I could no longer play turn-based RPGs when I realized that I was playing the human equivalent of "time release" fish food pellets.
The only reason I was not able to see the next chunk of storyline was because the number next to my characters' names (aka their levels) wasn't high enough.
So in essence, the game was holding the story hostage until I put myself through enough mundane boredom that it deemed me worthy of seeing it, and that really sucks.
I make exceptions for RPGs like Tales games (especially the multiplayer ones) because it's live-action combat, meaning skill actually factors into your progress. But the TB-RPGs which just require you to not let your characters die before you feed them a healing item on their turn are really just time-release plotlines.
I mean, it's impossible to NOT finish the game, so long as you put in enough time grinding random monster attacks (another horrible facet of JRPGs).
If you like JRPGs, fine: that's your thing and don't let me dissuade you from it. But once I made this connection, I could never play them again, and I used to really like them, too.
I still love games like Secret of Mana, Tales and any other RPG where skill and reflex can mean the difference between success and failure.
"I mean, c'mon, Viva Pinata, a game with massive marketing, didn't sell worth a damn to the "sophisticated" 360 audience, despite near-universal praise--is that a sign that 360 owners are a bunch of casual ignoramuses that can't get their heads around a 'gardening' sim? Of course not. So let's please stop trying to micro-analyze one game out of hundreds and using it as the poster child for why good, non-1st party, games can't sell on Wii. (Everyone frequenting this site knows this is nonsense, and yet some of you just can't let it go because it's the only scab you have left to pick at after all your other "Wii will phail1!!1" straw men arguments have been put to the torch.)" - exindguy on Boom Blocks
