The Intimacy of Japanese RPGs and Visual Novels
August 23, 2022
Throughout my life I have encountered many games and visual novels that have left me to tears: Chrono Trigger, Nier:Automata, and Clannad just to name a few.
In just the span of a few tens of hours, I would emotionally connect to written anime characters better than anyone in my life. It left me the question: why?
Why would it be easier for me to emotionally connect to a JRPG side character that dies for the main plot to continue than the people I meet in my class in real life? Why is it so easy for me to cry for a visual novel character when their wife dies but not even process the same for people in real life?
The answer is quite simple really: authenticity. Anime characters are blatantly honest and exist so honest with others. The way I live my life, or rather have lived my life, has been dishonest and as Mark Manson would put it, "transactional." People live more complex lives than the anime characters in my JRPG, and that much is obvious since one is a selected representation of the other original. But by being dishonest, that closes me from seeing other human beings in such a light. I fail to emotionally connect with them.
Which is actually one of the reasons I started to value honesty more. The courage to be honest, and to really say what is on your mind is so powerful. I just wanted to note that for others to read it.
Ciao, motherfucker.