One day you were playing a jrpg, going through a dungeon or forest and you found a treasure chest. Inside was armor and It had awesome stats. You went to equip it and when you got back to the game screen or into your first battle you noticed something amazing. Your characters armor changed on screen. There was a noticeable change to the look of your character. This opened a broad new world of possibilities for something that wasn’t advertised on the back of the game box. Style and self expression. This was a feeling I had only experienced in Jrpgs, but other genres have adapted it as well. Something about this experience makes these games memorable and would go on to make video game companies lots of money.
In games like World of Warcraft, in fact in most MMORPGs, this is a common effect. Customization is needed to differentiate between your character and the thousands of others you will see through the course of your online journey.
In other modern games like Neir Automata, while your armor doesn’t change because all of your upgrades are internal, your weapons change and effect your play style.
What started as a cosmetic change with similar functions now can completely change the way a game is interpreted and enjoyed. That variety and enjoyment bred, in some players, a need to collect and experience all the different types of weapons and armor available in a JRPG.
The Wild New Yonder
Breath of the wild was the first game I got for the Nintendo Switch. The open world and intuitive gameplay had me entranced. But what had me hooked was the urge to see all the armor and weapons in the game. Link would go from cool to awesome depending on which armor set you wore or weapons you equipped. I really felt like I had style.
Then I picked up Mario Odyssey and within a few hours it became apparent to me that there was a common thread between these two block buster games. It was the ability to choose your costume. This customization had massive appeal. The sense of discovery and wonder i rarely felt outside of the Jrpg genre was now at the forefront of two major releases. After noticing this, I looked for this option in every game I played and I found it in most of the big game releases even where it didn’t seem to fit.
Now I’m not saying that Nintendo came up with this idea but, I feel they started to utilize and perfect it in their major Switch releases to great success and other companies took notice and did the same. After all M.O.B.As(Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) and games like Fortnite build their entire business model on the idea that you will see a skin or costume you like and purchase it, so this was hardly a new concept. But Nintendo was giving you an awesome offline experience and great costumes and equipment to collect. This is a similar experience to many Jrpgs. Now people who didn’t play those kinds of online games could relax and collect without the pressures being timed, K/D ratios and annoying online participants
Some of you may recognize what I’m describing as what was once primatively known as “unlockables” ,before paid dlc and loot boxes found there way into gaming. But that’s not quite what I’m talking about. It’s more than just being rewarded for playing the game well. Visibly changing equipment keeps the look of the characters fresh and new and also gives the player more agency and expression. It creates a conflict of function over fashion that can be frustrating, but is usually fun to persevere.
At it’s essence, This one element brings together many of the feelings found in competitive gaming all by it self. It brings the reward of accomplishment in attaining the costumes and the bragging rights of wearing them and showing them off to the world through posts or videos. It even forces you to compete with yourself by pushing you that extra mile to get a full set of armor or a costume sometimes only for the look.
A Perfect Pre-historic Example
In the best cases video game companies give us cosmetic changes that interact with the game and give us status effects that we have to consider before we choose what to wear. Monster hunter is the best example of this idea in action. Yes Monster Hunter has amazing game play and very interesting monsters. Studying their behaviors and weaknesses, learning how to defeat them solo or in a group play is wonderful. The feeling of triumph is glorious. But what really drives us to endure the grind that is required to play these games are the cool looking armor and weapons. Tell me I need to beat a tough boss 5 times in order to move forward with the story and I will search for something else to play. Tell me I’ll get a cool armor set if I do it and I’ll search for time to play that game.
I’ve put over 500 hours into Monster hunter World alone. Most of that time was spent in search of improving my characters aesthetic quality rather than his actual stats. If the two happen to co inside then so be it. But the goal was clear to me. I need to look cool.
As rudimentary as it sounds here is where the formula for making an engaging experience is crafted. If the barrier between the player and “looking cool” is great then the mechanics of the game need to be all the more amazing. There also needs to be something that is within reach of the player in the beginning of the game that looks good and reasonably combines function and fashion. Monster Hunter does this very well.
In the end this is something that we love so much that we are willing to pay for it. Video game companies have noticed this and are giving us are giving us more ways to make our experience customizable and cool, even if its only surface level changes to appearance. I know it takes a great deal of work and development time to implement things like this, but I love the feeling of building a puzzle and discovering new pieces that these visible changes to new equipment brings to any game but especially JRPGs.
Have you ever felt yourself be driven to play a game just to collect equipment or to attain a Great looking weapon regardless of how useful it is? Let me know in the comments down below.