When he isnât kicking footballs or cursing out Maryland politicians for our friends at Deadspin, Chris Kluwe spends his time playing video games. Lots and lots of video games.
Kluwe, who made national airwaves last week when he wrote a passionate letter in defense of gay marriage, is both an NFL punter for the Minnesota Vikings and a rabid RPG fan who thinks Lost Odyssey is severely underrated and Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen is one of the best games ever made.
https://deadspin.com/they-wont-magically-turn-you-into-a-lustful-cockmonste-5941348
Weâve known about Kluweâs gaming obsession for quite a few years now: way back in the day, the punter considered changing his name to Chris Warcraftâa move that would likely sell a lot of Vikings jerseys. (His Twitter handle is ChrisWarcraft.)
https://lastchance.cc/vikings-punter-considers-changing-his-name-to-world-of-5120697%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
But I didnât realize just how big an RPG nerd he was until I saw him write a comment on Deadspin about his difficulties taking down a boss in Final Fantasy IV. So I got Kluwe on the phone a couple of weeks agoâbefore he became the Internetâs favorite punterâto ask him some important questions about his love for games. Questions like: âHow many NFL players have you tried to get into JRPGs?â
https://deadspin.com/game-over-nintendo-power-to-cease-publishing-after-24-5936800
âI did get one of our defensive linemen,â Kluwe told me, laughing. âI pushed him towards Dark Souls. He enjoyed playing that for a bit, although he was like âman, this gameâs one of the hardest games ever.'â
âThatâs it?â I asked. Surely there must be some other football players who like to dabble in the occasional Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy when theyâre not smashing their helmets into one another for millions of dollars.
âWell, hey thereâs these magical things called Espers, and at first youâre this person whoâs kind of like half of one, but then youâre gonna find like thirteen other charactersâŚâ
âItâs kind of tough to sell JRPGs to people who may not have played them before,â Kluwe said. âMost of the time, when trying to describe the story of whatâs happening in a JRPG, youâve kind of gotta accept that a lot of stuff isnât going to make sense. I think that the latestâFinal Fantasy XIII-2 or whatever it wasâwas just like âHey, time travel!â and⌠yeah.â
Kluwe has theories about this inaccessibility. (And about why most NFL players stick with Madden and Call of Duty over Persona and Xenoblade).
âI think that might be one of the reasons JRPGs are kind of declining almost in sort of the modern day and age,â Kluwe said. âItâs really hard to explain to people that havent experienced them why you should play this game. Whereas like, you know, in Oblivion or something, you can be like hey thereâs this huge world you can go explore in. In a Final Fantasy itâs like: âWell, hey thereâs these magical things called Espers, and at first youâre this person whoâs kind of like half of one, but then youâre gonna find like thirteen other charactersâŚâ
âHopefully they keep making [JRPGs] cause theyâre a lot of fun to play. Itâs justâ itâs probably on us as gamers to make sure our children growing up playing those old classics. So they kind of realize, âHey, this is the backstory behind everything.'â
Like many twenty- and thirty-something gamers today, Kluwe, who is 30, grew up during the eras of Nintendo and Super Nintendo. He cut his teeth on Final FantasyââI was instantly hooked despite those instant-kill wizards,â he saidâthen spent his childhood playing games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI
Unlike many twenty- and thirty-something gamers today, Kluwe became an NFL punter. Still, heâs a friendly, down-to-earth guy with some friendly, down-to-earth opinions.
He thinks the Super Nintendo age was the golden era of RPGs: âSquare and Atlus and all the games they had on thereâOgre Battle, obviously Final Fantasy, Chrono Triggerâjust all of them. That was probably the greatest era of RPG gaming that Iâve been lucky to be a part of.â
He thinks Lost Odyssey is under-appreciated: âThe writing and the short stories and just the overall scope of the story, it was crafted really well. Especially the fact that they approached this whole thing where youâre this immortal character and itâs not just like âOh, hey, youâre immortal, thatâs cool. Thereâs legitimate consequences to being this being that lives forever.â
He has a passionate love for Ogre Battle on the Super Nintendo: âI donât know what it is, I can just play that game any time⌠the great thing was, there was just so much hidden stuff in the game that you had no idea was there unless you went and explored. Youâd have to go to maps you already cleared, clear maps in a certain amount of time⌠it was fun just finding all that stuff. Especially since when you beat the game the first time itâs like, âAlright, I guess I beat the game, that wasnât that great. But then you go back and you actually find everything and youâre like âWow, this was a really cool story.'â
He even fell for a fake Easter egg back in the day, before the Internet ruined all video game secrets forever: âOne of my friends in school tried to convince me that in Final Fantasy IV there was like this secret moon base that you could like find some secret way to get to. I tried forever to try to get to it but then I finally figured out he was lying to me.â
Kluwe is even a character in a video game. Sadly, that video game is Madden. Not a JRPG. But hey: baby steps.
