I've always had a love-hate relationship with Japanese RPGs. I've always loved the rich storytelling, highly-produced visuals and sound and campy, doe-eyed characters. They've always had a quirky, playful quality that I've enjoyed very much...

... while watching others play.

I never played them myself. I never had the patience to. I always hated the random battles, turn-based fighting, complex item collection and character development and awful dialog. Oh, I've tried a couple of times. I remember anticipating Final Fantasy 7 as much as the next guy, picking it up and playing it religiously for a week. Then I dropped it like a hot potato and went back to Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit. A year later, I tried again with Pokemon Red on Gameboy Color. Played it for another week, dropped it again and went back to Tetris.

Now I'm trying again. This time the game is Final Fantasy III on Super Nintendo, which I am playing via emulation on my Pocket PC. Should make a good diversion while waiting for the bus (or even riding on the bus). My friend (the same person who owns Onimusha 3) got me hooked on it last weekend, and I played it for a couple of hours on his PC (via emulation).

Maybe I'll actually stick with it this time. And that might lead to my taking an interest in newer JRPGs in the future. You never can tell.