[General Discussion] You’re Too Young to Hold a Sword Lad...Maybe

Have anyone noticed the lack of current Japanese RPG where an underage protagonist concept was done well. When done right they can provide in enthralling experience that all can enjoy when done wrong it could lead to disaster where you’re forced to either begrudgingly put up with the quirks or put down the game entirely. It seems it’s usually the teenage age group that the majority complains about and the issue only seems to be exclusive to the JRPGs. I always liked it when designers gave them a since of maturity to them that feels natural so that kids, teens, and adults could get best of both worlds. I found nothing wrong with the basic kid hero who ventured out into the world on his own because of the genuine love of his homeland. It’s like how Terra found the to will to fight again after Kefka’s ruse, it came off as genuine and sincere without having to be NGE complex or go on and on in an redundant exposition as if she guest stared in an episode of Inuyasha. Granted this can all be attributed to bad writing from writer/scenario writers who are either stuck in a rut with overused anime clichés or just can’t pen down believable characters and situations. So should future JRPGs cut away from the underage heroes and begin focusing on adults until they are able to find that middle ground? Rather you agree with me or not your opinions are welcomed.

Well here’s my opinion to get things started...

The reason I’m a little tired of the JRPG teenage protagonists is that when in the face of adversity the writers just can’t seem to put their personal issues (parental abandonment, abuse, loneliness, ect.) on hold or keep them restraint as internal conflicts that eventually gets resolved subtlety. No matter what dangers they’re facing they’ll take any opportunity they can get to whine about it. I believe part of it have to do with demographics that usually targeted towards teens. What I don’t like is the apparent trade off where the characters come off as cardboard cut-outs with personalities derivative of bad animes. Many of Miyazaki’s work features that “balance” where I find his underage heroine/hero arcs to be far better developed then many in JRPGs like the Tales series, I would like to see more JRPGs in the future feature more of that “balance like the simplistic yet enjoyable cast of Earthbound or Final Fantasy 12 simplistic yet believable Vaan and Penelo.

While Tidus isn’t the worst main character of the videogame media, he’s the worst of the entire FF series. What are his dreams and aspirations, what his ideals, why does he love Yuna, and more importantly where is his humanity? Despite my own father issues I never bought into Tidus angst for a moment in fact it made me even more resentful of him because of the constant flamboyant presentation of it all. On other hand I fond Auron to be a bit better since everything about him was more restraint when compared to Tidus and Yuna.

I’ll compare Squall Leonhart (FF8) to Ashley Riot (VS) since their similar in persona. Ok so I previously looked through the script of FF8 to try and figure out why Squall was involved in SEEDS to begin with (besides the fact that he was put there after he failed to be adopted), why would someone who was intentionally socially inept would stay in a military academy where communication, human contact, and more importantly comradery was keen, which is why is harder to believe that he was given the role as leader of Balamb Garden during an attack. We never gain any sort of insight on his dreams or morals, only his relationship with Rinoa became his driving force to save the world. Ashley is different as we can pinpoint why he became a Riskbreaker, which was to forget that which pains him and lose himself on battlefield, a perfect tool for the VKP. Even though his morality is shown through his actions it was called out by Sydney, not to mention he was berated by Rosencrantz for it. Ashley’s trauma was tied into the overall arc far better than the “my pretend sister left me and never came back so I’m gonna close myself off even though someday I’ll lose my childhood memories from using GFs”.

Jam it back in, in the dark.