History of Swick's RPG Extravaganza (part 1)

I'm going to tell you a story

a really long story

and my travels through space and time

through the long-lost art

of RPG...

Come with me

into the past

Something sad happened a few weeks ago, but I didn't want to post about it because I didn't want to look like a total loser with no social life. I'm posting about it now because it's actually relevant to what I want to post next... and that is my escapades lately in the world of video-gaming.

A couple weeks ago, my girlfriend's dog decided that my PS4 remote looked delicious and chewed the ever-living shit out of it. The analog sticks and the X and O buttons still work, so I can still watch the Hulu or the Netflix or play DVDs on it, but any kind of gameplay is virtually, well, not playable. 

Thankfully, I have a backup gaming station- my good ol' laptop complete with exbawks 36t controller (because I'm one of those weirdo PC gamers that hates keyboard and mouse)- so I've been using it to do all of my video gaming in the evenings via the genius that is Steam and Pinnacle Game Profiler. 

And I've noticed a change in my gaming...

I used to be really heavy into the MMOs. Like, on the PS4, I played copious amounts of Warframe and Battlefield 4. And while I still do delve in some MMO action like Pirate 101 and Hearthstone, most of my PC gaming has been solo games. I am reintroducing myself to the wonderful world of RPGs.

Cue the sepia tones. I'm about to get all flashback-y on you.

Once upon a time when the original Playstation came out, Swick discovered RPGs ... the first of many was...

(see it has a K-A rating? THAT'S HOW OLD THIS GAME IS... by today's standards...)

As far as plot goes, this game is nothing special : you are Finn, the orphan chosen one to rid the world of the evil that is the Warlocks of the Underworld. The End. This game received an astounding C average all across the gaming review board, but nevertheless, it was my first real exposure to the world of JRPGS and western RPGS for that matter.So enthralled was I by the style of the characters in this game that I partially blame it (and Cartoon Network's Toonami (at the time airing Robotech and Sailor Moon) ) for getting me into anime and manga in general.

After Beyond the Beyond, I moved to something a little more sophisticated....

(do you know how long it took me to convince Mom that T is for teen was totally okay?)

.... where the animation was even more desu and more dynamic thanks to the totally cool 'Linear Motion Battle System' that the Tales Of games are well-known for (and likely contributed to modern action-RPGs like Kingdom Hearts and Rogue Galaxy, but we'll get to that later) To be honest, I don't think my sister M and I ever made it all the way through this game, but I remember it being fairly long and full of interesting characters. It is the only real Tales Of game I ended up ever playing and didn't even realize it was part of a series until like... today.

Friends suggest I up my antics to this infamous title ...

(Seems to be everybody's favorite for some reason???)

... and my poor small mind was blown by what then was the incredible depth of the storyline. For the first time in my childhood, characters died. And the feels. Oh the feels. Probably why I kill a lot of my shit characters in my original writing nowadays... because if you want drama in a story, kill somebody.

.... so those three games were essentially my introduction to the world that is JRPGS (well, RPGs in general)

And I'm discovering new gems the more that I play