First off, I just wanna say that I'm new to the Easy Ally guys after seeing Brandon on the Kinda Funny channel a while back, and it's been awesome! I love all the content.
Now this topic has been bugging me for a while now. I wasn't the biggest gamer my whole life despite always having them around almost all the time. I would play games here and there but mostly dive deep into a few franchises I really loved (one being Pokemon). Now granted I don't have time/money to play all that much these days either, but since finding the world of podcasts and video game enthusiast groups, I have been more informed than ever. I consume much more news and content than I actually play games.
Once getting into these hardcore gaming sites and groups, I of course learned a lot about JRPGs, which had never been in my life, outside of Pokemon. The big ones like Final Fantasy, Persona, and other JRPGs were always talked about and I felt like I was missing out on something. I grew up playing Pokemon and it was always in my life. I love those games. And since those are JRPGs, I figured I should like some of the other popular ones out there. So I tried to jump into Persona 4 golden on my Vita.
Long story story short, I played like 12 hours of it and I didn't like it. I don't know what it was. The style? The obscure story? I don't know. But in the end I have come to the conclusion that I just don't really dig Japanese style "stuff". I've tried a few popular animes as well, nope. Not for me. So this hugely popular genre of media just doesn't click with me... Except Pokemon.
Why does that game click with me and so many other Japanese style things don't? Is it purely because it's what I grew up with? I like the idea of creatures that you capture and raise to be more powerful, but why didn't that same system from Persona click with me? Any time I see another turn based battle system In a video or stream, it just seems annoying to me, but not the Pokemon battle system. I know what Oran berries do and what a poke flute is for, but when there are tons of obscure items in another game that you have to learn what they do, it is just annoying.
Am I just a broken Japan hater who happened to grow up with Pokemon? Or is there something special about Pokemon that sets it apart from other similar JRPG style games? Does anyone else feel this way? Did I write too much for my first post on these forums? I sure hope not. I'm glad I found Easy Allies and I love everything about them and this community. Thanks for reading if you did.