pokoko on 05 August 2013
The Japanese RPG kind of tumbled, I think because other things took off in popularity. Lots and lots of third-person action games, which led directly into hunter games. Social gaming also became big by integrating into different genres. Really, Japan kind of went wild for third-person stuff for awhile. Everything went more toward real time action, which meant single-player control as opposed to full-party control.
Meanwhile, games with RPG elements took off in the west, interestingly enough. It seemed to become quite a popular style of game.
