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Of the sixteen titles I have currently beaten for the year, twelve of them have been RPGs. Considering that I breathe, eat, and sleep RPGs, something lately has been moving me away from the grind into games that either aren't RPGs or are what I would call "RPG Lite." Lately, I haven't been craving games with strategy or complexity; instead I find myself picking up lighter games that make me feel like I'm having fun.
I think part of this desire to play lighter games comes from the fact that I'm stuck in Vanguard Bandits. I'm finding that no matter what kind of a strategy I use, I'm getting pummelled from all sides without any way to make a recovery. Patience? What patience? It's hard not to get frustrated when you're constantly being flanked and you've got no way of backtracking to restructure your units. This is the point when a game stops being fun. Perhaps -- Am I perhaps being unfair to the game? This is the first game all year that I've encountered that is so unbalanced it amazes me people are able to find all the characters without using a walkthrough. Honestly, when you start to feel like you're pulling hairs, it's often best to set the game aside and hope that you can go back to it months later with a much clearer mindset.
Still, my struggle with Vanguard Bandits hasn't turned me off from playing more RPGs. Finding a light RPG is often tricky, especially on a console, although they seem fairly plentiful on the handhelds. In fact, I've found myself playing my handhelds more than my consoles, and it's simply because a lot of the games I'm choosing to play don't have me wanting to rip my hair out in frustration. What I've been finding lately is that my patience wearing thin when it comes to a lot of console RPGs, and it's mostly because I'm having trouble savouring the game's story because the gameplay or situations of are trying to me. This is especially true for me when it comes to playing tactical RPGs like Vanguard Bandits simply because of how archaic the design is. I know I'll eventually go back to it, but I hate feeling like I'm giving up on a game when in actuality I'm stuck and I want to progress.
Maybe this is why I'm deeply in love with Dragon Quest: Rocket Slime at the moment. Sure, it's gimmicky and somewhat repetitive, but its repetitive nature is charming. There's nothing complex about the game. Nothing to make me want to pull my hair and chuck my DS into a wall – it's simple. There's no strategy involved, no battles that make me feel as though I'm at a standstill, and best of all you get to be a slime who owns a tank. How many people can say that they have played such a game?
I'm feeling the pain of console burnout at the moment. Yet I cannot help but cuddle my DS a little more for throwing me such a tiny slime-sized gem, telling me it's okay to take a break once in awhile from the hardcore tactical scene, and just remember what gaming is all about.
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