Virtual Vox Pop is a weekly open mic in which we ask you, the reader, to sound off on a particular topic. This week, it’s role-playing games.

I hate RPGs.

Not the genre itself, but many of the more insane and repetitive trappings that have become synonymous with role-playing games. Random battles. Your typical sword ‘n sorcery storylines. Inane game limitations such as having the ability to call down fire from heaven, yet being unable to open a door due to not possessing a particular key. It’s all quite frustrating.

There have been a few exceptions, however, that actually commanded large portions of my game playing time. Chrono Trigger blew my mind with an awesome time travel plot; Soul Blazer‘s moral/religious lessons were unlike other games of that time; likewise, Xenogears a few years later.

Your mission this week is to suggest a RPG that I need to play as soon as humanly possible, any system, any era. Can I be convinced that the genre caters to guys like me? GO!