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This topic is about storytelling tone.
 
And it uses a genre typically reserved for books as framing to do so! Young Adult fiction is a genre defined by what it's target audience, late primary school through to college-aged human beings, expect from a story. (although it's worth noting that despite this target audience, YA fiction is the most popular genre of fiction, even with adults) And yet, it's the perfect genre to frame almost the entirety of games finished in RPG maker, and story-driven gaming in general. So what is the YA genre, and how does it frame RPG storytelling? Well... I was getting to that....... if you'd just hang on a second................
 
The defining features of the YA genre is they begin tackling harder topics. Alright, step back again. Cartoons, for young kids, picture books and even novels which have occasional pictures, usually deal with super-lightweight topics and educational subjects. This is a generalization, but generalizations man, it's pretty much the vast majority. When tackling "serious issues", it usually does so in a strictly spoonfed factual educational manner. But we're not here to talk about them! In YA fiction, it's generally accepted that tougher topics are fairly ubiquitous, and told through story, not a strictly spoonfed factual educational way. However, the audience isn't old enough to be engaged with something strictly realistic. They still want some of the whimsy and the conflict that comes from fantasy, but are ready to handle some real discussion of real life problems. The whimsy also provides a safe place to engage with real life problems, without bringing it uncomfortably close to reality.

 
Can you see where this is going yet?
 

 
Quick question: Are any of these things is out of place considering the tone of FFVII?

The genre is one that engages with it's themes in a method which doesn't ring untrue, or in a way that does them injustice, but it does engage with them in a way that educates people about them and gives them something to relate to in a safe environment. The environment is made safe with whimsy, fun, and over-the-top spectacle. The way these things are delt with varies depending on the age of the audience, as young adult spans a very transitional time in a person's life (teenage years are hard and you change a lot), but despite any fantasy injected into the situation is (at least) inoffensive to real people dealing with the themes discussed.

So what else does young adult fiction do? It's mostly about people in the same age group as it's target market aka teenagers, what it is exactly tends to depend upon the time period it's written in and what's troubling youth of the time/what social issues are pressing on society, and it can be of any other conventional genres. Some YA fiction is set in the real-world, with down to earth coming of age stories, but I mean, Harry Potter is also YA fiction and this post is kind of about the ones leaning closer to the Harry Potter side of YA. Like, that all fits the sort of RPGs here right as well!

Obviously, YA is popular with adults. Being grown-up doesn't mean you don't need a safe space to explore issues affecting your life, and it doesn't mean you don't enjoy the spectacle and fun and whimsy and fantasy and all those things. There's at least some amount of demand for these fantasy adventure romps to have adult characters and deal with issues adults face more or differently than kids, while still in the safe setting of fantasy. Judging from the non-scientific basis of I think some people on these forums have posted about it sometimes.

Now, what is this topic about? Well, it's about how you mitigate sillyness and seriousness in balance. I see a frustrating amount of people new to RPG maker who want to tackle issues, but believe that in the setting of fantasy, they don't owe the issues they're discussing any research or empathy. Or people who use the existence of the fantasy setting to try and make all issues raised sound ridiculous, and unworthy of meaning. (eg: "It's just a gaaaame dude where an emo with spiky hair and a big sword wails on monsters it doesn't mean anything) It's a fundamental misunderstanding of what they're writing.

So some discussion topics could be:

1. Early on in this post, I stated the vast majority of RPG maker games fit into this YA genre. Do you agree with this? Does your game fit into this?
2. How do you, personally, juxtapose the silly with the serious? How do you use the two to frame each other?
3. What are your fave examples of games which fit this mould? Have you had personal experience with one of these games, that has helped you dealt with or empathise with a real-world issue you were struggling with, or even one that opens your mind to an issue you were completely ignorant to?

...But not limited to these topics obviously. Go nuts.