My Turn To Cry

In which I discuss my history with turn-based games.



I'm not particularly sure what my first turn-based game was. It might've been Chrono Cross. It might've been Legend of Legaia. It definitely wasn't anything from the Final Fantasy franchise, because the first one I ever played was FFX, and that was well into the PS2 era. Regardless of what first introduced me to the turn-based genre, I was doomed from the start.

Many a times I was drawn to a video game because of its art direction. Many a times, said video game was turn-based. And many a times, I ended up abandoning a game I liked so much because I just could not move forward.

I don't know what it is about me and turn-based games. For some reason I just really, really suck at them. Like I'm not even exaggerating; I LOVE the Persona series, but when I tried P3 in high school, I still died... and I was already consulting a walkthrough by then, mind you.

I remember as a kid I'd see copies of Final Fantasy VIII being sold around Greenhills. I was already familiar with the franchise by then, and I was interested in getting a copy of my own, but when I opened the case I was overwhelmed by the number of cds included. Needless to say I never played FFVIII... the same goes for FFVII, no matter how familiar I am with the characters (HELLO RENO ILU), and the same can be said about FFIX, regardless of how many times I've seen cutscenes from the game thanks to text chatrooms on the telly.

The farthest I've ever made it in Persona 3 was as far as the Emperor and Empress boss fight. The end.

Because of this weakness against turn-based games, I have inevitably missed out on a lot of gems in gaming while growing up. The Final Fantasy series for one. I never got far in Chrono Cross nor Legend of Legaia. Rhapsody, Lunar, Persona 3/4, Disgaea... the list goes on. It is tragic. Back in high school I attempted playing Final Fantasy X but since I'm thorough with exploring, the frequent random encounters of fiends got on my nerves. I attempted its sequel, with a WALKTHROUGH, but I still got stuck somewhere and eventually abandoned the game.

Between turn-based games and hack-n-slash, I have an obvious preference for the latter. Maybe it's because turn-based games are a lot more tactical and I just have a tendency to dive in blind. Personally, I find hack-n-slash more thrilling and turn-based more interesting, albeit a lot more time-consuming. I think one of the aspects I really hate about turn-based games is how you can't evade attacks. You just hafta sit there and wait for the blow, whereas with hack-n-slash, if you get hit then it's all on you.

I really wanna get better at turn-based games though. I've already missed out on a lot of good games because of my handicap, and I really don't want to have to miss any more. I mean, some of the best games I know are turn-based, but because I suck at that genre, the only turn I get is the turn of my head away from the games. Ha ha ha...........................

Maybe I'm not smart enough for turn-based games since they're tactical and require a higher level of thinking than hack-n-slash. LOLJK I mean okay, hack-n-slash can still get tactical, but in that genre you can get away with just pure luck (which is prolly my case most of the time) sometimes. LUCK IS NO SUCH THING IN TURN-BASED. Sometimes.

Plot twist: the game I'm currently playing is turn-based. I won't reveal which one just yet, but you probably already know if you follow me on Twitter. All I can say is that I've gotten addicted and I'm pretty far in the game... only because the difficulty is set at pussy level.

- Ina