| Guitarguy said: It probably had to adapt to more modern conventions. Looks at Metal Gear Solid 4, it dropped it's traditional top-down view in favor of a more Western third-person behind the shoulder view point and a controllable camera via the right analog stick. Since console gaming in Japan is declining it makes sense to cater toward Western audiences considering they now represent the vast majority of the market... Turn based RPG's haven't been popular in the West since the end of the PS2... |
They're still popular in the west, they just aren't on consoles for the most part.
They haven't been popular in the west because Japan all of a sudden stopped making them on consoles in favor of handhelds; but really only because the DS was doing so well and at the end of the PS2's life cycle, but also because the PS3 had a bad start while the 360 lured Sakaguchi in and out to pasture (seriously, I hope he learned his lesson on making exclusive JRPGs on a western system this time around). They weren't even on decline in the grand scheme of things (in gamer minds) for consoles; the sales of FFXIII show this in 2010. 2010 being a year well after it seemed like we wouldn't see a AAA produced turn based RPG.
Japan could have kept the magic rolling, but only after SE would make a dent as they usually did to convince more JRPG developers to release turn based games.
Now though, after the polarizing effect FF13 had it's difficult to say. But I believe they could definitely come back popular in the west on consoles if pokemon is any indication.
They just have to actually get made and for the right audience this time.
Lube Me Up
