David Cole Encourages You To Combat Seasonal Depression With Old RPGs | Winter Spectacular 2024
Happy holidays, everyone! I hope you aren’t too bummed out!
While the end of the year is typically the time to play catchup on bigger titles you may have missed, there’s something to be said for slowing down. Smelling the roses. “Sure,” I hear you say, “but it’s Game of the Year season! It’s the best time to take part in interesting discourse about the the games we adore!” You’re right! But it’s also the best time to pull back and allow yourself the mercy of peace. The world slows down a little around this time of year. Frankly, you should too.
The nights have gotten longer. The weather has gotten colder. There’s a grim feeling in the air. But what if I told you that there’s a surefire way I’ve found to combat the wintertime blues? It’s something near and dear to my heart. Probably yours as well, considering where we are.
But what?
The answer, as with many of life’s hardships, is video games.
In the winter months of 2017, I discovered Dragon Quest. Not just the series, but the original game. If you haven’t played it, the experience is roughly equivalent to enjoying a new episode of your favorite anime on a warm Saturday morning. The entire product is so thoughtfully and masterfully assembled, while simultaneously being the root of an entire genre of game. Even if you’ve never played Dragon Quest specifically, you kind of have if you’ve ever played a role-playing game from Japan. Dragon Quest is the tree of life from which all of these other influential fruits spawned: Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and those Trails games that someone you know is REALLY into. Yet - in comparison to these games with labyrinthine plots and books worth of pre-established lore - it’s so simple. A hero travels the land, saves a princess, fights a dragon, vanquishes evil. Done and dusted.
Turns out something simple, with just enough depth to require your attention without demanding its entirety, is the perfect remedy for an otherwise anxiety-inducing season. I think it has something to do with the way older games require a combination of imagination and engagement to fully enjoy. You are not going to be overwhelmed by the cinematic presentation of an RPG made in 1986. The fidelity of the thing is not such that you will be transported into another world just by virtue of how much money they spent on convincing you of that. Instead, you have to do a lot of the work yourself.
Simplicity is a wonderful thing, friends. Every year since, I’ve taken a dive into the RPGs of yesteryear. Chasing the dragon (Quest). I invite you to join me this year. Look at the old cartridges you’ve collected, always intending to dive into but never really giving the time of day. Sift through your ROM folder. Find an old RPG and keep it close to yourself like an emergency Xanax.
This year, I’ve been exploring the original Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System. If you’re a Switch owner, there’s a fantastic port of the game available as part of the Sega Ages line of releases from M2. I believe I’m about 70% of the way through the game as I speak to you now and let me tell you something: it’s a trip.
The game opens on a dying man. We take control of Alis, that man’s sister, on a quest of vengeance through the Algol star system. Along the way, you’ll make friends with a talking cat, deal with space racism, and even go through a long and overly-complex ritual to obtain the Nut of Laerma. What is the Nut of Laerma? I don’t really know and, frankly, it doesn’t matter. But I have it and I will use it to topple the fascist space government.
Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself.
Phantasy Star is a science-fiction-themed RPG. The primary threat of this fantastical world of the future is an evil dictator called Lassic. Lassic is the king an entire star system and, for reasons beyond the understanding of the average citizen, he’s been on a bit of a tear. There are stormtroopers in the streets of most major settlements across the system, keeping the common folk within the walls. Yet monsters are roaming the wilds, threatening trade and civilization itself while these armed forces do little to nothing. One town has been separated from the outside world by use of a deadly cloud of poisonous gas.
Can you imagine such a thing? Can you picture a government so preoccupied with its own ends that something as basic as air became harmful to its citizenry?
The conflict in Phantasy Star, as in many of the earliest RPGs, is not complex. There is a definite evil and a definite good. You’re on the right side of history and are perfectly capable of acquiring the power necessary to change the course of things. It isn’t even difficult! You just need to slay a bunch of critters in the countryside until you’re strong enough to put down a big bad.
It’s nice to be able to sink into something so straightforward. There are no moral conundrums in Phantasy Star, nor are there any in Dragon Quest. You take on the mantle of a hero, whatever shape that may be in this particular fictional world, and you set out to save the world. Eventually, you will, if you stick with it. All you have to do is, in the parlance of the times, make number go up.
Crawling through a dungeon in a classic RPG has a certain vibe. There’s a coziness to its familiarity, but there’s also tension. Who knows when a rare monster might appear and do some serious damage to your ego? Who knows if death will send you back to a title screen, or a save from hours ago? You flirt with disaster in an older game. Y’all know what I mean.
The coziest thing I can imagine this particular winter is rebellion against a system that fundamentally does not work. Whether we associate that system with “Lassic” or some other proper noun doesn’t matter all that much. Sure, I can’t pick up an L. Saber (legal says to be CERTAIN to use that period) and hack away at dragons until the world is saved. None of us can. But a little comfortable empowerment fantasy can make a world of difference in trying times. Maybe you see yourself a little more heroically and, hey, maybe you do something a little heroic too. Volunteer. Buy food for someone who needs it. Contribute to communities that may face additional hardships in the near future.
I am, essentially, advocating for everyone to be a little more Phantasy Star this year. Or Dragon Quest. Or, more simply, to be a little bit more like an RPG hero.
Coziness first. Get your cocoa and your retro RPG time in. Then, once you’ve defeated whatever omnipresent evil threatens your virtual world of choice, turn your freshly-comforted eyes to the outside world.
It’s a different dragon to chase, but it’s a very worthwhile quest.
