With 2008 closing, I think this is an important argument to levy against Western reviewers, that, in a world where 10/10's seem to be handed out as quickly as pot at a Dave Matthews concert, that reviewers have un-evenly lobbied their critisisms of this beloved genre.
To some, such as myself, this is a great time to be a JRPG gamer. I've played about 8 JRPGs this gen on my X360 alone, and have a backlog of Infinite Undiscovery, and The Last Remnant on my X360. For my DS, it's a landslide of trying to get my meager library finished (FFIII, DQ4) - I still have a dozen 'good' JRPGs that have reached North America, before I begin to pick the more mediocre JRPGs available on the system.
Yet for the bountiful harvest we've been getting - which has slowly migrated to the Wii and PS3 as well, the reviewers seem to be weighted oh-so heavily against the stalwart genre.
Consider the GameRankings.com list of "best next-gen JRPGs" available for handhelds & consoles:
| The World Ends With You | 88.11% | DS |
| Final Fantasy Tactics: WotL | 87.96% | PSP |
| Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness | 87.70% | PSP |
| Jeanne D'Arc | 86.18% | PSP |
| Valkyria Chronicles | 85.83% | PS3 |
| Final Fantasy IV | 85.06% | DS |
| Pokemon D/P | 84.70% | DS |
| Tales of Eternia | 84.31% | PSP |
| Tales of Vesperia | 83.75% | X360 |
| Eternal Sonata | 81.90% | PS3 |
| Disgaea DS | 81.81% | DS |
| Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII | 81.80% | PSP |
| Etrian Odyssey 2 | 81.75% | DS |
| Final Fantasy Tactics A2 | 81.03% | DS |
| Disgaea 3 | 80.65% | PS3 |
| Dragon Quest IV | 80.21% | DS |
| Eternal Sonata | 79.59% | X360 |
| Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings | 79.33% | DS |
| Lost Odyssey | 79.11% | X360 |
| Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn | 78.94% | Wii |
| Blue Dragon | 77.58% | X360 |
| Final Fantasy III | 77.33% | DS |
| Finall Fantasy: Ring of Fates | 77.12% | DS |
| Culdcept Saga | 76.84% | X360 |
| Yggdra Union | 76.52% | PSP |
Now consider the top available WRPGs on consoles & PCs (I pulled a few recent PC games since there isn't a whole truckload of apt WRPGs on consoles alone):
| The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion | 93.89% | X360 |
| Fallout 3 | 93.18% | X360 |
| World of Warcraft | 91.80% | PC |
| Mass Effect | 91.13% | X360 |
| Guild Wars | 89.20% | PC |
| Fable II | 88.88% | X360 |
| Lord of the Rings Online | 87.10% | PC |
| Warhammer Online | 86.50% | PC |
| The Witcher: Enhanced | 84.50% | PC |
| Space Ranger 2 | 84.30% | PC |
| Neverwinter Nights 2 | 82.50% | PC |
| Marvel: Ultimate Alliance | 82.18% | X360 |
| Titan's Quest | 81.40% | PC |
| Age of Conan | 81.16% | PC |
Notice the difference? The top 5 WRPGs are all reviewed better than the best JRPG available on next-gen systems.
Am I the only one that feels that regardless of system, JRPGs seem to be getting a raw deal in the media review system? No, this isn't because The Last Remnant has a 65.0% average from 2 reviews, but because it seems that as time goes on, no console game has got a fair shake, and very few handheld games have, either.
Example: User reviews would have you believe that Valkyria Chronicles, Tales of Vesperia, and Lost Odyssey are 3 of the better JRPGs made in what seems like a long time. Yet the best-reviewed (VC) has a mere 85% ranking - despite it's genre-breaking factors (of which, I'd love to play this game).
Another factor to look at is the IP recognition between Western and Eastern RPGs: WRPGs have had a better success rate at garnering praise (such as Mass Effect, The Witcher, LOTR: Online - All over a short period of time) than the Eastern IP's that are new (only 3 JRPGs scored above an 85% - despite the fact I farmed 5 different systems).
Is the review system broke, or am I just a crazy JRPG fan? My girlfriend thinks JRPGs are the best thing since sliced bread - and she's very new to the JRPG scene. She's enthralled by Lost Odyssey, Dragon Quest VIII, and Kingdom Hearts.
Or are newer JRPGs currently out..Just worse than the Playstation 2 JRPGs? Part of the reason I'm posting this is due to a VGC-er arguing about my favoritsm of X360 JRPGs being pretty good (such as Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia). He argued that said JRPGs couldn't hold a candle on PS1/2 RPGs. Yet despite his claims, I honestly can't say that there were a treasure trove of PS1/2 JRPGs I played that blew the current crop totally out of the water. Yes, I loved FFXII, DQVIII, FFVII, Kingdom Hearts 1/2 and FFT among others. Yet I still feel that the current crop does the masters of the past 10 years quite a bit of honor. Maybe not as good as the SNES era (of which I owned most, if not all of them), but still very good given years' past offerings.
So JRPG-ers (there are a lot of VGC), what do you think? Am I the only one that thinks that, regardless of system, revewiers have given JRPGs the cold shoulder? Not one has been critically reviewed as being close to the 5 best WRPGs in the past 3 years, yet I have certainly enjoyed the big WRPG offerings as much as the JRPG offerings of the past 3-4 years, as a PC, X360 and DS owner.
Back from the dead, I'm afraid.
