"Yes the stories all suck, why? Because they are simplified for children.
So why am I playing them?"
Because deep down you know that this assumption is based on prejudice, and not reality?
I'll buy the classification of the statement as an assumption.
How can it be prejudicial though? It is based on my personal experience, having beaten roughly 20 30 JRPGs in the last four years.
EDIT: I went and checked which JRPG's I have beaten since 2008 (in order of completion)
- Astonishia Story
- Dragon Quest: Rockt SlimeE
- Eternal Sonata
- Pokemon Emerald
- Pokemon Leafgreen
- Popolocrois
- The World Ends With You
- Star Ocean: Second Evolution
- Final Fantasy V
- Final Fantasy III
- Final Fantasy IV
- Dragon Quest IV
- Dragon Quest V
- Sword of Hope II
- Dragon Quest V
- Dragon Quest VI
- Nostalgia
- Shadow Hearts
- Final Fantasy VII
- Kingdom Hearts
Yeah, and I've got 30 black friends! 
It's more a comment on content designed for children, rather than JRPGs.
EDIT:
Speaking of elaboration, I probably should, but don't really have the energy or brain power to do so right now, so let's just pretend I'm calling you racist.
Okay, I'm nauseus and have a headache too, so that's good for me.
Racist!
Hope you feel better soon.
And the stories suck because they're videogames. Trying to simplify the stories would probably make them better.
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Tell me to get back to rewriting this site so it's not horrible on mobile
No comment here.
Yodariquo said:Pokemon doesn't count because obviously it's skewed young. Kingdom Hearts is full of Disney characters, what do you expect? And Rocket Slime isn't a JRPG.
And the stories suck because they're videogames. Trying to simplify the stories would probably make them better.
Sorry about Rocket Slime, it was mis-categorized.
I don't want to get side tracked on this story business, that's worthy of it's own blog. However, you picked 2-3 games out of 20, you don;t think the rest of those games are directed toward kids?
EDIT: Or to be fair, since you may not have played those series, can you think of any/ many JRPG games you have played that have been directed toward non-children?
I know this is neither here nor there but Paper Mario (and Mario & Luigi) is quite possibly my favourite series of games.
Things targeted at children are not necessarily bad or simplistic and can easily be enjoyed by adults and there shouldn't be anything wrong or odd about that.
The problem is that in the West most things targeted at children make the assumption that children are retarded.
___
Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
aspro said:
Sorry about Rocket Slime, it was mis-categorized.I don't want to get side tracked on this story business, that's worthy of it's own blog. However, you picked 2-3 games out of 20, you don;t think the rest of those games are directed toward kids?
EDIT: Or to be fair, since you may not have played those series, can you think of any/ many JRPG games you have played that have been directed toward non-children?
Shin Megami Tensei and Persona? Would say target audience for those is at least teenagers.
___
Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
^Yep, I'd buy that. There's a good one. Same with Shadow Hearts. Teens at least.
bugsonglass said:The problem is that in the West most things targeted at children make the assumption that children are retarded.
But they are retarded! The mistake people make it to assume that they stop being retarded once they grow up!
bugsonglass said:Shin Megami Tensei and Persona? Would say target audience for those is at least teenagers.
Xenoblade, Xenosaga, Xenogears, Baten Kaitos?
Iga_Bobovic said:bugsonglass said:The problem is that in the West most things targeted at children make the assumption that children are retarded.
But they are retarded! The mistake people make it to assume that they stop being retarded once they grow up!
bugsonglass said:Shin Megami Tensei and Persona? Would say target audience for those is at least teenagers.
Xenoblade, Xenosaga, Xenogears, Baten Kaitos?
In truth, most of them are. And yes, they do grow up to be retarded adults.
It's still a shame though, for the few ones that are not though. Hopefully they find access to good books early enough though (and grow immune to peer pressure)
___
Listen to Wu-Tang and watch Kung-Fu
lol ur kids. Go play the nintendos.
Hmph, there's no way you'd catch me with that kiddie stuff. *Goes back to reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets*
I'm playing Paper Mario right now. It's a delight. But it's a game designed for children. The time of my life where I could be classifed as a child has long past.
I occasionally remember when Casey Loe and Nick Des Barres were talking about how they were in Japan once interviewing the director of the Tales series. They both speak Japanese fluently, so they were able to converse openly with him. As enthusiasts of the series they had a bunch of questions that cut to the essence of the themes of the game.
As they spoke with him they realized that in his answers he was making it clear that the target audience for the game were pre-teen children. And here, they were, two grown men, engaging with him as if they were discussing the literary career of Sherwood Anderson. By their own account they felt a bit sheepish.
Which is how I've started to feel about these games from Japan that are in a zone where they are not children's games as we usually think of them (games based on licences like Dora the Explorer or Barbie) but are not really intended for adults either. It was when I started to really feel a distance between the JRPGS I was playing. Yes the stories all suck, why? Because they are simplified for children.
So why am I playing them? (That's rhetorical).