My first experience with a JRPG was FFVI for the SNES, which is one of my favorite games for that system and one of the finest rpgs to this day, though it was on the PS1 where I really went wild with the genre, buying and playing so many of them.At the time it had become my favorite genre, playing FFVII, VIII and IX, Xenogears, Breath of Fire III and IV, Legend of Legaia, Lunar, Star Ocean 2, Chrono Cross, Grandia and others.
Then, by the time FFX came out, I was a bit burnt out on the genre, but I still enjoyed the game, though I felt it wasn´t as good as previous FFs.Around 2003 or 2004, I started getting interested in the genre again, but sadly, the games I was playing on the PS2 just weren´t on par with the ones I had enjoyed so much on the PS1..Star Ocean 3, Xenosaga, FFX, FFXII (skipped FFXI because I don´t care about MMOs) and others weren´t as good as Star Ocean 2, Xenogears and the PS1 FFs, for example...as far as I was concerned, the genre had peaked during the PS1 days.
Then, in the last gen it all changed, a lot of JRPGs started going to handhelds (I don´t like handhelds) and I had found new enjoyment with WRPGs...but didn´t forget about JRPGs.
Sorry about that bit of history there haha..anyways, finally getting on topic here..my favorite series and games were Xenogears, Grandia, Star Ocean 2 and Final Fantasy series, and their current state...we all know, Grandia doesn´t even exist anymore as far as I know, the last Star Ocean released was the worst entry I played, Final Fantasy is sad compared to the past and Xenogears...what ever happened to the team?...are they the same team that made Xenoblade and are currently working on X?
To be honest, the only bright spot in all of last gen, as someone who doesn´t care about playing on tiny screens, was Lost Odyssey, though I heard Tales of Vesperia was really good, but for some reason I never got around to trying it...in fact, I´ve never played any Tales games.
Last I heard, the Tales series is growing in popularity in the West, while Final Fantasy has been suffering a long decline, despite the good relaunch of FFXIV.
