I’ve been playing video games ever since i was 5 or so. When my Uncle lived with my Gran he’d have his Spectrum ZX and later on his Amiga 500 there and whenever he left to go to work or visit friends and whenever my Gran wasn’t playing on it i’d hop on and play such things as Pitfall, Pac Man, Cannon Fodder, Sensible World of Soccer, GODS etc. From there an interest was sparked. I’d sit and watch my Gran play things like Ultima and Might and Magic and be lost in the worlds they created, sat there cross legged almost hypnotised as my Gran slayed another dragon or ogre. I was around 8 or 9 at this time and my love for RPG’s was born.
By this time i had my own Sega Megadrive/Genesis and i began to play such games as Soleil, Fatal Labyrinth and Shining Force. This continued when we got a Playstation and my love for RPG’s really began to blossom, especially the turn-based variety. Final Fantasy 7 was like a door opening into this fascinating new world, i’ll never forget the first moment that train pulled into the station and Barrett and Cloud hopped off it almost seamlessly. My very first “wow” moment in gaming (the other ones being Lost Odyssey and watching The Division trailer) I began to play more and more RPG’s – Suikoden, Vandal Hearts, Breath of Fire, Wild Arms, all fantastic series which i loved.
This PS2 continued this great time for me as a gamer with more fantastic games, continuing the series of established franchises (i’ll ignore Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter for my own sanity, and probably yours) and also introducing new ones such as what is now my favourite series – Disgaea and Shadow Hearts.
However it was also around this time i saw the writing on the wall for my favourite genre and it started with FFX-2. I loved FFX and was extremely excited for this sequel, more of the same i thought, i even paid 60 pounds for the import version because i couldn’t wait the extra 5 or 6 months it always took Europe to get the games, boy was i wrong. The story had devolved into some J-Pop nonsense, they had ruined Blitzball and the battle system had changed. This was the beginning of a dark time for my personal tastes as a gamer of which it has barely recovered.
FFXII came out and it was more of the same, the classic turn based battle system had totally gone now and with it the control over the entire party. Never will i understand or like any game that restricts my control, i don’t care what in-depth AI they have for my party members it will never be as good as just letting me control them myself. Atlus realised this with Persona 3 and that’s why FES came to be but sadly Square-Enix have continued down this path. It gets even more aggravating when if your character dies the game is over as for some reason your computer controlled team mates can’t chuck you a Phoenix Down. Along with this, more and more RPG’s were now coming out with action style battle systems. When i see the reviews i see how “advanced” and “exciting” these are meant to be yet i’ll never see the allure of hammering away at the X button killing a screen full of the same enemy model over and over with the same combo over and over. Forgive me but i don’t see how that is more advanced.
The PS3 continued this theme and the RPG’s that were released were often awful, FFXIII was an abomination and a perfect example of what i talked about in the last paragraph. Infact if it wasn’t for Disgaea 3 and 4 i probably would have lost interest in gaming almost altogether. Thankfully they had 100’s of hours of content to keep me busy and keep that flame of love for RPG’s burning. This generation allowed me time to go back and play stuff i missed or to revisit old classics i loved and also to finally beat Luca Blight in Suikoden 2.
But now i see a slight glimmer of hope on the horizon. Ni No Kuni was a good start although still not perfect and Bravely Default was a welcome return to SE’s roots while also showing that there is still a market for Turn-Based RPG’s. Recently SE publicly said they were surprised at Bravely Defaults success and would have to re-evaluate their approach, to that i say it’s about time but i still see the trailer for FFXV and sigh. The Turn-Based RPG fan has long been ignored by games developers and it’s time for a return back to that time and hopefully less of a focus on the dude bro shooters that have plagued the industry for the last generation. I hope so because i love games and i want that passion back that i had for them.
To the games companies – The fans of Turn-Based RPG’s didn’t disappear, we’re still here, it’s just that the games did.
Independent Expression 