How I developed an obsession for niche video games

Video games have been a large part of my life for as long as I can remember. Playing Commodore games on the loungeroom floor with my parents in the 80’s. Playing Atari games after school with my friends. Practically living in the arcades in my early teens. LAN parties on weekends after work. Playing online when my peers and I all spread out in our adult lives.

I practically grew up with the video game industry, it wasn’t just an activity I did to pass the time, it was a hobby and an integral part of my social life, later, a passion. Now, it’s my primary source of entertainment.

A little while ago now, my lifestyle underwent some very major changes. For a few years, I found myself without the time or resources to be able to pursue my hobby. When I was able to find the time again, my interests and needs had changed and it took me a while to figure that out. Playing my old games didn’t have the same appeal and I didn’t have the schedule or motivation to approach games the same way anymore. I also found myself with a much lower budget for my interests.

I had a lot of time to actually play, but not to a reliable schedule. I couldn’t really commit to online games as I had before and the single player games I had enjoyed before were either no longer interesting or too short to be very practical in my situation.

I changed my selection criteria, instead of flashy blockbuster games I started looking for games that had good gameplay/cost ratio, I had time to fill and not a lot of money to work with. So a logical step was to reach out for RPGs. They have long campaigns, starting at around 30 hours with some stretching out to well over 80.

I wasn’t very adventurous though, I stuck with the more mainstream titles like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Mass Effect and Dragon Age. There wasn’t a lot of variety and I wasn’t brave enough to branch out too much, games are, all said and done, still a large investment and it’s a lot of money to outlay for an experience you don’t know if you’ll like.

I’d always steered clear of JRPGs (with the exception of Final Fantasy), I’d always thought they looked too Japanese-y if that makes sense. But I hadn’t had an RPG for months and I was tired of starting the few I had again. Out of desperation I bought Atelier Ayesha while it was on sale.

It was the best decision I ever made. It’s gameplay was simple but nuanced and the narrative was completely different to anything I’d ever played before. Unlike a lot of other RPGs, Atelier isn’t a grand adventure for the chosen one to save the world, it’s an almost underwhelming tale of a young girl growing up and finding her humble place in the world. It was so refreshing. It also has a high replay value with several different endings and time specific events that were easily missed.

Of course, my first response to this discovery was to track down every other title in the franchise I could get my hands on. But it wasn’t long before I ran out of Atelier games. But I’d learnt that I could take a chance and it started a new obsession with cutesy characters in anime-style RPGs.

I took another leap of faith and purchased Hyperdimension Neptunia re;Birth1. It nearly killed my newfound interest, I couldn’t stand it. The gameplay wasn’t bad but there was so much dialogue and I didn’t connect with the characters at all, I tried to rush through the dialogue but it just compounded the problem as I now had no connection to the game at all.

On a whim, I revisited the game about six months later determined to give it a fighting chance. I took in the dialogue and the characters grew on me. I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t engaged the first time around, the quirky humour and the over the top characters were exactly my thing. It became my favourite franchise and it still is now.

It completely changed the way I appreciate games and opened up a whole new interest. I’m now a dedicated niche gamer with a passion for obscure games old and new. I’ve learned that even if I don’t like a game at first, I may find something to like if I just have some patience.

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