Strange new world: The RPG genre and me

I know a thing or two about the RPG genre! I've played Pokemon since I was ten! Other than that...well, who needs more?

My line of thought was somewhere along those lines before I played a little game called Chrono Trigger. RPG's, where have you been all my life! That's what my new thoughts are.

But before I get ahead of myself, let's go over the meaning of "RPG" first. RPG stands for role-playing game. A "party" is almost always key to the RPG formula. Leveling up is also a necessary ingredient. Battles must be fought. These can be turn-based or action-based. In a turn-based battle, each active character can choose how to act, then the battle proceeds, generally with the fastest character attacking (or not attacking) first. Thus, a certain degree of strategy is involved in turn-based battles. Action-based battles, on the other hand, play out much like battles in any action-adventure game. In fact, "Action RPG" is its own sub-genre.

I hope that at least gives you the gist of it. Back to Chrono Trigger! What a spectacular game! I must acknowledge Mary as the one to whom I owe the finding of this game. The question that remains now is this: is the RPG genre for everyone? Absolutely not! And I'll tell you why: many gamers want that quick burst of gameplay, which comes from a Mario platformer, or a Star Fox shooter, or a Wii Sports party-er, or a Mario Kart racer. There's a great deal of complexity in RPG games! And, oftentimes, there's a degree of drag to them as well. It was hard even for me, a big Pokemon fan, to accept the foreign RPG style of Chrono Trigger (What? I can't catch 'em all in this game?! Ludicrous!). But the bare-bones truth is, RPG's provide deep, rewarding experiences that are worth all the trouble of learning all there is to know about them. So dig a little deeper, and maybe you'll find that there's an RPG fan in you after all!