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brendude13 on 14 September 2011
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Michael-5 said:
brendude13 said:
Michael-5 said:
 

I wouldn't relate Nintendo not localizing games in Americas with 360 at all. Nintendo has a history of not localizing JRPG's. Terrainigma, Mother, Fire emblem, Advance Wars, Final Fantasy III, and several other SNES JRPG's were never localized. The GBA/Cube generation saw a change, but that was likely because Cube wasn't selling well, and with SSBM fans were screaming for Marth. For the same reason we are seeing a new Kid Icarus.

Also many 360 JRPG exclusives sell about as well as PS3 counterparts. Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey both sold over 800k (which is really good for a non Final Fantasy title on a console which has a tiny install base in Japan). Star Ocean, The Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery and Tales of Vesperia all also sold about 500-700k.

It's true PS3 JRPG's have sold better. Demon Souls is 1.25 million, Valkyria Chronicles is 1 million, and WKC is 800k, but the PS3 also has the Japan install base. If you ignored Japanese sales, those games would sell on par with the best JRPG's on 360.

I don't think console JRPG's are declining, they are just spreading out over 3 consoles, where before Sony basically had them all (and before that NES/SNES). It's sad that many great games are being spread out over multiple consoles, but what can you do? Hope the system goes on a price drop if anything.

I'm not talking about Nintendo, I'm talking about the Tales series specifically.

I'm surprised at how well Lost Odyssey sold to be honest, those are some decent numbers. Enough to convince me that JRPG's sell well on the XBOX 360? No. It doesn't matter if they sold well, it's the fact that if they were moved to another console, they would have sold better and the same people would have bought the game. I bought my XBOX 360 for Tales of Vesperia, it was the only game I bought my XBOX 360 for and that really pissed me off, having to jump to another console just because I had a huge interest in one game. People follow the games, not the console.

I will also admit you are right, in the West JRPG's sell pretty close on both platforms. Microsoft are trying to steal the JRPG crowd while SONY try to steal the FPS / TPS crowd, they are basically trying to steal eachothers fanbase without paying any attention to their own. This is the reason why I think JRPG's have been so mediocre and hard to come by this generation. They aren't differentiating themselves from eachother, that's the real problem, they are making their consoles as similar as possible and the only consoles that JRPG's can find success on are the handhelds.

As for the PS3 JRPG's you named, those games aren't big names and were most likely silent releases in the West, I am even more dissapointed at the Valkyria Chronicles sales, I thought it would have sold more than that. There aren't that many decent PS3 exclusive JRPG's to bring into the equation, I know I always say this, but thank god 2012 is looking better for the genre, I just hope they sell well.

I kind of agree with you, but this arguement is not limited to JRPG's. 3rd party exclusives all together make no sense, especially when the PS3 and 360 are so similar.(1) I think all JRPG's should be multiplatform because had I not boughten a PS3, I would never have enjoyed Valkyria Chronicles.

You make so many interesting points, I dunno what to tackle first.

First of all I don't think JRPG's becoming exclusives on various platforms (Tales/XenoBlade for Wii, Tales/Lost Odyssey for 360, Tales/Valkyria Chronicles for PS3) is the reason why we are seeing less JRPG's and more mediocre ones. (2) It's more so because the Japanese audience is migrating to handhelds. Dragon Quest IX for instance was a DS title, not a PS360 one, and it's the best selling Dragon Quest to date. It's just easier to make JRPG's for handhelds, and lets face it, the genre is, and has always been reletivly niche. (3) The only real JRPG's to ever show strong (not just good) sales are Final Fantasy's, and a handful of Square enix SNES JRPG's. So why make them for home consoles when the main JRPG market mainly plays on handhelds?

(4) As for Valkryia Chronicles, I thought it sold quite well. Look into Sega JRPG's and see how much they normally sell. I believe Valkyria Chronicles is among the best selling. Also Lost Odyssey is a really good game, I'm really surprised it didn't break 1 million.

As for Tales of... The franchise has had such a weird history, and most of their games never get localized.

(5) I just wish Tales of Vesperia released outside of Japan for PS3, and I wish Tales of Xillia went multi-platform. I guess however Namco likes to mock us. I just hope any future handheld Tales of Games get localized because none of the DS ones did. (6) I hope Tales of Graces gets localized too.

(6) You've only played Vesperia correct? Get Abyss for PS2 (if your PS3 is BC).

1. I don't think they should be, that's why I want them to differentiate, I want most if not all JRPG's to stay away from the Xbox 360, it is the console where the genre will find the least success and there is not much interest in that particular type of game.

2. This is also true, but the reason why I think some JRPG's have migrated to handhelds is because they can't find a home on consoles, triggered by a bad start to the generation with all of Microsoft's exclusive deals combined with the poor sales and the fact that the PS3 wasn't selling. I don't find handhelds practical, I want a large screen and deep sound with a full sized controller, if that didn't bother me then I would probably be happy playing handhelds right now.

3. If JRPG's find a comfortable home on the PS3 in 2012, with the right marketting, I think games like Final Fantasy Versus XIII and Tales of Xillia can crack a million easily, Versus XIII could probably do 2 million. Sure JRPG's are happy on handhelds, but handhelds can't always deliver that epic experience you expect from a JRPG, the same experience you had during the SNES, PS1 and PS2 days. There is a huge demand for JRPG's on consoles that isn't being met.

4. It released fairly early on the PS3 and it was seen as one of its biggest exclusives, 1 million is excellent, it just isn't anywhere near the 5 million from flagship titles like Metal Gear Solid 4. On second thoughts, 1 million is just about right.

5. Same, if it did I wouldn't have bought a 360 though. That's another thing that irritates me, we're missing all that extra content in the Japanese version, apparently there is a contract between MS and Bandai Namco which means they can't release the game on PS3 in the West (along with the extra content), I enjoy my 360 and everything but I hate Microsoft's guts.

6. ...Haven't you heard? http://www.neoseeker.com/news/15665-tales-of-graces-f-hitting-north-america/

7. I haven't got a backwards compatible PS3, I do have a PS2 hooked up to my HDTV with component cables though, the difference is absolutely huge. As for Tales of the Abyss, it was never released in Europe, I am considering modding my console though, I want to play NTSC games.