Ask anyone with a lick of sense and isn’t entirely dependent on an allowance and Gamestop coupons to buy games and they’ll tell you that Final Fantasy VII isn’t a classic; it’s overrated trash. There were far superior games from the era and far better entries in the Final Fantasy series. Even the oft-maligned Final Fantasy VIII – hardly remembered by people who aren’t fans of the ser

Fanfiction, in general, does not have such a stellar reputation. It’s studded with various controversies and quite a few debates on things like copyright, whether or not you can consider the writers ‘real authors’, the need for a really good free grammar check service, keeping true to canon characterization or worlds, and so on. The really bad reputation of fanfiction aside, there are some who arg

One of the biggest complaints levied against the RPG genre is that the games tend to be long and epic in nature. Being epic isn’t necessarily bad, but the amount of time that titles like Final Fantasy XII and Breath of Fire IV can take up crosses from “video game” territory and into “commitment.” However, for the critics that say they’re all far too long, their claims only prove

Anyone that’s looked into JRPGs would know that horoscope signs tend to be part of the character profiles in many of these games. In most cases, it seems to be one of those details that the Japanese like to include to give the character a bit more depth to them, even if it has no real relevance to gameplay. Not every game integrates that sort of detail as coherently and as intrinsically as Persona did with th

I get the idea of making movies or shows, and writing books set in worlds that originally come from video games. But the other way around? TV shows have spinoffs, such as movies and books, because people want to expand on the ideas that were put forth by an original show. For example, the popular television series Bones has one character in a single episode who has a knack of finding things almost mystically. The i

For one reason or another, Capcom has been remarkably hesitant to even acknowledge the fact that it had a series of JRPGs at one point in time. Most people don’t really understand this – the Breath of Fire series had three solid entries, one that was good enough to stand on its own, and only one that was disappointingly atrocious. In particular, the company seems hesitant to acknowledge the existence of the

Maybe it’s just me, but I get the impression that RPG guys like to look down their noses at other online video gamers. And you know what, if that’s what it takes to make you happy, then go for it. My friends and I have been looked down upon by serious nasty-asses and awful scuz-bags. If it makes you happy to be in that company, it’s no skin off my cheeks. If your world is defined by your identity

The other day, I was busy trying to look busy at work. Open an Excel sheet here, browse a Word document there, and stare at the same old memo for three hours while drinking stale coffee. As I was frantically ALT + Tabbing from Bang Bus, however, I came upon a tech website, which kept me amused for the next two hours. One of those amusing but useless things I found was the Big Red Button. It was essentially a big re

The average MMO inherits a lot of little details from the single player RPG forebears that spawned it, including the concept of “party roles.” The idea behind this is that any given group in an RPG will have specific characters playing specific roles, each one having a part in the success of whatever it is the party wants to do. Here’s a simple breakdown on the most common. The Tank, like the mili

Here’s an interesting dichotomy. Japanese RPGs usually don’t allow for a lot of customization outside of combat-related abilities. The main character is usually set in stone and there’s very little that can be done to later the overall plot. One might get different endings based on some decisions, but ultimately, they can’t affect things much. Western RPGs, on the other hand, allow for a rid