#24: Follow the Path?

This Comic's Cast:

Okay, so maybe it's an overly harsh criticism, and really I'm being a touch specific when it's problem with an entire genre, really. JRPGs are rather linear. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but they aren't nearly as open ended as your normal adventure game.

Adventure games, of course, being known for their punishing difficulty when it came to doing things in the right order. If you did anything out of step, you would get stuck and have to start over. But that doesn't mean they were linear. In fact, it's quite the opposite. You could gather your items, collect your thoughts, do everything in any order you chose. You just had to realize that you needed to find all the items and follow all the clues to perform all the tasks before you got to that one step where, if you couldn't do what you needed to, you were fucked.

I remember playing Space Quest, and early on you have to get a data cartridge. If you don't, no big deal. You can play halfway through the game and never know you needed it. But, you'd get to a point where the data cartridge was essential. If you didn't have it, tough luck. Back to the start and time to replay.



They actually do something heroic.