A common refrain I hear is “I have no clue what is happening, but the game is fun”. Did Japanese game writers just drink massive amounts and throw shit at the wall? :D

I don’t think there’s a single JRPG that I can remember the actual plot except the general gist.

Or is there some strange cultural reason these games had labyrinthe writing and just strange plots?

Maybe a JRPG historian can shed some light on this?

  • casskaydee [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    22·
    8 days ago

    I feel like this is more of a 2000s JRPG phenomenon than 90s. The 90s gave us Chrono Trigger, Earthbound, Secret of Mana, Final Fantasy 2 (4) and 3 (6), the latter of which had (IMO) the best storyline of maybe any video game up to that point.

    Xenogears is the first game I can think of that had kind of a crazy plot that got particularly weird in the second half. That was released in late 1998 apparently but I feel like by that time we were already starting to see 2000s zeitgeist stuff take over the more 90s-coded things.

    • zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      13·
      8 days ago

      Xenogears is a flawed masterpiece. I freaking love the story and wish they had been giving the time to do the second half properly.

    • h0ll0w5p4c3 [none/use name]@hexbear.netEnglish
      10·
      8 days ago

      I found Mother more engaging and enjoyed the story more than Earthbound, have you played it?

      As far as FF goes I prefer 5 to the game’s either side to it. I find the mechanics of the games more fun than the stories for the majority of the classic games. I feel 6 doesn’t have the character writing to support the large cast, imo they feel shallow/ tacked on.