Retro Gaming: An Essay
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I have recently entertained an acute interest in retro gaming and, in particular, older RPGs. The first RPG I really remember getting into was Dragon Warrior, that and Dungeons & Dragons. More recently I’ve revisited some old titles from the SNES era and uncovered some new ones. I’d like to discuss some of those recent discoveries. I will possibly write some reviews on them later, but for now I’m merely going to discuss them briefly.
I will begin by saying that I was pleasantly surprised by Paladin’s Quest. Most of what I’ve seen talking about it has been essentially negative, though some online banter has shown that it does have a fan-base. It is not the best video game ever created, not by a long shot, but some of the criticisms are unfair or remediable. For instance, there’s the difficulty, but I did not find it too difficult, and certainly not unfairly difficult like some games. The female lead, Midia (as she is called by default), receives a crown at one point. If you equip her with the crown and use it in combat it will heal her. It has unlimited uses. This radically alters the game’s overall difficulty. The ability is not explained in the game, so if you were unaware of it the challenge would be much higher. Therefore I could say that criticizing the difficulty is reasonable, but once you figure out the trick with the crown that detraction becomes moot. What I find particularly interesting about the game is the setting and overall aesthetic, which is evocative of 1970s French science fiction artwork, à la Jean “Moebius” Giraud, and harkens back to the alien milieu of Morrowind (if Vvardenfell were painted in a bubblegum palette).
Another game I have found interesting is Octopath Traveler. I’m on my second playthrough and though it is not a retro game it kind of feels like one. It was quite well done with some minor innovations to older mechanics making it both new and familiar. A sequel is supposed to be in the works. But as for retro RPGs, another I’ve developed a fondness for is Arcana. This is another one where the difficulty has come under scrutiny. It also has a sort of weird aesthetic where entities are depicted as cards. It is not a card game, more of a first person dungeon crawl. It is rather odd. I do not find it nearly as engaging as either Paladin’s Quest or Octopath Traveler but it’s one I’d never played before and it caught my attention along with Final Fantasy 6 (also known as Final Fantasy 3). Several others are on my radar and I intend to investigate them as well: Lufia 2: Rise of the Sinistrals and Tales of Phantasia.
