Official Xenoblade thread- Opinions, thoughts and questions inside! Can it hit 1mil in sales next year? Sequel coming for Wii U???

[Conegamer]

Torillian said:

Conegamer said:
Probably one of the best articles I've read in a while.

The fact it comes from Jim Sterling only makes it more disturbing.

But I ask, are the graphics REALLY that bad?

http://www.destructoid.com/why-xenoblade-chronicles-had-to-look-like-shit-226518.phtml

Never been a fan of articles like this written by someone who clearly doesn't play any but the most popular and talked about JRPGs.  If he knew Gust existed he'd have no worry about JRPGs all costing too much to make when the Wii is gone, developers don't have to have Gears of War like visuals just because the platform is capable of it.  NIS, Gust, and namco's Tales teams have all been making good to great games without the need of such graphical fidelity and that will continue into the next generation.

I'm not sure if that's what he's getting at. I think that, the issue is that these sorts of games are becoming far less frequent, and of a far lower quality. I mean, let's look at RPG's for the PS consoles (anything over 100k):

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=&publisher=&platform=PS3&genre=Role-Playing&minSales=0&results=200 (PS3- 50)

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=&publisher=&platform=PS&genre=Role-Playing&minSales=0&results=200 (PSX- 84)

http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=&publisher=&platform=PS2&genre=Role-Playing&minSales=0&results=200 (PS2- 139)

Notice how there's far fewer RPG's coming out for the PS3 than the other consoles previously in the cycle? And this will only be compacted, as costs of games increase as the graphics increase, so devs will be expecting big returns for their games. JRPG's are too niche for that.

 

http://www.gamerankings.com/browse.html?site=&cat=71&year=0&numrev=4&sort=0&letter=&search=

A list of the top JRPG's ever released. Aside from Xenoblade, there's no game from this gen on the list on the first page. The highest, like it or not, is FFXIII at 84.92%, for the HD Consoles. What's that saying? People have different tastes? Or that 'traditional' JRPG's are few and far between. I know it comes down to personal preference, and personally, I disagree with the list, but you've got to admit, the quality and quantity of JRPG's have dived this gen.

 

Finally, whilst those series' may continue, it's unlikely we'll see devs doing completely new things with a new IP on home consoles. No Chrono Trigger. No Xenoblade. No Baten Kaitos. No Golden Sun etc., because the cost of development will be so high, they can't afford to take the risk...

 

They'll always be exceptions, I know. But overall, you can't deny that the genre is in trouble overall...