This summer has been pretty uneventful video game wise. I've picked up a few choice SNES games from that vintage game store in the Wellington Mall, like Lufia 2 and Secret of Evermore (Google it, I don't care). And I got Ocarina of Time 3DS. But otherwise not much, which is fine I suppose. I should be saving my money, and I'm so over keeping up with gaming at this point. I don't know what it is, but I just don't get psyched about new game stuff like I used to.

I've been looking through my games for something to play in these last few weeks until School starts back up. Obvious choices were Megaman X, Mario 3, Marvel VS. Capcom 2 blah blah blah. I realized I really wanted something I could commit to, not just play for a half an hour a couple of times. An RPG would work, and I hadn't really played one since Dragon Quest 9.

 It's funny to think back to how people initially reacted to Kingdom Hearts when it first came out. I remember being 12 and not knowing what to make of it. The Action RPG genre is so played out at this point that it's hard to imagine a time when it wasn't. The first thing I noticed is how much easier it is than I remember, even on difficult mode. My first thought is "Well, yeah, I was fucking 12." But the more I thought about it, the more I think the reason Kingdom Hearts felt so difficult back then was because it was so unique. Squaresoft probably realized that making it too hard would have overwhelmed alot of people. I mean, if Kingdom hearts were released, say, last year it would have been universally considered the easiest game ever. But in 2002, it was a real toughie.

That is not to say games have gotten harder. But in the 9 years since KH was first released, genre straddling games have become the rule rather than the exception.