GodWood wrote...
Strawman.
Alright, fine. What would you like them to take from us? I honestly can't think of anything off the top of my head.
I love serious stories too. It's just that the FF games (and most JRPGs) are simply too narmy for me to be able enjoy them as 'serious' games.
The majority of the time the 'serious' JRPGs will very loosely touch on some basic Western philosophical ideas (without exploring them in any depth), wallow around in some very immature, self-indulgent wangst and then conclude with some childish "power of friendship" message.
This "narmyness" thing sounds very subjective. I will agree there are facepalm moments in some of the JRPS I've played, but there are as well in the Westerns too.
And for your last paragraph...the few, very few that I've played (FF XIII, XIII-2, VII, III) haven't really been truly like that. You could argue that for XIII but I'd call that one's message the power of free will (subverted marvelously, indeed geniously in FF XIII-2). I'm clearly no expert, but I've not really encountered that.