Of Quests and Nostalgia

With my mandatory overtime done, and this awful cold/flu on the mend I thought it a good idea to make another blog post. I apologize to any loyal readers I might have out there who have missed me.

Now I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that I have an affinity for classical JRPGs. Ever since playing Final Fantasy III on my neighbors SNES back in the 90s I have been hopelessly hooked (yes I know it's technically VI but at the time we didn't know that) and while I rarely have the time to play RPGs anymore I long for the days when I could spend 4 to 6 hours delving away at FFIV on my old GBA next to a table lamp with a pack of AA batteries and a massive set of headphones.

These games are absolutely timeless in my humble opinion, and while I admit to having rose tinted glasses, it's hard to argue against hand drawn sprites and turn based combat. They rarely seem to look poor even on modern emulators and the only real barrier to entry is the ability to read on a 4th grade level. Be it Final Fantasy, Pokemon, Suikoden, Earthbound, etc you really can find just about anything out there for ones tastes. There is just something nice about a game you can relax with at the end of a long day, your only real energy being mental instead of the physical reaction time required for a Souls-like or a fighting game. Not to say those are inherently bad but they're a different beast entirely. Rarely if ever have I found a style of game that can convey so much emotion through text and music alone. So much story and adventure painted in 8 or 16 bit graphics all playable in some PJs and a comfy spot alone.


Looking at YOU Suikoden

And don't even get me started on the sheer fucking number of these games. Final Fantasy, Pokemon, DragonQuest, Chrono Trigger, Golden Sun, Breath of Fire, Earthbound, Super Mario RPG, etc. It's absolutely insane how many of these things exist (and how I will literally never beat any sizeable number of them before I die lol). This problem is made even WORSE by the fact RPG Maker exists. Yes I know some of what you have seen on say Steam seems a bit iffy, but I don't have the experience with these to give a proper review such projects actually deserve as the sheer amount of time that goes into these usually solo projects is astronomical. I mostly mean the older engines (especially RM2k), and by God are there an ASTONISHING number of phenomenal games out there on these amateur friendly engines. Not only that, but these engines that many people will unfairly scoff at are tied deeply into the tapestry of the early 00's internet. Many a professional, be it an artist or designer got their start making little hobby games on these and while I was mostly on the outside of this scene (as I am cursed to be both inartistic and bad at any kind of deep design) it was incredible to see what some of these people were (and still are) capable of, however I did try.

My first foray into the scene was with a free MS-DOS (yes you read that correctly) RPG creation tool titled "Official Hamster Republic Role Playing Game Construction Engine" or "OHRRPGCE" for short. With it (and some serious creativity) one could make a full blown JPRG inside of DOS. I am absolutely dog shit at pixel art so most of my models were just copied and edited from other games or just random blobs, while my music was a bunch of random MIDI files I found surfing on dial up with my dads Presario Compaq Windows ME tower. It was difficult compared to most modern stuff but I spent hours just making stupid little maps and trying to figure out the character creation and leveling stuff. I definitely wouldn't recommend it unless you like a challenge or are just curious.


Yes, you literally had to draw EVERYTHING and as far as I can remember you couldn't import things

My next jump happened a few years later when I came across a download for RPG Maker 95 at the library. I wish I still had the disk I burned that too, as I spent a ridiculous amount of time on that one and it just made me want more. While I appreciated the style of RM95 I mostly kept the pre loaded tiles and used those in RPG Maker XP that I *ahem* acquired later. That one in particular almost got teenage me to get into programming as it used RUBY as a scripting language and I was utterly blown away by the stuff people were making. There was even a plug and play script that turned the system into your own DIY Pokemon game. I dabbled in RMVX for a while but that was also a *cough cough* weird acquirement and didn't always work very well. But seriously I can not explain to you the sheer levels of wasted time I spent finding tilesets with my crap dial up and making like 1/4 of a game while Southpark played next to me at 1AM as I got bored and moved on to another equally doomed project.


The sheer magnitude of time I have spent just playing with these is unreal.

Also I usually plan these posts in advance and type based off mental notes, but while I was looking for some art to post for RM95 I found an OG Angelfire link to the exact version of RM95 that I used all those years ago. You can not fathom the fangirl tier hype I am feeling while writing this as I go over the program again as it is the only variant (not counting the playstation releases) that I could not find a release for on Steam or updated for modern hardware. I thought it was completely lost to time but I found the exact version I used all those years ago completely by accident. I am going to post the link here for those of you interested in trying it out for the lulz and backing this fucking thing up for posterity sake.

Continuing on I eventually picked up RPG Maker 2003 on steam maybe a year or so ago and I can see why that one is still popular to this day (especially considering it has side view combat). I know I got off the plot a bit from how I started but trust me when I say that even if you aren't a big game design nerd these engines offer a plethora of games to add to your backlog. With such big names like Ib, Mad Father or even fucking FINAL FANTASY VII REGENESIS which the creator painstakingly recreated FFVII in RM2k3 to look like it had it been made for SNES/Genesis with amazing fidelity, it's unlikely that someone somewhere hasn't made your favorite JRPG, you just haven't played it yet. To be sure there are a lot of garbage tier projects out there (much like my current attempt to make a game for my four year old son) but it's absolutely insane the quality and quantity you can find from solo developers who just pour their souls into something using a (likely pirated originally) game making engine from the early 00's. There are literally countless forums and websites dedicated to these systems, where people have spent literal years perfecting sprite art and writing. They learned the scripting languages, learned to code to add to their usability and it breaks my heart that so many of these sites are decaying unused and unloved since the true heyday of creativity they once had. If I haven't sold you on the genre with my short tirade I hope I have at the very least sold you on the importance it has had on the history of the 00s internet and to the many artists and code monkey's out there who got into this stuff because ASCII Software decided to make a fun bit of software for people to play with back in the day.


Absolute fucking madlad


Tbh I think the old style turn based JRPG is back on the rise, what with the various remasters of old classics (like Suikoden) and the absolutely gorgeous games that are out there (shout out to Octopath Traveler). I do hope 2D fighting games and various other timeless genre styles can get this treatment. I once again acknowledge the rose tinted glasses effect but I truly feel this style can not be beaten in it's ability to transcend the restrictions of tech and it's never ending march onward. Solid gameplay, impassioned music and well done sprite art can just blast modern 3D graphics out of the water. That isn't a shot at the great work people have done on big budget 3D classics of the past, but I guarantee you that I can get a kid to pick up Secrets of Mana easier than say Final Fantasy VIII strictly due to the visuals. Just something to think about, thanks for reading all of this and I hope you have a Merry Christmas.