I’m glad this genre has not gone the path of realistic graphics

I used to be obsessed with realistic graphics when I was much younger. In fact I would avoid JRPGs because they didn’t have realistic graphics. I would shit on games for not having graphical fidelity. It’s one of the reasons I built a pc. Well my GPU died. Anything graphical demanding pretty much caused my screen to black out. This was during the time when GPU prices were crazy. So I pretty much had to play games that weren’t demanding. A few years later I got a new GPU but then I got a Steam Deck. I started to appreciate portable gaming a lot more since I have to sit for 8 hours at a computer for work. The Steam Deck just allows me to play games anywhere. And when I get home I don’t want to play games on my PC as much.

At this point I have already been into JRPGs for a while now. The Steam Deck just made me appreciate this even more since I can play the games I want on the go or on my bed. Any high graphical games pretty much tanked my FPS which it made it annoying to play or it just didn’t feel well. For example recently I played E33 and the fps was pretty bad on the Steam Deck (barely around 30) but then I played Trails Into Horizon and it ran pretty much 60 FPS on my 1080p tv. Not to mention many of the many older games that either had low graphics or are 2D.

I just started to dislike how outside of this genre (mostly in the west) has gone to the ultra realistic graphics route. Add in that many of the devs don’t know how to optimize games you end up getting these games that require ridiculous specs. It feels that even top of the line hardware requires stuff like DLSS to even run 30 to 60fps. Which is crazy since I shouldn’t need to pay that much just to play a game on mid to lower end hardware.

Plus since PC hardware has just gotten more expensive. It feels that I am getting priced out by modern many of these AAA or AA games from the west. This genre not going the AAA route pretty much allowed me to enjoy it without having to pay a lot of money for a current gen GPU or CPU.

I guess I also owe it to JRPGs being mostly developed for the vita and to some extent the switch which has made these games not as graphically demanding.

Don’t get me wrong I do still like games with good graphics (I mean I will try to play GTA 6 if possible). But even thinking of that game pretty much means I will have to get much newer hardware. Which my wallet is not ready for.