by Daniel Rodil .

When I get to a new town and a soothing song starts playing, when I see the townsfolk selling apples in the market and something that resembles a cat is playing with the kids in the fountain, that's when I realize how much I like JRPGs.

I know stories can be lacking, and having seventeen-years old heroes killing the ultimate evil god, when they started out, fifty hours before as errand boys for a nice old lady is rather awkward, but still, there's something about them, about their ambience and style, that makes me want to play more. I've bee thinking for the last few days, what it is, that I like so much about them, and which other people hate, and I came to it:

The relax me.

Which makes a lot of sense, most people play games to relax for a while. I don't like shooters, though I'm always awed about how technically impressive they are, and well, their graphics are out of this world. I've read the stories about some of the major franchises, and they are good too, but, they stress me. JRPGs are simpler to play, and it IS their ambience what relaxes me the most, the fact that even when the world seems to be crumbling by the appearance of the ultimate god of death, a new town has relaxing music and the people there have funny dialogs agrees with what I want a game to be.

Once you see it that way, it's not a thing about “good” gameplay and “bad” gameplay, or good stories and bad stories,it's about what fulfills the purpose you seek in that game. Obviously, some games can be generally bad, in the sense, the execution of the game did not come as planned, or maybe even the plan was wrong to begin with, but when it comes to genres I think it is a simpler matter.

What is what relaxes you the most?

Some people take a walk in the forest, some cook, some read, some play shooters and competitive games, and well, I play JRPGs.