I’ve been craving getting into a new project lately since my break. Mostly, I’ve wanted to come up with something that I would ideally enjoy doing even if no one were to watch it — ideally, I would be okay just doing it for the sake of it.
I thought about reviving BetterDota, but after a couple streams I found I wasn’t enjoying Dota at the level I’d need to in order to focus on grinding out MMR. Instead, I turned to what I like playing when I don’t really have any other obligations: RPGs.
In short, I’d like to look at the RPG genre from a historical perspective, as I don’t see many projects actually devoted to looking at genres and how they evolve over time. Ideally, I would make a list of “classic” RPGs that I hadn’t played, and then do a couple things:
Before I played the game, I would research the history of the game through interviews and my own searching, and either write or film a bit of a preview. I’d explain why it was to be included in the project, why I find it interesting, and what the creators looked to accomplish with it.
I would then announce a start day to when I would start playing the game live on my Twitch channel. The idea would be to give an accurate portrayal of the game as it was first available to be played — this would mean trying my best to play the original version, instead of enhanced remakes or ports.
I would then cut the broadcast up into snippets and post them on my YouTube channel. The idea would be to give people who missed a stream or wanted to binge-watch things a place to do so. This would be evocative of what Giant Bomb did with their Endurance Runs, including Persona 4.
After I finished the game, I would likely announce the next game I would be covering, and then write or film something about how I subjectively found the game. The aim would be to less complain about a game’s age but more explore the context of the time it was released in, and how it influenced further games.
As a whole, I want to be able to better appreciate the RPG genre, explore what it means to me, and examine some classics that I haven’t played yet.
Before I just dive into this, though, there’s a couple questions I’m kind of kicking around in my head. If you have feedback, feel free to reach out on Twitter or in the comment section under the post.
- What games do I choose, and when do I choose which games to play? I’d love to have some kind of poll system or schedule, and I don’t necessarily want to work in a chonological order or series order (I don’t want to play Final Fantasy 1 to whatever in order).
- Since RPGs can be fairly long in some cases, is it an issue if I use some kind of cheat (if available) to speed things along? This isn’t so much a “invincibility/unlimited ammo” kind of thing, but more a “double XP given from encounters” if it’s a grind-heavy game like Dragon Quest. My obvious options are to showcase the game as close to “the real thing” as I can, but who wants to watch a stream of encounter grinding just so I don’t wipe on bosses?
- At what point does a game have too few RPG elements to qualify for this? What about more oddball games?
- What happens if I can’t find adequate information in order to inform the audience? Is it enough to just rely on a “here’s this game, it’s important for these reasons that I have decided, let’s play it.”
- What happens with games that have extra content for NewGame+? In situations like Chrono Trigger or Persona 4, would it be cool to play sections of the game (but not advancing the plot) off-stream in order to have a streamlined experience?
So yeah; this is what I have so far. Ideally I’d want to start with a couple definite classics, like Dragon Warrior, and then move on from there. Feel free to leave any feedback you have.
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