Diary of a Mad Sonic Fanboy: Chapter Three

Chapter 3 Act 1: The End of an Era

The years of 1992 and 93 were ones of lucrative successes for Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic was at the height of his popularity. There were not one, but two Sonic cartoons in circulation. There were Sonic T-shirts, coloring books…freakin’ Pez dispensers of Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic was one of the most popular videogame series at the time, if not the most popular. Naturally a Sonic 3 was being prepared behind the scenes and Sega would attempt to make it their biggest Sonic game yet, even employing Michael Jackson to lend his talents to the soundtrack. While this collaboration was never finished, his influence on the game’s music is still very apparent. The game and the project was so ambitious that it had to be split into two parts, with the second half of the story to come at some later date. However, in early 1994, we finally got Sonic 3.



Unfortunately for Sonic 3, its release date came at an awkward time. Nintendo was beginning to regain its footing by 1994, having one of the best years that console ever had and following the commercial disaster that was the Sega CD, Sega now had to scramble to try to regain its strong lead and thus do I think Sonic 3 was hastily rushed to store shelves. To add further fuel to the fire Sega failed to outright state that this was a part of a two part series and reaching the end of the game forced a lot of gamers, including myself to scratch their heads thinking “That was it?” The game was pretty short with a cliff hanger ending this side of Halo 2. As a result this game was not as critically well received as previous games.


But that doesn’t mean that Sonic 3 was a terrible game by any means. The original idea the team had for the game was to design a 3D sonic game but that idea was ultimately scrapped in favor of another traditional side scrolling adventure. In order to avoid rehashing the same game as the 3 that came before it, Sonic 3 attempted to create a little more back-story for the game than previous ones. Picking up immediately where Sonic 2 left off Dr. Robotnik’s Death Egg crash-lands on the Angel Island where a legendary Master Emerald is being held. Sonic and Tails fly off towards him in pursuit. Sonic transforms into Super Sonic in a strange bit of continuity for a side scroller before he is stopped dead in his tracks by a new character, Knuckles the Echidna who quickly nabs your Chaos Emeralds you worked so hard to get in part 2. (Or at least I worked hard to get, most other gamers likely had a life and didn’t bother collecting them all or they used a Game Genie to get Super Sonic in which case you suck.) Anyway, putting the fact that Knuckles somehow stopping Sonic in his tracks with one blow makes no sense at all, this was still a really memorable way to introduce a new character and Knuckles quickly became accepted into the Sonic universe and was an instant success.

Knuckles pre Sonic Adventure. Bad rap song not included.

Sonic 3 was fun right from the start. As soon as I began zipping through Angel Island I could see that this game was easily on par with past Sonic games and the graphics were jaw dropping for a Genesis game at the time and still is one of the most gorgeous 2D plat formers today. Every sprite got an updated look that looked even better than Sonic CD in some ways. A lot of gameplay additions were made as well. Sonic now had several shields in addition to the usual one and that protected you from different elements. A fire one that allowed you to walk over lava, a lightning shield that allowed protection from thunder or shocks and had an added benefit of attracting any nearby rings to you and a water bubble that offered unlimited breathing underwater. The bonus stages were redesigned in what I felt were my most favorite style and even Tails got an upgrade as now you can fly anytime you want to add a different dynamic to gameplay when playing as Sonic. Acts were still limited to 2, but this time each act had a different look to it and even a remix of the act’s music played to accompany it. Sonic 3 had the best soundtrack of any Sonic game in my opinion up to that point and still does. It was a fantastic game that sadly had the major flaw of being too short. That would be fixed with the release of….

Later that same year, Sega would finally release Sonic and Knuckles and the conclusion to Sonic 3. This game came out just in time for my birthday and I rushed to my room instantly to start it up. If Sonic and Knuckles had any failing is that it was essentially more of the same since technically it is part of the same game that Sonic 3 was supposed to be. However this addition did have a few added benefits. For one thing the popular character of Knuckles was now playable. Knuckles had become an instant fan favorite and being able to play as him was a nice boost to the game. He could also access areas that Sonic could not by climbing or punching his way through areas and making new pathways. Of course the true strength of Sonic and Knuckles came in the form of Lock-On Technology.



In what could be considered one of the coolest things like, ever at the time putting a copy of Sonic 3 on top of a specially designed cartridge for S&K gave you Sonic 3 and Knuckles which allows you to play Sonic 3 and go straight into S&K without interruption. This also unlocked Tails as a playable character for the game and gave you access to the true ending for S&K. Even more odd was sticking a copy of Sonic 2 would mod the game and allow you play as Knuckles in that game for even more awesomeness. Sadly, this is only possible by actually playing a Genesis cart of the game or downloading a ROM as any subsequent Sonic 2 or Sonic and Knuckles re-releases do not allow you to play this.


Well, for the fifth time I took down Dr. Robotnik (or Metal Sonic if you were Knuckles) and had a blast, only this time it just didn’t seem quite as fun. Sonic 3 and Knuckles didn’t feel quite as good as the other games to me. Stages seemed designed to trap the player and based more on speed and memorization than exploring. But most of all the stages were too long. Some stages could run anywhere from 6-7 minutes and by the second act of a lot of them I was ready for it to end already. It was clear that while Sonic was still fun, the series was starting to lose some of it’s magic and by the end of 1994 I was more into my Super Nintendo than my Sega Genesis. The Golden Age of Sonic had finally come to a close.

Chapter 3 Act 2: Where In the World Is Sonic the Hedgehog?

Sonic the Hedgehog had 5 main titles as well as a slew of spin offs and Game Gear ports. Even the character of Knuckles got a game for the much maligned 32X another awful add on idea that Sega had apparently learning nothing of the lessons of the Sega CD. Even less people bought that and it remained on the market for barely a year if that even. Not even Sonic could save a console anymore and people were just starting to get sick of Sega while on the Nintendo front they had one of their biggest years ever in 1994, ending with the release of Donkey Kong Country which blew anything the Genesis had graphically out of the water. By 1995 the Sega Genesis had seemed like an old dog that was desperately needing to be put out to pasture. Sega would give disc based gaming another try as it was obviously the direction gaming was headed but this time they had to do it right. The Sega CD flopped because they failed to make a game that really showcased the power of the hardware with a fun likeable character in an eye catching game. Their Sega Saturn would launch later that same year and did they manage to do that? Well….sorta.

Sega had to really rush the Saturn out there before they were really ready to do so. They were quickly falling behind and they had to get their system out first before the Sony Playstation. As a result the Sega Saturn released months before it was supposed to and it was the Sega CD all over again. While at least they didn’t have bad FMV games, the US Saturn was filled with nothing anyone wanted to play or games that were also available on other platforms. As a result the Sega Saturn was fast becoming another Sega CD or 32X in the long line of failed consoles. Sega just couldn’t find a way to duplicate the success that the Genesis did. However, the Saturn was flying off of the shelves in Japan. Great classic original games were selling like hotcakes but the US Saturn still sat collecting dust on store shelves. So did Sega finally address this issue and start importing some of these original titles?

Well, what do you think?

Sega president Tom Kalinske at the time felt that 3D gaming was the way to go and that 2D was a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the Saturn’s greatest strength was in processing 2D graphics and couldn’t handle 3D as well as its rival the Playstation or later the Nintendo 64. As a result a lot of really lousy slow loading poop was released for the thing instead of what everyone really wanted, a 32 Bit 2D Sonic game in all of its glory.

Well, we didn’t get that. We got Nights.

To be fair, Nights wasn’t a terrible game by any means, but unfortunately Sega was an enemy of its own successes as many shunned it because well, it wasn’t Sonic. And that’s what we all really wanted to see. Sega had really been banking on Nights being the commercial success that Sonic was and tried to get us to buy into a new mascot for the Saturn and repeat the success of the Genesis. That never happened. By the time Sega finally came crawling back to Sonic in late 96 with Sonic 3D Blast an awful game that wasn’t even designed by the Sonic Team themselves (they were too busy with Nights) it was too late. Nintendo had unveiled their Nintendo 64 and Mario’s long silence was ended and he came back with a vengeance in the form of Mario 64. Sonic was for all intents and purposes, finished. There wouldn’t be another Sonic game proper for almost four years. Even my interest in Sonic the Hedgehog was over. I watched as I played lousy racing games like Sonic R and just laughed at Sega’s ineptitude and stupidity. 1991 seemed like such a long time ago. Both Sonic and Sega needed some time to bounce back and recover and for once do things right.

Yes, just what Sonic needed in response to Mario 64; a slugglish, ugly slow moving fighting game.

Next Time: Sonic awakens from his long slumber and takes us for not one but two great adventures as a new generation of Sonic fans are born.

Diary of a Mad Sonic Fanboy: Chapter Two

The success of Sonic the Hedgehog propelled Sega to heights the company had never seen before and it was now time to take control of the console game market in 1992. The original Sonic was a smash success and many fans including myself were definitely wanting more. Sega was already hard at work producing a sequel that looked to be even better than the original. At the time I couldn’t really see how you could top the original game but pretty soon Sega would give me my answer in the form of Sonic 2.

Chapter Two: The Sonic Boom

Sonic the Hedgehog was an amazing financial success for Sega and for the first time they had momentum going into 1992. They would have to deliver a final crushing blow to Nintendo and their SNES if they hoped to continue to their success. While this never happened, they did become the market leaders when Sonic 2 was released. Sonic 2 was an even bigger success than the original and to this day it is still the best selling Sonic game to date selling over 6 million copies worldwide. The original game was amazing, but Sonic 2 could only be met with silent awe and admiration. Sonic 2 absolutely demolished the original in every possible way and gave us a new character, Miles “Tails” Prower.

Sonic now has a Robin to his Batman

The best just got better. Everything in Sonic 2 was better. Better music, better graphics, better level design. That nasty spike glitch was mercifully addressed. (You know that one where if you jump on the spikes you keep hitting it until you die with no way to recover…ugh.) Sonic was given a new ability, the Spin Dash which helped immensely. No longer did you have to run backwards and pick up speed just charge in place and plow through the enemies. Although Zones were reduced from 3 to 2 levels per Zone, more Zones were added to increase variety. Dr. Robotnik was back to challenge you in every level but this time his contraptions were more varied and challenging. Special stages were altered from that awful headache inducing rotating pinball machine thing from the original in favor of a much more fun “rollercoaster” style run in which you simply collect enough rings and avoid taking damage from bombs to collect the Chaos Emeralds. Speaking of Chaos Emeralds….

Nabbing all of the Chaos Emeralds didn’t really do much in the original game. It just slightly altered the ending somewhat. Not in Sonic 2. If you were skilled enough to grab them all in Sonic 2, a really nifty reward happened when you were able to grab 50 rings in a stage. Sonic transformed into a super fast yellow form and became Super Sonic. All your hard work paid off. Any level as Super Sonic was a joke as long as you could keep collecting enough rings before the effect diminishes. Needless to say I thought this was the coolest thing ever and felt like I didn’t waste my time trying to collect them all. In fact I played Sonic 2 to the death. Me and my brother would have hours of fun playing this game. If there was any game I mastered in life, this was definitely one of them. Everything led to the game’s epic conclusion with Sonic and Tails flying into space to face Robotnik one last time. But not before he forced you to fight one of his creations, Metal Sonic. I remember as a kid seeing this nice little surprise and thinking, oh crap when it prepared to charge. I miraculously survived the battle only to discover that Robotnik was a far greater challenge. To this day I still say this game has the hardest final boss out of any of the Sonic games and when it was finally said and done my palms were sweaty and I just kicked back and watched the credits. Epic finish to an epic game.

Sadly, the game wasn’t exactly perfect either. A two player mode was added to the game but sadly it was utterly awful with its split screen and slowdown. This felt like a last minute tacked on addition to the game as an excuse to delete some of the unused stages from the game. Actually this game had a lot of things in it that were unused. This game was a very ambitious project and multiple ideas including time travel even were excised. In fact, Sonic 2 was originally being developed for a new game console Sega was working on that used a compact disc format instead of cartridges but much of those ideas were scrapped. So what did happen to a lot of those ideas? Well, they took them and applied them to what in my opinion is the greatest Sonic game of all time.





It’s now 1993. Sega has taken a firm hold over the home console market and just recently unveiled their Sega CD add on the public. This was made to compete with the success of the Neo Geo and Turbo Duo disc based consoles which were a huge success in Japan. They hadn’t really taken off in North America and with the Sega brand a big name in NA, they would practically run unopposed in that market. The decision was a pretty smart one for Sega in theory. They had a leg up on Nintendo and there shouldn’t be any reason the public wouldn’t buy this new technology right? Sega had marketed the Genesis brilliantly. They banked on the success of Sonic the Hedgehog and it paid off in spades. Sonic was bundled with every console and it sold an impressive amount of units and put them on even footing with Nintendo. So now that Sega had this new disc based hardware it was time to send them packing right? A new Sonic game for the CD was in development and released for the console but instead of showing off that game which truly used the power of the hardware they opted instead to advertise stuff like this…



Yeah, Sega stupidly instead chose to focus on grainy FMV games that looked ugly back then and most certainly haven’t aged well today. As a result the Sega CD became the first real major blunder in the companies history as it was forgotten almost a year after it released. It didn’t take long for people like me to realize most of it’s games were shit and instead of doing the intelligent thing and bundling Sonic CD with the console, most bundles came with a horrible FMV game called Sewer Shark. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy with the Sega CD and realized it was going to be a failure after a few months. But hey, at least I had Sonic CD.

Oh what a game Sonic CD was. To this day, still the best Sonic game ever. The best parts of Sonic 1 and 2 were meshed to create this one. Tails wouldn’t be around for this one but instead we did get introduced to a new character, Amy Rose and Sonic’s nemesis Metal Sonic would return in his most recognized incarnation and wouldn’t you know it he’d capture Amy for whatever reason and now you have to save her. Robotnik is back to his old tricks of course and this time he’s not after the Chaos Emeralds, but instead the Time Stones which allows a person to travel in time to any moment he wishes. Why on earth this hasn’t been used in future Sonic stories is beyond me. It’s a neat idea and Sega should revisit it. Lord knows they could use some good ideas, but let’s save that rant for future chapters of this blog series shall we?

The debut of Amy Rose. A moment of celebration for some, dismay for others.

While she wasn’t a playable character and this game regressed back to a 1 player game with just Sonic, this game more than made up with that shortcoming. This game could do things that the other Sonic game could only dream of doing with the new disc based technology. I remember putting in the disc and being treated to the opening movie and heard a really cool song and realized this game was going to blow the other two out of the water.



Sonic now had more animations than ever before. In addition to the Speed Dash Sonic now had the ability to run in place and build momentum. A feature to this day still unique to Sonic CD. This made Sonic even faster than he was in Sonic 2. Thanks to CD technology, Sonic now had a voice for the first time ever. Sonic CD has some of the most interesting level designs in the series. Challenging, yet fun this is also the most replayable Sonic game out of the originals thanks to the time feature. Certain gates marked with Past or Future signs would send Sonic into those respective eras if he built up enough speed. Going into the past and destroying Robotniks machines would allow for a good future in Zone 3 which altered the stage and even the stage music. Speaking of the music, this game had a great soundtrack thanks to the CD quality of the music and oddly enough the music for the American version was very different than that of the original. But who cares! While the Japanese music was good, the music of the American version has aged much better overall and was simply outdone. This is one of those rare times where we did something better than the Japanese in my opinion. The music in this game was a bit different than what you would normally hear out of a Sonic game at that time but nowadays it would fit perfectly. It was just a bit ahead of its time. The special stages were in Mode 7 style and offered the first glimpse into what a 3D Sonic game would be like. Everything about Sonic CD was ahead of its time.

As such Sonic CD was the best selling Sega CD game well, ever and was still enjoyed a fair amount of success and is hailed as a cult classic today. Sadly due to Sega’s mismanagement they took what could have been future success with this disc based add on and future Sonic games could have thrived on this format. Sega was clearly out of touch with what the consumers wanted and had to end the Sega CD experiment shortly thereafter and a true Sonic sequel would be relegated to the Genesis again. Well there’s always the old lovable Genesis I guess, right?

Sonic's reaction to Sega's marketing decisions in the mid 90s

Next Time: The Golden Age of Sonic finally comes to a close and Sonic takes a strange hiatus from the gaming world when Sega gives disc based gaming another go.

Every Girl Crazy Bout A Sharp Dressed Man

Seriously EA, fire your cover designers already.

Diary of a Mad Sonic Fanboy: Chapter One

I’ll never forget Christmas of 1991. I was an impressionable 8 year old child opening all of my gifts that I had received. While I had loved them all, one clearly stood out amongst the rest. I had received my first game console that my parents had bought for me. Up until that point I had to share the NES with my older brother, but now I finally had something I could call my own. My parents bought me a Sega Genesis. I was happy. I knew when I saw that shiny black box with silver lettering I had something special. I was gonna find out what Genesis does that Nintendon’t. While the Sega Genesis is not exactly my favorite game console, it’s my most treasured and one I find most nostalgic. One of the major reasons for this is because the system came packaged with one of my personal favorite game franchises of all time, Sonic the Hedgehog. However, over the years this love has waned. It has transformed from love, to apathy to loathing hate. This then, is the reflection. This is my life experience with Sonic the Hedgehog. National Kenographic presents.....

Chapter 1: The Genesis of Fanboyism

Truth be told, I hadn’t always wanted a Sega Genesis. I was perfectly happy in the 80s with the NES era and I didn’t really think videogames could become much greater than Super Mario Bros. 3. I played that game to the death. I had seen in various gaming publications of a new gaming console, called the Sega Genesis. They ran various ad campaigns on TV and magazines crowing about how great it was and how NES was a joke in comparison and this and that, and while it looked neat, it failed to really capture me as a gamer. Not that as a kid I didn’t go “Wow those graphics are purty!” but any of the games just failed to make a lasting impression with me as I wasn’t much of a sports gamer and I never could get into Alex Kidd. It just seemed like a poor Mario clone to me. All of that changed when I saw this….




Yes, the original ad for Sonic the Hedgehog. Now Sega gets laughed at for poor marketing strategy and rightly so, however during the early 90s Sega had made absolutely brilliant marketing decisions and strategy. Alex Kidd simply was not pushing Sega consoles and they needed a serious viable contender to the Super Nintendo onslaught. In steps this man...

The face of a man that realizes he is indeed all that and a bag of chips

The Sega Corporation should be sending a good 5 percent of their paycheck to this man every week for literally putting them on the map in videogame history. Many characters were submitted by Naka’s team to replace Alex Kidd, interestingly enough a lot of those scrapped designs would be used in later titles, such as Vector the Crocodile, who finally would make an appearance years later. Eventually the team settled on one design, a small hedgehog with an ability to run extremely fast. Dubbed Sonic due to his super speed, he was the obvious choice for the new mascot and was given the color blue to coincide with the trademark Sega logo. Sega wanted it so that when you think of Sega, you think of Sonic the Hedgehog, just like Mario with Nintendo. It was an instant overnight success. Sega had created an amazing attention getter. Sonic was the true alternative to Mario. The character was a perfect representation of the 1990s attitude. Outrageous, wild, out of control, in your face, fast paced and colorful, it made Mario look like an ancient relic of the past in my impressionable elementary mind. The choice was clear. I had to get Sonic the Hedgehog. For the first time ever, Mario and Nintendo had a true viable contender to his throne. That Christmas, Sega Genesis sold 65% more units than Nintendo. It was official. Sonic had knocked Mario off of his throne he held for nearly 10 years. A new sheriff was in town and his name was Sonic. It will easily go down as the greatest marketing strategy in the companies history. Of course, the game was fun too.



As soon as I hooked up my Genesis and booted it up I was instantly blown away. The first thing you recognize is that Sonic has a personality. He isn’t just some sprite. I could see his facial expressions as he nearly falls off of a cliff, the determination he has when charging at full speed and his sense of humor as he gets angry at you for not getting a move on already and his surprise when he gets struck by an enemy. I got a sense of accomplishment and thrill at besting Dr. Robotnik on the first stage and watching him race away in fear. I felt like I was playing as a bad ass and could instantly get a sense of their characters without one word of dialogue or background story being spoken. I only made it to the second Zone on my first play through, but I still remember it vividly to this day. I played the game all day for hours on end. Everything in the game just came together. Green Hill Zone was a fun romp to introduce you to the world of Sonic. The lush backgrounds, the beautiful music and gorgeous backdrop were placed to give you a sense that “Yes, this is what you are fighting for.” Marble Zone the music gets a bit more dramatic, the stages a bit more challenging before changing gears with Spring Yard Zone and the dreaded Labyrinth Zone, a perfectly named stage that many gamers finally get stuck on thanks to it’s difficulty and somewhat confusing layout. If you can manage to clear that the game brings you Star Light Zone. A peaceful calm setting with beautiful relaxing music to reward you for getting this far. This was also the game’s way of relaxing you before the final stretch, the Scrap Yard with another music track that invokes the feeling of “Hey, this is the end, don’t give up!” Every aspect of game design came together beautifully and after much practice I was finally able to best Dr. Robotnik and he was finally mine. …..Or so I thought and he just flew off again and I was sad and disappointed. But hey, Sonic saved the world for his little forest friends and everything would be ok, at least for now. Sadly, I never could get all of the Chaos Emeralds in that game. The images of Dr. Robotnik taunting me at the end with the remaining ones he had irritated me to this day. I would spend the next year or so beating the game and trying my damnedest to destroy that damn Robotnik at the end and prevent him from getting away but to no avail.

The first of many, many and I do mean many battles with the Doc

Suffice to say, this was my introduction to Sonic the Hedgehog and I became an instant fan. I finally had found a game that made me realize I really did love to play videogames and this was up to that point my clear favorite and still remains a game I play off and on regularly throughout the years. I became a Sonic fan boy.








Next Time: In Chapter 2 we revisit 1992 where the best just got better and I determined that all I needed in life were 3 things. God, family and Sonic the Hedgehog.

And thus did many used game retailers clutch their stomachs and laugh heartily at Sega's empty threats.

Every Fall Sony Has a Dumb Idea.

2008

2009

2010

JRPGs are a slave to anime and I want no moe.

JRPGs and Prince have something in common. They both party like it’s 1999. For the past 10 years now JRPGs have grown into a period of stagnation where no new fresh ideas are flowing down the pipes and creativity and originality are simply a stalwart of the 1990s and were promptly left behind along with flannel shirts. Their popularity and influence in the industry continue to wane further and further. The reason for this is quite simple. JRPGs have become a slave to anime, they have no idea where to innovate and most important of all, they no longer let the player assume a role, which is the core idea behind an RPG to begin with. JRPGs are instead excessively lengthy films with a pointless minigame or two tossed in.



Now JRPGs have always had a somewhat close relationship with anime, but never before in the history of the genre have the two just been so closely connected. Its also not that I have some seething hatred with anime in particular either. It’s just that ever since Final Fantasy VII literally took the world by storm which was obviously the most anime inspired FF game to date, JRPGs have been stuck within a bubble of Japanese pop culture from which it can’t escape. Nearly every main character of a JRPG today is some effeminate moe zippers and hairspray pretty boy who looks like he just came off the set of a music video. He is often accompanied by other anime archetypes as well. Cute traditional Japanese looking Mary Sue? Check. Pretty boy hot guy with glasses? Check. Cute lolicon/catgirl? Check. Emo pretty boy warrior who is the strongest in the land? Check. “Sexy” older and more mature mysterious girl with a large rack? Check. Cute animal thing with a squeaky voice? Double check. Nearly every JRPG in the last 10 years now have had those sort of silly redundant stereotypes. Mixing and matching the settings and locales won’t alter this fact. Be it Tales of Whatever in a medieval setting or Xenobabble in space, or even Wild Arms in what I guess is supposed to be some warped vision of what the Wild West is supposed to be, all of these games mix and match all of these stereotypical archetypes we’ve been seeing in anime since the early 90s. While RPGs have been known to have clichés in the past, it’s abundantly clear that nearly every single RPG these days contain cookie cutter one dimensional characters you’ve seen before.

Can’t sell plushies on J-List without one of these things in your game.

That’s not to say that JRPGs haven’t tried to innovate….the problem is that they have no clue as to where the innovation should be begin. Giving a car with a bad fuel pump a fresh coat of paint doesn’t help it run any better. The real areas JRPGs need innovation in aren’t being addressed. Instead we are constantly bombarded with crazy nonsense battle systems and confusing menus and dumb mini games. Nowhere is this more evident than in Resonance of Fate. It takes the average player nearly five hours just to grasp the basics of that game’s combat system. Meanwhile the plot literally goes nowhere as the character’s names aren’t even given any introduction much less any back story as to who they are or where they came from. Placing the game in a steam punk setting doesn’t cover up the inherent clichéd mess of a plot and boring characters and overly complex battle systems doesn’t give the game any more originality than other JRPGs. Final Fantasy for all of it’s attempts at trying to innovate has made progress in some areas but not enough in the key areas. Sure, Final Fantasy 8, 10 and 13 have all made attempts at innovation, however FF12 was the most innovative FF game in the past ten years simply because it knew where to innovate. It took key lessons from western RPGs and incorporated them into traditional Final Fantasy, but even that game had an identity crisis. That ugly anime influence crept into the game as a main character in Vaan was hastily inserted into a plot that really had little to do with him. It was clear Square-Enix was afraid to lose sales if an effeminate male didn’t play the lead. They were afraid to leave from their protective bubble. They are a slave to anime.

The by-products of focus tested schlock.

The only real JRPG series that has managed to thrive and retain it’s credibility over the years and stay fresh and interesting is Shin Megami Tensei. Now, of course this would seem instantly contradictory given the heavy Japanese influence of these games, namely the Persona games, but there is a bit of a difference. SMT has anime influences, but just like older JRPGs of the past, they aren’t a slave to it. They aren’t bound by familiar stereotypes or appearances. The characters are usually multifaceted in Persona and have realistic personalities. They learn and grow through life experience. SMT overall has managed to stay fresh by not being afraid to try something different. Even the latest in the franchise Strange Journey has deviated from its Japanese cultural roots and taken a nod to American Sci-Fi films and nearly all of the cast is American.

However the one thing that sets those apart and this is the biggest reason JRPGs simply aren’t as fun anymore; no longer do you play a role. Essentially role playing games are supposed to be that. You assume a role and from there the story around you unfolds, you are a part of the story and your choices directly influence it. Developers went through painstaking lengths to try to create this illusion with the limited technology they had in the old days, but fundamentally JRPGs have actually regressed somewhat regarding this. Far too often in JRPGs (and this is my biggest complaint with FF13), is that the player does not assume the role of that character and instead simply moving that character from one plot point to the next. No choices can be made that actually affect the outcome of the plot, they’re simply there along for the ride. At best the player is a fight choreographer for a movie. Shin Megami Tensei sets itself apart by still giving the player control of not just how they build their player, but the choices that character makes. In some games major choices can even effect who will become your allies, or your enemies. It’s this feeling of being in control, feeling as if you yourself take an active role in the events unfolding that helps you better connect with the plot and retain interest.

JRPGs are stuck in a rut, creatively. However, that doesn’t have to be the case. If they wouldn’t be afraid to step out of the anime cliché bubble for once and focus on the basics of what an RPG is designed to do, rather than focus on silly overbearing combat systems that serve no real purpose in extending the vested interest of the player, this genre would be a lot better off. And no, no amount of online or social networking will change that Square-Enix. Atlus seems to be on a lone boat sailing away from the trappings of what is expected out of an RPG in the land of the rising sun. I oblige other companies over there to do the same.

Is the world...

....not utterly sick of this Chitlin Circuit bullshit yet?

More like, why did Tyler Perry make another fucking movie? Seriously, go away. I wish I could write the same bullshit year after year and get paid millions to do it.