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I can remember a time, long ago, when I wanted nothing to do with RPGs. I was
always a platformer kinda guy: Jump the chasm, shoot the bad guy, stab that
stupid mushroom man. "The Princess is in another castle" my foot! Anyway, I went
through my happy, action-packed gaming life, until one day my mom bought me a
new title as a surprise. Now, my mom was horrible about remembering what kind of
games I liked. Left to her own devices, she could get me absolutely anything
from Super Mario to Super Mahjong. Today's exercise was a little number called
"Sword of Truth" for the old Nintendo Gameboy. It was a first person, black and
white, bare bones RPG about a Prince whose kingdom was stolen by an evil dragon,
and his quest to save his land. It was at times obscenely quirky, and it had one
of the most annoying save systems I've ever seen. Instead of an actual save
file, an old Indian Shaman-type guy gives you a randomized passcode involved
case-senstive letters, numbers, and bizarre symbols. I used to have a whole
notebook full of this bizarre code. Oh, and don't try to open the bird, because
it thinks you're trying to hit on it. But there was just...something about it. I
don't know if it was the occasionally offbeat sense of humor, the sometimes vague if
interesting subplots, or just the sheer thrill of leveling up to see what new
spells I'd get next, but I became hooked. Beating the dragon and his
unfortunate, brainwashed minion (whose name I won't say to prevent spoilers)
became an obsession for me. The day I finally reached that goal I nearly threw
my GB across the room in joy. And that was that.
That was my "hook", the game that got me into this genre. Since then I've
played dozens of games on almost as many platforms, but the tale of Prince Theo
and the Dragon still has a special place in my memory. So, what was your hook?
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