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On Console RPGs and why theyre so darn great
RPGs or more specifically japanese console RPGs are a great influence in my life as well as my getaway to leave all those things that made the world we live a crappy one behind me. Most of them are quite an experience even when they dont get away from a basic formula, get a character, recruit allies, go questing, level up and ultimately defeat the boss of the badguys thats either megalomaniacal, wants to destroy the world or something else driven by the feelings that are also a part of the human nature, like greed or anger, its those negative emotions that make you understand that even the bad guys have their reasons to hurt others, but also its why you must stop them, sometimes the plot changes according to the player`s decisions throughout the course of the game and in some cases he could even become the evil that threathens the land.
What makes a great RPG, even though most RPGs are now focused on stuning graphics or the fact that some famous artist sings the game`s main theme a real RPG to be a succes needs to tell a story, and its so great that there are so many types of games there are stories for everyones tastes: The postapocalyptic ones, the medieval fantasy types, futurestic ones and even those that are set in our current time, there are no limits to where the fantasy can take you and thats why its such a great genre in games.
And even when the story is the main attraction on an RPG to make a classic its also necessary to have a good music soundtrack, the battle themes being the most important ones as those play a vital role in how the player will feel during each of the many battles in the game, its important it fits the situation and the ambience that the game is about, the most famous composer in the area is Nobuo Uematsu who makes the scores for the many Final Fantasy games. Each Final Fantasy game has a great soundtrack that evcen if you dont play the games will touch you as they are very emotive. I even use the Boss Battle Theme from FFVII when I play duel monsters and it certainly takes the experience to the next level.
Great graphics are becoming more and more important in story telling, making charismatic characters attracts the player and is useful to boost the sales of a game, also the visuals make the game even more entertaining to play. The games are now on a very high standard set by the 128-bit consoles as to makwe them in full 3D with a huge world to explore.
The gameplay is also important to some degree although most games have a turn based combat system with variations there are other games where battles are in real time with the player taking control of the main character while a pre-set customizable AI takes control of the rest of the party. When youre not in battle youre usually trying to get to the next town or dungeon and on the way you usually take on some random battles to improve your levels and become stronger, because in most RPGs that is the way to become stronger ant progress in the game, as you advance the creatures you face get progressively stronger, and the only way to have a chance on beating stronger monsters is to become stronger yourself, to do this you beat the monsters you encounter and are rewarded EXP or Experience points...
To be continued.. I hope
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