Rumor--Suikoden VI for Wii

[Bodhesatva]

Helios said:

Words Of Wisdom said:

Helios said:
WoW: Bodhesatva is saying there will *never* be a Suikoden-like game with HD graphics - The PS3 and it's games has nothing to do with it. He just used them as an example.

I am saying the PS3 is more than capable of producing a Suikoden-like game without HD graphics.

Yeah, I agree with that, but its still not his point.

Bod: Did you see the edit I made to my last post?

Edit; I'll just copy it:

"Bodhesatva: Isn't it a bit early to start your 'doom and gloom' run for the RPG industry just yet? I agree the traditional JRPG is a dying breed, but games will change, and Japanese-made RPGs will survive. The movie industry is getting more popularized by the day, yet individual directors still make non-popcorn flicks. The same thing is already starting to happen in the videogame industry with people like Suda 51."

Also, don't forget technology and development gets cheaper all the time, so maybe there'll be some HD budget games in the future.

 No, I didn't see that edit! Thanks.

Please note that I'm absolutely not saying that jRPGs are dying, just that they may be reaching a technical ceiling, where increased graphics, physics, AI, and other ambitious gameplay mechanics like "immersive worlds" are not going to increase much, simply because the revenue flow isn't there to warrant inreasing costs much beyond what we see now. I'm sure these processes WILL be streamlined to a degree, as you say, but it seems unlikely to create some fundamental shift. I could see middleware/etc. reducing costs by, say, 25 percent over time, and that would certainly raise the ceiling a bit; but does that really change anything fundamentally? It would just mean the ceiling is slightly higher, but the ceiling is still there, and it won't be going away unless more people start playing jRPG games -- which again, in the last 10 years, hasn't been happening. If anything, it's been the reverse.

That definitely doesn't mean that the jRPG genre will die out or become irrelevant, just that it wouldn't be the genre to be on the cutting edge graphically and technologically.