at
the time, I felt as special as a kid could
be.
Wheels
I'm
sure you did! I wish I had taken
the time to write into Nintendo
Power. Seeing your name in there
must have been an amazing
feeling.
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It's truly a shame that Nintendo has decided
to end the magazine and sever such a
tangible link to its fanbase.
-Shademask
Wheels
They
have they internet to do that to
some respects now, but with so
many print magazines
dissapearing there's no dount it
was cool to still have Nintendo
Power around providing that
outlet. Heck, there were still
plenty of people writing into
it. I don't think Nintendo will
see any financial problems from
this, but it's a piece of their
history I think they should have
revamped and kept going.
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This is a question that I think anyone who
plays Japanese role-playing games should ask
themselves at least once.
Understanding why you like something is a
key to understanding when you won't like
something, and that is a very important
thing when it comes to choosing which games
you will purchase and which ones you won't.
Wheels
It sure is a good question, and too
often people just buy every JRPG
they can and end up dissappointed in
many of them.
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My big reason for loving jrpgs originally
came from my love for a good story. At
the time I encountered the jrpg that
addicted me (the original Breath of Fire
on the SNES), I was a huge Forgotten
Realms and Dragonlance
fan. To be blunt, if it had swords and
sorcery in it, I was willing to at least
give it a try. The reason I fell in
love with jrpgs back then though... was that
unlike the video games I'd played up until
that time, I felt there was some kind of
meaning to what I was doing (an illusion of
course, but illusions are part of playing
any video game).
Wheels
I think we all felt that way back in
the day, we got sucked into the epic
quests these games presented to us.
We wanted to take down the bad guys
as much as the heroes in the games.
These epic RPGs offered a depth of
experience we weren't really getting
in other games. It didn't matter
that we didn't have any effect on
the story, we enjoyed it anyway.
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However, that is a reason to like rpgs in
general, rather than jrpgs in
particular. Indeed, I think most
people who have a need to play at being
someone else will actually prefer western
rpgs, simply because of the tendency to
leave more of the choices that shape the
adventure in the hands of the gamer.
Wheels
Well there are now many JRPGs that
do offer plenty of choice, and of
course some WRPGs that are more
linear, so there's plenty of
options. I don't think all people
like the choose heavy ones though,
some prefer a more linear experience
with a fun story. That said, we all
enjoy RPGs in general for similar
reasons.
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Traditional jrpgs tend to have rigid styles
of storytelling, with a set plot (this
allows for the game to play out as a 'story'
with less effort and cost on the part of the
game makers, in general), battle systems
that can be played by just about anyone
(turn-based battle systems have the
advantage of being easy to use for anyone
with half a brain, as an example), and a
minimal sense of discovery in the form of
environmental exploration while fighting off
monsters (this provides mild thrills, as the
player discovers items that are useful to
their adventure, further involving them in
the game). Furthermore - and this is
an aspect of Japanese games that is almost
universal - jrpgs have a tendency toward
heavy usage of surrealism, both emotionally
and in terms of plot developments that makes
them easy to enjoy when you are young.
This tends to make it easier to become
emotionally involved with the characters
than in western rpgs, where most characters
are never really presented in a manner that
would earn the emotional investment of the
player. This also makes the times when
they step out of the surrealism (as an
example, when a beloved character dies in a
brutal manner) have all the more impact on
the player, creating an even heavier
emotional investment in the game.
Wheels
I can see what you mean, but at this
point in games I think it's tough to
make broad generalizations,
especially with fewer RPGs out of
Japan following the old formulas.
For example the Shin Megami
Tensei feels like a perfect
mix of Eastern and Western RPG
ideals. Anyway, I wonder if JRPGs
are just aimed at a younger audience
in general? Certainly that audience
tends to trend older in the West, so
that could be where some of the
disconnect comes from when we don't
like these kinds of games as we get
older. That said the cure for all
those issues is Shin Megami
Tensei.
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I use the term 'emotional investment' when
referring to jrpgs because it is the one
thing that jrpgs unequivocally do better
than western games. If you can suspend
your disbelief of the weird plot twists and
occasionally wacky humor that infests the
genre like termites, it is really really
easy to fall in love with characters in many
games in the genre. Yes, the
characters have become ever more
archetypical with time, every plot twist has
been used before, and you've killed the Dark
Lord of Whodunnit a thousand times... but
that doesn't really significantly decrease
the ability to involve yourself with the
characters as long as those old plot
elements are used properly.
Wheels
This is exactly true. People love
games like Fallout and Skyrim,
but many don't and I think the
reason is they're looking for the
kind of emotional investment that
those games don't provide. Sure the
world is deep and you have lot's of
choice, but what's the point if you
don't care that much about saving
the world's citizens? Games like Mass
Effect and Persona 4
are the perfect bridge between these
two ideals. Lots of choice, but also
lots of character interaction and an
emotional investment in the
proceedings.
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The main reason that a lot of older gamers
find they can't get into dungeon-crawler and
the borderline jrpgs that are becoming ever
more common is that that element of
emotional investment is so much thinner when
the focus of the game is on killing
monsters, getting items, and getting farther
into dungeons. It's sad, but the trend
that began with the 'collector' spirit
infesting the Pokemon side of things
has been steadily burying traditional jrpgs
beneath layer after layer of
dungeon-slogging and item-making.
Wheels
Let's not forget the slog of Monster
Hunter clones as well. Really
though, Western RPGs have seen the
same issues with Diablo clone
after Diablo clone. With
games like Mass Effect doing
well in the West, and games like Dragon
Quest and Trails in the
Sky doing well in Japan, I
don't think we'll see these kinds of
games disappear completely by a long
shot. Heck some dungeon-crawlers
have even tried to incorporate more
story! Sometimes people need to
search for the right games instead
of just trying the big titles.
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Final Fantasy is a perfect example of
this trend... there is a distinct tendency
in the most recent games in the series for
storytelling to take a back seat to the
gameplay and visual aspects. What it
results in is games that are easier to
understand for someone who has yet to bury
themselves in the genre but alienate those
who prefer the older style of storytelling
and gameplay. This isn't necessarily a
bad thing... except that most new jrpgs seem
to be designed for an ever younger audience
just looking to kill time. (jrpg
stories always tended to appeal to those in
their early to late teens, but most newer
ones seem to be appealing to those who have
yet to encounter the horrors of hormones or
the usefulness of their own brains)
Wheels
Well, not counting the MMOs it's
hard to say there's any kind of
trend in recent Final Fantasy games
since we only have XII, XIII,
and XIII-2 to look at,
since Final Fantasy X is
pretty much a classic at this point.
Now those problems are certainly in
the narrative of XIII, but I
thought XII took a more
interesting approach even if it
didn't really come together like due
to Matsuno leaving in the middle of
that project. I mean there are
troubling trends to be sure, but not
enough Final Fantasies to
know if they'll be following those
heavily or doing their own thing.
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What all this means... is that as the genre
expands ever outward and changes its
direction, a gamer has to step back and
consider 'Why do I play games and what do I
really want out of them?' Playing
every jrpg you can get your hands on just
because it is a jrpg is an incredibly
wasteful course of action, if you aren't
fulfilling your own desires. The same
goes for any type of game... examine your
reasons for playing and make sure the games
you buy are matched to those reasons,
otherwise you'll make a lot of purchases
you'll regret later.
Sincerely,
Travis Lucius
Wheels
I agree with you completely. Just
playing any game because it's a
Japanese RPG is silly, and you'll
often be left unsatisfied. At the
same time, there's people who do the
opposite and don't try enough of
them, assume they're all awful and
ignore many games that they might
have absolutely loved. Part of this
is due to many of the titles moving
to portable platforms that we don't
pay as much attention to here in the
West. Many of these titles are from
Atlus, who I really hope becomes the
model of JRPGs in the future. While
they can use some annoying tropes at
times, their games are always
interesting mechanically.
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That's it for this week folks,
Q&A is going to take an "almost end of
summer" break next week (unless I get a
deluge of questions!) so I'll see you all in
two weeks!
-Wheels
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