I have a thing for stupid long Japanese Role Playing Games.

On a surface level, that doesn't sound so bad. I have a genre that I know I like which happens to have a high hour-to-dollar ratio, so I'm still getting plenty of bang for my buck. They're very easy to get into a nice flow state once you get the hang of the mechanics. They're typically story-driven, which keeps me invested beyond the allure of a grindy feedback loop. I generally love the aesthetic – some are a little too anime for even my tastes, but I'd be a lying fool if I said that Xenoblade Chronicles 2's visual style isn't a huge guilty pleasure of mine.

So what's the problem?

Over the last two years, I've played through or started a laundry list of JRPGs. There's been Persona 5, Kingdom Hearts III, Dragon Quest XI, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Final Fantasy XIV and all its expansions, both Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Dragon Quest VIII, Bravely Default II, and, my latest mistake, Persona 5: Royal, because I'm a sucker for the original's soundtrack and wanted to see what the fuss was about with the third semester tucked away at the end.

Before you look at that list and get concerned for my well-being, I can at least assure you that a) I did NOT finish all of these, and b) quarantine gave me a lot of free time. However, I felt it was time to pause and take stock of what I've been playing and if there's anything I'd want to change.

The Time Commitment

Let's take the above list and cross-reference it with HowLongToBeat:

Again, many of these were games I started but didn't finish out, so please don't worry too much about me. I did work through all of Final Fantasy XIV though, so maybe worry just a little bit about me. I've also been going through One Piece since COVID hit.

Actually, definitely worry about me.

The time commitment for these titles is non-trivial. If the world engrosses me, I don't actually mind spending dozens of hours with these games - I'm still content to fire up FFXIV and listen to the music while spamming the jump button in different zones, which is worth my subscription fee alone. When you're grinding through these types of games one after another, however, you really start to question if you could have spent your time better. I don't mean solving the global pandemic or spending time with your loved ones - I already set aside time for at least one of those two. I just wonder if I should try spending my gaming time working through a string of shorter games rather than focusing so heavily on these behemoths?

The Repetition

When you binge RPGs like I do, you come out of the other side realizing they all blur together a bit. How much do the turn-based battles in Perona 5 Royal really differ from Bravely Default II (answer: the music)? Does exploring every nook and cranny of a Dragon Quest town really stand out from doing the same in Xenoblade Chronicles (not particularly, but both are designed with such obvious love and attention to detail I'll happily scavenge random homes ad naseum)? These experiences differ in nuanced ways that I love picking up on as I naturally ascend to Wholesome Hot Takes' resident bearded JRPG guru, but you can't deny the inter-repetition hopping from game to game.

That's to say nothing of the intra-repetition inherent in each title. Everything I'm spilling on the page now came from a crisis I had playing Persona 5 Royal and realizing I wasn't enjoying it quite as much as my first playthrough of the original two years prior. The real hooks of P5 are the story, world, characters, and vibrant aesthetics, which are all so strong that anyone playing for the first time won't notice the hours slipping away, but on follow-up runs the repetition of the game can really sink in. Hours of (required!) randomly generated floors in Mementos, battles that mostly play out exactly the same due to the emphasis on a) ambushing enemies so you always act first, and b) clearing every battle on the first turn with an All-Out Attack before the opposing demons can act, and the overabundance of dialogue saying the EXACT SAME THING all begin to grate long before the credits roll.

None of this is unique to Persona 5. The grindy nature of RPGs is apparent anywhere you look and is honestly part of the appeal. There's plenty of nights after work where I just want to zone out and play a mindless Skinner box while listening to a YouTube discussion video or podcast, and RPGs are perfectly suited for that role. After being stuck on the same genre for so long though, it really does start to eat at you how often these games are willing to waste your time. Maybe it's worth exploring some titles with more variety and engagement in the moment-to-moment gameplay?

The Growing Backlog

I own a lot of games. Part of it comes with slowly growing a collection over the years, as the only other hobby I've sunk this much time into is finding new music. I try to be careful with my spending and only buy something if I know I'm finished with what I'm currently playing, either because it's beaten or I've lost interest, but the backlog finds nefarious ways to spread its roots. A dangerous factor is the annual holiday season - that's when I look at the games that came out in the last year that mildly interested me but not enough to splurge on and end up asking for a handful for Christmas. The other culprit comes from the modern era of subscription services. Thanks to PS+ and Nintendo Switch Online, I've claimed dozens of free games over the years that I haven't even bothered to try out and see if I like. Everytime I claim one, that's another "on the list", and that list will always grow faster than I can churn through meaty JRPGs.

There's plenty of discussions online around how to mentally approach a backlog. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and view it as a massive anxiety-inducing checklist. Thankfully, I don't really feel that anxiety, nor do I want that to be a motivating factor in how I spend my free time - I don't wake up in a cold sweat over the fact my copy of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is still sealed three years later. I just occassionally look up at my shelf and think "Hmmm, I'm sure I would like that, just haven't gotten to it yet." Well, why not make some time for them? Sealed cases are kind of ugly anyways (sorry collectors!), and it's a cheap way to try something new!

What to Try Instead?

If it's not obvious, I'm taking a break from long-winded JRPGs in favor of trying to clear out some stuff I already own that doesn't fit into what I normally play. I'll still get my grindy fix with casually leveling other jobs in FFXIV (turns out I don't hate tanking!), but otherwise, I want to try a variety of stuff I've already owned for ages but never prioritized. I've already been at this for a few weeks, and even if I haven't loved everything I've touched, I'm already finding some gems (Celeste deserves every bit of hyperbolic praise that's been thrown its way since its release).

This isn't the first time I've tried this. Over ten years ago, I created an account on Backloggery.com to catalog what I own and what I've beaten and used it for a bit to track what I wanted to play next. I've recently gone back and updated it with my current collection. This list is far from exhaustive of everything I've ever owned, but it at least covers everything in my current apartment, physical or digital. Feel free to follow along there to keep up to date with what I'm working through. There's plenty of dated blurbs written by 14 year-old me, so don't say I didn't warn you.

The real reason I wrote this post was to announce a new series for the blog: Backlog Blurbs! To convince myself that this hobby actually means something, I've decided to start blogging some general thoughts around games in the backlog. In particular, I want to hone in on how experimenting with other genres helps me to define and refine my overall tastes and find some insights around what I look for in my entertainment. Each post will cover a handful of titles, so I expect the format to be similar to Irregular Album Roundups.

Will this amount to anything meaningful? Probably not! This is just an indulgent exercise for my inner nerd to get some writing practice again, so allow me to reclaim some street cred by throwing out that I am digging the last minute of Built to Spill's "Distopian Dream Girl". An Irregular Album Roundup will happen soon, I promise.