RPGs are role-playing games and they’ve been my saving grace for years. They basically feel like interactive stories or movies where you have control of the “protagonist” and there have been so many great, different stories that I’ve been hooked since my first actual one which I think was Chrono Trigger. My favorite has been Parasite Eve which had: 1. Aya Brea, a female lead; 2. It was a “modern” rpg set in New York; 3. It was “horror-like”, similar to Resident Evil; and 4. Her partner was a Black father. The reason why that game was so important to me was because it was a random gift from my older brother, no idea why he said it was something I’d like but man… The music, the characters, the science. It was phenomenal.
I know when people who don’t normally play games hear about them, they’re thinking of things like Call of Duty or Fortnite. Non-gamers often see them as a waste of time and while I not only played for escapism, I also received much more information than I expected. I saw the work put into music composition, directing, story writing… Hell, I actually learned the value of saving money and “grinding” (grinding being repeating tasks for certain materials that don’t come so often) which is basically like saying I learned patience. Some require almost chess-like decision making and some are just “run and smack everything in sight”. They’ve evolved from rarely seeing games that were only in Japan to now having almost every country creating an interactive story sharing cultural history.
While I don’t necessarily like the way games have gone lately with games as a service, I still greatly appreciate when a game is just sent out with no gimmicks. A full 60-120 hours (sometimes more!) of jaw dropping style. I mean, Persona 5 and Dragon Quest XI were perfect to me. If you ever find yourself bored and out of things to do you should really check out some different styles of gaming, you’d be surprised what gems are out there. ✌🏾I need to get more Tales of Arise in.
Something With Nothing 