Prologue: About the Greatness of Role-Playing Games

translated by: Seiryuu (& chocolala)

Do you know Role Playing Games (RPG)?

This is my favourite game genre, where the main character will go out for an adventure with comrades where they would level up, and face various challenges before finally defeating the final enemy to save the world from a crisis.

What’s good about this genre is that you don’t have to be involved with other people. Unlike competitive games against real humans, your efforts will always be rewarded and you won’t have to fight for mounts one by one.

An adventure for me. A story for me. And a world just for me. In that world, I will continue to live as a different person.

Yes, as the name implies, role-playing allows you to be a different person.

There is a saying that people read to resist the fact that they only have one life, and RPGs are just like that.

Playing RPGs is a form of resistance to the fact that a person has only one life, and that we cannot choose for ourselves most of the elements that make up our lives. With all that I’ve said so far, can you understand the greatness of this genre?

——However, there is only one flaw in this wonderful game. The simple fact is that becoming a different person is something that everyone does in reality, without having to enter a game world.

For example, when you give a curious nod to a boring conversation.

For example, when you fake a smile at someone you dislike.

For example, when you turn away from something you think is wrong.

There is no “I” in it. There is no will of ‘Self’. There is only “Classmate A” and “Passerby A”. Everyone plays this role to protect themselves from the absurdity of this world.

Therefore, this is what I think.

Youth is a role-play. Everyone is playing someone else. Everyone is playing something to advance in the wonderful story of youth.