I said that I hated JRPGS. That's still mostly true.
But, strangely enough, I seem to have stumbled onto two of them that I kind of like.
Suikoden, Konami's old-school PSX military epic, while almost suffocatingly dry in its presentation - it has none of the bells and whistles you'd see in a Square RPG - has a surprisingly engrossing story and a battle system that I don't hate. I'm only a few hours in. We'll see how this goes.
More importantly... I managed to get my hands on Panzer Dragoon Saga, Sega's magnum opus for the Saturn. I am in love with this game. The story, art direction, battle system, exploration, music, everything. It's fantastic. Part of the allure is probably the fact that I love hidden gems like this, games that that, unfortunately, slipped under the radar for whatever reason like or System Shock or The Last Express. It's probably the same effect that makes people like bands more when they're unknown and 'indie'. Even so, the game is undeniably an incredible piece of work.
I'm sure I'll end up writing a full review that only two people will read at some point.
I still need to see Panzer.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the time you write about it, more than two people will have recognized your greatness. You'll have more like...THREE people reading! <3
There are a lot of problems with your views on JRPGs, among them the fact that you are assuming a variety of qualities that are not particularly true. However, I'll elaborate on a point that requires way less effort from me: stop playing shitty rpgs. Moreover, stop playing ones that are 10+ years old. Some of the very basic complaints you have are absent in many higher quality and/or new games, I.E. random encounters have disappeared even from mainstream RPGs.
ReplyDeleteI think that grouping all turn-based combat together is not unlike grouping all FPS games together. I guess the fundamental mechanism of combat is the same, but I wouldn't dismiss Deus Ex or Half-Life just because Hexen sucks. The gameplay in Xenogears may be excruciating at times (especially that stupid ass sewer dungeon), but something like Persona 4 is a completely different beast. A well devised turn-based system is more like a pretty chess match than a routine selection of menu options like Final Fantasy 1-12.
Better yet, you can try the wide variety of non-turn based RPGs. Such games have existed at least since Tales of Phantasia back on the SNES. You could also go with Star Ocean, Valkyrie Profile 2, Granstream Saga, etc. Just don't touch Rogue Galaxy.