Last Minute Add-ons

by Jacob Hammer

I just read Joseph Witham's editorial entitled Mini "Games and Their Role in RPGs", and it got me thinking about a few things. Regardless of how good or bad a mini-game is, the reason for it's presence is almost always inadequate to say the least.

As the RPG series has gone through many 'face lifts' over the years, new engines and larger size expansions have become available. Yes, for RPGaming this is great, but for mini-games, this is not all that good. Many times, a company has had a 'cool idea'(the two FF card games, for example) pop up at a board meeting, and then be determined to put it in a game. The end result; a lot of contrived mini-games with more gaping plot holes than my English term papers that appear to have been thrown on a month before the shipping date. I loved the FF8 card battle system, but my one complaint is that,"Where do all the cards come from?" There are no printing plants, no world HQ, no way to even verify their authenticity. I have to card monsters to get a few good cards, but the guy down at the old folks home(ignoring his lack of GF for the time being) has a hand full of L5 cards, somewhow...

Xenogears had a solid storyline, and every game was explained to at least an acceptable level. Kaiser Sigmund was bored, so he created the battling league. Which also doubled as a way to find strong fighters. Even Chrono Trigger's soup drinking contest was passed off as a 'prehistoric hazing ritual', although that doesn't justify it's presence. Unfortunately, conveniece seem to be all the rage these days. In FF7, SquareSoft did their share of mini-games AND pulled off some good ones too! Maybe that's because it was made in the early stages of Playstation developement, or maybe I'm just being cynical.

The concept can be brought to other things as well. For one example, why did the towns rent cars in FF8? No ordinary citizen would have any use for them as all places that they would need to go are connect to the continental train system. I only used the car to access governmental, or restricted buildings. And why did the monsters not attack me in the car? Did they fear a lawsuit for wrecking the paint job? The game's main plot may be well thought out, but the small things detract from the play quality. And my final question (before I stop complaining) is "where does everybody work?" The only form of employment seems to be either a soldier, guard, or sentry, or the keeper of a store that sells items only the player would ever use. I accept the fact that the population in the world is so low because of the 1000's of people who have joined my opponent's army whom I am forced to mow down in two hits a piece, but the rest can't just sit on their asses all day. Where do they work?

But I digress. My bottom line is as follows. People may complain about the storyline being cut from the budget, but it's the little things, that make the difference to me.

BTW- I was directed to this site a while back. It is a list of console RPG cliches that are so true, you'll be ashamed to read it. Some of my material was gathered from the list, so I feel obligated to give it credit. >>http://guardian.simplenet.com/text/rpg.html