In February, I talked about my personal experience of how video games changed my life. Just like Anime, video games also play a big role in my life. Since Neptunia the Animation will be airing in a few weeks, I wonder what are the things that make video games appealing? I will share my reasons why I think so. (Image Source)
The Gateway Drug to Anime
As mentioned in the editorial I mentioned earlier, we always see some characters playing some video games such as Sena from Boku ha Tomodachi. However, video games and visual novels these days have Anime adaptations to promote their game. Because of this, I feel that video games is the gateway drug to Anime and vice versa as both plays a big part in Japan’s pop culture.
Back in the 90s, I started playing Pokémon Blue on the Gameboy Color when it became popular in America. While I bought most of the Pokémon games such as Pokémon Snap, Stadium 1 & 2 and Super Smash Bros, I started to watch the Pokémon anime when it started airing and I enjoyed it. Of course, this is where I start becoming interested in Anime.
Escapism
While we experience escapism in all forms of media, video games and visual novels are unique because you can interact with them. Sure, there are games that emulate activities from real life such as sports and life simulation games, However, I think the escapism element is stronger in Japanese RPGs, visual novels, etc. as you take control of a main character in a different setting and do something that is not possible in reality. For instance, when we play Pokémon, you feel as if you are training and battling with a Pokémon. Or maybe you want to be a hero that goes on an adventure to save the world. The possibilities are endless.
On the other hand, visual novels are a bit more immersive as you take the role of the main character, meet other people and make your own choices to change the story’s direction. In some visual novels such as dating simulators, you can gain stats that will determine what person you go out with in the end. Games such as Love Plus makes it feel like you are dating an actual girl in real life with events happening in real time.
Battle Systems and Strategy
When you play a role-playing game, the gameplay is not always the same even though the concepts are the same. For instance, Final Fantasy games mostly have a turn based battle system compared to Tales of Hearts, which has an action battling system. This is probably the unique part of role-playing games since the battle systems are unique.
However, my pet peeves with some role-playing games are that you need to level grind in order to beat an incredibly hard boss. The earlier Final Fantasy games are notorious for this. On the other hand, in some games, you simply need the right strategy or equipment to beat a boss or monster. For instance, in the Atelier games, all you need is strong equipment and the right items to beat a tough boss.
Talking about strategy, this aspect is usually the most interesting as you can come up with new ways to defeat monsters without resorting to level grinding. In some games, they discourage level grinding so much that they reduce the amount of experience you receive when defeating weaker monsters. Therefore, you need to take advantage of the monsters’ weaknesses and use attacks that are super effective against them. In addition, using moves that power up specific stats, healing abilities, items, and in some instances, knowing the enemy’s attack pattern is also important. But still, this is usually the part of the game I spend most time with, especially in Pokémon, which has Effort Values, move sets, natures, etc.
Story and Characters
Unless you are playing games like Mario Kart, the story and characters plays a big role just like in Anime. Because of the interactive nature of this genre, you can relate to characters and grow an attachment to them a lot more than in Anime, especially the main character since you play as him/her most of the time. This is why we feel bad when something bad happens to a character or gets killed off for good.
For the most part, games and visual novels are just as capable of displaying a mix of drama along with happy and interesting moments. However, there are some limitations. Depending how realistic the game is, there is less portrayal of emotion of characters in video games compared to Anime, which tends to display more emotion. This is probably not the case with visual novels because most of them are in 2D.
Learning Japanese
Lastly, the reason I play video games is to practice my Japanese skills. The truth is that Japan has a lot of interesting games that never see localization. Maybe you want to learn the language, but want a more interactive medium. With region free gaming becoming a reality, you can simply study the grammar, get a Japanese dictionary app, import the game and play them as practice while having fun. Since most games such as visual novels and Japanese roleplaying games have a good amount of text, you can learn new vocabulary and practice what you have learned. I feel that video games is a better medium for practice compared to print media or Anime as you can simply play the game over again and still have a unique experience.
As for me, I became interested in playing Idolmaster 2 since it released on the Playstation 3. Since I wanted to play it, I decided to learn the language and found out that it wasn’t difficult besides the Chinese characters. When I got the Playstation Vita after playing Black 2 in Japanese, video games motivated me to deepen my knowledge of the Japanese language.
Conclusion
For me, video games are just as special as to watching Anime as they provide a degree of escapism. While these two mediums have its strengths and weaknesses, perhaps the reason video games are so appealing is because the experience is not the same each time we play it. Perhaps the reason why Anime fans play video games/visual novels as well is because Japanese video games borrow some aspects of Anime we enjoy.
With that, here are some questions to discuss about: In what ways video games appeal to you? Is it the story? Or is it the game play or the story?
One of the things i’ve realized lately is that I like playing video games because it gives me a feeling of progression, of accomplishing something. Things in real life move slowly, so going home and being able to say “Yes, I achieved something today”, even if it was just beating a boss or leveling up can be extremely satisfying. Likewise, if I don’t manage to accomplish something, such as if i’m stuck on a particular boss, I don’t get the same feeling of satisfaction when I play.
But the story is the big one for me. Getting involved in an interesting plot and connecting with characters is what I really enjoy. Sure, gameplay can be fun, but it’s the story that keeps me coming back.
I think the progression factor in video games is important as you spend the time doing stuff like gaining experience or making equipment to beat something. The problem with some video games like mobile games where you can use money just to make the game easier. Some games do it too with level DLC and ones to unlock all the weapons. It just defeats the purpose in my opinion… but I understand that feeling of accomplishment as I breed and train Pokemon for competitive battling and it takes hours to get the perfect one legitimately and I think it pays off…
I agree that story is also important too. While I haven’t come across a game with a really bad story, there are a good number of RPGs I enjoy the story a lot such as the Tales and Atelier series, Final Fantasy X and 7 to name a few. But I think both are equally as important as both contributes to how much I enjoy the game.
I particularly love RPGs and their equivalent (hell yes even Neopets) because you actually get to raise a powerful team/individual by yourself and perfect every single facet of the character, something you can never do to yourself IRL. It’s fun, going through an adventure with the creatures you trained so hard. It’s escapism definitely and you get the feeling of… a somewhat proud parent too, reliving through your characters’ experiences! (:
As mentioned in my previous reply, I do spend a lot of time to train my Pokemon and of course, it’s fun… But yes, there is some gratification once you beat the game and also relieve the stresses in my life for a period of time. However, instant gratification with pay to play in order to beat the game kind of kills the greatness of video games.
I can agree with almost everything you written, especially the story and character aspect. I am actually going through a few old titles from my childhood and its amazing to see how much the storytelling and style of storytelling has evolved or in some cases, devolved depending on the title/franchise. Can’t believe that I am still interested in playing a few of the older SNES and Sega games, especially the ones I once thought were terrible and unbeatable. Just wish I had more time to go through them, since I know I missing out on a few I never heard of. My friend already pre-ordered Atelier Escha & Logy and should be here by the 1st of July , so that alone will be eating a couple days of my time.
I think with the improvements in technology such as the implementation of full motion video, which happened in the early 2000s pretty much changed how stories are told as RPGs before it is mostly text based. Even with the introduction of the first Playstation where we see a shift from 2D to 3D. But still, there is a good amount of good RPGs on the SNES I didn’t get the chance to play during my childhood such as Super Mario RPG (which I have a Virtual Console version of the game), Final Fantasy 6, Chrono Trigger, Mother 2 and others. I still own my consoles I got from my childhood and one of these days, I’ll play with them again…
As for the new Atelier game, I am thinking about importing that as my birthday present since the gameplay looks interesting and I can pretty much play these games without problem in Japanese, although it may take awhile to translate… but it’s fun.