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Forums - Gaming - Is JRPGs dying?

lestatdark on 09 January 2011
Icyedge said:
lestatdark said:
Icyedge said:
lestatdark said:
Icyedge said:
lestatdark said:
 

The problem is that JRPG's, today, is a genre that's on the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

For as many expert media, gamers and even JRPG fans rage about the fact that the genre's molds have trying to adapt to standards that don't have anything to do with genre itself, forgetting, as you said quite well, what made them be an exceptional genre back in those days; there's a counter-force who's always criticizing JRPG's for being a genre that's subject to similar cliches and that they don't feel the genre has changed anything from those days. 

And then, in the end, there are those who constantly forget that handhelds do exist and that the genre is quite alive and well in them. But this is more of a "la-la-la-la I can't hear you, if I don't acknowledge it, it doesn't exist, la-la-la".


I dont think jRPG fan are blind to the handheld releases. First theres people who prefer to play on TV. Second, handheld RPG arent generally the same experience. Most of the time they are either a remake, short, a repetitive grindfest or a multiplayer action/RPG, they can even be all of that at the same time.

Take Suikoden tierkis as example, its one the few handheld jRPG I really liked, but its nothing compare to the PS1/PS2 one. No army battle, no 108 characters to recruit ect. Same goes for Final Fantasy crisis core, it was enjoyable, but it was also damn repetive even though it was actually a short jRPG. I guess with bigger storage capacity on the next generation of handheld it might get better for my taste.

I could easily counter that last paragraph with another two examples.

Dragon Quest IX is easily the biggest DQ game ever made, with massive amount of unique quests, which extend the story-line of the game for over the 100 hours mark, some of the biggest character customization options in any JRPG and it's an overall massive game. You can easily put 200 hours into it, without becoming repetitive and you wouldn't still have done everything in it.

Kingdom Hearts BBS is also one of the biggest, if not the biggest KH game so far. It also has the largest amount of mini-games, the most complex battle system and an overlaying story spanning three characters which easily crosses the 25 hour mark for each one, and the entire game will easily cross the 100 hour mark, if you wish to do everything in it, easily out-shadowing previous PS2 iterations.

These are just some few examples. I could have also talked about TWEWY, Mario&Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story and many other JRPG's available for handhelds. While there's bound to be some disappointing continuations to existing series (situation that happens even on home consoles) and some short JRPG experiences, there's also a lot of games that are quite unique and expansive as the previous home consoles games were

 

I said, most of them, not all of them. I only selected 2 examples so we understand what im talking about. As a whole, handheld jRPG fit with what I said. (Most of the time they are either a remake, short, a repetitive grindfest or a multiplayer action/RPG). If I were to do a list of PSP and DS jrpg that fit those criterias it would be quite extensive.

You can find an equal share of both JRPGs that fit your criteria and JRPGs that are quite unique or that are very good examples of the genre, which is a similar situation to what happened in every other console that had an extensive library of JRPGs.

As much as I love the SNES JRPG library (it's my favourite console with the best library IMO), there were also quite a number of games that could easily fit the criteria that you enumerated. 

If anything, the current generation of handheld JRPGs, has done an amazing job trying to at least match the quality of the SNES era library.

I agree with your point with the snes. I was comparing to the PS1/PS2/PS3/Xbox era. I still stand by my words that most of current handheld jRPG fit my previous criteria. The list would be more extensive then the few games that doest fit in them. Think about it for a minute. Half of them already fit in the remake or short criterias, that before we even start evaluating the grindfest one or the one that focus on multiplayer over story. That doesnt mean I dont aknowledge some may actually prefer this. Im talking for myself.

I didnt agree with your "la-la-la-la I can't hear you, if I don't acknowledge it, it doesn't exist, la-la-la", im well aware there is a lot of jRPG on the handhelds (obviously since I played most of them), still I dont like the current jRPG offering compared to previous gen. Fair enough no?

Fair enough, but my comment with that phrase wasn't entirely directed to you, nor to those who don't enjoy the JRPG offerings in the handheld department. 

There's a group of people here in VGC and the majority of gaming forums that complain about the lack of quality in the current generation, yet when they're confronted with the argument of handhelds, they quickly disregard them, calling them either an inferior gaming experience or less worthy than the home consoles. 

That argument could have well been used for almost every other genre that's doing well on the handheld department, while performing poorly on the home consoles department. 

I dislike those type of arguments, because they don't give an actual reflection to the current situation of the genres. You could also thrown in that argument the people who use "Who cares about PC gaming" or "PC gaming is dead" as well. As much as people don't like the offerings in a certain department, that doesn't make them any less viable no? 



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Icyedge on 09 January 2011
lestatdark said:
 

Fair enough, but my comment with that phrase wasn't entirely directed to you, nor to those who don't enjoy the JRPG offerings in the handheld department. 

There's a group of people here in VGC and the majority of gaming forums that complain about the lack of quality in the current generation, yet when they're confronted with the argument of handhelds, they quickly disregard them, calling them either an inferior gaming experience or less worthy than the home consoles. 

That argument could have well been used for almost every other genre that's doing well on the handheld department, while performing poorly on the home consoles department. 

I dislike those type of arguments, because they don't give an actual reflection to the current situation of the genres. You could also thrown in that argument the people who use "Who cares about PC gaming" or "PC gaming is dead" as well. As much as people don't like the offerings in a certain department, that doesn't make them any less viable no? 

Thats what you meant... I also hate it when people dont want to look at the bigger picture. Writing surely makes it longer to understand each other. lol



lestatdark on 09 January 2011
Icyedge said:
lestatdark said:
 

Fair enough, but my comment with that phrase wasn't entirely directed to you, nor to those who don't enjoy the JRPG offerings in the handheld department. 

There's a group of people here in VGC and the majority of gaming forums that complain about the lack of quality in the current generation, yet when they're confronted with the argument of handhelds, they quickly disregard them, calling them either an inferior gaming experience or less worthy than the home consoles. 

That argument could have well been used for almost every other genre that's doing well on the handheld department, while performing poorly on the home consoles department. 

I dislike those type of arguments, because they don't give an actual reflection to the current situation of the genres. You could also thrown in that argument the people who use "Who cares about PC gaming" or "PC gaming is dead" as well. As much as people don't like the offerings in a certain department, that doesn't make them any less viable no? 

Thats what you meant... I also hate it when people dont want to look at the bigger picture. Writing surely makes it longer to understand each other. lol

Yeah, but at least that way we get our message through  

I like having these kind of discussions, it's quite different from the usual "lol, it sucks because I say so" majority of discussions that arise on the forums



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Bagaren85 on 09 January 2011

Feel yes and no.


Turnbased? Yes.. Odlschool style (Like the strategic with awesome music, so important for the feeling) isnt more.

Lost Odyssey was the last great after FFX. Could be names FFXI. But anyaway, XIII was good but not a great masterpiece.. mediocre OST (Battle theme was good)

So now then? Tales of Grace, Xenoblade and OFC the biggest - THE LAST STORY.. All for Wii.. I will buy it.. just for thoose games. Ironic. JRPG on 360 is no more, i guess.

PS3? Versus.. Might be awesome.. Or mediocre. Not sure with Squenix anymore. The soul with Sakaguchi, some people and the master Ueamatsu is gone.. Mistwalker hold big answers.. Im happy i still can play FFVI, FFVII for first time..



Reasonable on 10 January 2011
hikaruchan said:
Reasonable said:

Nope.  They simply haven't grown in popularity in line with other genres, at least in the West.  There's also be a continued move towards JRPGs on the go via handhelds.

In some ways it's a shame, as it would be nice to see people chose to mix up more simplistic realtime game mechanics with the ability to have more complex, turn based mechanics that offer a different gameplay challenge.

So I do see that the nature of JRPGs vs the trends in gameplay in the West don't mix to well.  Most Western gamers want more immediate, realtime experiences and the majority don't seem interested in more complex turn based systems.

The traditional mix of gameplay vs long cinematics has also hurt the genre in the West vs current trends.

I do think some JRPGs are showing signs of a crysis trying to respond by simplifying the combat but leaving the cinematics, which is probably worse as they may actually be pleasing potentially less of their fanbase.  My view would be to leave the mechanics and deliver depth as a selling point but cut down the cut-scene length's considerably.


Crisis not Crysis. Crysis is a game not a world in the English language.

and there are meany different types of JRPGs not just traditional turn based ones ARPG, TRPG, SRPG to name a few also games like Persona have long since used a party of 3 with a payer controlled leader and AI team and Persona is Very popular what JRPG really need is to get more appeal outside of existing established Fanbase.        

I know that! lol I was reading/responding to a Crysis thread at same time and I guess I just got my Crysis in a crisis.



Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...