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See if this scenario sounds familiar to anyone. A moody, grumpy teenager with extraordinary fighting capabilities and a hazy past embarks on a mission of no particular consequence. Along the way, they encounter a mysterious stranger (who is coincidentally of the same age and opposite sex), and a few unforeseen changes in circumstances later, are pulled into a quest to save the world. To any RPGamer, this sounds like it is one of any number of classic RPG plots. But believe it or not, I am not here to criticize such a plot all that much. But I have noticed a way that may help some RPG makers to spice up this classic tale: why not, every once in a while, add a few extra years of seasoning onto your protagonists.
Now don't get me wrong; I'm not one of those writers that is going to sit here and whine about how "all RPGs are crap and consist of whiny emo kids! Boo hoo, I want all my games to feature Master Chief!" Teenage angst and brooding are sometimes very appropriate to the setting and characters of an RPG; I am only pointing out that it can sometimes be overused. And believe it or not, adult characters can be just as charming and endearing as younger ones. But here are some examples, just to prove that I am not a crotchety old geezer. Just to warn you, there may be some minor SPOILERS ahead.
First lets take a look at Final Fantasy VIII. Everyone loves to rip on that game, especially because of moody, gloomy Squall. Now I will be the first to admit that FF VIII did have some blemishes (all games do) but if you actually played through the game, I think it was very apparent why Squall (as well as the rest of the cast) was the way he was. Seriously, once you get the full picture of Squall's past, his future, and how his life was intertwined with the others, him coming off as merely a little depressed and emotionally stunted is a minor miracle. The kid should probably have been seeing a shrink regularly and spent the majority of his time talking to himself in a padded room. So for the purposes of that game and that story, Squall's character was a perfect fit.
Now contrast that with Blue Dragon. Blue Dragon had a very solid, flexible combat system, and a decent, if somewhat clichéd story. But when I played that game, I could barely progress through to the end. Why, you might ask? Because of the annoying, insufferable characters that the game saddled me with. Jiro and Kluke were tolerable, though shallow and one dimensional. Shu slightly increased the annoyance factor over those two, but Marumaro was completely over the top. I honestly had times where I turned the game off not because I had something else I needed to do, but simply because I couldn't stand to listen to my party anymore. The only one that I enjoyed was Zola, who was cast as an adult and behaved as an adult within the confines of the story.
But the game that really drove home this point for me was on the opposite end of the spectrum: Lost Odyssey. Here you have a group of characters in which four of them are 1000 year old immortals, three of them are mortal, but grown adults, and only two are children. Even with Cooke and Mack, the two children, Mack is given a perfectly reasonable storyline reason to explain his powers! As far as the adults and immortals, everything clicked. It made sense that the mortals were skilled in particular areas, because they had been trained to be and had practiced their particular profession for years. As far as the immortals, of course they were skilled and powerful warriors; they had been doing it for centuries. Add to this the fact that the past experiences of both the immortals and mortals in the party pulled you into the game world that much further. My heart broke over the pain and anguish that Kaim had endured throughout his centuries of life, and I was genuinely happy when he was reunited with some loved ones in the present. Moments like these are fewer when you have an entire cast of younger characters, if only because younger characters don't have enough backstory to flesh them out as older ones do.
None of this is to say that there are not great games that feature a youthful cast. Persona 3 revolved entirely around a group of high school students, and it was my favorite RPG of the last year. Within the same MegaTen family are the phenomenal Digital Devil Saga games, which featured adult characters. That, for me, is the perfect example of what to do. Within the same series of games, some that focus on one group and others focusing on the other group. Sure, when I was younger, I could only relate to younger characters. But I, as well as a lot of RPGamers, have gotten a little older, and while I still very much enjoy games filled with the exuberance and angst of youth, I can also enjoy a game about the complexity and concerns of adulthood.
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