Ben-DutkaAs time passes, the industry moves forward and changes, and people get older. Opinions and preferences change as well.
Is there a genre that you used to really adore but just don't play much anymore? And if so, why? Do you have an explanation for the drop-off in interest? Or have you simply switched gears over the years?
I suppose I have to say my interest in JRPGs has tailed off almost to nothing, but that is not so much due to a personal shift as it is to the industry's shift. I have branched out a lot since my days of almost exclusively playing JRPGs during the PlayStation era, but the fact of the matter is that most of these games just aren't that great today. Production values have fallen way off and unless you're a hardcore niche anime fan, you probably won't be interested. I know I'm not. And with Final Fantasy 's erosion and obvious transfer to the land of flashy action, I'm starting to really not care about JRPGs altogether.
Of course, all that would change if they'd release a turn-based Suikoden or Final Fantasy ; i.e., a big-budget production for consoles, not the piddly little turn-based RPGs that are downloadable or designed for mobile devices. They're mostly for kids, anyway. So it's really not my fault. However, my tiring of the FPS genre could be entirely due to a personal shift. I've mentioned before that I'm having trouble getting into Halo 4 , which doesn't make any sense because there's really nothing wrong with that game. By all rights, I should like it a lot. But I've found that straightforward shooters just aren't doing it for me anymore. I really need more in the way of drama; a decent story, characters, and an engaging setting. I don't get that in Halo 4 but I should get it in Bioshock Infinite .
So what about you? Any categories of gaming you've since left behind?
P.S. I'm sure any avid JRPG aficionado recognizes the picture in this article… It's a classic, obviously.
I just realized something in that picture for the article….
Those characters stand far too closely together for existing in an age that likely didn't have toothpaste or mouth wash.
And there you have it… characters back then were way more brave than todays.
hehe true
I'm not big on fighters anymore. It's sad really, because I used to love them so much but there's hardly an payoff to playing them since the console versions became better than the arcade ones. That just eroded the whole experience.
FPS is pretty lame now too, only stuff like Bioshock can hold my interest and command a full price purchase.
JRPG interest for me has declined as well, there are still good experiences to be had but they aren't the kind that used to have me riveted to my television screen, the mainstream action direction took too many victims this gen.
Only fighter I played constantly was Mortal Combat 2 on SNES.
There was a time when NOTHING was better than Street Fighter 2 or Mortal Kombat. I still enjoy them a bit, but not nearly as much as I did then. I don't feel the need to compete with other players, for one, and that's pretty much the biggest reason to get involved. I also don't feel inclined to spend countless hours honing my skills at one game when so many other games are out there, for another. And I just love a good story, something you pretty much never get in fighting games.
I liked the MK reboot, and I'll still bust out Super Street Fighter 4 every so often — I love the art direction, and the gameplay is just SO TIGHT, even if it isn't really my thing anymore. But that's about it these days.
Ben do you revisit your classic turn-based jrpg's to play them again and again?
If I have the time, I always have that urge.
Fighters for me here too. Was huge on Tekken. IDK, I guess because each seguel to any fighting game was basically the same.
yeah, fighters for me too. Was into SF, MK, SNK fighters, Tekken, etc.
JRPGs are the main games that hold my interest today and in the PS1/PS2 days I didn't care about them. Demon's/Dark Souls are my favorites, Persona 4 Golden is amazing, Ni No Kuni is fun (still getting into that). I also liked the Yakuza games but I've had enough.
My interest in linear action games has waned a lot and I think the games themselves have gotten much better.
I was a huge fan of JRPG's (though we just called them RPG games back then) on the NES, SNES, and original Playstation. I only dabbled in a few RPG's on the PS2. Like Front Mission 4, FFX and FFX-2, and especially spent a lot of time with FFXI. Years in fact.
Now, after being pretty dang disappointed with FFXIII, I've gravitated towards different genres. Which seems to be a recurring thing. Battlefield, Guitar Hero, XCOM, Borderlands, Little Big Planet, and lots of downloadable stuff.
I miss my "new" old-school RPGs.
Last edited by Zemus101 on 3/19/2013 12:23:25 AM
Fighters and FPS for me, and for pretty much the same reason. I was big into Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat before all the arcades shut down. I also used to love Quake, Goldeneye, and Halo when I was in high school and college. With LAN parties and linked Xboxes, multiplayer was a blast. But the predominance of online has sucked the fun out of both genres.
Nope, RPGs still rain supreme!
I played a ton of FPS games back in the days of Wolfenstein, Doom, and Duke Nukem 3D, but I don't even touch the genre these days. The one exception being Portal, which I absolutely love. I don't think I need to explain that 😉
Fighters used to dominate my video game life for a long while too. But These days I only play the new Mortal Kombat games, and I don't usually play them for very long before shelving them. Fighters make fun VG party games, but I don't play them solo anymore.
I still love RPG's and all the other genre's I've ever loved… I just don't have time to play them all like I used to.
My new favourite games are the "finish in under 10 hours" games. I actually get to complete them in a reasonable time frame, and that's satisfying. The longer 30+ hr games just drag on too long for me as it can take months to log those kind of hours.
Not really i remember wanting a NES just for Contra and Operation Wolf. And i still play shooters today COD, BF, Uncharted, and Bioshock Infinite will be my first expierence in the series and im excited to play it but all other shooters i play just for the story only.
Fighting and sports games used to be some of my favorites, but they just don't do it for me anymore. I don't know why but I just don't enjoy them now.
I thought that, until I played Xenoblade Chronicles. It brought absolutely everything I love within a JRPG back. From an engaging storyline, to characters which have their own motives and revelations. A really solid world with a unique setting. LARGE AREAS! But they never get tiresome with the well integrated fast travel set up. The battle system a bit more action based still feels really engaging and requires a lot of tactics in your characters positioning and building up chains. I packed 100+ hours into this beats and it could have easily been more. If anyone is missing their classic JRPG's and has n't played this yet please do so.
I honestly cannot get into Ni No Kuni, I'm 10 hours in and have only just been able to capture creatures but it just seems like the story is not going anywhere yet. I'm trying my best to persist with it but it's just not capturing my interest like I hoped.
always have, always will.
i use to love shooters they were my favorite genre!
but now we have had so many of them, and there carbon copies of eachother ive grown sick of them!
ironic considering 2 of my most anticipated games of the year were shooters!
crysis 3 oh what a disappointment that was!
and bioshock infinite, which, hopefully, will blur the lines between shooter and a fantasy RPG.
For some reason I don't play racers anymore. Don't really have a reason fot that, but it started when the acceleration button was switched from X to the R2 button in the early goings of the PS3's lifestyle.
But I still love me some shooters. Expecially online shooters.
And I also miss how you could max out your created players in basketball and football games.
SN:
They need to bring back cheat codes and gamesharks for the next generation. They make the replay value of games skyrocket!
Last edited by PS3_Wizard on 3/19/2013 5:17:18 AM
I don't play JRPGs as much any more, both for the decline in the quality and my lack of time. Any time I have for gaming right now has me booting up DA:O on my PC.
Shooters used to be my favourite genre. While I still play some very old competitive shooters, I am not really impressed with the new ones that are coming out. Bioshock and Deus ex being exceptions to this.
I think JRPGs are also a genre I used to love but now I don't as much anymore. But for similar reasons as Ben in that there isn't a market demand for them anymore.
Obviously Ni No Kuni was a huge exception and that game is one of my favourite JRPGs ever, but it sucks that it is so rare for a good JRPG to come out now, when on the PSX and even PS2 there were dozens of great JRPGs.
Definitely don't care for JRPGs like I used to, but as Ben suggests, that's more the industry shifting than my own personal tastes, I think.
Fighting games don't do it for me the way they used to (see above post.) There was a brief time, when the first Halo came out, that I really liked FPSs, but I can't say I feel that way anymore.
To flip the question: are there any game styles anyone loves now as much as they did when they were kids? I still love a good adventure/exploration game. Anything with a good story/world/characters will still pull me in, regardless of genre.
I'm finding RTS games (the Westwood, Dune 2 model – not the Paradox stuff) have got caught in a pretty heavy rut over the years – the FPS genre looks like its evolved in leaps and bounds by comparison (which really just shows how far Dune 2 RTS games haven't come). Even stuff like Company of Heroes and RUSE (both excellent games, and different enough to hold my interest) is held back by sticking to many of the Dune 2 conventions (even when those conventions make no sense at all in their gameworld).
Hm… I was once all for fighters, but not so much any more. I always had fun going up against friends and stuff, but ultimately decided that's about as far as that "love" went. I bought several fighters thinking I'd actually invest time into them, but that never went anywhere – beyond turning around and trading them, for something else.
Apart from fighters, I would have to say my affection for the RTS genre has all but dissipated. I was madly in love with Total Annihilation, Empire Earth, C&C:RA2, and Warcraft II… but that was it. Outside of those titles I pretty much just didn't care.