My love for early 3D era RPGs
I've talked at length to my friends (read: not with) about how the early 3D era RPGs just hit different for me. You could argue that it's simply the era I grew up in (I'm a mid-nineties kid) and that nostalgia is just putting rose-tinted glasses on since I've grown up with a launch PlayStation 2, I won't deny that. But there's just a certain charm to that era of games I can't resist and now I'm making it your problem by talking at length about it!
What goes against the nostalgia argument is that I've grown fond of RPGs before my time as well, only having played titles such as Xenogears last year and having loved them just as much as if I had played them during my childhood. Furthermore, it's not limited to a specific kind of game during those times. Be it spritebased (like the aforementioned Xenogears or Final Fantasy Tactics) or full-fledged 3D (for example The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time), early 3D games (like Castlevania 64) or those in the later stages of the PS2 (for example Persona 4), I love all of these equally. Generally speaking, I believe they are mostly limited to the "pre-HD" era of 3D games, primarily RPGs (which is not to say that I don't enjoy the games before and after, but those will be the topic of another post).
I think what strikes this feeling of wonder and awe is how different the adaptation to the 3D era was handled by each developer studio, how some genres or gameplay systems lended themselves well (or not as well) to the then new era of gaming. I believe a good comparison is Quest 64 and Ocarina of Time. Both released at around the same time and from a distance, you could argue they use a similiar engine for their 3D environments, but looking closer there's a world of difference in execution (yes, I know, Quest 64 was in development hell (as was OoT, but I digress)). People have already talked at length about how detail matters, but I find this to be true even more so in that specific era of games. While Quest 64 uses similiar looking areas with towns looking more or less like something I would build with LEGO in my younger years, Ocarina of Time already has more variation, detail and general sense of direction in Kokiri Forest than all of the areas in Quest 64 combined.
Another aspect of these early 3D era games is atmosphere. Silent Hill for the PlayStation is probably one of the best examples; using thick fog or impenetrable darkness not only to cover the very limited draw distance but also to invoke a sense of claustrophia and anxiety. Somehow this technical marvel, even if it would be sneered at nowadays, makes it all the better.
These games have also been the reason why this post took so long! I'm currently deeply engrossed in Final Fantasy XI Online, which originally came out on the PS2. My next blog post will likely be about that, so look forward to it!