Kenryoku_Maxis said:
Please don't turn this into a 'WRPG vs JRPG' thread. And to many people, part of the reason FFXIII lost some sales is because it tried to go for that 'western appeal'. And I tend to agree. Putting it on a system that is more prone to sales to the 'hardcore' and 'western' gamer is what made FFXIII lose sales. In Japan, handhelds are what is overwhelmingly more popular and even a main Final Fantasy game on something like PSP or DS probably would have sold twice as much on DS or PSP. If not more. Again, the whole 'Final Fantasy vs Dragon Quest' example. |
What I was going for is that formats change over time, and formats get stale. Even if a genre is a genre, it will evolve over time. Platformers go the way of Super Mario Galaxy, or Ratchet and Clank. Tomb Raider games add more in the way of what Uncharted did. Genres evolve over time. I am just wondering why people expect just adding more production value to a genre is supposed to make it sell more, particularly on a console that doesn't have a lot of JRPGs to begin with.
One can bring up JRPGs selling on handhelds real well, but besides handhelds having a much larger user base, what NEW JRPGs have actually sold a lot?
And, I will also add, it isn't a matter of just being different for its own sake. What matters is that you are able to both remain true to a genre, but also advance it. Please note the trend here. Even before FFXIII, the sales have been downward for the franchise itself. And I don't see JRPGs even being that huge saleswise period. ONLY reason to say "Western RPGs" is they are more new as a genre on consoles at this point, and have shown a good amount of sales. I am not saying it is because they are "western" but have happened to appeal to a wider audience who are into other genres.
I would also say we are likely to witness the fusing of RPG with other genres the way adventure titles of the past had fused with action. Games like Modern Warfare/Call of Duty add RPG-like elements to them. Even a game like Borderlands goes hybrid, and benefits from the sales.
