I'm definitely a fan of the classics I grew up with. Since as a grownup I don't have much time for video games, I pretty much limit my gaming time these days to replaying old classics and playing the sequels or follow-ups to the games I loved most in my youth.
However, I've noticed that I have a harder time getting into more recent entries in many of my old favorites. I have started, but failed to finish to completion, Final Fantasy XII, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass, Super Mario Galaxy, and Dragon Quest IX. All of these are games I was excited to try out when they were first announced or released. I also was unable to play any of them when they were first released due to financial, time, or other constraints. And with each of these cases, though I was definitely enjoying each game, I got to a point where I ended up "taking a break", which break has still not ended for each of those games. And with the exception of Dragon Quest IX, I started all of those games years ago.
I've identified one common theme in all of these games, the identification of which has someone refocused my gaming goals within the last year. In each case, I initially get excited as I see the familiar elements of each series come to life within the new game. I get more excited as I see the evolution of the classic formulas, and think of all the things I'm excited to try out in the game. I think about striking an appropriate balance between finishing the game and exploring the games' side quests and additional content. And then I remember--I had all these same feelings about previous entries that I played after coming home from my mission (or in the case of Dragon Quest, when I played through the series over the last few years). But in each case, I was so excited to "catch up" to current games, that I just played straight through and didn't take time to enjoy most of the side quests or additional content the way I would have in my youth.
I told myself back then that after I caught up, I would go back and replay the series to get the full experience. But, I never did. I played Halo instead, with the very occasional other game put in there in an effort to try and stay current in my gaming. The problem I have now is, for every exciting new entry in a classic series, it reminds me of everything I left undone in the previous entries.
Most of the examples I listed above mark at least a few years since the last entry I tried. But just this year, I identified the problem again when, after completing Dragon Quest VII and VIII last year, I started on Dragon Quest IX this year. Because our finances were too tight for an impulse buy, I agonized over the wait from the beginning of the year when I finished the last game until my birthday in June, when I finally got the chance to try it out. The game is very well done, and very fun to play. But as my characters leveled up and learned new abilities, and as I learned and tried out various alchemy recipes and went through various side quests, I kept thinking about all the abilities, alchemy recipes, and other things I never tried out on Dragon Quest VIII, which led me back to not fleshing out my characters on Dragon Quest VII, and so on back a ways.
Meanwhile, I had a long commute for work, and was looking for apps on my phone to entertain me. I had recently quit Candy Crush, an addiction from last year that was so not worth the time I spent with it, and was looking for something better to replace it. I had already purchased and completed the original Dragon Quest on my phone, but in the midst of all this I had an idea to keep me entertained for a little while. I had read on gamefaqs.com about someone who had completed the original Dragon Quest without any equipment. I decided I wanted to give it a try.
I had also this year set up my "man cave" in the house we bought this year, where I hooked up all my old game systems, some for the first time in years. I decided to boot up the original Dragon Warrior on my NES and try the same challenge there. In both cases, I surprised myself at how entertaining it was to revisit an old game in a new way. It was definitely a challenge, particularly on the NES version, but I learned things about the game that I didn't really know before. In particular, I developed a new appreciation for the spell Hurtmore/Firebane, which I had seldom used in past play, due to my desire to conserve MP. I also surprised myself when I beat it two levels before the game's maximum level, which was also two levels earlier than the guy on gamefaqs.com had beaten it.
I subsequently devised a new challenge for myself to see if it could help give me a similar appreciation for seldom-used items. I decided to try and finish the game with no magic. I had wanted to review the Famicom version for a language refresher, and replay my Game Boy Color version for a comparison of the dialog with the Android version, so I decided to try it on both of those. It was similarly fun, though I have not been able to finish it on the remake version, which features a stronger final boss.
I decided that I want to replay the series in more detail, and for the games I have already completed more than once I want to try some of these types of challenge quests. I want to really take time to enjoy each game in the series without feeling so rushed. Somewhere I need to strike the right balance between playing old and new games.
I haven't actually fully backed away from Dragon Quest IX, which I look at on my 3DS menu every day and do still sometimes play a bit. I am just finishing up another game on my 3DS and am planning to dive back into DQIX. But I'm thinking to myself, what's the rush? The next (English accessible) Dragon Quest game will not be released for over a year in Japan, and who knows when in the U.S., so I have time to flesh out my experience. And flesh out my experience with previous games as well, if that's what it takes to enjoy the new games. It's been rather fun so far, and I expect it will continue to be so.
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