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?

  • Mutalisk [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
    28·
    22 hours ago

    Not a JRPG, but shoutout to 2000’s Polish RTS Earth 2150 whose factions include:

    • Strawman blue haired feminists trying to turn the moon into a giant weapon of mass destruction to establish peace and despite that being the only faction portrayed as not evil lmao waow-based

    • A Mongol empire that controls Eurasia that features heavy Soviet imagery and is ruled by a sith lord who might as well be named Stalin Khan (it is a Polish game, after all) poland-cool

    • doggirl-sweat …an American faction that claims to be the peak of civilization but is controlled by idiots who follow what their AI tells them to do, causing the war that dooms all life on Earth oh shit oh fuck

    • rottenmummy@lemmy.mlEnglish
      11·
      20 hours ago

      American faction that claims to be the peak of civilization but is controlled by idiots who follow what their AI tells them to do, causing the war that dooms all life on Earth

      Is that for real? Did that really exist in the game?

      • Mutalisk [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
        11·
        20 hours ago

        Yup! I even checked the wiki to make sure I remembered right because it was too perfect haha

        catgirl-sorry Unfortunately the reason for why their leaders are incompetent and just let their AI assistants decide is different from reality, so I left it out:

        The UCS is a demarchy, selecting leaders by lottery, which with minimal positions and short terms has resulted in leaders who do what their AI assistants tell them to do. […] The UCS was responsible for occupying the British Isles and starting the war of Earth 2140 that doomed the planet. As President of the United Civilized States, the player’s authority extends to pursuing whatever military objective the AIs order.

        • Johnny_Arson [she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          4·
          18 hours ago

          Call remember Dark Reign? I have no idea what the plot of that was other than grammar post apocalyptic it’s but I loved it. My uncle had it on his Mac when I was a kid. This description reminded me of it.

          • D61 [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
            2·
            3 hours ago

            (I’m doing this for no particular reason, don’t @ me)

            Global ecological collapse is finally accepted as being real. Governments lose trust and start to fall apart. Corporations are the only entities with the power and organization to fill the power vacuum.

            Mass roundups of dissidents have to be dealt with… and are stuck on deep space recon and terraforming ships after having their DNA altered to keep their lifespans to about 25 (I’m not gonna look this up) years.

            The corporations merge and become the Imperium. The prisoners sent out to terraform planets manage to organize and revolt and become the Freedom Guard.

            While all this was going on, a third faction (scientists) fucked off with their leader to make their own society named after the leader, Togran (I think).

            Freedom Guard and Imperium do war, somebody develops a super weapon that can lock up all the water on a planet making it unlivable. Eventually these two faction have a massive battle on the Togran world and the planet killer is used.

            YOU… are (possibly) the last surviving member of the Togran, who managed to escape the planet on a ship. After drifting for a while you come across some Togran satellite/ship thing that says, "Mr. Togran made a time travel device, prove your military prowess by playing RTS versions of Freedom Guard/Imperium battles to unlock the time travel device. Then go back in time and kick the Freedom Guard and Imperium’s ass to keep the Togran world from being destroyed.

    • wolfinthewoods [none/use name]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      12·
      22 hours ago

      That sounds delightfully hilarious. It amazes me what game writers come up with. I was going to say I wonder what equivalent literature that is that level of crazy, but thought better because I knew better. But I guess it’s the batshit insane of game writing that is weirdly specific