Has anyone heard about the Okkusenman craze in Japan? I found out thanks to the magic of youtube... basically, if you're familiar with the Mega Man games, specifically Mega Man 2, you know about the hype surrounding Doctor Wily's first fortress theme. it's been dubbed one of the greatest tunes in the series by some. apparently, it was good enough that it became the melody of this song, Okkusenman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yATI48dcsMUnevermind the fact that the guy singing sounds really REALLY funny. The reason I bring it up is because if you look at the English subtitles, you'll know what the song is really all about: a poor guy who once had a good group of friends that he'd do anything with, a group that he got the courage of today from, and now he's grown up and they've all split. He misses those days, when he'd do stuff with his friends and make memories... that's all he has now is memories.
Just about everyone can think of a similar situation of some sort for themselves. A time they wish they could go back to, friends they'd like to see again, groups they'd like to reunite... for sake of ease, I've dubbed them "okkusenman" moments. I've got a couple myself, what with church youth group back in '01 and '02. I've grown up though, as have they, and we've had to split up, but if I could do it all again, I would. That's an okkusenman moment.
...One of the great things about Chrono Trigger is that it makes a large use of that. Generating the group of young people that take back memories and wishes to do it all again and see all their old friends. Chrono Cross abuses this principle, openly lamenting in the narrative about how he misses those days the game takes place in...
...what's really kind of weird and funny? This has had the same effect on the Dream Team. If you pay attention to interviews, the dream team got pretty close, and they all seem to miss working together on the series. You might even say they parallel the characters in their own RPG!
anyone else have moments like this? I think it's kind of cool, and perhaps one of the reasons we still enjoy the game. A person can get past it being "just a game", and assume an endearing friendship with the characters, then never get over having to split up with them. So, they play it through again... and again....
