The jRPG

Saw a post on this at RPS, and thought I’d retweet, so to speak.

Go play this game.  I’ll wait.

Now, unlike Kieron’s view of this game, I don’t think that this is a particularly ‘mean spirited’ take on the jRPG at all.  I do agree that the type of RPG Sophie is mocking here is definitely of the ‘classical jRPG’ variety (think Final Fantasy, Star Ocean, Lost Odyssey, etc.).  The reason I don’t think so is, firstly, I don’t think you can be ‘mean spirited’ about a genre, only a specific example of that genre.  It’s like saying someone is being mean-spirited about SciFi, you can’t really do it.  Secondly, This is what satire is.  You take something, strip it of the lace and trim and expose it for what is really going on behind the scenes as brutally as you can.  If you think that’s in poor taste, fine, but I would argue that you don’t really understand or appreciate satire.

Finally, while I love what Sophie has done here - boiled the RPG down to grinding along a line in order to read a poorly written story - I think she could go further.  Start by interrupting the player’s progression along the line every 2-3 seconds, randomly, and without warning, force them to watch the little stick figure dancing around (a 10 second process), and then to tap the same button over and over again until they are returned to the line, only to repeat the process again 2-3 seconds later.

It might dilute the message for those that aren’t familiar with the material at hand, but I would find it god damn hilarious.