Anyone else remember the days when JRPGs were so sought after, you just had to pre-order or buy them close to release or else you'd be shit outta luck?

The most recent example I can still think of was Radiant Historia (now a 6 y/o game). I missed the boat initially, and people were trying to pawn them off on eBay at double the MSRP (whether they were successful, I don't know). Atlus then released a second batch a year later due to popular demand, and I was happy to pick it up then.

Now you can go on Amazon and pick up a new copy for 25 bucks from some third-party seller (or, y'know, wait for the 3DS re-release). Heck, I was surprised at the selection of old games in stock at Amazon themselves.

Need a factory-sealed copy of Harvest Moon: Magical Melody for GameCube? Sure, they have those at 20 bucks a pop. Wish I'd known before spending more than that on a used copy earlier this year... Suikoden Tierkreis, one of those DS games I thought I'd missed the boat on and would never own? Again, Amazon has it for 40 bucks. And how about a shiny new copy of Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne for PS2? It's only 15 bucks.

It seems my entire collection has devalued by a lot in recent years. None of my PS2 games are worth shit anymore. None of my Atlus and Nippon Ichi stuff. Games that retained their value for many years, have now completely depreciated.

New JRPGs coming out never reach that status of being a "rare" high-value item. After all, why pay 100 bucks for a physical copy when you can get it digitally for half?

There's also less and less reason to own physical media in the first place. Games come in flimsy cases without manuals, and most games aren't even complete until the day 1 one patch. FF15? A wreck. Type-0 HD? It had that horrible motion blur effect. Dragon Quest Heroes I & II? Had a bunch of content locked away in patches.

I was contemplating whether I wanted to pay 40 dollars for a physical copy of Cave Story on Switch (a game that is, y'know... free on PC), then the publisher goes and announces they'll patch in a "classic" graphics mode... At least the base game is complete, but if I can't pop it in 20 years down the line and have all the patched features without hacking my Switch and downloading them off Emuparadise, what's the point?

Anyway, I've been on an FF stint as of late, so I think I'll be grabbing myself a brand new copy of FF4 DS for 25 bucks. Because apparently I can.