The delightful smoothness of classic Japanese role-playing games
Filed under: Nintendo DS, Features, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, Retro, Microsoft Xbox 360, RPGsThis week, Rowan Kaiser and Kat Bailey have switched roles — with Rowan taking lead in this week’s column focusing on the wonderful world of Japanese role-playing games. I was only defeated once in Suikoden. Even that was an accident – I thought it was a fight I was supposed to lose. Calling the game “easy” is something of an understatement. With a little bit of planning, you can win virtually every fight in the game, including the final boss battle on auto-pilot using the “Free Will” option in the combat menu. Yet, despite this easiness, Suikoden is one of my favorite Japanese role-playing games. “Easy” isn’t the right term for it exactly. Instead, Suikoden is smooth.
“Smoothness” isn’t a common criteria used to judge games. If anything, it’s the opposite. Getting the difficulty level just right, so that the game seems like a challenge but is completable with practice, seems like it’s an ideal. Or, you can use Sid Meier’s model of games as “interesting choices” – but if the game isn’t challenging, those choices don’t seem to matter, right? I think acceptance theories like those are part of the reason that Japanese role-playing games are considered less important than they used to be.Continue reading The delightful smoothness of classic Japanese role-playing gamesThe delightful smoothness of classic Japanese role-playing games originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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