The Death of the RPG.

When it comes to gaming, I must say that I lead (past tense here) a rather sheltered life. For me, RPGs were the only genre that I could play, and I executed this dogmatic approach with an extreme degree of success. In hindsight, I must admit that I was extremely lucky, because the late 90’s / early 2000s were, in my opinion, the epitome of the RPG age. In those days, gaming companies were rather limited in their graphical repertoires, and therefore had to focus most, if not all, of their efforts upon brilliant storylines, fun gameplay, or in most cases, both.

This was an age of Chrono Trigger, Mario RPG, Bahamut Lagoon, Shining Force, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle, Soul Blade, Secret of Mana (and subsequently Seiken Densetsu 3), Final Fantasy III, Actraiser, Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past (in retrospect, that pun is rather painful), Rocky and Pocky (hur), Secret of Evermore, Earthbound, Crusader of Centy (Sega), Lunar and it’s remake-as-a-sequel, the highly underrated Spike McFang, and a massive plethora of other RPG sprite-based games that engaged players in hundreds to thousands of hours in gameplay (if I’ve forgotten a game, I’ve probably played it, but I’m not an encyclopaedia of nostalgia here).

It’s rather saddening these days to see the shift away from this type of mindset, and the focus upon graphical engines with storylines glued on as an afterthought. Don’t get me wrong here; there are still some dazzling gems (Disgaea, Kingdom Hearts) out there, but when I trundle into my local Electronics Boutique these days, there is no sense of awe at the sheer amount of unexperienced RPGs that I’ve yet to play. Does anybody recall that feeling? In the past, I’d walk into a video game store, and simply gawk at the sheer beauty that only a wall of Squaresoft games can engender. Now you walk into these same stores, and you’re greeted by things like Devil May Cry, where some phantom spectre grades you on how cool you look while killing things, but is suspiciously absent when I’m wondering who it is I’m killing with these awesome rated combos. Nowadays, the only RPG Company for whom my heart makes that familiar little skip-beat is Atlus, which is saddening. Not because Atlus is bad, because I’m a firm believer that they are producing games equal in quality to ye olde Squaresoft, but it’s saddening because there is nobody else out there producing these things.

I suppose this is simply a sign of the times; we as a people are moving towards faster things, faster ‘instant’ gratification, if that can be understood. As a gamer myself, I suppose I too have evolved over my years and years of gaming. In this regard, I believe that I have to give an extensive amount of credit to my cousin Mike. He is, I suppose you could say, my gaming soul mate, if that makes any particular sense. We have been gaming for upwards of 15 years together, and he’s been the one responsible for introducing me to every single gaming genre outside of my RPG niche. In a sense, I could also say that he’s the one responsible for saving my gaming hobby as well. The RPG market was drying up to what it is today, but every time I lost interest in gaming, I was saved by my cousin, who, on those special occasions once or twice a year, would eagerly introduce me to games like Ragnarok Online, Final Fantasy XI, Counter-Strike, Gunstar Heroes and Guilty Gear. It’s taken me awhile, but I realize now that what endeared these games to me was the fact that I could play them with friends, instead of by myself. I suppose this is also a sign of the times; as our global community grows, our appetite for social interaction spreads to every facet of our lives.

I suppose we are also witnessing the death of the old-school RPG. There are a few flagship games out there, a la Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, but by and large, more and more of ‘this year’s anticipated game,’ falls directly into the lap of multiplayer monstrosities like Halo, Gears of War, Super Smash Brothers, World of Warcraft, Rock Band, Warhammer Online and such. It’s depressing to see such a legacy of gaming turn into this, I’ll admit. A part of me, the book reader, the writer, the creative side of me, yearns for the olden times in which a game had real depth to its characters. I doubt anybody can reproduce the anguish one felt when Aeris died in FF7, or the real sense of epic responsibility that infused the player when experiencing Chrono Trigger, or even the hearty, authentic chuckles that Earthbound got out of me when crying in the corner was a viable form of action in combat. These days you get games like Neverwinter Nights 2, where your best friend gets killed, but one can’t remember her name, five minutes later. Or you have games like Hellgate: London, where I’ve been playing for an hour to two hours, but I have no idea why I’m doing what I’m doing, except these fuckers won’t drop my Legendary Gun from whatever orifice hides such items of splendour.

Yes, a part of me is incredibly saddened to see this aspect of the video game wither and die like a crack baby. But then, I glance up from writing this article and recap those brilliant Rock Band moments, up at 5 AM, consuming beverages and breaking guitars, or those long philosophical chats I can have with my cousin while commandeering a scout ship around a solar system in Sins of a Solar Empire, or even creating ‘Fisty Rangers’ in Neverwinter Nights 2, punching things and trying to prevent friends from taking my much deserved and undeserved loot. This was a run-on sentence, but you’re also fat. Thinking of all of these times in which I would not have been able to enjoy the company of friends in tandem with the company of games, I realize that while I am rather saddened at the loss of depth in my fantasy RPGs, the ability to pre-emptively loot someone’s +5 Sword of Stabbing, even though you can’t use it, is a pretty decent tradeoff.

P.S. To the creators of Hellgate: London stating “who gives a fuck,” about LAN gaming in a broadband age: you are mentally retarded. Perhaps you may not have experienced the intimacy that only a LAN can offer, but sometimes we just want to play on our own little server with 5 ping. Sometimes we want to be able to pause our game and go get some pizza. Sometimes we want to play in areas where there is no internet. Did you think of this? No? Die.

P.P.S. If anyone knows how to LAN on Hellgate: London, please inform me, and I will name my first and secondborn children after you.