Hello, gentle readers, and welcome to the RPG Reload, the near-weekly feature where we talk shop about mobile RPGs of all kinds. Sometimes that involves a deep dive on a particular game, sometimes it’s a play-along we all join in on, and other times it’s just general talk about a particular aspect of the genre. Of course, as is our custom in the RPG Reload, the last two articles of the year are dedicated to celebrating the holidays. This week is our third annual Christmas Special, while next week will feature our third annual Golden Pancho Mobile RPG Awards. If you have any comments or questions, be sure to leave your input below the article, stop by the Official RPG Reload Club thread in the forums, or tweet me at @RPGReload.
In the last couple of years, the RPG Reload Christmas Specials have been major projects. The first year, I covered three Christmas-appropriate RPGs, which was something like triple my usual workload. In the second year, I did an ill-advised rewrite of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and that ended up being about five times the usual effort. Originally, I had planned a similar stunt for this year, but things got unexpectedly busy. So instead, we’re doing a different kind of Christmas Special this year. Less like the wild present-opening part and more like the quiet post-dinner reflection by the fireplace. Because yes, Christmas is about things like presents, Santa, candy canes, some cool bearded carpenter guy, family, good food, and either wishing you had snow or wishing you didn’t have snow, but I want to spend some time talking about my favorite thing about the holiday. Don’t worry, there’s an RPG connection here.
Maybe I’m a naive old optimist, but I’ve always believed that people behave a little better around this time of year. Yes, there’s all the wild ravages of shopping, but apart from that, it feels like people tend to use the end of the year to balance their karmic checkbook, even in cultures where Christmas isn’t celebrated. And I love that. Life is tough. Life is busy. We all have a million reasons to skimp on kindness, but for a short time each year, many of us try a little harder, and it shows. Whether it be helping someone out directly, visiting someone who might not usually get many visitors, donating to charity, or even whistling a friendly tune as we walk, all of this is the real magic of the season, at least in my books. I wonder if we’re all subconsciously trying to square up with Santa so that we get decent presents? I mean, I have been eyeing that pony quite ferociously this year. Come on, St. Nick, be a pal.
With all of this in mind, I thought we could do something small but significant here. I’m going to use this column to say thank you to my favorite RPG developers for their hard work. And if you, gentle reader, are inclined to do the same down in the comments, that would be a pretty cool thing. To developers, if you’re reading, and you feel like expressing any gratitude to readers or anyone, I think it would be nice if you could leave that in the comments as well. I don’t know, maybe this will backfire. But if it works, and we have a good bunch of comments that everyone can feel all warm and fuzzy about reading, then I think that would be a great outcome. Anyway, I’ll start off with mine.
To Jeff Vogel and Spiderweb Software, thank you for not giving up on mobile. It can’t be easy staying on top of all the weird stuff that changes in iOS from version to version, and I know the games don’t sell terribly well on this platform, but the many hardcore RPG fans appreciate your hard work keeping us in the loop.
To Zarista Games and Redshift, thank you for picking up The Quest again this year. Two new expansions for the original version, an HD version of the original game and the first expansion, and heck, just the continued presence of the games on the App Store. Important classic RPGs go missing all the time for various reasons, and that could have happened with The Quest. Instead, it’s still alive and kicking, healthy as ever. Thanks.
To Capcom, thanks for fixing Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. The communication on that update wasn’t always the best, but you came through where many big publishers haven’t, and I appreciate that. The game is a treasure, and I hope you consider releasing further installments on iOS one day.
To Square Enix, thank you for taking a chance on the English release of Romancing SaGa 2. I have a feeling you took a bath on that, but it’s fantastic to have an official English version of even one installment from the 16-bit SaGa games. I think you’ve made some great improvements in your free-to-play efforts as well, and many people are enjoying them. But you also haven’t given up on paid games either, and I’m also appreciative of that.
To Josh at Crescent Moon, Kepa at Rocketcat, Brjann at Image & Form, and Neil at Tin Man Games, thanks for agreeing to do interviews with me. I had a lot of fun chatting with you, and I think the readers really liked it, too. Time away from business is valuable, I know, and I’m thankful you were willing to give some of it to me for my silly articles. I can’t wait to talk to more developers in the future.
To TouchMint, Wavelight, Amir, VolkerE, Thylacine, Jon S., and other indie mobile RPG developers who take such great care of their players even though game development probably isn’t bringing in a ton of money, thank you for your blood, sweat, and tears. It’s amazing to see so many people working tirelessly on achieving their dreams and keeping their fans satisfied. You all make me feel like I should be doing more with my time.
To DotEmu and Aspyr Media, thank you for bringing some great old classics to the platform. The licensing must be a nightmare at times, perhaps matched only by the expectations of the players, but you’ve both made a habit of really coming through. Being able to play these games on the phone in my pocket will never fully lose its novelty, and you deserve a lot of credit for getting these games out when the original publishers may not necessarily be interested in doing it themselves.
To Eli, Jared, Arn, and the rest of the TouchArcade gang, thanks for the support on all of my silly ideas. I’ve never once had an idea shot down, no matter how odd or narrowly-focused it is. In my 20 years of writing about games, I don’t think I’ve seen another place that put such an emphasis on the writers just writing what we want to write about. Sometimes, that leads to weird places, but I appreciate the freedom to do my thing, and the help my fellow writers in making that thing the best it can be.
To Eric Ford and Andy Fretz specifically, thanks for doing the RPG Reload Podcast with me. In my opinion, we put together the finest iOS retro RPG podcast on the planet, maybe even in the galaxy. Working together for doing recordings across three very different time zones is a challenge, and I appreciate the odd hours you guys have to keep to do that.
To the readers, thanks for reading. To the commenters, thanks for commenting. To the supporters, thanks for supporting. Without all of you, we wouldn’t have a site at all, and that would mean I would have to go back to yelling at a cloud. The cloud didn’t care much for that. But seriously. The advice always goes that you should never read Internet comments, but the comments on these articles are always uplifting. I hope you all like what we’ve got in store here for the new year.
Well, that’s my peace, though I’m sure I’ve missed some folks. Now, it’s your turn. Readers, players, developers, publishers, whoever, please go ahead and make the world a little sunnier with a few words. I hope you all have a happy holiday, no matter how you choose to celebrate. Be sure to check back next week for our year-end Golden Pancho RPG awards, and if this was all a little too touchy-feely for you, don’t worry, I’ll be back to aggressively exterminating monsters with my mighty broadsword soon enough. Thanks for reading!
Next Week’s Reload: The 2016 Golden Pancho RPG Awards!
