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As of my freshman year, I will be posting content centered around a certain topic. You can expect my blog posts to feature well-written sentences.
Brady Bryan
JRPGS, or Japanese role-playing games, often scare many modern gamers away at the sight of the genre due to a number of reasons. Most modern gamers prefer to play FPS games, sports games such as the 2K franchise, or fighting games such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Further blurring the line, some would rather play action or adventure games such as God of War or any of the Super Mario games such as the recently-released Super Mario 3D All-Stars which contains the three monolith 3D Super Mario games in one package. While JRPGS are almost solely action-adventure games, they are typically avoided by many gamers with clear reasoning why. As someone who is a die-hard fan of the Pokémon franchise which is classified as a JRPG, one might assume that I am a fan of most, if not, all JRPGS. However, this could not be further from the truth as I am incredibly adverse to tradition JRPGs for the same reasons many others are. JRPGS suffer from the very core values that make them JRPGS: Characters tend be set in their roles, each JRPG's story follows the same plotline, there is more emphasis on story and less freedom in terms of gameplay, and the characters can be uninteresting or generic in the realm of the genre. Of course, there are some games that break the mold of JRPGs, such as the Persona series or the Pokémon mainline games, but the remaining 90% of JRPGs are boring and monotonous. Of course, JRPGs were far more popular around a decade ago since the video game and internet climate were vastly different from that of today's internet culture as people back then were hungry for anything to keep them entertained. Such a reason is also why visual novels were popular back then despite being an interactive movie, which admittedly is less cool in practice than in concept. According to some unspoken JRPG list of rules, the boss or "big bad" of each JRPG has to be some religious figure or "God" of the universe, and it's up to the ragtag team of outcasts to save the world and win the day. This trope is unbearably generic, unintuitive, and unimaginative, making it the very definition of fodder with no greater thinkpiece left for the player to consider other than "religion is bad." Since the story is the focal point of JRPGs, the text and dialogue would be crucial to the world-building and suspense-building of the game. However, JRPGs fancy the idea of including lame, uninteresting pieces of dialogue consistently placed throughout the game that contribute little to nothing towards the overall experience. It is understandable that the developers would want to create memorable moments which are endearing to the player. However, the way the developers go about it has been done to death, and is almost always cheesy and lame. It may appear as though JRPGs are completely flawed on a player-base level, and while there may be some good merits to their name, I simply cannot refute such a claim with total confidence. Even as a gamer whose first and second favorite games are Pokémon Black and Persona 3, my disdain for the oversaturated, mishandled, unintuitive genre reaches a boiling point when even the aforementioned games manage to get under my skin or force my hand at customizing my experience with them via modding or emualtion. Recap:
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Brady Bryan
Imagine having a conversation with another person. Naturally, the conversation is going to head in a direction where one person gives the other person a random scenario in which the opposite person chooses between two options. In an ideal world, the one being questioned chooses one of the options which navigates the conversation in a direction which varies greatly from the other option had the person decided to respond differently. Think of a conversation as a "Choose-Your-Own-Adventure" game with the ultimatums determining where and how the player will advance through the game. If one were to apply this analogy to video games, one might think it to be a crucial part of any video game, especially if it is visual novel-esque. However, what if the ultimatums never mattered? It is an all too familiar occurence. Video games tend to present the player with meaningless dialogue options solely to yield a "unique" response that furthers the player's immersion, but fails to do so horribly. Games of this particular variety include the Persona franchise, countless visual novel games, and numerous other JRPGs such as Pokemon. If there is any doubt about the outcome of dialogue options being the same, simply test the theory as many have done as the evidence doesn't lie. Use a save state prior to making a choice, then reload the state and choose the opposite option. If the outcome yields a proper consequence for each choice, then rejoice as it is a rare occurrence. The purpose of dialogue-ultimatums are to reward the player for making the right decision, whether it be in the form of a new item, increased stats, or getting to know the character better. The purpose of narrative-based ultimatums are moreso the same with a greater emphasis on interactivity. With that being said, it is questionable as to why ultimatums were created to seemingly inconvenience the player. Games whose foundations rely on the player interacting with other characters in order to progress the story rely too heavily on such a cheap and lazy trope. Instead of fleshing out each separate event in order to further immerse the player and provide meaningful gameplay, the developers opted for a cheap facade that makes their game look deeper than it appears to be. Despite this, it can be considered a good thing that most games allow the player to "mash A" through the dialogue, so this blight may not be so unbearable... Recap:
Brady Bryan
Earlier this year, Valorant became the new craze for PC players worldwide. With its CS:GO-like gameplay and character designs reminiscent of Overwatch, it quickly garnered a large following. Another factor that contributed to its success is how it was first made available to players. For a short period of time, Valorant was only made available through Twitch, a streaming service which provides rewards for watching streamers stream gameplay or real-life content. Sometimes, viewers would get a code which gave them access to the beta of Valorant in which they could match with other beta players, making the game a sort of niche commodity. Aesthetically, the game is decent on the visuals. Nothing about the game stands out more than the characters whose appeal lie solely in their appearance and skills (moreso their skills). The character designs are mediocre at best and lack interesting personalities. It feels as though the player is playing as a piece of cardboard with over "ten cool new sayings." The character selection is also limited as there are only eight playable characters. The music isn't especially notable either as the tracks in the game are generic compositions for background noise with the most prominent pieces being those on the main menu. While the characters and the music aren't the selling point of the game, the main interest lies in the gameplay. Valorant's gameplay is a double-edged sword. Those that play CSGO will feel right at home, while those craving a first-person shooter that features unique gameplay will be left wanting more. As mentioned before, the only differing factor between Valorant and most other first-person shooters are the skills as well as the only game mode in Valorant being "Bomb," a "search and destroy" style game mode. It is questionable whether the choice to only include one game mode was intended to be a sort of bold step away from the first-person shooter genre. Conversely, the game handles well on the controls, though that's about the only positive remark the game has going for it. Similar in fashion to other shooter games, headshot detection leaves a lot to be desired, and while the game has its fair share of hackers, that issue is not a result of the game's shortcomings. There isn't much else to say about the game other than it feels like another CSGO clone. In fact, many other reviewers of the game compare it to Counter Strike in the first few sentences of their evaluations. Valorant can be summed up as the love child of Counter Strike and Rainbow Six: Siege with influences of Overwatch, though I would rather choose one of the games if I wanted a complete experience. The only way that I can even open the game is if I have nothing better to do than shoot the breeze with friends. While others may argue that the game has been in beta, the same could be said for Fortnite which has featured hundreds of new content over the years. Rating: 3/5 Recap:
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AuthorBrady Bryan is quite familiar with blogs since he had to frequently post on his blog in 6th grade. Although its been a long time since then, he still knows what a proper blog should look like. Archives
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