turn based fighting
linearity
too much reading
cliche characters and stories
too much anime
bad voice acting
and the worst of all random encounters.
All of these are what most western gamers dislike about Japanese RPGs and is why they have fallen from the top since the 7th generation. I can agree with some of these, i used to really dislike linear gameplay and the censorship so much in mostly 16bit and 32bit RPGs and i still hate censorship. But lately i've really started to feel annoyed with random encounters... Maybe cause i'm getting older but at first it's okay it's what you should expect from classic JRPGs but it gets so damn annoying after playing many games for many hours with the same issue.
The latest classic RPG i tried to beat is Tales of Phantasia for Super Famicom and it's actually a good game with a bad fighting system but also with a good story, memorable characters, beautiful 16bit graphics and very innovative for it's time. After playing it for 22+ hours i thought i was close to beating the final boss so the last dungeon, as always in JRPGs, throws you a bunch of random encounters with annoying overpowered enemies, also with confusing areas and puzzles and very few save points and when i finally reach the final boss and beat him, the game makes you think that you've beaten the game HOORAY the end right?... NOPE! The final boss somehow survived and is now terrorising your world in the future so now you need to get to the future, collect new important items, level up a bunch and the random encounter rates only gets WORSE.
So after 26+ hours i stopped playing, it's got too much, the story isn't half that interesting anymore and the ending is probably predictable nothing out of the ordinary just not worth going through all the trouble.
Other games that come to mind are Skies of Arcadia (one of the best games i've ever played and finished) and Final Fantasy 3 (also worth playing).
Last edited by Snoorlax - on 17 November 2018
