R P G A M E R . C O M   -   E D I T O R I A L S

Rebuttal to "The Sins of Cross-Pollination"

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Phillip Meilleur (Freonce)
FAN EDITORIALIST

Don’t get me wrong; I would hate to misrepresent myself as a completely liberalistic thinker when it comes to RPGs. I adore all of the classics from NES to PSX, and relish myself in the memories of 8-bit turn based action.

That having been said I would like to state openly and of my own free will, that I think the idea of a RPG with a fighting engine battle system is exciting to me. I’ve played many fighting games (SC2 being the current favourite) and have often asked my cat why the developers even bothered to shove a plot in there. The concept of a fighting game and RPG as one…..my heart quickens when I begin to think of the possibilities. Take the same tragic hero pitted against all odds (and one big-ass monster) with a rag-tag team of buddies. Give them their cool assortment of weapons, armour and gadgets; but instead of the same ATB battle system; give the player control. Smooth quick paced fighting using the weapons you just bought from that nice merchant in the village. Incorporating a magic system into battle could be difficult mind you, but not undoable. Perhaps a freeze battle menu to choose the spell, or an assortment of button combinations just like in other fighting games. That is to say if a magic system were even necessary (Egad more heresy!! ). I think the experience system could be added in quite easily. Perhaps with unlockable combos??

That was just a taste of what one type of “rebellious half-blood” could do. When I read an article that is so blatantly repressive I do get angry (so much in fact as to write my first editorial). The fact that you may simply be adverse to fighting games is understandable; they’re not for everyone. To go as far as to attack other tried and true games such as Final Fantasy Tactics and the Harvest Moon series, is nothing more than bashing the very essence of creativity. We are not all elitists who dwell on the “great RPGs of yore” constantly, some of us ARE free thinkers and have the ability to step outside of the box every so often. Despite what you may believe RPGs have evolved and are changing beyond that of a 'perfectly blue-blooded condition.'

I would also like to point out that simply assuming a “young whippersnapper” is the source of this radical idea is ageism. I honestly wish I had first thought of the idea myself. If it was in fact a younger person to whom you picked up the concept; then perhaps having new RPGamers express their ideas is a good thing. They have the innocence of not being moulded into the dimensions of what you seem to expect or want every RPGamer to be.

So I guess my overall view is: simply because a person enjoys a RTS RPG doesn’t make them an “unbeliever” or a “heretic” if anything it makes them more of an RPGamer for being able to look definitively at any RPG an criticize it intelligently with a full spectrum of knowledge.