Tag: Pokemon

My Not-Quite Epic RPG Journey

I’ve typically considered myself to have a fairly broad taste across my range of interests – music, food, etc. It shouldn’t come as a surprise, this blog being named Gaming OMNIVORE and all, that video games are no different; there’s no genre of game that I refuse to play…an enormous backlog serves as testament to this. However, my childhood years were spent playing primarily action/platformers and the broadening of my gaming tastes occurred in my later teens/early twenties. RPGs, as a genre, were something I had very limited knowledge about and even less experience with – my best definition of an RPG growing up would have been “I dunno…like a Zelda game?” I have since come to really appreciate the memorable characters, worlds, and stories of games like Chrono Trigger or Tales of Symphonia. Lately, I’ve found myself playing more RPGs; there’s been something strangely…comforting(?) in diving headfirst into some epic quest in distant land, if only for a short time. I’ve been on a bit of a Dragon Quest kick as of late, so there’s been plenty of level grinding as well.

For today’s post, I’ve mapped out some of my most significant stops along my RPG questline. These are games that have meant quite a lot to me over the years and are largely responsible for growing my appreciation of role-playing (video)games. First up, a game that due to its packaging and slight variation in approach to the genre, I didn’t even realize shared nearly every established trait of an RPG when I played it…

Pokémon Red

Pokémon. The game that traded the settings of “Chosen One and accompanying party battles forces of darkness” to “child catches every cute monster in sight on the way to become the greatest trainer.” This was THE stepping stone to RPGs as a genre for myself, along with many, many others. Whether you consider the games a legit RPG or not, Pokémon is responsible for introducing millions upon millions of kids to RPG gameplay staples like level progression, elemental weakness/resistance, and turn-based battles. I had always thought the concept of turn-based combat – politely waiting your turn to whack your enemy, sounded rather…dull. It wasn’t until after I’d spent countless hours playing Pokémon Red that it dawned on me that I had in fact, been playing a game incorporating turn-based combat.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

I’ll be honest, Knights of the Old Republic wasn’t going to be a hard sell for me, even with my limited experience with RPGs in 2003 – a Star Wars game in which you travel to different worlds across the galaxy, along with customizing your own lightsaber and recruiting a homicidal droid named HK-47. How could that NOT sound awesome? KOTOR is an example of a game where I found myself more engaged in the story, characters, and worlds than the gameplay, which was still enjoyable and nicely complemented the game’s other strengths. Knights of the Old Republic also introduced me to BioWare, whose writing and characters I would fall in love with all over again in 2007. I have a hard time not immediately blurting out “KOTOR!” when asked my favorite Star Wars game, let alone my favorite RPG…

Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls

As a kid in the 90’s, I was aware enough of Final Fantasy as a series. This was especially true reading gaming magazines counting down the release of Final Fantasy VII, which I knew was an anticipated release, but didn’t fully understand the extent of it. It wasn’t until my later teens that I bought Final Fantasy: Dawn of Souls – a compilation of Final Fantasy 1 & 2, shortly after release that the series finally started to click for me. Something about the combination of FF1’s approachable, but not shallow game mechanics, story, music and 16-bit charm resonated with me and I became completely hooked. I had just begun taking a few college classes prior to the game’s release and distinctly remember much of my time between classes being spent sitting playing Final Fantasy…when I probably should have been studying(sounds surprising, right?). This is where my appreciation for 16-bit JRPGs officially began…

Mass Effect 2

Knights of the Old Republic was my introduction to BioWare, but it was the Mass Effect games(Dragon Age: Origins, too) that propelled them to one of my favorite developers. Mass Effect 2 took everything that I loved about the previous game and managed to improve it. I didn’t get around to playing ME2 until about a year or so later, but once I started, I couldn’t put it down. The game still feels as close to a perfect action-RPG as I’ve ever played, balancing the traditional role-playing elements of ME1 and the more action-oriented set pieces of ME3. Similar to KOTOR, Mass Effect 2 is another game I’d immediately nominate for all-time favorite RPG, thanks BioWare.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

My first exposure to Fire Emblem comes from the exact same place as nearly everyone else outside of Japan – Super Smash Bros. Melee. I remember having to look up which games sword fighters(naturally) Marth and Roy were from and having absolutely no idea what Fire Emblem was. I eventually played a little bit of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance on the GameCube, and later FE: Awakening on the Nintendo 3DS. I found the games intriguing, but just like Final Fantasy, or any JRPGs really, I felt like I didn’t completely “get it”. Fast forward to the summer of 2019, Fire Emblem: Three Houses was set to be released and I was a little tentative, but eager to try another Fire Emblem game. I had been keeping an eye on the game and Three Houses gave every indication of being the most accessible FE game yet. I don’t know what it was that finally clicked – understanding of FE’s weapon triangle? Academic dating sim? My boy, Dimitri? Either way, I loved every minute of Three Houses and it went on to become one of my favorite Switch games. It even gave me the…confidence(?) to try seek out and try a few other SRPGs(my weakest genre) such as Shining Force or Advance Wars.

Backlog RPGs

For every RPG that I actually finish, it seems like there’s 5-10 more that I’d like to play; just Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games alone would keep me busy for quite some time. There’s also Persona 5, a game that I loved for the few hours I’ve played and has turned into a bit of a running backlog joke -“I’m actually gonna finish Persona 5 this year”. Here’s just a few of the many RPGs I have in my backlog that I’d like to finish up or begin playing in the near future.

  • Persona 5 Royal
  • Final Fantasy X
  • Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition
  • Shining Force 2
  • Chrono Cross

In closing, I’ll also use this post to segue into a shoutout for The Great JRPG Showdown. Fellow blogger and RPG/Anime expert – Pix, from Shoot The Rookie has once again put on an elimination-style tournament à la Mortal Kombat and it’s cool to see the different games nominated by everyone. I strongly encourage any JRPG fans out there to check it out if not already doing so. That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

2021 Nintendo Anniversary Challenge

Nintendo as a company has existed since 1889 and has celebrated a number of milestones on its way to becoming the richest company in Japan. This past year marked the 35th anniversary of Super Mario Bros. which made the portly plumber Mario the most significant character in video game history. Nintendo, for whatever the reason, chose to commemorate the occasion by releasing Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which contained HD ports of Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy, as well as the free-to-play battle royale game – Mario 35 as timed exclusives on the Nintendo Switch, which will only be available until the end of March.

Another notable Nintendo series celebrated its 30th anniversary this past year – Fire Emblem. The very first Fire Emblem game, which until then had only been available in Japan, was released as yet another timed exclusive for the Switch.

As we begin a new year in 2021, there’s a number of long-time Nintendo franchises that will have significant anniversaries, starting with the 40th anniversary of the original Donkey Kong. It will also be 35 years since the arrival of The Legend of Zelda and Metroid series, two games which have gone on to influence countless other video games in many ways. Along with the aforementioned franchises, 2021 will mark the 25th anniversary of Pokémon Red & Green being first released in Japan, resulting in a cultural phenomenon simply called, Poké-mania at the time.

Over the course of the past week, I came up with yet another quest to complete before the year is over – to finish at least one entry from each of the big Nintendo franchises celebrating anniversaries this year – Donkey Kong, Zelda, Metroid, Pokémon. Of course, there are many more game series with significant dates in 2021 such as Castlevania or Street Fighter, but for the impact that Nintendo games have had on my own life, as well as to keep this list relatively short, I will focus on a select few for the time being. Here’s just a few of the Nintendo games I have never finished that I WILL see to completion over the course of the year…

Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong made his gaming debut on July 9, 1981 in Japanese arcades(with North America a few weeks later) and this July will mark the 40th anniversary of Nintendo’s gargantuan ape mascot. DK was considered one of the grandfathers of gaming, and had faded from prominence before being rejuvenated by Rare in 1994 with the SNES classic – Donkey Kong Country. Another DK game released the same year that went very much under the radar was the Game Boy game simply titled Donkey Kong. I had always been under the assumption the game was simply another port of the arcade version of Donkey Kong. This is not completely inaccurate as the first few levels of the game replicate the arcade classic, but following the completion of the initial levels the game features a number of puzzle-platforming levels one would understandably have no awareness of. One of the other few DK games I have not played is Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, though I do not currently own the Gamecube or Wii version of the game(Bongos either) and decided to throw an original Game Boy game into the mix…

The Legend of Zelda

The Legend of Zelda was first released on February 21 1986 for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, before being released the following year in North America and Europe. I’ve known of the Zelda games my entire life – being born only two months prior to its initial release, but had played the two NES releases only a few times. For the longest time I was a little intimidated by the franchise and it’s legion of rabid fans and it wasn’t until Ocarina of Time was released on the Nintendo 64 that I felt like I truly “got” what made the games beloved by so many. I have played every mainline Zelda game ever since that time(not including the infamous CD-i releases – The Faces of Evil and The Wand of Gamelon), but have only completed about half of them.

I got Skyward Sword back when it was released in 2011and have only ever made it about three or so hours into the game. I enjoyed it well enough, but I got to the first dungeon(I think?) and then just…kinda…wound up playing something else. I’ve always heard how good some of the later dungeons and areas are, but like myself, many others have stated how the pacing of the game is pretty slow, especially in the beginning of the game, which starts with an extended tutorial. I fully intend to play through Skyward Sword in its entirety by the time November rolls around, which will mark ten years since its release.

Metroid

The 35th anniversary of Samus Aran’s first appearance on the Famicom Disk System will be August 6, 1986. I’ve loved the Metroid games ever since first playing them as a kid, with Super Metroid and Metroid Prime being two of my all-time favorites. Being arguably my favorite of Nintendo’s main franchises, I plan on playing through every Metroid game over the course of the year, yes I’m even gonna play Metroid Prime Pinball…

One of the more…divisive games in the series is Metroid: Other M – Nintendo and Team Ninja’s 2010 release for the Wii. The prospect of Tecmo’s Team Ninja developing a third-person Metroid game sounded intriguing, but it has since gone on to be considered one of Samus’ lesser outings due to the inconsistent gameplay as well as her characterization. Similar to Skyward Sword, I’ve played the game a few times, but have never finished it. I’m curious to see if the disdain towards Other M is justified once I finally finish the game; I’ve played it enough to know not to expect anything close to the experience of playing the Metroid Prime games, but surely there’s something to appreciate about it…right?

Pokémon

February 27 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the very first Pokémon games – Red & Green, being released in Japan in 1996(North America was not until 1998), thus beginning Poké-mania. I can still vividly remember getting my copy of Red as a kid and playing on my Game Boy Color and spent endless hours after that collecting, battling, and evolving Pokémon. I played Pokémon Red and Gold, but after that ended up missing a generation or two, playing only Diamond and then Y before playing Pokémon Shield after it was released on the Nintendo Switch. I still have not played any of the Gen 3(Ruby/Sapphire), 5(Black/White), or 7(Sun/Moon) releases. I do, however have a copy of Omega Ruby for my 3DS that I will be working on in my spare time. With as many mainline releases and spin-offs as there are for the Pokémon games, I wouldn’t have to look too far for something I haven’t played yet. I’d still like to eventually give Pokémon Black a try, as well as checking out New Pokémon Snap when it’s released for the Switch on April 30.

I will also take this opportunity to mention that a special Pokémon retrospective event organized by fellow blogger NekoJonez is set to go live on February 27 to commemorate the series’ 25th anniversary. I will be taking part in the collaboration as well as a number of other trainers bloggers, so keep an eye out for that within the next month.