Well this sure as hell won’t be a super hot thing for me to post or anything! Then again, when is anything I say that isn’t satirical NOT a hot take?
I play A LOT of video games. And I play a lot of different kinds of video games since I think it’s important to try different kinds of games and different types of genres of games and if you’ve seen the games I usually talk about or even just the pics I’ve commissioned which usually tend to have characters or other aspects tied to various games I really like then that should be obvious. So you can imagen how hard is it for me to admit that there is actually one specific type of game that I struggle with the most. Not struggle playing or anything, not even struggle to get my hands on but struggle to get really invested in and what that one is might actually surprise some of you. Turn based JRPGs.
Yeah, out of all games, slower turn based JRPG styled games are the ones I have the most inconsistent experiences with. And obviously this isn’t me saying ALL RPG’s are something I struggle with, far from it. Fallout New Vegas, Skyrim, Undertale and Indivisable are all RPG games that are, at least at the time of me writing this, in my top 25 favourite games of all time. Not to mention me actually enjoying God of War 2018 and Ragnarock which were more like RPG’s than the original games as well as how I actually do enjoy the RPG Assassin’s Creed games much to the confusion of like every die hard AC fan and I would really love to play Mass Effect one day when I get the chance. Hell I’ve even played Mega Man Legends for the first time recently since it’s something I have had an interest in and oh boy, those controls have NOT aged very well! And of course there’s a bunch of games I’ve played which have RPG elements in them that I've also enjoyed.
No, rather it's the slower classic turn based style of RPG’s I tend to struggle with the most. Why? Well it’s mostly due a combination of personal experience with certain games that use this formula, real life factors and maybe because of what I use to mainly play growing up.
To be fair, there have been JRPGs I’ve played that I have really, really loved. In fact at the start of this year alone I played Super Mario RPG for the first time via the Switch remake and actually really enjoyed it but that’s mainly because I had a REALLY shitty start to this year which lead to me not really being in the best emotional state and this game helped a lot mentally for me. I mentioned my top 25 favourite games of all time before and there are actually at least 2 turn based JRPG’s on that list. Persona 5 and Pokemon Moon although with how Undertale’s gameplay is structured and maybe Indivisble I could probably count those in this category two though I'm still torn on if I'd consider the latter truly turn based or not.
Persona 5 I brought back in 2018 while I was on a holiday overseas in Hawaii for a second time and since the PlayStation 4 wasn’t region locked, thank Arecus, I decided to buy this game for when I got back home to Austraila. Yeah, I probably could of brought something for my Switch instead since that also isn’t region locked and I brought that with me on this trip but there was nothing out at the time I really wanted for my Switch anyway and Smash Ultimate was still six months away at that time. Actually, in general there wasn’t a whole lot I desperately wanted to play back in 2018 since I felt like I had cleared up my backlog of games I REALLY wanted to play. So with nothing else to do I played Persona 5 when I got home and when I did, I got REALLY into it. Like I spent that whole week playing nothing but Persona 5 since I wouldn’t be starting my job I finally managed to get for at least another week. I loved pretty much everything about this game from the story to the characters (well except for fucking Morgana the little shit) and the way the persona system worked. Granted, I spent less time with game after a while but I still loved it and had a great experience with it. I was a little heart broken though that this game was how I found out that even though PlayStation 4 game disks were not region locked, DLC was. Because I brought all the DLC for this game and none of it would install onto my NTSC copy meaning I had to essentially buy the game again but making sure it was the PAL version just so I could use those DLC costumes. *Sigh.*
Then there’s Pokemon. Not just one game in particular but the whole franchise I really like. Yeah, Sun and Moon are my favourites and for good reason two but my love for this franchise never actually started with this game like admittedly a lot of my favourite games in a lot of my favourite franchises. It actually began with Heart Gold and Soul Silver in 2010. I was just starting high school this year and I do feel like that does play some part in why I was so into this game back then because I was 13 at this point in my life while going though a bit of a rough transitional period and had a lot of time on my hands when I wasn’t doing school work and had a lot more patience two. And also admittedly my Nintendo hyperfixation I had at the time thanks to Super Smash Bros Brawl. Or maybe it was because this game came packaged with the Poke Walker which I used to death back then. Or maybe it’s because the whole concept of Pokemon was capturing all different kinds of monsters and using them in battles all of whom had different weakness and strengths and designs. I think this is the reason I’ve stuck with Pokemon for so long, all the different Pokemon you can get in these games and how no one run of the same game will ever be the same especially if you give yourself a self imposed challenge like not using any items or using only Pokemon of one specific type. Which is ironic considering, fun fact, this wasn’t even my ACTUAL first Pokemon game. That was Mystery Dungeon Explores of Time which was a completely different game gameplay wise to the mainline series. That’s also probably the reason I gravied towards Persona 5 so much since your able to use different personas in battle some of which are enemies you can convert to your side.
So yeah, slower JRPG’s have been some really great games and experiences I’ve gone though. But also some have been experiences I’ve lost interest in pretty quickly. Which ones in particular? Well, here’s some of them.
Final Fantasy VI: This is only one of several Final Fantasy titles you’re going to see here that I’ve fallen out of pretty quickly during my own playtime with. Although this one does have a bit of a special place in my heart since it was one of the only games I ever managed to get on the Wii Shop Channel back when that was still a thing. And I admit, I did actually get a decent bit into the game up until past the boss fight with the train and haven’t even played it since then. 12 years ago!
The Original Version of Final Fantasy VII: This was one of the many games an old friend of our family left for us after he sadly passed away in the late 2000’s along with his PlayStation 1 and his slim PlayStation 2 which is actually the reason why I have both a fat and slim PS2. And I tried several times also in 2012 to play this game for long sessions yet the farthest I’ve ever managed to get before going “Well, guess I’ll go play *insert literally any other game I enjoy more here* instead” was Shinra HQ. On Disk 1!
Final Fantasy VIII: Pretty much the same story as VII. One of the many PS1 games left to me by an old family friend only this one I booted up even less number of times than VII and didn’t even get as far either. I got up to when they send you to that island for that massive battle because apparently in this universe it’s perfectly okay to send child soldiers into a fight since the Geneva Convention is more of a suggestion. Or maybe it doesn’t even exist. Honestly, with how people believe Squal is actually dead for the remainder of the game beyond the first disk and the rest of the game is just a dream anything’s possible!
Final Fantasy X: Okay there is actually a bit of a funny story behind this one in particular. I actually once played this game as a really young child at a friends but never actually knew what the game was and it was during the part really early on on the ship after you meat everyone. It wasn’t until a few years ago after the game got re-released I tried it and got to that point I realized I had actually played this as a child and never knew it… And also dropped the game AT that exact point childhood me originally played it.
South Park the Stick of Truth: It really sucks I gotta put this game in particular here considering I actually really like South Park anyway, it’s one of the few Adult Animated shows that has been running for decades at this point I actually still enjoy when I do catch an episode, but I brought this game back in 2016 and got an hour in before dropping it and haven’t played it since then.
Dragon Quest XI: I managed to play this via the demo that was released on the Nintendo eShop back in 2019 which let’s you play the first 10 hours for free and I mainly played this because Hero was being added to Smash Ultimate and I’m kinda glad I did play this via the demo because only three hours into this game and I started to fall out of it.
Earthbound: When you consider what Earthbound is and how it was the direct inspiration for one of my favourite RPG's of all time anyway I should love this one! Like I should adore this one actually! But honestly, even before I got the means the means to play it, even before the game that was inspired by it was even a thing, just one look online at how Earthbound played and how it wasn't that different from most other RPG's from this time was enough to tell this wasn't for me and even when I did get an SNES Mini which had Earthbound installed on it guess how much time I spent in it compared to literally anything else that's on this thing? Yeah, not a lot.
Paper Mario: Speaking of turn based RPG's I want to love, this is another one I REALLY wanted to love because I love the Mario franchise and I did have such a good experience with Super Mario RPG especially since I did actually have Super Paper Mario growing up and the Thousand Year Door remake was only a few weeks away when I decided to start playing this. But I got four hours into this and up to the second star spirit before dropping the game entirely and focusing on Kirby 64 which I also started playing at this time. And most of that was because of how even though I liked the combat system at first, I started to feel like I was just going though the motions after a while. Jump on these enemies, don’t jump on these ones because they hurt you, use the hammer on these ones, use your sentient bomb waifu to kamakazie herself for the really hard ones and literally pray to God to restore FP.
Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door: And spoiler alert, my experience with Thousand Year Door wasn’t any better either. In fact, this time it took me only an hour of playing to realize I still wasn’t as into it as I wish I was and I didn’t want to feel like I was forcing myself to continue just because everyone goes on about how it’s the “greatest game of all time." Yeah, the Paper Mario fandom hyping this thing up as if it’s literally God’s gift to Earth probably didn’t help my experience either. Which sucks that that likely does play a part in this because I normally REALLY fucking hate when people use a games fandom or the fact that the game has any sort of popularity at all to trash it because that’s a really unfair way to judge a game you haven’t even played yourself like with how people tried pulling that shit with Five Night At Freddy’s or Undertale when they first came out. But with how much people love putting this game on such a high pedestal ignoring the fact that even some of my favourite games of all time also aren’t perfect on top of this fandom acting like you killed there dog if you say you don’t enjoy it or even enjoy the later games (especially Sticker Star) then yeah, forgive me for being maybe a little more critical of this game than I’d like to off been.
Paper Mario Sticker Star: Oh hey look, here’s Sticker Star right now! Look, I’m someone who thinks that Sticker Star is grossly over hated to the point where some of the hate comes off as overly cartoonish and childish to me. (One user on Twitter actually buried there copy of Sticker Star in the ground after the TTYD Remake announcement because “Ha ha, this game bad. Good game grow from it” which grow the hell up dude. Just say you don’t like a certain game and that be it.) But as far as actually playing this game goes, I got a few hours in before also dropping it for the same reason I did 64 and TTYD and literally the only reason I even tried this one was because of how everyone goes on about how awful it is and I had to try this for myself! And I’m sorry, but some of you clearly have never played an ACTUAL bad game in your lives if THIS is what you see as one of the worst games of all time and it shows!
Yeah that’s a fair amount of turn based RPG’s to have played and dropped quite early isn't it? So why do I usually struggle to get into a lot of turn based RPG’s? Several reasons.
-I tend to find the combat system in many of these games boring after a while.
-They can be really grindy at times especially ones where EXP isn’t shared with your whole party.
-They can be really slow and take a long time to even finish casually.
The first one is pretty self explanatory. It’s the combat of these games, the thing your going to be doing for a lot of the game and as the name implies, it’s turn based. You take a turn to attack an enemy or to use and item and then it’s their turn to attack you and there are a bunch of other factors to take into consideration like stats, levels and in some cases strengths, weaknesses and immunities on top of getting newer and stronger moves as you level up and some games do shake things up a little such as with the action commands in Paper Mario where pressing the button at the right time during an animation leads to a stronger attack or pressing it during an enemy attack letting you takes less to no damage. Considering how much you have to take into consideration when playing these kinds of games I should love this style of combat. When you know what you’re doing you feel really smart and like a tactical genius and that is satisfying.
But for me personally, it’s just not as engaging as I’d like it to be. Most of the time it feels less like “Oh shit, we got a battle on our hands! This is going to be intense” and more like “Aww gezz, it’s one of THESE assholes again. Guess I’ll have my guy who knows this attack that is super effective agents this type of enemy deal with this so we can get a move on.” And it probably doesn’t help that a lot of older JRPG’s relied on random encounters where you couldn’t see any enemies on the screen until RNG decides it’s time to for you to fight and you have to spend a minuet dealing with fodder enemies that die in one or two hits or spend several minuets dealing with a stronger one you’re not prepared for and can’t escape from and could likely wipe out your whole party. The reason games like Undertale and Deltarune get away with this for me is because while yes, it mostly being the standard turn based fair when it’s your turn, the game shifts to a bullet hell type game when it’s the enemies turn and each enemy having different kinds of attacks to avoid in these phases which feels a lot more engaging to me than just praying to RNGeesus the next hit doesn't outright kill you or pressing a button at the right time... While still praying to RNGeesus! Plus, unless you’re going for the Genocide route these games are mercifully short anyway so they never over stay there welcome.
It's also probably a result of many of the kinds of games I played growing up anyway. Not counting that one session I had of Final Fantasy X at a friends as a really young child that only lasted five minutes anyway many of the games I played growing up were either platformers where for most of them all you had to do to defeat enemies was just simply jump on them, action games which got straight to the point and had very fast paced combat, shooters which also just got straight to the point but with guns or open world games which gave you so much freedom to do anything you wanted within the games world! I wouldn’t play my first turn-based RPG until I was a teenager and entered high school and even then I still didn’t have much interest in a lot of them. In fact, many of the games I had an interest in though out most of the 2010’s were action RPG's with more involved combat or still mostly platformers, open world and action games as well as my love for the Character Action/Stylish Action genre being re-ignited in the later part of that decade.
Now some may be wondering about Fire Emblem at this point since that is also a slower and more tactical series of games. And this might surprise you, but I don’t really count that series in the same camp as turn based JRPG’s. Yes, these games are turn based but they are more about controlling an army and getting them into the right position to attack and you have to take a lot into consideration such as terrain, the weapon triangle, who to bring into the battle, the durability of your weapons, which classes would be best to use agents what especially your flying units, yeah it sounds wired but Fire Emblem has A LOT more going on in them than most typical turn based RPG’s. And that’s not even counting Casual mode which was introduced in New Mystery of the Emblem and has been in all the games since then making them a lot more accessible to new players. Phoenix mode in Fates was a dumb mode though.
But say I DO find myself enjoying a turn based combat system. Then I’d have another issue to deal with. Grinding. Because you’re not just playing as one character for most of these kinds of games, your controlling several! Which means you need to watch after there own levels and stats and if you don’t spend a while grinding then they won’t be at a high enough level to deal with anything because you didn’t want to spend an hour killing the same enemies for EXP but as a result your party has fallen behind in terms of power level and do you see why this can be a deal breaker for me?
Now to be fair, some turn based RPGs especially modern ones do have EXP be shared with your whole party even if they never actually partook in the battle themselves which usually eliminates the need to grind, thank Palutena! Some people hate that shared EXP is a thing in some games but I’d rather it be like THIS and me actually feeling like I’m getting somewhere rather than wasting hours of my life going on a mass genocide of generic enemies to grind when there are better things I could be doing with my time. This is also the reason why, for as much as I love this series, I have little to no motivation to replay any of the Pokemon games pre X and Y in particular because X and Y made the EXP share a key item that affects your whole party and you get really early in the game instead of it being a held item you only get one off, only affect the inactive Pokemon holding it and you don't get until really late into the game and since EXP being shared with your whole party has remained all the way up to Scarlet and Violet, yeah of course I'd want to replay these particular ones more than the older ones. For as much as I love Heart Gold and Soul Silver and will still hold a lot of nostalgia towards it, do you wanna know when the last time I ever did a full playthrough of that game, including the Kanto post-game and secret boss fight with Red, was? Mid 2015! 9 years ago! And almost five years after my original playthrough two!
And all of this both play a huge factor into the third reason I struggle with slower turn based JRPG styled games, they can be really slow and take a long time to get going! On average these games can take a VERY long time to beat. And I mean VERY long time. Like as in, my original playthough of Persona 5 the total play time managed to get close to 100 hours. Hell, my PS1 copies of Final Fantasy VII and VIII came on three disks which was unheard of for me at the time. And sadly, I don’t have all the time in the world. Most of that is because of me having a job as well as interacting with some of my friends online I’m still surprised I’ve managed to make in the past few years but also because there are other games that either are coming out, are out and I want to play, games I never got to play growing up for various reasons but really want to now that I have the means to play them or games I just haven’t played in a long time and want to again. For as much as I love Persona 5 and still stand by it being one of my favourites of these kinds of RPG’s I’ve played, knowing how long it took me finish the game casually (and Persona 5 Royal takes even longer than the original release) would I really want to go through all of it again when there are other games I’d want to play instead which wouldn’t take as long for me to finish?
So yeah, that’s pretty much everything I wanted to say. My experience with some turn based RPG’s and why I’ve had such an inconsistent experience with them. Which sucks that I do struggle with them so much because a lot of these actually have some really great stories, lore and characters tied to them. But if I’m not enjoying the actual gameplay of these games or they take so long to finish then I’m probably not going to want to see those stories though to the end. I am still really grateful that I tried a lot of these kinds of games out because again, trying new things is important. But if I ever play any RPG then they either have to not take to overly long to finish or have gameplay I actually find engaging. I am fully aware that the Final Fantasy VII remake changes the gameplay from the original’s turn based system into something much more involved and I would be willing to try that one day if I ever get around to it.