Yuffie's voice is not annoying in the bad sequals to FF7 though :(. Yuffies still awesome!

That's a very selective way of looking at it. One, "not called Final Fantasy" excludes a series that accounts for many millions in decline, and you've plainly ignored series like Kingdom Hearts which also accounted for millions of sales last gen but not so much now.

If you take a non-selective look, such as combining the sales of the top ten jRPG's of each gen you find they're roughly flat (accounting for the fact that some games are still selling), or if you just count the number of million sellers it's also flat. But if you exclude Pokémon and Monster Hunter from the definition of jRPG, they are sharply down in total sales but still roughly flat in total million sellers.

This is exacly why, and because JRPG's now days all tell the identical story.  

Girly looking teenage guys with long / spiky hair.

They have to save the world from an enemy who is equally girly looking or a the very least "Very Fashionable."  Often involving lots of zippers and belts.

LOTS of melodrama and pouting / whining about how bad life is to the hero, emo.

etc.

I'm a HUGE RPG fan its just now days Action games and Western RPG's have evolved and done much better story telling than Japanese RPG's.  The only real JRPG this gen that doesn't do the above listed things is Lost Odyssey and thats why its still the best JRPG released this gen.

have you even played any of the DS JRPG's?

But it hasn't declined that much and has sold more than last gen's FFXII, FFX-2, FFIX and FFXI(though this is different I'll give you that)... the only Final Fantasy's that have outsold it are FFX, FF7and FF8... it's the 4th highest selling FF... I mean, is zelda in decline too? I mean no zelda has sold as much as Ocarina of Time, MGS4 didn't outsell 1 or 2, are those in decline?

I mean call it what it is, if the correct term is to call it decline than so be it, a lot of the games people like on this site are on the "decline". But it's really not different than with those games. I mean... it took mario generations to sell as in the 20 millions again...  But I guess some people said mario was in decline... so that would discount my idea >_>. you're making it sound like FFXIII it sold bad... when it didn't, it will probably sell 6-7 million.

I mean... you can't exclude High selling JRPG's like Pokemon and Monster Rancher because then you are doing what you critisized the above poster of having "Very Selective Way of Looking at it", because they are JRPG's I mean.. they're a different type, but everyone's complaining that all JRPG's are alike when that proves that they are not.  Just like all Shooter's are not alike.

I didn't check your figures... but you'd have to exclude them in previous generations as well, if you excluded them from this generation but not last...  you're comparing it wrong, and if you did it correctly you're being very selective.

1) Zelda is in decline in the long run

2) Final Fantasy accounted for nearly well over 20 million sales last gen while this gen it's about half that. If you wish only to compare it to X, as a metric for the popularity of the main series, it's not such a bad decline, but on the subject of jRPG's as a whole you can't ignore millions of sales that happened last gen but not this gen, that is the bigger picture.

For me, once I started playing WRPG's I gave up on JRPG's, and all I really played was JRPG's until the PS2 came out.  I just feel much more immersed in the gameplay with WRPG's.  In a JRPG, I feel like I'm telling a character what to do, in a WRPG, I feel like I'm controlling the character and I enjoy it soooo much more.  I love level grinding my character and turning him into the beast I want him be and feel I have more control on my character than a JRPG. 

put my opinions with Twesterns. Though I don't believe in the same points.
It wasn't a technological limitation. It was a design choice. In that light we see lot's of action games with pretty bad gameplay, but still has story.

JRPG are losing ground. Just because the classics continue to manage sell really well. Doesn't discount that many JRPG developers have complained about the lack of sales of JRPG in Japan and NA. Even SE said it's been a more difficult market. We are talking about sales not quality or quantity.

So yeah. I agree with Twestern. The Classic JRPG formula has barely changed. Formula not technology. Where as actions games are getting more story

This isn't exact... and some of the FF's aren't really JRPG's but I don't feel like doing more work.
sales of games using "final fantasy" name sales using search function
DS 6.85 million
WII 0.63 million
PSP 5.97
FFXIII 5.79

I mean that's 19.24 million.

Last Gen was
PS2 21.17
GBA 1.94
GC 1.38

Last Gen was 24.49

And that's without Versus, Agito,FFXIV, Dissidia 2 and probably others, that they are spamming(which they are doing more of this gen) :P.

I will admit I didn't take into account quality which was part of TWESTERN's topic, as well as number of games it took to get to that number, as well as the fact that this gen is lasting longer than last, thus allowing more time for games to get made... Most of these things would probably be considered negative

But my point is that those numbers are comparable. And depedending how you dissect it is how you come to the conclusion of declining, or not declining, etc.

Eh. I don't think most people actually buy action / shooter games for the story, so I doubt that's even relevant. Note how all the best selling games have a strong multiplayer focus, which has nothing to do with story. If multiplayer were removed from these games, I guarantee you their sales would plummet.

And keep in mind, not even all single player games are bought for story. I enjoyed games like Uncharted 1/2 or Assassin's Creed, yet I don't exactly care for the story. Characters, maybe, but videogames have always had likable characters.

If anything, I think the quality of JRPG's has simply gone down. By focusing on stuff that doesn't matter so much (like cutscenes, gameplay gimmicks), and neglecting the basics, the games have become less accessible, and for most people, less fun.

Take Dragon Quest, for example - the formula is the same, hell, the series has hardly changed at all, yet it still sells extremely well. This is because its quality hasn't diminished. The same can probably be said for Pokemon (though I don't play it). Note that these games still play like the old ones - the same old turn-based combat that you refer to as bad gameplay.

The ones trying to be fancy, like FFXIII, are seeing decline for obvious reasons (not that I dislike it, but it plays nothing like the rest of the series, and alienates too many fans).

Hrm... I guess my overall point is, people don't buy games for the reasons you think they do. Story isn't as important as you might think, and the old JRPG's (FF, or Chrono Trigger), did not have bad gameplay.