simpleek

Becoming a gamer has opened up a wealth of games I am delighting in getting to know or fall in love with. I’ve already made it known on this blog about my love for Dragon Age more times than I can count. There are some additional Dragon Age related posts I would like to write in the future once I get my ideas for them in order. Before I became a Dragon Age fanatic, I found myself in love with RPGs or role-playing games in general. From open worlds like Dragon Age: Origins to more linear action RPG games like Kingdom Hearts, I enjoy them all.

I found myself seeing RPGs as good escapist fun like reading manga or watching anime can be. The fantasy aspect of RPGs are very much appealing to me. I love fantasy stories. I will almost always watch or read good fantasies when I encounter one. Writers who write a great story full of massive amounts of lore and history for a fantasy world makes the immersion into the world easy to slip on like a fine leather glove. Even better when game developers give gamers the opportunity to shape the outcome of a story. Dragon Age: Origins is a great example of this. They have an open world to explore where you can get lost in for hours and certain dialogues or actions will affect how companions, people, and the final end game turns out. A game like this one puts the gamer in control of their character’s fate and the lives of others’ fates as well.

Then you have more linear games like Kingdom Hearts where you already have an established main character like Sora, the situation the character is presented with, and journeying with the character to get to a point of resolution while also learning more about what’s going on and watching characters develop as certain circumstances crop up.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get the full appreciation of these games because I don’t own a Playstation console. The only means I can enjoy the KH games are through the side stories coming out for the main game and released on Nintendo DS or PSP. Even though I may not know the full story I do enjoy the gameplay of what I am able to get my hands on. The graphics in this game is beautiful to look at and it’s a game that combines Disney characters and Square Enix characters together in one game. How can one refuse to play any form of these games?

I think I’m such an RPG lover because at the core of most RPGs is the story. A great combat system and the ability to explore the world is important too, but I think that is just one slice of the pie. You play an RPG to escape into the story and not be a casual bystander that just goes from Point A to Point B to shoot stuff. I’m not saying shooting stuff as your main objective in the game is a bad thing. I like just shooting stuff too, especially when I play Halo: Reach with my friends.

There are times when you want something more than just the ability to shoot things and make stuff explode. I love it when I find a great game, play everything I can through the end, feel moved by what the character(s) has gone through during the game, and then have it stick with me after I’m finished with the game. Again, Dragon Age: Origins is that game for me as well as the PSP game Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.

Crisis Core is considered the prequel to the main Final Fantasy VII game where you get to play as Zack. It is unfortunate that I am not able to play FFVII, but I enjoyed playing as Zack where events in that game shape the things that go on in FFVII. It was amazing to watch Zack be the optimistic guy who is fighting for what he believes to be a good cause only to have to question what’s true and have his optimism tested greatly by a whole lot of curve balls thrown his way. It was an emotionally satisfying game for me once I got to the end. I found myself holding my breath the entire time I played this game and Dragon Age: Origins only to finally be able to breathe after the credits started rolling.

I am the kind of person who can be fiercely engrossed in something once the story and characters suck me in. It has always been this way with manga/anime and now it extends to the video games I play. I think the other reason why I am addicted to RPGs is because a lot of the times I end up wanting to analyze the character during or after the game. I enjoy thinking about what makes a character tick, why is someone motivated to do this, can I sympathize with this character, etc. This is my main reason for starting my blog––I will discuss or analyze characters or stories to death and I always seek out the opinions of others to get a similar or different perspective.

I can proudly say I am an RPG addict and it’s not stopping anytime soon. It’s probably a good thing because next month a new game from Electronic Arts called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is geared to come out. I’ve played the demo on Xbox Live and it is looking to be an epic RPG game. Pretty soon I’m going to add another game to my collection of games to play. And when it’s an RPG, expect to be playing it for months or even longer if there is a high replay value.