Role-playing games, Japanese ones especially, can be such long-winded things. They’re far more digestible when you cut out all the fluff and break them down into five-second minigames. More »
JRPGs are a predictable bunch. Spiky-haired youths, big swords, doe-eyed ladies and comic relief that’s either an ethnic minority or a robot. You’ve seen one, you’ve seen ‘em all. Their soundtracks are no different.
Tom Endo has a nice essay up over the Escapist on the issue of finishing games (or not finishing games, as the case may be). “What other medium,” he queries, “allows us to be so blithely indifferent to its consumption?”. I certainly have a somewhat appalling stack of partially finished games, some of which have been languishing for years. Do games in their current format simply not fit comfortably into the flow of many people’s lives?:
Michael Abbott of The Brainy Gamer is putting together an undergraduate seminar on the history of the RPG (fun!), and the whole process of deciding what games to include and the reasons for that is pretty interesting — admittedly, I find syllabus construction to be an interesting process that can tell you a lot about the person teaching the class (and a simple fact of life for those of us who want to stay in the Ivory Tower). He’s put together a lengthy list of RPGs that will be whittled down (with some assistance from helpful readers) to 15 titles that will fulfil his criteria:
