But why is that? That's why we fish in role-playing games
The Legend of Zelda is notorious for its fishing mini-games. Although Link cannot fish in every game, it is worth unpacking the old parts. Source: YouTube Even after a brief study of the topic, it is clear that fishing is a very popular pastime, especially in Japanese role-playing games. The Legend of Zelda, Breath of Fire, Animal Crossing and last but not least the Final Fantasy series are to a certain extent famous for their great fish-catching simulation. In fact, fishing is a popular pastime in Japan - hardly surprising on the island nation, which also has a lot of freshwater resources. Surprisingly, however, it was the Americans who were the first to incorporate fishing rods into video games.
Sea route to India is not only getting very old, the fishing mini-game is also very out of date. You had to drop a harpoon at the right moment to hit the fish or a whale. Source: Youtube The young developer David Crane created exclusively competitive games for the Atari. After having processed car races, canyons, and pistol duels in video games, he dared to fish. In Fishing Derby from 1980, two players each try to attract more fish than the opposing party while a shark is causing a stir in the water. Shortly afterwards, several handhelds appeared in Japan and later in America, on which you could also fish virtually. Most of the fascination was with the handhelds themselves, but fishing was easy to program and harmless enough to be family entertainment. And so the genre celebrated a rapid rise until it was finally abused as a mini-game.
And so it begins ...
The idea of fishing as a mini-game The American company Compute! 1984 with Sea Route to India, a text adventure with graphic overlays. It wasn't until nine years later, in 1993, that we were able to swing a fishing rod in The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. Other Japanese game series such as Breath of Fire should also join this trend and finally convince the American developer companies of their own idea. In 2004, the sport not only made it into the Fable series, but also as a large part of the vanilla version of World of Warcraft. The latter, by the way, only because the wife of Mark Kern (the then team leader of WOW) loved fishing in Japanese role-playing games. These days, multiplayer role-playing games rarely do without fishing. In WOW, the sport only found its way because Japanese role-playing games have already shown it well. Source: buffed Incidentally, this trend continues today just as it did then. In addition to several online role-playing games such as New World, Bethesda has now come to the conclusion that fishing is the video game innovation of the century. In her all-time blockbuster The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dovahkiin can proclaim himself the King of Fishing with a free update!
Even if we think twice about fishing ourselves, we at least now know why we are compelled to do so in so many games. But our conclusion remains: Before it is implemented stupidly in the game, it should simply not be there at all. What is your opinion? What are your earliest video game fishing experiences?
