So recently I've taken to replaying Wild ARMs II. I haven't played this game since it's release, and I find myself just getting thoroughly raped by the bosses. I'm talking one shotted. I'm not even up to the second disc yet, and I'm baffled. I don't usually have problems with role playing games, and here I am just getting constantly defeated.
Then it dawned on me. I had always attributed my continued ease with role playing games with experience. Afterall, I've been playing them for decades now. That isn't really the case. Games have been dumbed down, and without realizing it I had forgotten some aspects that made beating them a lot easier. Kind of a gutpunch really.
What was one of the things I had taken for granted? In Wild ARMs II I was just going from point A to point B, and I wasn't leveling my characters adequately. You know, the whole "run in a circle in an open area and constantly fight until the area's monsters are one shottable." I'm not going to say that this particular time sink is necessary, or that I miss it in the newer games. Just that games in the past were certainly tougher on us than they are now.