I start a new game, an entry in a long running JRPG franchise. The games are known for containing a lot of missable content, and in fear of not having the time to go back for it in a second playthrough, I open up a guide.
The guide oozes with endless complains about the annoying main character, where the writer takes on the role of a parent who is never happy with their child, endless complains when the character is angry, sad, traumatized—complaining when another party member treats him coldly, complaining when another character reacts to finding out her life has been a life. Insults thrown at the writing, at the world, at everything except the absolute basics of combat and whatever someone so distanced from their emotions can cling to.
I try to find old information on an old favorite JRPG of mine. Forums, dead forums spew vitriol, finding every slur in the book aimed at these too feminine men, the cringey, overwrought writing—but they keep playing.
Why do they keep playing if they don’t give a fuck? Why with games you don’t love? Why are JRPGs put in this box where they’re simultaneously revered yet lambasted? The vast majority of people who play JRPGS do not love them. They tolerate them—they use them for identity purposes and for political purposes and discard them the moment the game shows its earnest heart.
JRPGs are a bastion of freedom against leftist games and the LGBTQ and people of color or what have you, but they’re also shitty games and anyone who likes them are stupid cringe losers. These people dominate the sphere, writing endlessly about their vitriolic hatred for every earnest monologue about acceptance or forgiveness or love or friendship or family or passion or anything in these games that would mean more than whatever the player’s said in their entire life.
They need to get the fuck out. I’m so fucking tired of them. This is the self-hating JRPG player, and they need to move on and stop pretending they’ve cared about anything before. These assholes need the door slammed on them. Those I know who really do love JRPGs are the kinds of people who go on to make things that aren’t afraid to show feeling. Those who hate what they love go on to spread their noxious poison, tearing apart their so called ‘passions’ before moving on to the next target.
Unfortunately, I probably can’t conclude this with what I actually want to say. But you know. You’ve seen these types, too.
Enough with the grifting and the dunks, while we’re at it. The only way we’ll choke the oxygen out of the self-hating JRPG player is to not give them any steam in the first place. Mute that localization discourse, block those accounts and move on. Stop giving them attention, especially if they get paid for it.
And stop putting their takes on my feeds I can’t take it anymore!!!
There's a lot more I can say that's tangentially related to the idea of Self-Hating JRPG player, but not really. Such as the fact that many of these people were among those who used the term JRPG in derision. The term JRPG was very often used in press media in the 2000s and before to deride these games as not 'real' role-playing games, at least not in the sense where they provide customizable characters to build and play the game with alongside other english RPG mainstays (ignoring the fact that there are games like this that are still called JRPGs, racism isn't here to make sense).
There's also the fact that anime aesthetic is just what's popular right now, and naturally people looking to make a quick buck stirring outrage will cling to whatever will put them in the spotlight even if they hate it. The point is the same: I want these people to get out.
I could also go on about how these people shut down thoughtful, nuanced critique of games they don't even care about just for the sake of grifting, often fanning the flames of arguments they claim they're in the right for, making it worse for everyone involved...
But I think I've made my point.