The recognition of Faults and Recovery of the JRPG

[SaviorX]

First flaw with RPGs, pacing.

People shouldn't have to wade through 1-3 hours of nonsense within a game's intro before some action starts. Also, if you are going to be pressing X/A and cycling through a menu for 40 hours, it wouldn't hurt to switch things up a bit. FF7 had several mini-games and side-adventures to distract you, whether it was chocobo racing, a roller-coaster ride, a small RTS game, or a motorcycle segment.

Second, pretention.

JRPGs like Xenosaga and Final Fantasy (as of late) are featuring cutscenes that last for an extended periods of time. The huge misconception is that cutscenes are what JRPGs are all about, but that is false. Initially, these RPGs had moments of extended dialogue yes, but they came in form of boxes that players could often just press a button to skip through or easily bypass. Now, the perspective is completely removed from the player and gamers are just left to watch movies. Square Enix especially just became obsessed with FMVs and CGI cutscenes. The best cutscenes are those that don't exceed 3 minutes.

Third, forcefully limited appeal.

The main reason that JRPGs don't take off in America, because companies seldom make one that is made to suit Americans best. The voice actors and dialogue are always of poor quality. Making a JRPG more Western doesn't mean changing the characters up visually or changing the premise of the game totally. It means explaning themes that a person who doesn't live in Japan can understand, having voice actors who match a character's appearance, people that don't sound like they are speaking through a toilet paper roll. Besides, name the last non-Square Enix JRPG you have ever seen an ad for.....pfft Maybe Star Ocean 4,  but that game served no interest to me.

Fourth, 20 year old gameplay.

The problem is, it takes dozens of hours to receive the decent powers that JRPGs may store until the back half of a game, so you are essentially fighting with a wooden stick and some mashed herbs for 20 hours until you unlock a basic fireball attack. After achieving this, you are most likely engaged in the same type assembly line battles with a basic change in scenery for a long time.