How my love for JRPGs started

I like a verity of different genres. Actions, stealth, & platform genres was always a big interest for me. But there was always something genres that I hated. I’ve never liked FPS, sport or driving games and one of the genres I hated the most where RPGs.I tried a bunch of different sorts of RPG’s but none of them where good. Then some friends and just about everyone else started going nuts over the newly released
Final Fantasy VII. So I tried it and of course… I did not enjoy it one bit and with that I decided to give the genre a rest, I was done! I just hated it.Now we are in the middle of 1999 and I hadn’t touched an RPG, but I had grown a bigger interest in anime. And had gotten the chance to see the anime series

Magic Knights Rayearth. It was a show that was very influenced by RPG and fantasy. So I started to watch it and grew to like the series more and more. I also felt a stronger urge to try some RPGs again and I got the chance later when I got a friend to lend me Lunar Silver Star Story Complete for the Playstation 1.

And I’m greeted by the most charming pixels I had seen. Just the beginning of the game it “felt” right. There was something there, something that almost seemed like magic. I was 15 at the time and It truly was love at first sight for me. For me in gaming ways this all was so new, the world was so big. The game was so beautiful, the music it grabbed my heart early and is yet to let go.
Finally I was playing an adventure like the ones I myself dreamed of when I was little, this was the closest thing I could come to be a part of an adventure. This was also the first game to wake some sort of emotion in my. When I saw Luna’s boat scene for the first time and heard the song Winds Nocturne, I cried. It just gave of such a strong emotion and it was then I knew this game would hold a special place in my heart. It helped me get passed my hate barrier and after that I started playing more and more RPGs.
Even tried a few Western RPGs, which I still don’t like very much. I might go into details about it another time, perhaps.

Ever since Lunar I only played RPGs, I tried to play the ones I missed. Then around 2003 I came in contact with the Xenosaga Episode 1. Instead of green forests and a world needed saving I was thrown into something new. I was placed in a more sci-fi environment and with stuff that was pretty high-tech. Loosing our home planet in the year 2000, the game forwards us 4000 years into the future. Humanity had no choice but to flee into space and a new threat to humanity had arisen. And then
The Gnosis, an alien race that nobody knows much about. Oh, I was so sold from that.

But the really big seller in the game for me was after seeing KOS-MOS appearance in the game, I just feel in love with the game. She was cool kick ass and female. All the things I like! No, I’ve never been a fan of Lara Croft either. And I’ve always thought she was only popular since she had a big chest, so for me this was my first real encounter with a strong female character. Well at least the only one I can remember. I was fascinated by the story, which I won’t even go into here. I want people to experience it and I’m not very good to explain what happens in the game. And I have forgotten some things… You should play both this and Lunar if you get a chance.

Ever since I started playing Lunar SSSC, I had not played any other games in other genres. I was so deep into RPGs I didn’t not care for anything else. Nothing gave me the same satisfaction as RPGs did. Well okay, I did play some of the Metal Gear Solid games and a few other games. But besides that it was none stop RPGs.
While RPGs still give me better satisfaction and most out of my money, last year I started to try out some other games from other genres again.

Years later I also replayed Final Fantasy VII, while I thought it was better than before I’ve never been a fan of the game. So me and that game we just don’t mix, while I thought it was better, I’m still do not like that game very much. But in return I like Final Fantasy VIII much more! Something a whole lot of people don’t. While this might not have been the best told story of how I came to love RPGs, I still feel like I get to say some of the things I’ve been thinking of. I should almost be tired of this whole teenagers save the world stuff, but there is always something that keeps me coming back. It can be characters I like or other things in the story I’m a sucker for. For me 2010 looks like a great year for RPGs, with a bunch of games coming out in the upcoming months.

I hope my love for RPGs will last and perhaps can start to like WRPGs one day too. Since with the right game for you, to be your guide I’m sure you can like all sorts of genres. Thank you all for listening to my rants and thoughts about this. I really feel like I got what I wanted to say out and was able to at least make some people understand why I love the genre I do. I still think its ironic that the thing I hated the most, would turn around and become the thing I would eventually love the most in gaming.

Tags: Anime, Final Fantasy, Games, JRPG, Love, Lunar, Xenosaga