JRPG's seem to be selling almost as much as they were the last two generations. There has been a small overall drop but I think that has to do with the Nintendo Wii. The Wii has nearly half the market and very little in the way of quality rpg's. The majority of the quality JRPG's (DS/PSP not included) are on PS3/360 and a fair amount have been released as exclusives or timed-exclusives. So instead of releasing to a mega dominant PS1/PS2 market, they're being released to a more a evenly distributed one. Also, there is simply more competition with all the games that are coming out over various platforms.

FF13 is only 2M or so off 7 and 10, DQ is selling the same and the rest are generally in the 300k - 1M range, close to status quo. I actually think what hurt FF13 the most was the fact it came out relatively late in the generation. If it was released in 2007 or 2008, I think there would have been much more of a buzz around it. For the PS1 and PS2, the first FF game was seen as the benchmark for presentation and production values, something that would set the standard for the rest. With the FF13 coming out in late 2009/early 2010, that was no longer the case.

Also, I think Mass Effect is incredibly boring...just throwing it out there.

Doesn't matter how they do against their past selves. Games like people, do not reside in a solipsistic universe. Everything is in comparison.

The data needed to determine whether JRPGS are a "dying breed" is to examine the sales figures of this gen's top 10 to 20 best selling JRPGs vs. this gen's top 10 to 20 best selling WRPGs.

I would include PC numbers for this generation if we are going to include handheld numbers because it is a known commodity that Japanese gamers are more inclined to use a handheld as their primary gaming device, whereas other markets lean more towards consoles as their primary gaming devices.

It is only fair to include PC RPG numbers if you are going to drag Dragon Quest or Pokemon into the mix.

Speaking of Pokemon, JRPGs are not dead or a dying breed until Pikachu and his crew say so.

You want to speak of JRPGs, then address Pokemon in the same breadth of Dragon Age: Oblivion or Mass Effect.

Pokemon absolutely slaughters both in sheer sales numbers. Pokemon is to packed rock concerts in sports stadiums as Mass Effect is to washed up classic rock acts at county fairs.

As I said, there exceptions.  They do not constitute the rule.  ^_-

And Xenogears was much better. :P

I mean, wouldn't call Fallout 3 mature... an aweful story , violence, swearing, blood, and prostitutes do not make the game more mature.

Mass Effect 2 is... As well as the Shin Megami Tensei series... And Persona, I mean Persona 4 deals with themes of homosexuality in it... might not be your cup of tea, but yeah.

I mean I'd agree that JRPG's are generally aimed at a different audience... which is why many of them get teen or E, minus atlus games... while WRPG's like M rating

I'm not going to discuss this with someone who calls Link a douchebag. ^_-

eh, whatever... when I called him that, I'm sure you missed my point, or I didn't convey my point correctly. Because zelda is my favorite series behind final fantasy.

My feeling is that JRPG's come off as stagnant to some because whenever a JRPG developer goes outside the mold it seems to become a different genre.  It would be like if we called Mass Effect an FPSRPG because it focuses on gunplay more so than other WRPGs.  You add too much strategy to a JRPG it becomes an SRPG, add too much action and it's an Action RPG, go too far from the standard and you'll even get called a WRPG made in Japan (Demon's Souls).  JRPG is so stringently defined it would be tough to make one outside the box and still be in the same genre.  Persona is the only game I can think of that innovates well while being quite clearly a JRPG to whomever you ask.

I take issue with the idea that only JRPGs had complex stories in the 8/16bit days.  Even in Japan, adventure games were HUGE in the 1980s and early 1990s... remember Famicom Detective Club?  Snatcher?

Also strategy games, like Koei's ROTK series, had really complex (and historically accurate!) narratives.  Then there were also genre crossovers like SRPGs (Fire Emblem) or ARPGs (Zelda, Ys, etc).

First off, just to get things straight, I love Chrono Trigger and it's my third favorite game of all time with Final Fantasy VI, another game with awful gameplay, is my favorite game of all time.

That said, it's hard to put my finger on why I would call the gameplay bad but if I had to it would be the tedium and the necessary parts of the game that destroy any flow and pacing the game has.

For the tedium, walking through certain areas again and again and again fighting the same enemies that aren't even worth your while just gets annoying.  It is cool to constantly revisit places but it just gets really old.  In fact, combat in general gets old.  It's cool learning new techs and different character combinations, but that game wears quickly.  Especially when you're doing the necessary grinding for levels, tech points, and items.  When the game is on, it's a wild ride, but the rest of the time it's a bore fest.

Which brings me to the pacing.  As I said, when the game is on, it's great.  The story is fantastic, the characters are incredible, and the music is awesome but when you're stuck farming certain items for the trading post, trying to tech up for a big fight, farming money, or just grinding in general, the game is boring.  Even places like Magus' fortress where you have to kill 100 of his henchmen (I have no idea if it's 100, I've never counted) just makes you sigh.  The combat can be cool, but it isn't the fun part of that game.

I equate grinding to fetch quests in modern games.  People don't like that shit and it only serves to artificially lengthen the game.  While modern games have mostly learned their lesson that people generally don't like long fetch quests, the traditional JRPG's have not learned their lesson.

Also,

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK I hate that shit where if you click off the reply window it instantly wipes your reply!  I've had to rewrite this 3 damn times because any post longer than a line I have to write in pieces as I work!  This is bullshit.