Fabricant451 — Roleplayer Guild

Okay speaking of RPGs: Someone explain the appeal of JRPGs, please. I do not understand them at all. An 'RPG' where the most level of character customization possible is that I get to name characters that already have names. At most they're story-based action games with class-and-leveling elements, and if those are all it takes to be an RPG, then CoD is a goddamn RPG. Seriously, explain what makes people like JRPGs?@DepressedSoviet

I assume you're talking JRPGs of the Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy variety rather than, say, the Dark Souls or the tactics side of things. RPGs are defined as a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (and/or several party members) immersed in some well-defined world. Customization is not a core aspect in a JRPG and unless one subscribes to the school of games like Wizardry or DnD games then I'm not sure why character customization is such a thing. Given that classic CRPGs had very little in the way of customization outside of a portrait and stats I'm not sure where customization became such a thing, but I suspect it has something to do with a certain popular franchise. 

Early JRPGs offered party customization, Dragon Quest 3 let you pick a male or female and you recruited party members at a bar and got to choose their class and name and such - a concept they refined and made better in Dragon Quest 9 years later. Resonance of Fate doesn't let you pick your party members but it does have quite the extensive clothing and fashion system for aesthetics. The very first Final Fantasy let you pick your team of four from different classes that are RPG staples. Final Fantasy 3, before the remake anyway, also let you pick your characters professions. 

Maybe it's not as robust as choosing from different races or being able to adjust their face, but JRPGs were built on the backs of concepts core to pen and paper RPGs. Even some of the more popular CRPGs succumb to being 'story based action games'. Look at, say, Knights of the Old Republic where your character's entire backstory is predetermined but you get to pick their name and stats - how is that so different from, say, Final Fantasy 7 where you get to pick your party's name and determine their stats based on equipment and materia? 

JRPGs are a diverse genre that has seen games remain true to its roots (Dragon Quest, Atelier series) and experiment with the times (Final Fantasy) and pretty much everything inbetween. I can't explain what makes people like JRPGs because like the genre itself everyone likes different stuff. I know people that really love the Tales of series while I think they are trash tier JRPG games. But the best ones, the classics, offer things like fun mechanics (Chrono Trigger) or delve into themes and topics that many games don't (the Megaten franchise loves this) to varying degrees of success. 

But on the subject, is The Witcher 3 less of an RPG because you can't customize Geralt? Is Mass Effect more of one because it has binary options of fake choice? Is the Elder Scrolls franchise better than JRPGs because it's a power fantasy with threadbare plots compared to the more grandiose and narrative driven Japanese counterparts? JRPGs often get a bad rep because of various reasons, ranging from its character design (because if there's one thing weebs love it's trying to pretend they aren't weebs) or their often overly melodramatic and bad story telling, but that's true of almost any genre. There's good, great, and bad in any media and just because, say, Hyperdimension Neptunia is a garbage franchise for garbage people doesn't mean that, say, Persona is made worse by being under the JRPG umbrella. 

JRPGs are not for everyone and they are still very much a niche market outside of Japan. The best JRPGs offer exactly why RPGs have been offering since its inception: a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (and/or several party members) immersed in some well-defined world. 

Maybe you don't like JRPGs, and that's fine. But there's more to an RPG than character customization.

▲ SPECTRA

Samaira Varma

╟ 24  || Indian American  || Female ╢

⋙: Ｒ Ｅ Ｐ Ｕ Ｔ Ａ Ｔ Ｉ Ｏ Ｎ

Samaira was always something of a troubled person even before her dramatic change, but before everything and especially before that video, her troubles were at least written off as stress related. It was always because of her family, or so she would claim whenever she had the boon of patient-doctor confidentiality, but at some point being picked up from police stations with a busted lip and the faint trace of alcohol on the breath people start to wonder if it's a cry for help. Not that really anyone could help since Samaira was staunchly opposed to such a thing. Her problems were her own, or that of her parents and their strict views and upbringings. Samaira couldn't do this. Samaira had to do that. It was, as always, the rebellious youth refusing to grow up. Samaira didn't see the appeal in traditions, and the hammer swung hard in the other direction. And with it came her reputation. 

In terms she was once told by her father after one of Samaira's first incidents, she was already coming to the game with a loaded deck. Not everyone was keen on the Varma family even with their contributions to the community. Old prejudices and older habits meant Samaira had to be better than what people expected. Of course, not everyone was against the Varma's, but to Samaira it always felt like she was being held under an impossibly large microscope. Her family wanted her to act one way, society another, and not once did it seem like she could do anything other than play along. She was that, for a time, the quiet but unassuming girl, out of sight, out of mind. That wasn't her. 

Samaira started small enough, taking things that didn't belong to her from stores. Candy. Soda. Snacks. The harmless stuff. Petty theft was still theft, however, and after getting caught the first time she realized a sad truth. It was the only time her parents seemed to care about her. Not her reputation and by extension theirs, but her actual well being. So of course that was just enough justification for Samaira to keep doing it. To keep getting taken in, intentionally violating curfews and making herself out to be a negative source. Samaira craved what she didn't have: familial attention and bonding and, yes, even love. 

Her reputation leveled out as she reached her twenties. The should've been valedictorian of her high school went on to not go to college. Her time spent in the back of police cars and underage drinking caught up with her in her early twenties and finding employment to support her was difficult, if nothing else. Her parents didn't want to support someone that threw away her life so what could she do? As Samaira became an adult, she started feeling more and more isolated and shunned. By her parents. By her lack of true friends. By her lack of love. 

She wasn't quite sure when it happened, but after the change she felt even more shunned, isolated, and feared. People already didn't like her because of her youth of getting into thefts and trouble, and now she was even more different, and not just because of her ancestry and skin color. At least when she had a skin color it was easy to point to that as a reason for being shunned...now she no longer had that. 

It was fortunate, then, that the Coalition entered her life. Even though among them she still felt like an outcast...at least it gave her something positive for a change. People do stupid things in their youth, Samaira especially, and the change had to have been karma coming to bite at her; and the Coalition her way of earning trust back in the eyes of those above and around. 

And yet, Samaira sometimes feels just the same as she did as a child. Unsure. Alone. And very, very afraid.

⋙: Ｐ Ｏ Ｗ Ｅ Ｒ Ｓ  ＆  Ｆ Ｉ Ｇ Ｈ Ｔ Ｉ Ｎ Ｇ  Ｓ Ｔ Ｙ Ｌ Ｅ

A B I L I T I E S
Spectra's Power, in the easiest term of the word, is Light and Color Manipulation. In more complicated terms she can refract and reflect and focus the variety of colors in the spectrum of light. Ever since her powers came to light (pun intended) along with the Change that turned her from Samaira into Spectra, her body itself has become almost ethereal, as if she was a living being made of light itself. As such her body gives off color and effectively makes her like a mood ring, though her more active abilities are not tied to emotions as her body is. With the abilities she has she can control the direction of her light emissions, their frequency (or color), and intensity. Though not physically the strongest in terms of ability, Spectra has discovered quite a few uses for her unique brand of ability. Uses such as (but not limited to): 

Photon Blasts: The staple ability if ever there was one, Spectra uses her light and color to produce what are effectively energy beams. They can be any color but no one color is stronger than the other, it's mostly for effect. The photon blasts are like hard light constructs in a way, in that though it might seem like shooting a beam of light, it's actually a physical thing and not just some minor annoyance. Spectra can technically emit photon waves from anywhere on her body but she uses her hands as that gives her more accurate control. She can fire a sustained beam but it exhausts her, and should she use her body to become a bright beam of blinding photon energy, the strain could well be fatal. 

Holographic Projection: By shifting light particles, Spectra can effectively create holograms of herself in order to distract. Theoretically she could project OTHERS but she hasn't exactly tried this in the field. 

Flashbang: Using her lights in ways other than her primary attacking method, Spectra can, of course, blind someone temporarily (or permanently if she lost control or was particularly malicious) with light and color. Imagine shining a flashlight directly into your eyes. Now imagine it was even brighter than that.

Flight: More of a hover, really. It's amazing what the manipulation of light energy can do to a body. 

Hard Light Body: Spectra's body might not have, well...human qualities anymore but it does have certain advantages. Namely that she can't be blinded herself by light and she's a lot lighter in terms of weight and mass. That said because of the nature of her ability, she does need at least a light source to be at all effective making her greatest weakness...well...the darkness. And her body, which is almost glass in appearance, is pretty fragile which makes her a light glass cannon of sorts. 

C O M B A T
Spectra is not a close quarters fighter by any means. She is, however, useful in setting up diversions and traps with her holographs and blinding flashes. When things do get to the action phase, and they always do, she's better used as a ranged fighter, offering support with her photon blasts. She can throw a punch but given the nature of her body she prefers not to do a lot of physical attacks of that sort. She's trying to master the art of light warping - that is being able to warp to any light source - but her powers seem geared differently. 

⋙: Ａ Ｐ Ｐ Ｅ Ａ Ｒ Ａ Ｎ Ｃ Ｅ ＆  Ｐ Ｅ Ｒ Ｓ Ｏ Ｎ Ａ Ｌ Ｉ Ｔ Ｙ

L O  O K S  &  S T Y L E 
Before there was Spectra there was Samaira and Samaira had long, raven black hair and frequent dark eye makeup to give her a smokey sort of look about her. Samaira was above average in height, about five eight or so, and had a healthy, albeit slightly thick, figure. Of course, that Samaira no longer exists. Now she is Spectra and her body is, well, different. Her hair is more like those color changing strands on fake Christmas wreaths and her body is like glass, except people can't see their reflection in her. Spectra no longer possesses a normal body, instead being a being that, while certainly humanoid in shape, seems to be more ethereal in appearance. Gone is the epidermis, replaced instead by a sort of...crystalline shape. Where once there was skin there is now a translucent form, a form that takes in and changes color like a fiber optic holiday tree. The features present on a human exist. Spectra has fingers and toes, a physical 'body' that is just...crystalline. Her eyes change along with the color of her body, but there are no pupils or irises. Just glowing sockets serving as eyes. For the sake of those around her, Spectra wears clothing, though she prefers to wear items such as robes...things that she can drape over herself. 

P E R S O N A L I T Y  T R A I T S 

Hers is a curious mind, though a more introspective sort of curiosity. She doesn't question the why of things believing that simply asking 'why' when you don't understand something is no way to learn. Spectra would love to be a social butterfly but understands that her appearance makes that difficult. Sure, people might be accepting of Empowered..but she has seen the looks people give her...the awkward way in which they aren't sure how to speak to her...it's easier for the common citizen to make sense of Empowered sorts that at least can look human from the right angle or light...but Spectra doesn't have that luxury unless she wears clothing over every part of her body. It's hard for her to maintain a positive outlook, and it's because of her appearance that she constantly puts on a braver face than the truth of the situation. Spectra will never be the first one to leap into action but neither will she be the one to hesitate and wrestle with doubt; she'd just prefer to take a moment to consider every option rather than rushing in. Spectra will often be the first one to LEAVE the scene of action, however, if only because civilians have a tendency to flood the area after the fact and flashing cameras and easily swayed normals drag up her own feelings of insecurity.

⋙: Ｆ Ａ Ｍ Ｉ Ｌ Ｙ  ＆  Ｒ Ｅ Ｌ Ａ Ｔ Ｉ Ｏ Ｎ Ｓ Ｈ Ｉ Ｐ Ｓ

L O V E D  O N E S 
Priya Varma: Mother, pharmacist. Hasn't talked to her since being kicked out of the house

Sayid Varma: Father, store owner and community board member. Hasn't talked to him since being kicked out of the house. 

Y O U R  L I F E  S O  F A R
Overly traditional family lifestyle disagreed with her
Turned to little thefts to find affection and care and love from her parents
Felt ostracized due to her race and her criminal actions, no matter how small, as such became independent and alone
Constantly searched for love and acceptance where she could, finding it only in her court-appointed therapist and in the officers that arrested her. This in turn lead to a teenage period of vandalism, curfew breaking, theft, anything to get someone to care.
Graduated high school but didn't get accepted into college. Parents kicked her out at age 20
Remained alone even more so after her body changed into Spectra
Taken in by the Coalition, though her body still makes her feel outcast, but the Coalition at least seems to provide the stability she desperately needed
Attempting to make amends for her teenage years by doing good with the Coalition

⋙:Ａ Ｎ Ｙ Ｔ Ｈ Ｉ Ｎ Ｇ  Ｅ Ｌ Ｓ Ｅ          

Dazzler is my shit. Could you not tell? 
Alia Bhatt is the claim

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