Is the JRPG/FF run over?

[CaptainPrice]

Khuutra said:

CaptainPrice said:

Most posters are dismissing the idea that JRPG are in decline, but it's hard to argue that this has been a good generation for them. I think FFXIII is the best reviewed JRPG this generation (PS3/X360 anyway - I don't pay attention to Wii or handhelds) and it's only at 83 on metacritic. So there's half a dozen or so WRPGs ON CONSOLE that have better metascores than the best JRPG. A genre can only survive on past glories for so long.

Metascores rarely translate directly into success or failure this gen.

That's largely true for individual games, but when you're talking about a whole genre getting mediocre reviews there's bound to be some effect. Apart from anything else, potential newcomers are less likely to try a genre if there are no stand out titles. FFXIII is hardly going to hook new gamers like FFVII did, and it's the best the genre's got. (By the way, I forgot that Valkyria Chronicles and Demon's Souls have metascores in the high 80s, but they're pretty unusual JRPGs - one is basically a turn-based strategy game, the other a super-hard WRPG-alike. Games like that could never really have the wide appeal of a FF.)