HOUSEKEEPING'S PROFILE

Here are some games you should play and why you should play them:

Establishing Genre Conventions
-Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. These aren't going to be that fun by today's standards, but you can play these in less than a day using an emulator, and they're going to give you a baseline for how the genre developed.
-Phantasy Star: This one's a bit iffy. The dungeon design was visually cool at the time, but it's annoying as fuck now. This was the first jrpg that had fleshed-out characters, though.

Great Level Design
-Chrono Trigger: There are a lot of great reasons to play this one, but I think that Trigger's best feature is its level design. Play through it thinking about the enemy layout and how the developers are playing with player psychology. Now compare this to earlier RPGs, where most dungeons are simple mazes. Think about how unique each dungeon is.
-Wild Arms (1, 2, or 3--I prefer 3, but 1's easier to emulate) and Lufia 2: These RPGs have great puzzle-based dungeons. Character-wise, the areas are less unique than Trigger's, but gameplay-wise, they're just great.

Storytelling
-Final Fantasy 7: This pretty much set the standard for modern jrpg cinematic storytelling; it's got more meat on the bone than most things, too.
-Valkyrie Profile: This one has a really interesting story structure; it plays like a collection of short stories, some of which are emotionally resonant (also has some great level design).
-Earthbound/Mother 3: These games have sharp, interesting, witty writing, and they're inspiring a lot of the more popular indie rpgs coming out recently (Undertale, Lisa, Omori, Glitched...Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass? Eh?)

Progression Mechanics
-Dragon Warrior 7 (3 will work, too--any of the ones that use the class system): Dragon Warrior 7's class system is great; it just takes a while to get to the point where you can take advantage of it. 3's system is less developed but you begin the game being able to utilize it.
-Final Fantasy 5 (or Final Fantasy Tactics): Final Fantasy's take on the class system is also pretty damn rad.
-Final Fantasy 10: I'm going to be honest: I don't like this one. But, the sphere grid has been ripped off pretty majorly in jrpgs ever since. It has some cool monster designs, too, and the battle system is fast-paced and fun.

Combat
-Breath of Fire 3: I went back and played this recently, and it has some excellent monster designs. Play through it and think about the unique quality of each encounter you run into--the different ways you can win each battle, the unique quality of each encounter, the skills you can learn from different monsters, etc.
-Final Fantasy 6: Encounters aren't particularly interesting outside of some boss mechanics, but notice how streamlined the combat is. There are lots of other things to like about this game, too, such as the storytelling, progression mechanics, and level design.
-Any Tales or Star Ocean game: This will give you a good glimpse into more action-oriented battle systems. I prefer Star Ocean 2; for Tales games, take your pick--they're all pretty samey.

There's a lot of overlap in my categories (Chrono Trigger could be placed in combat or storytelling as well, for example), but that'll give you a pretty comprehensive background into good jrpg design. There are lots of other games people mentioned here that are also worth playing, though, like the Suikoden series, Secret/Legend of Mana, the Saga series, etc. You should play these games, and, really, any jrpg you can get a hold of since you're working in this medium. Playing games and thinking about them critically is just going to give you more ideas.

Not many people know that Sneaky Lincoln was the backup keyboardist for Yes.

@Malandy: This was basically a battle mockup I did early on, so, no, these guys won't show up together.

Hey, awesome! Balbo thanks you for this greatest honor.

If you would like to adopt a Balbo, please go to your local baseball stadium and look for the dark places forgotten by man.

Devil's advocate: the lion's share of the people angry about this are angry because, considering the current sociocultural climate, a decision like this politicizes the game. Since games are a major escapist route for these people, this ruins the game--I mean, you perceive yourself to be ridiculed at all times by the nebulous left, you play games to get away from that, and then all of a sudden the game is ridiculing you, too (from their perspective).

These people have been cultivating the anger centers of their brains for at least the past eight years, and it's erupting everywhere now. This is now the minefield that creators get to walk through. Understanding their mentality can allow us to create with intent, whether to cater to them, work within their bounds, satirize them, ignore them, or try to convince them of our perspectives.

author=harmonic
You licked your chops before the election because you thought you had it in the bag.
You licked your chops when you thought the popular vote should override the electoral college.
You licked your chops when Jill Stein did her recount, hoping that would give Hillary the win.
You licked your chops when you learned about faithless electors.
Now you're licking your chops hoping that the Russia hacking thing turns it around.

So.... what is it? Do we have a Democratic vote or not? This is also *after* many, many lectures before the election saying "it's a threat to our Democracy not to accept the results" and here the left is repeatedly trying and failing to overturn the election.

Shakin' muh haid!

I know Donald Trump is going to be president. And, let me dispel another notion for you: I never once "licked my chops" during this election. I never thought, "ho, ho, boy, I can't wait for another democrat to get elected so we can CONTROL FREE SPEECH and make THE WHITE RACE FEEL INFERIOR." Honestly, this was the first election I ever voted in, and it wasn't because I loved Hillary Clinton (though she would have been a pretty good president). It was because I hate Donald Trump.

This entire election cycle I felt a pit in my gut because someone woefully inept looked like he had enough momentum to actually make it into office. I took solace in the polls, but they were still giving him a 30 percent chance, which already was way too much for my personal comfort. When the election happened, it was a confirmation of my fears. I never expected anything to come of recounts or anything else.

My response about the Russian hacking wasn't because I saw a sliver of hope there. It was because someone posted an opinion that was so poorly thought-out that I had to jump back into a thread I'm trying to treat as "read only" in order to let them know that they were a victim of right-wing propaganda instead of a champion of common sense.