Decisions Decisions Decisions...

I don't know about many of you here, but I can speak for myself when I say that I am an avid fan of JRPGs. There was a time when I HAD to have every single Square Soft game there was. It used to be that there was not a single game that Square made that I wouldn't be foaming at the mouth to buy and vehemently defend to my very end. Remember SaGa Frontier? Yup, had it, and defended it. How about Vagrant Story? Still haven't beat it, but gawd did that game have amazing depth and character.

Which brings me to my main topic of discussion, prescripted decisions within gaming environments and the dread that I have of them. I remember fondly playing Chrono Cross many years ago on the PS Single and the decision that you make at the very beginning of the game about which direction you should take...I though long and hard before making my choice, absolutely sure that there would be some horrific event that could possibly have been avoided dependent on that decision...

I hate to say, it's gotten much worse. Take the most current example of Bioshock; harvest the little sister and make your passage through Rapture much easier, or do the morally right option of saving them, making your travel a bit more difficult. I had an attack of conscience when I met up with the first little sister in the Medical Pavilion. Instead of harvesting her (which I had already decided was just and right because of the evil they were doing), I instead felt sorry for the pathetic being cowering in the corner of the room and decided to save her instead. Immediately I was overcome with emotion that I felt like I had done a good thing.

Keep in mind, boys and girls, that this was a VIDEO GAME that made me feel this way. The last time I can remember right now of feeling such emotion in a video game was when I saved "Grandpa" on Ruin Island halfway through Final Fantasy VI...I had no idea he would die if I didn't feed him the big fish that swam around...and honestly I don't think my feeble teenaged mind would have been able to take it if he did.

Ok...decisions. I'm sure we all have and make more decisions everyday of our life than we do in the games that we play. We all have regret that follows us and hollows us out everyday from events that happened in days, months, years past that we still have yet to get over. I just wonder why it's so much more heavily weighted when its a virtual experience. How many of you out there thought that it was somehow YOUR fault that Aeris died in FFVII? How many of you wished that there was something that YOU could have done more to prevent it from happening?

Turns out, she was meant to die. That crushed me as a teenager...that nothing I could do would ever allow her to stay in my party 'til the end of the game. Sure she was a pretty mediocre character, but it somehow made me sad that it was out of my hands.

Back to Bioshock, cause its current in my mind, I'm currently on my second playthrough and am harvesting each little sister I come across (which makes me feel bad). On the 3rd time through I hope to avoid any and all contact with them altogether. When was the last time that a game, much less a FPS make you feel sorrow for your actions?

There are many, many examples of tough decisions you can make in our experiences as gamers...How many of you out there cringed when Revolver Ocelot made you decide which hand to pick at the end of Snake Eater? Or even submitting to Ocelot's torture in MGS, either saving Meryl or condemning her to death?

I guess you can say that indecision like this is why there are so many sites devoted to walkthroughs and the main reason Game Strategy Guides are pushed so heavily at your local Game$top. Though my hatred for G$ and the fact that I need them will have to be discussed at a much later time.

I've only listed a few of the most stand-out-ish memories I have of decisions in video games. If you guys have any you fondly remember I'd love to hear them. And thanks again for reading my ramblings.