[[2026 Games]] ![|500](https://mediaproxy.tvtropes.org/width/1200/https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/938c90da_95fc_4314_95da_630aae67f4d7.jpeg) Recently I made the mistake of going on reddit and seeing a post on the [[JRPG]] subreddit. On it, someone said that they were playing **Mana Khemia** — a game that I actually quite enjoyed overall — but said that they didn’t like the high amounts of dialogue and didn't find the story or characters engaging. People *ripped* into this person in the comments. It was a bloodbath tbh. And it pissed me off. I think the thing that really set me off was this comment: > [!Quote] Some dumb-aah Redditor > Honest question, if you don't like dialogue why on earth would you want to play JRPGs? Newsflash dumbass: I recognize you're perfectly fine with the slop getting shoveled down your throat when it comes to this genre, but let me take you back to The Good Old Days™. I recognize I'm at risk to pull out my cane, but hear me out. JRPGs as a genre used to have the fucking juice when it comes to plot. The **Final Fantasies**, the **Xenogears**, hell, even fucking **Legend of Legaia** managed to tell compelling stories without hours and hours of boring expository dialogue. The main characters weren't all teenagers going to high-school and talking like it too. The genre used to have deep plots and cool characters *without* needing double the length of **War and Peace**'s word count to do it. You could probably put the entirety of **Chrono Trigger**'s fucking scrips on a two-sided note card *and still have room left over for your math equations*. We used to ~~live in a society~~ have an understanding of what good pacing is, but now the norm — and, from what I can tell from these slop-loving fans, the *expectation* — seems to be the longest cutscenes on planet earth where six people all say the same thing in different ways. I guess that seems fine when your only reference point is **Persona 5** and the **Trails of** series. It's funny that the commentor above got ripped over **Mana Khemia**, because I feel like this shift into over-telling instead of showing definitely hit its stride during the [[PlayStation 2]] era. Yes, we got some revolutionary bangers for sure, but I've been playing around in the library this year and you can't deny that Japanese devs couldn't stop themselves from making their characters refuse to shut the fuck up. **Digital Devil Saga** and **Shin Megami Tensei III** hold up phenomenally because they manage to tell a pretty interesting story without needing me to go grab popcorn. And yes, I realize this is partly my [[Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain|goop]], yes I know I value gameplay mechanics over storytelling when it comes down to it. But I honestly wouldn't mind the yapping in JRPGs nowadays if all that yapping was *any good*. Even [[Final Fantasy Resonance]], a game that I'm currently enjoying, by a developer that used to be the king of brevity and interesting plots, gives you absolutely *nothing* in the story department. They aren't all this bad, obviously, but I definitely don't find myself getting deeply excited for JRPGs like I did back in the day. Something’s shifted, and whilst fans nowadays might be cool with it, I am not. So, solidarity my **Mana Khemia**-hating sibling. I get it.