By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Alphachris on 31 January 2013
Edit Thread

Hmm, what makes a "great JRPG" anyway?

The one thing that makes JRPGs special to me is that they offer mature stories. And by mature I do not mean brutality and violence. No, by mature storytelling I mean that they try to make you understand the motivation of the several characters, the underlying problems in the world. They try to make you care about the world and the characters.

Most video games have a story with a niveau of a comic book or an action blockbuster. Like "this is the hero, that is the villain, thats all you need to know, so now just save the world".

Aeris' Death in FF7 was a very epic scene back then. Not, because the love interest of the main character was killed... no, because over the course of the game I started to really like Aeris. This death scene was epic because I really cared about her. I also liked FF7 because I had to beat it twice before I really understood the meaning of the story.

So to answer your question: No, there are some great JRPGs in this generation. The Final Fantasy XIII Trilogy is epic storytelling. White Knight Chronicles also had a great Story (although it should be considered a MMO, since the story only makes up around 5% of the total gameplay). Resonance of Fate was somehow interesting. Eternal Sonata had the longest ending scene I have ever seen. Tales of Graces is also a very good JRPG (and you can play it coop!). And there are many small JRPGs too that I have yet to play.

Today my copies of "The Last Story" and "Xenoblade" should arrive. Well, lets see how good they really are. I hope that I can use the classic controller instead of the Wii Mote... Motion Controls are simply not working for me since the controller simply gives me the better experience.

So, that is simply my point of view. The story is what makes or break a great JRPG. I do understand that other people like to explore large worlds (even if you can only find random loot or a roaming around a randomly-generated dungeon), spending hours of beating the same enemy over and over for a 1% drop chance of a rare item or maximizing your character to the last bit (even if there is no need for since you are already too strong for the bosses). For me, it is like story>>>gameplay and a JRPG that last >150h is more a negative attribute of the game since that 150h hours are most likely due to heavy grinding or unimportant, repetitive sidequests.

White Knight Chronicles was the perfect example for this. I really like the offline-Story part and had great fun. But after 50 hours i finished the game and the next 400h of Online-Questing was nice in the beginning, but as the requirements for the next levelup grew and the droprates fell from 10% to 1% it became a huge, repetitive, bland experience. If I hadn't played with a good friend it would have been the most boring RPG that I have played... I can just feel no excitement for getting the best equipment possible if it involves doing a quest >100 times just for getting 1 rare item knowing that I need 5 of them...