Say what you will about Nintendo, you have to admit they have one hell of a dedicated fanbase. Far more than either Sony or Microsoft, Nintendo has long enjoyed a surprisingly personal relationship with its fans, many of whom grew up on the company’s consoles and games. I’m one such fan, whom since the days of the NES has had the good fortune to own every generation of Nintendo console and portable. That kind of long history with a company’s products can create a very strong loyalty that is not easily swept away. Nintendo, for all of its achievements, has made some pretty poorly calculated mistakes. Through it all, the company’s fans have stuck with them, praising Nintendo’s storied history of innovation and quality.

This very dedication is what makes the events of this past week rather significant. When Nintendo repeated its refusal of plans to localize Xenoblade, The Last Story, and Pandora’s Tower in the United States, the company’s famously dedicated fanbase very vocally turned on them and rebelled.

It’s surprising to think that three niche Japanese games, which have received no attention in American media outside of enthusiast games websites like Destructoid (which has arguably given them the most coverage), caused this kind of a reaction. Don’t get me wrong, these games all appear to be very fun, interesting, and great for any JRPG fan to own. However, I’d argue that these three games are simply the straw that broke the camel’s back. This reaction is the culmination of the years of neglect that Nintendo is guilty of toward its fanbase.



(Before I go any further, I should specify that when I say ‘Nintendo’, I mean ‘Nintendo of America’ and, to a lesser extent, ‘Nintendo of Europe’. As far as I know, this article does not apply to its Japanese audience.)

It’s been a long time coming when you think about it. Nintendo has a history of not localizing or publishing games that do not fit what it perceives to be in the interest of the mass gaming audience. One of the most singular examples of this was Mother 3, the sequel to cult favorite EarthBound. Despite an entire community of gamers begging Nintendo for a stateside release and flooding their offices with all manner of Mother-related paraphernalia, Nintendo refused time and again to bring the game to Western shores. In recent years, Mother 3 has become a symbol of that which Nintendo will not promote or, usually, allow on its western consoles: the niche game. This is the game that, by design, simply will not sell on the level of Mario, The Legend of Zelda, or even Metroid.

Unfortunately for Nintendo, the niche game is what brings diversity to a console’s game library. The PlayStation 2 and, ironically, the Super Nintendo are some of the best examples of how niche games that don’t have wide appeal can become what a console is known for among its fanbase. While I love Super Mario World and A Link to the Past, those aren’t the games I think of when I think of how much fun I had with my Super Nintendo. I think of Chrono Trigger, ActRaiser, EarthBound, and Final Fantasy IV and VI. (Yes, there was a time when Final Fantasy was considered niche. I should add another disclaimer that I’m a fan of JRPGs. Remember, this is about niche games and that’s my niche.) Similarly, when I hear people reminisce about the PS2 on Destructoid, you know what game comes up the most? Persona 3 and Persona 4.



Unfortunately, Nintendo’s efforts to appeal only to what it thinks will sell reliably well to a mass audience has resulted in a rather bland and homogeneous offering in the past generation. It’s not a coincidence that, before and after this year’s E3, there was an omnipresent rumbling from gamers about the same-ness of Nintendo’s line-up. Super Mario. Legend of Zelda. Mario Kart. Star Fox. Super Smash Bros. With that line-up, I could very well be talking about the game line-up for any of Nintendo’s systems since the N64. Pikmin, by far the most neglected and niche of Nintendo’s own franchises, got a passing “yeah, that’s coming” after the presser was over.

The result of this is a disgruntled fanbase that is sick of its Wiis gathering dust and its 3DS’s sharing a disturbingly similar future. Nintendo’s refusal to diversify their consoles’ offerings is even more damning in light of the bland drivel that third parties have been shoveling onto them. This is the road that has led to Operation Rainfall, a surprisingly vocal movement that has utilized social networking to organize Nintendo fans that are sick of the company’s seemingly irrational refusal to give their most loyal customers what they want. Over the course of one week, they were able to boost an old listing for Xenoblade on Amazon (then titled Monado: Beginning of the World when Nintendo was flirting with bringing the game stateside) to the top of the games sales charts, above even Ocarina of Time 3D, and has kept it in the top ten since.

Despite this rather demonstrative statement of the fans’ intent-to-buy, Nintendo refused to release Xenoblade in the US. Even though it is already being translated and dubbed into English for European release. It has also declined to localize Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story, the latter of which has been garnering praise in Japan as one of the finest games ever created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, creater of Final Fantasy. (It got a 38/40 in the famously critical Japanese gaming publication, Famitsu.) As if the refusal itself weren’t bad enough, Nintendo did it on Facebook. No official press release. No statement from Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime, despite the fact that the gaming enthusiast press have repeatedly asked him personally about these games. On top of all that, it was flippantly a day late Nintendo originally said they would make an announcement.



The result has been a snowballing PR disaster for Nintendo. In just 30 hours, the Facebook post has received over 6,000 comments. Nearly all of them have been slamming Nintendo for its decision. What’s even more interesting is that these comments aren’t the poorly worded rants of irrational idiots like the kind that flooded the PSN Facebook page during the network’s outage. These are well-articulated expressions of frustration and disappointment from long-time fans, many of whom have said they are seriously reconsidering WiiU and 3DS purchases after being being loyal to the company since the NES, SNES, and N64 days. IGN ran an article today with just a few of the hundreds of responses its Nintendo-focused podcast e-mail and twitter account received from Nintendo fans that were throwing their hands up in hopelessness with the company they once loved. According to a recent tweet, Operation Rainfall’s followership has increased by 50% since the Nintendo Facebook post. They’ve been retweeting the frustration of Nintendo fans worldwide.

The cracks have started to show in Nintendo’s dam. Nintendo’s historically dedicated and personally attached fanbase have seemingly had enough of the neglect the company has shown them over the last generation. Despite cries for a much more diversified gaming library and new IPs, Nintendo has ignored them and simply strutted out sales charts at E3 press conferences. Hopes were raised when during the last E3 press conference they promised strong third-party support for the WiiU and a diversified gaming library that would be able to support a diverse audience. Sadly, Nintendo’s refusal to release a game that is already being translated for another region and has received the #1 sales position on Amazon due to pre-orders alone have shown that the company has no plans or resolve for actually keeping that promise. The result is Operation Rainfall and a fanbase that, for the first time I can remember, seems to be planning a retreat from their once-loved company.

If you don’t believe me, check out one of the many comment sources I’ve mentioned. Fans are actually complaining about getting a new Legend of Zelda instead of these three niche, relatively unknown, Japanese role-playing games.

When was the last time you heard a Nintendo fan lament about a new Zelda game?

Well, Nintendo has done it again. Following in the grand tradition of the DS, the Wii, and the 3DS, Nintendo has dropped something wholly unexpected on gamers during their E3 media briefing, despite the fact that everyone was expecting it. Regardless of your opinions of Nintendo’s efforts, you have to admit that with Nintendo, whatever they put out will cause a massive shitstorm in the gaming community. More than twelve hours after they revealed Project Cafe to the world, people are falling over themselves to try and make sense of what it all means, including yours truly.

Like many watching the Nintendo event, I was expecting Nintendo’s new console to be a return to the enthusiast gamer. The rumors and the mock-ups all pointed to the Big N coming back to their original audience with a high-powered system and a fancy controller that would promise nothing but hard-as-fuck Marios and Zeldas and Metroids as far as the eye can see. We were all prepped to hope that Nintendo was coming out with the GameCube HD. Hell, all the controller mock-ups we’ve been seeing for the last month all looked like monstrous Wavebirds with screens shoved into the face. Sure, motion controls would be kept around as a quaint legacy of these weird past few years, but for all intents and purposes, this was going to be the console that enthusiast gamers had wanted from Nintendo from the very beginning.



Needless to say, you could practically feel the disappointment of the entire gaming community when the new console was revealed to be awkwardly named the ‘WiiU’. In that second, Nintendo made it clear that they were not abandoning the gaming audience they had picked up these last few years. This new console would be a successor to the Wii, not the GameCube. It didn’t help when they first showed the controller, which looks like an iPad with joysticks, buttons, and a d-pad on the sides. Everything in those first minutes of the WiiU’s reveal screamed ‘casual gamer’.

… then came the montage.

If you’ve watched the video of Nintendo’s media event, you know the one I’m talking about. It looked like a typical Wii commercial. White clothing everywhere, bouncy yet calm music, a sterile living room. The WiiU controller being held in front of a TV as a slightly different way to do motion control. I admit it: I was shaking my head in disappointment. However, I kept watching because I wanted to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt. I wanted to see where they could take this.

As the montage kept going, I started noticing something. The WiiU’s users kept switching the TV screen’s image to the controller and taking it with them. People would go about doing stuff all over the room while using Nintendo’s odd controller the way that was best for their current situation. Playing a game on it so dad could watch a baseball game on TV. Using it to play a simulated boardgame between two people on a coffee table, which is much more intimate than on a big 42” TV screen. It was very subtle, but the sheer dynamicism and adaptability of the controller started to grab my attention. It was definitely a game controller, but at the same time, it had the flexibility and portability of an iPad. People were using this thing the way I’d seen people use tablets around the home... to play console games.

That’s when my jaw dropped. Holy shit, I thought. That’s what they’re doing. Everyone has been wondering how Nintendo would compete with the iPad and smartphones... and they’re not. They’re fucking incorporating them.

It’s like the old Borg saying goes: if you can’t beat ‘em, assimilate ‘em. Then possibly beat them.



At this point, I was definitely intrigued. I was now watching my computer screen with close analytical attention instead of detached disappointment. I watched Reggie and Iwata talk about Nintendo’s motive with the new controller, but there were enough of the company’s usual buzzwords that none of it really stuck with me. It was the same platitudes I’d heard before with the Wii.

… then came another montage.

This one was a series of sound bites from a variety of third-party devs. It was a lot like the dev montage we got during the 3DS unveil this time last year, so I initially rolled my eyes. We get it Nintendo, you’re promising third-party support. Like you did for the 3DS. Which we’ve seen so much of. Dev after dev voiced their praise of the WiiU’s innovation and it was all the usual suspects... until Ken Levine popped up.

Ken Levine.

The creator of Bioshock hasn’t minced words about his dislike of motion control and looked positively pained when he announced during Sony’s media event that his new game, Bioshock Infinite, would include optional PS Move controls. It isn’t too much of a stretch to say that Sony had likely offered to subsidize a significant amount of Bioshock Infinite’s development to the point where it would have been stupid of Irrational Games to say no.

And yet, here was that same man, positively fucking glowing about the WiiU. One of the Wii’s biggest detractors was praising the promise of its direct successor. If that wasn’t enough of a shock (oh I’m so clever), it was Ken Levine’s short bite that finally made me realize what the hell Nintendo was doing with the WiiU. All he said was he loved that he could play it where he wanted, including in his bed while his wife was reading a book or sleeping next to him.

That’s when it hit. This was Nintendo’s answer to one of the gaming industry’s biggest quandaries: how the hell does gaming adapt to the fact that their original audience, kids in the late 80s and early 90s, were now grown up and starting to have lives that took away from gaming? As their lives began more dynamic and their free time got divided into small chunks instead of large blocks, how would games adapt to fit them?

This was Nintendo’s answer: making gaming flexible enough that it can fit a wide variety of lifestyles. It is literally nothing short of giving gamers a console and controller that is as diverse as they are.



Suddenly everything in the opening controller montage made sense. People taking the controller with them throughout the room. Moving the game from the TV screen to the controller screen and back again. Using it as a touch controller, as a motion controller, and as a traditional button controller. Casual games. Hardcore games. Everything in between. The WiiU seeks to do nothing less than incoporate all current paradigms of control and gameplay into one portable, dynamic device and leave it up to developers and users to decide what is best for them. No more shoe-horning of motion control and no more stringent adherence to the standard joysticks and buttons. You can have both and everything in between. As Iwata said at the very beginning of the reveal when he announced the console’s name, it is up to you.

It’s genius when you think about it. In the last five years, gamers have become a wide and diverse spectrum of people, thanks to the Wii and the iPhone. What constitutes a video game and a gaming interface is now a much more open and complex question than it was a console generation ago. Nintendo learned first-hand during the Wii’s lifecycle that restricting the choices of the gamer and the developer only serves to alienate an audience, even if it serves to bring a new one into the fold. The WiiU is their answer to this problem: make a console that is as diverse as gamers themselves.

I’m truly excited by what the WiiU can do for gaming. There is so much potential, but there is as much for success as there is for failure. Nintendo needs to be extremely careful in how this is marketed and to ensure that the games released for the WiiU are as diverse as the audience it wishes to cater to. I am by no means convinced this will work, and so little is known about this console and the games that will support it that it is really impossible to say with any confidence how it will fare. Still, I’ve been a gamer for the last 22 years since the tender age of 5, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt. I think they’re onto something here, and I really hope it works. If the WiiU really does live up to its potential, all gamers will benefit, no matter their taste or lifestyle.

Final Fantasy games are like sex: some will be mind-blowing, some will disappoint you, and you never forget your first one. I know I’ll never forget the first time I picked up a copy of Final Fantasy IV, then II in its simple yet seductive red box, at Blockbuster Video. That game totally rocked my nine-year-old world for three glorious nights. I rented it two more times before my parents gave me a copy of my very own for Christmas. Now with my own consistent save file, I blew through the game. (Note to the chillens: Yes, at one point in the distant past, save files stayed with the game cartridge, which made repeated rentals a risky affair for RPGs.) For several wonderful weeks, Cecil and company were my constant companions whenever I had a free moment. The game’s closing credits came all too soon... so I simply restarted the game.

I would embark on this journey at least fifteen more times over the next seventeen years.

To say that Final Fantasy IV has had a significant impact on me as a gamer would be an understatement; the game has affected my entire life. FFIV was the game that turned gaming from a simple childhood toy into a serious hobby and life-long interest. I have played every port and iteration of the game mutliple times, to the point where I know it like the back of my hand. If I’m walking around and my mind starts to wander, it’s very likely I’ll start humming the chocobo or overworld themes. Whenever I write fiction, I will inevitably find myself using songs from FFIV, among others, for writing specific types of characters and scenes. Oh yeah, the whole writing thing began, in part, as a the desire to create a story like that of FFIV. I am not being hyperbolic when I saw that this game was life-changing.



However, a game that is life-changing doesn’t necessarily mean it is worth coming back to again and again, especially to the degree that I’ve found myself returning to Final Fantasy IV. It seems odd that, of all the games I could choose to replay on a nearly annual basis, it would be one of the most linear and streamlined ever made. There are very, very few sidequests in FFIV and the player has almost no control over the development of the characters or the composition of the party. The player is walking down a very narrow corridor, but it's a very well disguised, beautiful, and entertaining corridor, filled with memorable moments and endearing characters. I dare say you could devote an entire season of Chad Concelmo’s “Memory Card” series to this one game.

I still feel a tinge of excitement when Cecil and Kain march out of Baron at the game’s outset with “Opening” playing in the background. I love how Rydia, after watching Cecil defend her from Baron’s soldiers, pauses as she lets go of the vengeful hatred she has for him and the sweet, delicate tones of “Rydia” begin. There’s the feeling of relief and accomplishment when Cecil finally becomes a paladin and achieves redemption at the summet of Mt. Ordeals (complete with the skin-tingling drumroll of “Paladin”.) Then there’s my absolute favorite moment, which is when Rydia returns as a fucking badass and rescues the entire party from Golbez’s dragon in what can only be described as “summoner smackdown”. She even waltzes in right when the most epic of Nobuo Uematsu’s battle themes, “Battle with the Four Fiends” starts up, thus kicking the badassery into high-gear.



You may have noticed that each of those moments was associated with a particular song from the game’s soundtrack. That isn’t a coincidence. Final Fantasy IV began my love affair with video game music and work of Nobuo Uematsu. Before there was easy downloading of music from the internet or digital music players, I was recording the game’s music on my Talkboy (that was the lovely recording device from Home Alone 2) so I could listen to it whenever I wanted. It has been a mainstay on every portable music player I’ve owned and is an album I’ve returned to time and again. Nearly every song on that album has become tied to a number of memories and emotions, and it’s one of the albums I go to when I need a song that’s “just right”, be it for writing inspiration or working out in the gym.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Square has done its level best to keep me coming back. It might surprise you to learn that Final Fantasy IV has no less than four different versions in the United States; not just ports, but versions with substantial differences. This is more than any other Final Fantasy game, except Final Fantasy I. Don’t believe me? Let’s count. There is:

1. The SNES version (original “easy version” in Japan)
2. The PlayStation version (original “normal version” in Japan)
3. The Game Boy Advance version (revamped translation and tons of bonus content)
4. The DS version (polygonal graphical revamp, new gameplay, voice acting, bosses have new tactics)

I have each of these versions and have played them multiple times. As if that weren’t enough, a fifth iteration is coming to the PlayStation Portable that contains another version of the original game (sprite graphics in the style of the PSP Final Fantasy I & II), the sequel The After Years that came out on WiiWare in 2009, and a completely new chapter that bridges the two games. This is being billed as the definitive version of FFIV, and I’d believe it except for the fact that every other version of the game I bought was billed as the definitive version! The worst part is that I already know I’m going to buy this. I want to play this interlude chapter. I want to see what the game looks and plays like with this new graphical interpretation (I really like pretty sprites). Square releases this shit for people like me who have never, ever been able to quit this game!



If this sounds completely ridiculous, I really can’t blame you. The only defense I can give you is that I keep going back to Final Fantasy IV because I grew up with it. This game influenced me more than I would like to admit and, as such, I feel a very strong connection to it. It came at just the right time in my life, when I was young enough to be affected by it but old enough that I would understand it. That’s why I return to it time and again and have this compulsive urge to own every version. I feel like I have this vested interest in what Square does to this beloved game of mine that they have seen fit to update and alter every few years. The fact that Square even sees fit to do this to FFIV, out of all the games in the series, is rather remarkable. I’m not the only person who can’t stop coming back to FFIV, because apparently Square-Enix’s own staff can’t stop either. I choose to believe that this is because this game really is something special and I’m far from the only person who was so deeply affected by it.

I hope I continue returning to Final Fantasy IV throughout my life. I hope that, one day, I will get to show my children this amazing game. Even if they see just a little bit of what I see in it, I will be overjoyed that such a connection exists.

If I had to pick one gaming genre that has defined me as a gamer, I would have to go with the JRPG. While I’ve loved titles that run the entire gaming gamut, from Super Mario Bros. 3 to GoldenEye, I’ve probably sunk more hours into JRPGs than any other genre. As such, I’m very well acquainted with the infamous gaming mechanic of the Grind, much to my own chagrin. I’m more of a story guy and, since I don’t have a lot of time to spend on games, I’m not someone who wants to wander aimlessly through an open field or trek the same dungeon repeatedly just to be sufficiently prepared to take on a boss. Don’t get me wrong, I want to be challenged, but I don’t want that challenge to be how long can I endure tedium in order to be able to have the right stats to survive a boss.

However, the recent release of Dragon Quest IX got me thinking about the Grind. I am both simultaneously pleased and disturbed that the game has accomplished what I thought to be an impossible feat: it has made me enjoy the Grind. Craziness, you might say! I agree! When I realized I was actually looking forward to turning on the game just to level up my characters, I was shocked and intrigued. It got me thinking what was it about Dragon Quest IX’s approach to the Grind that had yielded this result. It also started me thinking about what this means about Grinding in not just gaming, but in life. So pull up a chair, pour a beer, and learn how you to can learn to like the Grind.



As I said before, I hated the Grind whenever it would rear its head in games prior to Dragon Quest IX. In fact, it actually killed my interest in its predecessor! There was one point in the game where you fight a character that has been posited as the main villain (who knew if he really was though) and the difficulty just spikes through the roof for no reason. It was so obvious I would have to do some ridiculous grinding to get the right combo of skills and levels that I just completely lost interest. I haven’t picked the game up since.

Now along comes Dragon Quest IX, which (so far) has not elicited the same disappointed response from me. In fact, I actually look forward more and more to playing it. A quick comparison of the two titles yields some insight into what (for me at least) can make the Grind more of a joy and less of a chore. The first, and most obvious, is that the Grind should be optional. Demanding that the player remove themselves from the flow of the game’s narrative, or simply break the pacing that has been set for the game’s progression, is disruptive and inspires resent on the part of the player. However, giving the player the option to do so and making it worth their while is a different story. Dragon Quest IX offers the player an array of fun optional classes that are acquired throughout the game, but you have to start from level 1 if you want to switch to them. You can do just fine with the original six classes available at the game’s outset (at least far as I’ve gotten in the game), but if you want to get good at these new ones you’re going to have to deal with a little Grind.

This brings us to a second necessary component for an enjoyable Grind; lots of short-term gratification. It’s this aspect that makes me think Dragon Quest IX may have one of the most brilliant leveling schemes known to man. After a battle, experience points are divided up among the party members based on level. Higher-level characters get more of a share than lower-level characters. At first glance, I assumed this was simply to prevent power-leveling in the game’s multiplayer. However, as I began to experiment with newer classes (and therefore had some characters at Level Awesome and others at Level Noob), I realized it also had utility for a single-player party. Level Noob characters will still increase at a faster right if they’re in a party with Level Awesome characters, but the portioned experience mechanic makes sure leveling continues at a measured pace. Instead of giving you a rush of new levels at the beginning followed by a slow crawl, the game gives you a constant drip of leveling. Additionally, it also encourages the player to take the risk of actually progressing in the game with a party that contains a significant level disparity, since the player will want to get these lower level characters more experience offered from stronger monsters. That’s right: the game actually encourages you to stop the mindless Grind and instead try a more difficult, risky Grind.



Finally, it also helps that Dragon Quest IX is a portable title. It was a shocking move when Square-Enix first announced this break with tradition, but it has resulted in some fantastic improvements to the series. In addition to the multiplayer and wi-fi add-ons, it has resulted in a game that was designed to be played in shorter sessions. This includes the Grind! A Grind is much more enjoyable when it is done in bite-sized chunks. Instead of knowing that I’ll be sitting down for an hour or two to Grind away (hello MMOs!), I can whip out my DS when I’m waiting for my Double-Double at In-N-Out and go through a good amount of battling. The game can be picked up and stopped at a moment’s notice with the help of the game’s quick save feature, as well as the DS’ own clamshell pausing feature.

Anyway, as I was mulling all of this over, I realized that this says a lot about the Grind in real life. This is probably obvious to many of you, but for some reason I’ve only just now had this epiphany. When dealing with chores, errands or a job, taking the Dragon Quest IX approach can make a difference. First, it’s always better if it’s optional. I realize that may not always be an option (oh I crack me up), but if possible try and do the task when it’s most convenient for you or you feel energized for it. For example, I personally always do most chores and errands on the weekend, because it makes me feel productive. I don’t do them on weeknights because I already feel like I’ve been working away in the lab. I’m making the choice to do the task then instead of feeling like I have to. 

Second, some sort of measured gratification for the task always helps. It’s that whole carrot-stick argument. Knowing that there will be some sort of feeling of progress (it doesn’t have to be a reward, per se) helps get stuff done. It’s one of the reasons, I think at least, why people find sticking to a diet or working out to be so difficult. You want results now, but it usually takes weeks for your waistline to start showing a real decrease or your muscles to have definition. On the flip side, it’s why people people will put off larger tasks for smaller ones, because the small ones can be done quickly and give one the feeling of progress. Therefore, giving yourself milestones that break up a big endeavor can really help. Just like in Dragon Quest IX, getting measured reminders over relatively short periods of time that you’re getting closer to your goal is going to keep encouraging you.



Oddly enough, as I was mulling over this entry, I saw an older article from Jordan Devore about an upcoming iPhone to-do list app called EpicWin, which essentially seeks to turn your real-life Grind into an RPG Grind. As such, chores and tasks that you do translate into rewards for your character, such as experience and items. It’s an interesting idea to use the mechanics that entice a player to do the Grind in a game to do the Grind in their daily lives. However, as Dragon Quest IX has demonstrated, there is a fine art to making the Grind less of a chore and more of a joy. I personally will be interested to see how much EpicWin makes me look forward to cleaning the bathroom.