Yup, but times have changed. Most of those, especially the really huge ones, started in a time pre-portables.

Then again, Pokémon (the first and only big RPG franchise that started on handhelds) is 15 years old.

"Potential" is pretty vague. The reality is that Japanese developers/ companies tried an opening to the western console market this generation and  that venture failed. (Yes that venture was on the 360.) So it is more than logical for them to be suspicious of large scale HD development at this moment. They do know there is a loyal (and very vocal on the internetz) crowd for old school rpg games, that would also call for a classic FF game for example but the question is, is that crowd big enough to justify a bigger production ?

Handhelds are the new consoles if you ask me, since Microsoft flooded the typical consoles with PC gaming. Simple as that.

More recent than FF, Fire Emblem, Tales and DQ.

And if you count Persona, you can count Mario and Luigi, Dragon Quest Monsters, Megaman Battle Network, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon... many others.

And there's Ni No Kuni, Inazuma Eleven, Little Battlers Xperience (all big only in japan, but I think that's what the dev meant)

By console I meant PS3 really.

As you've pointed out, Microsoft was very aggressive early this gen to secure exclusivity (or timed exclusivity) on major JRPG franchises and I think everyone had to pay for that mistake. Then again none of those games (Star Ocean 4, Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Eternal Sonata, etc.) were good enough to make an impact.

Then Nintendo tried with The Last Story and Xenoblade but the Wii simply wasn't established as a JRPG hub. We all knew that.

Which company actually tried to release a big budget new JRPG IP on the PS3? Level 5 with White Knigh Chronicles? The game sold great but was bad. They didn't really try. Who else? I can't think of one.

It really wouldn't be fair to compare Persona with already established franchises like Mario & Luigi and Dragon Quest Monsters and Megaman Battle Network and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon...

Square's Next "Epic" RPG pertains to franchises like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Kingdom Hearts. All on consoles.

I think you know what I mean.

Shin Megami Tensei Persona.

2 - All on consoles... most of them from an ancient time where portables didn't exist.

Fact is, the biggest JRPG franchises debuted in recent times are on portables. Fact.

-.-

Take Shin Megami Tensei then instead of Persona. That's what I meant to say. It too debuted on consoles anyway.

What recent new JRPGs? Inazuma? That's really it.

And besides Inazuma became big for the soccer part too.

I wish the in game models were closer to Yoshida's actual design. I'm also a tad annoyed about the lack of full battle animations. But otherwise it looks great, I may pick up a 3DS when this comes to the UK, hopefully a new zelda and pokemon would have been announced by then as well.