Gaming friends, I must apologize for holding out on you for so long. No, I haven't forgotten about angelslime.blogspot.com, after all, I only tell everyone I know repeatedly to come and check it out. Turns out that either no one gives a random two shits about my gaming adventures in games that are over a decade old, or I'm horrible at being a gaming columnist, or some other criteria I haven't noticed yet that seems to keep people from being actually engaged by what I write here. Not like I do it for anyone else, right? I thought it was just going to be for myself - but since I realized my readership was so low, I haven't wanted to show back up here at all lately. Not like I've made any discoveries in the world of gaming these last few months anyway. I've had things to do, like celebrating my daughter's second birthday.
Instead of reporting on the gaming I've done the last few months, I'll instead go into stuff that I'm looking forward to finally getting a chance to play. I'm broke (it happens when you have kids) and so I haven't had a new game since... since... my copy of HeartGold I got a few years ago. Wonderful, right? I'll admit that there's nothing on a current gen system that I want to bite my teeth into, save Tales of Vesperia (I know, I haven't played that one EITHER). That game's a few years old.
No, right now, I want to play very few games that are brand spanking new. Give me Dragon Quest IX, Pokemon Black, Golden Sun DS, or Tales of the Abyss' remake on the 3DS. On my "list to be played" that's about it. I want my JRPGs, and I freakin' want them now. No Call of Duty, no Resident Evil, just some straight up anime lookin' characters leveling up to beat bosses that eventually save the world. I'm stuck in my little gaming niche, and I like it in here. I've spent most of my life either slashing my sword in a Legend of Zelda title or level grinding to beat a boss in Final Fantasy so long that I don't mind. And while there's a heaping lot of it out there today, damn it, there's so little I want to invest my time in.
New games come out every damn day, and I still want to only play six games (I didn't mention that I actually want to try Final Fantasy Dissidia for some stupid reason, did I?) - some of which are a few years old all ready. What's happened to the state of gaming lately? The more I think about it, the more I want to go to Japan and curb stomp some developers. Even people who don't follow the same stuff I do (mainly Pokemon, Dragon Quest, and Tales of) complain about the lack of originality, creativity, and even COLOR in a lot of games. Who the hell takes colors away from gaming? Apparently, people who play FPS titles only like seeing worlds made of shitty brown, boring gray, and various hues of those two colors with a splash of red blood every now and then, unless you're German, then you'll see green. What happened? It was Mario who saved the industry from taking a nose dive into just being a fad instead of actually being a mainstay within the media, and my girls are still dazzled over how colorful the game is now. The shiny cold coins, the glowing Starman, the fireworks at the end of a level... things used to be so simple, and now, it seems like things have changed. Even for the genres I love.
Okay, I've written about my love affair with Final Fantasy that took place during my junior high years here on this blog before, and I'll be honest, I still like the series quite a bit. FFIX is my favorite of the numbered installments, Tactics is my favorite overall, and the Crystal Chronicles series always makes me come back and see what else they're up to. Well, now, this year they put out both Final Fantasy XIII and XIV. You'd think that I'd jump on that like a pack of dogs on a three-legged cat, and if the games were anything like they were on the PSX days, yes, I would be. Even with FFVIII's numerous flaws. I accept them and move on with with my life. But FFXIII took the series in a whole new direction. What's this "if your one character dies in battle it's game over" bullshit? How come that dipshit Snow can't use a phoenix down on Lightning like I would have Tifa use on Cloud if he got KO'd, for example? Does no one see all of the changes made, as if it were being... dumbed down? No? FFXII made me believe that after the travesty that was FFX, the series could recover and we'd go back to lighting the crystals with no problems whatsoever. Something's missing both from gameplay and narrative of the new FF games and people keep buying them hand over fucking foot. Why? Well, the game's graphics are stunning to say the least. I won't deny that at all. But there is a problem with that.
Here's a little thing to think about. We consumers tell the media what we want when we buy things, and whatever sells is what will be mass produced. If we want more dumbed down, shiny graphic-y games, then we put money in the hands of developers and let them make more of it. If we want more colorless, bland, generic FPS titles, then we should just keep buying them. I don't like what I see, save a handful of titles, out of the entire industry, and I don't like to think I'm being picky - I like to think that I'm being honest with myself. If games I like stop being made, will I cease to be a gamer? Hardly, I have tons of games from over 10 years ago that will keep me happily entertained as I have been the last few years being broke and all. I'll just have to be retro-exclusive, though I don't believe that you can call a PSX title retro no matter how old it gets. Tell me that Star Ocean 2 is retro, and I'll tell you to go look at freakin' "Ultima Exodus: The Quest for the Avatar" on the NES for a retro RPG, okay?
I have so little income to work with that I have to know whether I'll like a game before I buy it, and I can't afford to plop down $40 to see if I'll like something new. When I spend, it has to be something that will give me tons of replayability, or a very long ass quest, or something to keep me engaged for months. I guess that's why each time a Pokemon game comes out, I'll slap down the money to get it. I'll play it for a year without getting tired of it, and now with bonuses like trading online or even voice chatting. I'm even more interested...
*sigh*
Thanks for reading,
Much love,
Suzuri
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