You MUST read this

I am currently still working on a new short story that should be done sometime this week. As a result, for this week’s blog update I want to talk about something that’s been bothering me. And that is, when people consider something as being an absolute must watch / read / play (depending on the medium). As in, you cannot possibly live your life without having experienced —insert name here— masterpiece. And to be fair, I’ve been guilty of this very same behavior before as well.

So why do I even think this is a problem worth bringing up? FOMO. Fear of missing out.

When it comes to companies selling and promoting their product, the “FOMO” is one technique they have been frequently relying on. Get this “product” before it’s all gone! You’ll be sad if you don’t! And as an individual, there’s nothing I can do to change that. I don’t own a company.

However, where I tried to do better over the years is in my personal life. Here’s the thing: in today’s day and age, any entertainment you enjoy, you will not be able to cover it all. Even if you’re paid for reviewing content (books, games, movies, whatever), you might be able to watch / read / play more than the average person, but not all. And then there’s an entirely different question. Are you actually enjoying doing it, Or does it become a chore?

Back to the topic at hand, if you enjoy more than one medium, it only becomes worse to even just go through the “classics”. I myself love a lot of different artistic mediums. Movies, anime, manga, graphic novels, books, board games, video games, the list goes on. So for me personally, in my teenage years and in my twenties, I really struggled with this. I tried to pay attention to what was considered to be a “must” according to both critics and my friends and I kept adding it on an imaginary to do list, which kept growing ever larger.

And at times, this has caused a lot of anxiety and stress. Am I making the right choice by playing Bioshock instead of reading Game of Thrones? Reading and watching Attack on Titan instead of playing Undertale? You get the idea.

And that kept going on until I firmly decided, you know what? I don’t care. Drink vodka, play Dotka, cyka blyat, as I would jokingly say. I have Dota 2 and am perfectly comfortable playing that instead of another game. There are things I will eventually get to, and then there are countless others I will not. And that’s ok. I think we all need to do better in avoiding the use of “must” or “should”, as those words are setting us up for failure.

What brought up this topic for me (yet again) is that I finally decided to spend the $10 for Chrono Trigger (upgraded ver.) for iPhone. This is a game that often gets heralded as the dream project of several very talented individuals. I’ve often had friends respond in shock when they heard I haven’t played it and told me that I must correct my wrongdoing. Imperative, categorical. I remember having this conversation with Valerio, who at the time was a postdoc in Astrophysics, while I was doing my PhD in particle physics. He basically put it as “if you love games, you have to play Chrono Trigger. It is the best game ever made.”

Of course, I knew that claim was bullshit, because obviously Heroes of Might and Magic is, was and will be the superior fantasy game series.

Joking aside, since I’m only doing 30 second reviews, I want to use Chrono Trigger as an example to explore how very subjective this is. Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t played it, you’re not missing out. Don’t get me wrong, it is a fun game for sure. However, for me to consider a game as “better than others”, it has to succeed in one of two areas. The first one would be for the gameplay to be incredibly fun (possibly innovative, but not necessarily).  The other one, the story and world building must be done in such a way that it cannot possibly be done in any other medium (books, graphic novels, movies, etc…).

So let me talk about the two factors then.

Is Chrono Trigger incredibly fun from the gameplay perspective? Not to me. It’s similar to other jRPGs really. If we’re talking about the most fun I had with the game mechanics, I would have to go with Arkane Studios games, specifically with Prey and then Dishonored. They are just a blast to play and replay and the studio (both the TX branch as well as the French one) is only getting better.

Even if you try to argue that “Chrono Trigger was ahead of its time” (1995), I will confront you with saying nope, that was Wolfenstein 3D you’re thinking about (1992). Oh you want to talk about RPGs? Elder Scrolls Arena then (1994). Might and Magic series (from 1986 onwards). I could go on. The point is that there are a lot of other games, from the same era or more modern, that keep innovating and doing things better and better.

Playing it in 2021, I think the combat is tedious and even annoying at times (luckily it’s not as bogged down as in some other jRPGs though). There’ve also been a few occasions where I had no idea what to do next. The map can be difficult to read and it can be easy to forget what needs to be done next. There’s no “log” or “current objective”, which sucks. Especially if you don’t have a lot of time to play in the same sitting and return to it in a day or two.

And then the second question. Does Chrono Trigger tell a unique story that could only be told through a game?

Short answer is no. Since it has multiple endings, it would be difficult to do with a single movie, granted. But it could be a series instead. Perhaps most notably, Fate/Stay series, adapted from a visual novel with different outcomes. As a result, they’ve made several seasons, each exploring one set of choices. Same could be done here. Each set of choices could be made into its own season of a show. The story itself – while involving time – is told in a linear manner.

Not only that, but some time into the game, you begin seeing animated cutscenes – literally anime. Which personally, I love me some Akira Toriyama drawings (Dragon Ball FTW), but still, that’s not a game.

For this second point at least I can give the game some leeway. It took the gaming industry until 1998 with Half-Life to truly show how a game can immerse you into a world without literally guiding your hand, or explaining things with narration.

Regardless, my point here is that while Chrono Trigger is a fun experience that has been enjoyed  by many people, in my opinion, it is not the be all – end all best game ever that people must play. And the same logic applies with any other form of entertainment.