For some people, gaming tastes can radically change. Whether it’s due to outgrowing things that you liked as a child, or desperately trying to take in all of the things that you weren’t allowed to see, being exposed to new games can open the world around you. For others, your tastes may just slightly expand upon prior tastes. You loved RPGs as a child, and you still love them now, but now you prefer open-world RPGs as opposed to games that are more on-the-rails. My tastes fall a bit in both courts, where the things I loved as a child still excite me now, but there are also new things that I love that I never had the chance of experiencing until I was an adult.
Monster Catching and Card Games (Last 90s – Early 2000s)
Like many children, I grew up on Pokémon. I’ve played every generation of main line games since Gold/Silver/Crystal and have experienced different levels of joy with over the years. But as a child, these were the extent of my video game knowledge. Of course, I had some other games, like Soul Calibur 2 for some strange reason. But at the end of the day, Pokémon was the one of two series for me. I loved going through Kanto in Pokémon FireRed or Hoenn in Pokémon Sapphire and replaying through those games so much. And while some of those restarts were due to my sister overwriting my save data, I religiously played through the main story enough times that I could have played the game blindfolded as a child if I wanted to.
But along with Pokemon, I was also extremely into Yu-Gi-Oh. And that didn’t just extend to the card game, although I had quite the collection of cards, if I do say so myself. I also had many of the GBA and PS1/PS2 games as well. This era of Yu-Gi-Oh games gives me the most joy of gaming in general, because it was back during the time when Konami was willing to risk it all to put out weird Yu-Gi-Oh games. Did you know there was a tactics game based off Capsule Monsters? You know, the series that was never officially released in Japan and was only mentioned offhand in the manga? Did you know there was a GBA board game? Those times were weird, if not extremely fun.
Love for Handheld Gaming (2000s – Now)
My preference for handheld gaming started when I was very young. While I did have home consoles, my preference was always towards the Nintendo handheld systems. Not just because my favorite series consistently published on said console, but also because I loved the convenience of gaming where ever I wanted. I didn’t have to beg for time on the TV, because I had my own console right in my own hands. No matter where I was in the house, I could power on my console and start playing games right then and there.
Even now, my tastes run very much the same. I have a PS4, although that is primarily for those releases that I feel have no hope coming to the Switch. I’ve started gaming more on PC, although that’s mainly for those games that aren’t coming to other consoles. I have never been one to focus on graphics, so handheld will always be my first choice for games. It also helps that a lot of the genres that I love tend to always coming to Nintendo consoles.
My Exposure to Tactics Games (2010s)
Tactics games are my absolute favorite genre. I have always loved thinking of strategies in games and figuring out puzzles. And while I had been exposed to tactics games in the form of Yu-Gi-Oh Capsule Monster Coliseum, I never really dug in deep into the genre until the 3DS with Fire Emblem Awakening. I vividly remember playing the demo for the first time and just feeling something click inside of me. My bright eyed wonder at finding that felt like the perfect genre. “This is what I want in a game!” I thought as I played through that demo excitedly. It wasn’t too long after when I got the game and played through it extensively.
From there I bought a Vita to experience some of the tactics games I didn’t have the chance to try as a child. Tactic Ogre, Disgaea, Jeanne ‘D Arc, and so many more. And anything that I wasn’t able to try to play in the immediate moment, I kept written down to try out at a later point. Outside of playing a new Pokémon game, I would say that was the most excited I had been about games in quite some time. Tactics games are fairly rare compared to other RPG subgenres, but when they do get released, I won’t be far behind looking to get my hands on it.
Visual Novels Join the Fray (2010s)
As a child, I loved to read. I was that kid in elementary that took reading way too seriously and always competed to read the most books, breezing through so many of books available in the school library. And while I had eventually burned myself out that way, I never truly lost that love for reading. I switched over to manga and graphic novels and enjoyed my time with those. And then one day, my friend introduced me to the Ace Attorney series. And it was all downhill from there (haha!).
The Switch was my first console where I was truly able to explore the visual novel genre, and how exciting (and slightly daunting) it has been thus far. Whether it’s adventure games with visual novel portions like Ace Attorney or Root Film, or otome games like Collar x Malice, my heart has been captured by them all. When I discover a new visual novel to look out for, it feels like five more are being announced. It’s like being at brand new restaurant and everything looks delicious, but I can only afford an appetizer and one entree!
Indies Galore (Last 2010s – 2020s)
I was never the type of person to turn my nose up at indie games. Rather, they never really entered my mind. Like most people, I had heard of games like Super Meat Boy and Shovel Knight. But I had always kind of associated indie games with platformers, or other genres that I didn’t think appealed to me. But then, the Switch came down from the sky and introduced me to a wave of indie games and developers that I otherwise would never had tried out previously. Hades, Eastward, Toem, Tangle Tower, Turnip Boy, and so much more. It’s so amazing the types of games that I’ve been exposed to. Genres that I never really grew up playing are now at my fingertips.
I would say my gaming tastes have evolved and expanded over the years. I still love the games that I was introduced to as a young child, but over the years, I have also expanded into similar sub-genres (or just new genres all together) that I never even thought of. Games have also evolved and changed so much over the years, becoming more inclusive and growing past the limits we had once thought were impossible to overcome. It is truly amazing how far the industry has come.
But what about you guys? How have your tastes changed or evolved over the years?
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