Fog of War: Turn-Based RPG’s are Best for Mobile Gaming

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Like a lot of gamers out there, my first console was a Nintendo Entertainment System. But while I loved playing that Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt dual cartridge, it didn’t completely entrance me. There was still a chance that I’d grow up to love something else, football perhaps. Who knows?

But then I got my hands on a black original Game Boy and my fate was sealed. I was a gamer through and through.

My portable devices still demand the majority of my gaming time and with those hundreds (probably closer to thousands) of hours of mobile entertainment experience, I learned a few things:

A Game Boy cartridge can withstand just about anything.
Just because a game was good on a console does not mean the portable equivalent will be as up to par. And…
Role-Playing Games for mobile devices absolutely HAVE to be turn-based.

The first two are quite possibly common knowledge, but the third deserves some explanation.

When I say “turn-based,” I mean something very particular. I don’t consider Square Enix’s “Active-Time Battle” system to be turn-based. Argue semantics with me all you want, but my definition of a turn-based RPG is one allowing me infinite time to choose my next action, like Pokemon or Golden Sun (two of my favorite RPG’s by the way.)

What reason do I have to dismiss all portable versions of every Final Fantasy after Final Fantasy 3 and what is generally considered the best RPG of all-time, Chrono Trigger? The answer is quite simple: I’ve got shit to do!

When I’m playing my PSP or DSi XL or iPod Touch, I’m either sitting on a couch watching TV or I’m travelling. In either case, I’m unable to devote my full attention to the game, looking up quite a bit to peek at the score of the baseball game or to have a conversation with my travelling companion.

When I do take that glance, that chimera beast in Final Fantasy 5 will usually decide I’m taking too long and blast my entire team with bubbles, crippling me. In a game like Chrono Trigger, I must constantly be “on” during combat. Unfortunately, I’m not always in a secluded room, devoid of distractions.

With Golden Sun, I can basically look up at any time, even during my opponent’s turn, without fear. Not only do I have the proper time to craft a winning strategy, but I can also be as social as I want to be (or more accurately, “as I have to be.”)

I understand why Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger have the combat they do. They actively engage the player more than a game like Pokemon ever could. It makes perfect sense for their original platforms, consoles, which bank on their players being constantly engaged. But it also makes them sub-par portable games in my opinion.

Agree? Disagree? Let me know.

As for the writing challenge, here were my scores for this, my first and only draft:

Reading Ease: 86.567
F/K Grade Level: 5.529
Gunning Fog: 9.95

Trying to kill the participating in the challenge and getting back into the swing of writing for Bitmob birds with a single stone, I tried to write something new for the challenge. The problem arose after I calculated my scores. They were well within the desired range. My best guess is that since I knew from the beginning this post would be my entry for the challenge, I always aware about readability and it came out in my writing.

So, at least in that regard, the challenge was a success! I encourage everyone to keep readability in mind, not just after writing, but while writing. It's much easier to change things as they're happening than to try to alter something that still works within the context of your established sentence.