4 Obvious Issues That Modern Gaming Refuses To Address

If your hobby involves reading books, watching movies, or playing games then you're going to need some form of suspension of disbelief. Things are going to happen in these fantasy worlds that aren't going to happen in real life. That's the whole point of immersing yourself into another world; you usually don't want to be put in a setting that mimics where you are right now in life.

But there are some things in games that are just so obviously flawed I can't help but point them out. Things in games that make you think "Just what is going on in their world?! Why are things like this!?" While there are plenty of examples I could name off, I've narrowed my list down to four. Because four is a pretty good number, isn't it?

-----------------

What Is Going On With Clothing In JRPGs?

While I could easily mention any number of Japanese role playing games in this article, I'm going to focus my attack on Final Fantasy XIII because it was the last one I played and it is still fresh in my mind. Before I get into this, I understand that main characters have to look unique to distinguish them from the rest of the world. But there are a few oddities in FFXIII that I thought I'd bring up today.

Behold! A character more distinguishing than most NPCs in the game!

First of all. Look at everyone else in pretty much the entire game. They're all wearing these weird two piece spandex body suit things. Pretty much everyone on Cocoon is wearing one of three different outfits that have just the bare essentials when it comes to being clothed. Now let's take a look at Lightning, our main character in the game!

Starting from the bottom, we have boots, shin guards, and a satchel. We haven't even gotten to her actual attire yet and already she is wearing more things than every non important NPC character in the game. No, this doesn't mean there's a whole city of nearly naked citizens running around, it just means the world of Cocoon can be really bland at times.

You can wear whatever you want when you join up as long as you have a cape

But then there's also the flipside to this problem. The clothing you see Lightning in is the gear she wears as a soldier. That is her uniform. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but nearly every other soldier who was in the same military as her was wearing full body armor that covered every inch of their skin.

While people might think she was just wearing some of her normal street clothes when she got caught up in the Purge, they clearly point out in a flashback scene that she was wearing that outfit while on duty at a festival. While I'm all for people wearing whatever they want, you would think the military would have some form of dress code that didn't involve mini skirts and vests that showed midriff.

-----------------

Why Isn't Anybody Stopping Bowser?

Imagine if somebody kidnapped a world leader, left massive amounts of evidence that he did it, and then got himself captured. Instead of spending the rest of his life in prison, the kidnapper gets set free for some zany reason and immediately begins rebuilding his empire right outside of the place where he kidnapped the world leader in the first place.

Now imagine if nobody did anything about it even though he started letting everybody know months in advance that he was about to kidnap the same person again. This is the nightmare world that Mario has lived in for about a quarter of a century. Time and time again, Bowser kidnaps Peach and takes her to a random castle spread across eight different areas.

Giant castles with detailed carvings of the world's greatest tyrant? Probably nothing to worry about

Just how was he able to build eight distinct castles without a single person letting Mario know that Bowser was up to his old crap again? It isn't like the castles were always there and Bowser just decided "Cool, free castle!" Mario is clearly shown destroying Bowser's castles and airships after he defeats the monsters inside.

So what is stopping them from just kicking Bowser into submission every time he begins to rebuild his armies? Is there some sort of peace treaty stopping Mario from attacking Bowser? Does he have a restraining order or something? At least Mario has to be aware that something is up when evil castles start cropping up all over the country, right?

-----------------

Why Are So Many Ancient Evils Being Awoken?

Think about how many times you've seen the phrase "An Ancient Evil Has Awoken." It appears so often that it has become a joke in the industry. Nobody in their right mind would even consider using the tagline to promote one of their games unless they wanted to be involved in some running joke until the game released.

I just... I just don't know anymore...

Oh... I see. Well, I almost don't have a response to that. It is like getting punched in the stomach with words. Anyhoo, on to why it doesn't make sense. In every game that involves some sort of ancient evil slumbering somewhere, there are always instructions on how to wake the thing up. Always.

If some sort of ancient hero worked so hard to put the thing to sleep then you would think he would work just as hard to keep people away from whatever it was he sealed away. Instead of peace in the world after the hero's heroics, they decide the easy life is boring and slip notes out to people explaining how to bring it back or some such nonsense.

Let's just assume there aren't any instructions on how to bring the ancient evil back. Let's say there's a map showing people where it is so they stay far away from that area so nobody has to accidentally take any chances. Nine times out of ten someone is going to mistake the map as one that leads to treasure and the only thing keeping the monster locked up is a treasure chest that wasn't even buried.

-----------------

Why Did Laughing Octopus Use Snake's Face As A Disguise?

Yes, I know this one is very specific and doesn't fit in with the others, but it was something that didn't make any sense to me whatsoever. Just think about the scene- Laughing Octopus has used her face camo to look like Solid Snake. She proceeds to shoot at some guards to let them know that if they see Snake they need to kill him right away.

Steal my face why don't you?! Well lets see how you like it. Not fun, is it?

Here is where things stop making sense in a game that is known for making perfect sense. In the past four games in the series, what is Snake known for? Is it being easy to spot and constantly getting captured? No! One of the main accomplishments in the game is to get through the whole story without ever being seen or killing anybody.

Just like Snake would if you weren't controlling him! Why would Laughing Octopus take the time to mimic the face of someone the guards are never going to see anyway? It isn't like she didn't know what Snake was capable of. His middle name is Sneak for crying out loud. [citation needed]

-----------------

I was actually having trouble finishing out this list. I'm not sure why but my mind just completely blanked. I know there are plenty more things that happen in games that don't make sense or just seem too stupid to have ever actually happened in the game world, but I just can't figure out what they are...

As always, thanks for reading! Are there any scenes in games that didn't make sense to you? Or maybe you saw a story element that should have been easily taken care of by the game's characters but ended up being something major in the storyline for no reason? Why not post in the comments below?