It's been pretty bad, but titles like Tales, Xenoblade and The Last Story show there's still some people who care about the genre. Hopefully then return.

I disagree. Perhaps we simply had radically different childhoods, but when I tried to talk to my gaming friends* about Chrono Trigger, for example, the collective response was "what"? Even post-FF VII, RPGs tended to be extremely low on folks' priority lists.

The other titles you list were also only large in small subsections of the internet; perhaps you're simply visiting different places today than you did in the PS2 days, or perhaps fans of those games have largely self-segregated themselves into more specialized sites? Equally likely, the JRPGs have retreated to handhelds, as their niche audience is too small to support large-scale HD games, so most bloggers' interest has evaporated as a result.

*This excludes my closest friends. But then, we bonded over the nerdery of liking games like Robotrek, Phantasy Star, and the Soul Blazer trilogy, so we're not exactly representative...

JRPGs have an image issue. The mainstream audience view them as boring and generic, which is a frightening disparity with reality. :/

1. The rising development costs really hit JRPGs. The huge scope in many of these games has caused costs to sky rocket. Look at many JRPGs of this generation to see various scope cutting corners, less towns or over world maps. Instead you have static images and characters talking to one another overlaid on it. I remember when people talked about remaking SNES or PSone RPGs on the PS3 and it was stated how those games translated to modern graphics would just be prohibitively expensive. Does not surprise me the DS and PSP managed many JRPGs because development costs on those was lower and could meet demand. This has left the console centric western market under served though.

2. The rise of the WRPGs on consoles. Back in the SNES or PSone era wetsern RPGs were decidedly a PC fare. Big titles like Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dragon Age or Mass Effect (or Baldur's Gate back then) just did not exist back then on consoles. JRPGs simply had less competition.

3. I think there was a rush and over estimation after Final Fantasy 7 of what the genre could do. So many JRPGs came over after years of getting few (and generally more of the top tier) that the market became saturated and many people got their fill and what was innovation suddenly became trite as archetypes were repeated.

4. Building on point 2 I just think the west has become more west than the old days when the market expanded. Before playing games appealed to smaller group who grew up playing Japanese games. Now someone can buy a western console (Microsoft) and could have a whole library with any Japanese games at all, this would have been unthinkable 15-20 years ago when Japan was king.

My assessment as a JRPG fan, the golden age has gone and likely be going back to SNES era where second tier JRPGs have 50/50 shot of being localized and supported by niche market that buys collectibles (think NIS or Atlus or XSeed) to justify bringing over a game that will not light up any charts.

It's a shame, but nature of the industry, plat formers and fighters went through similar things, so maybe there will be a second golden age at some point.

The truth is, the JRPG market is in a tough place with western gamers. All we hear about is how JRPGs are stale and the game-play needs to evolve, but when it DOES change, there is collective internet outrage. It's a genre where, no matter what, voices are raised in dissatisfaction. It really annoys me how so many people refuse to judge what a game does on it's own merits. You don't see that nearly as much in other genres.

Personally, I love turn-based game-play. I like systems that require you to think a little bit.

I believe the JRPG could come back, but a lot of them being made now have a very Japanese feel to them, with that visual-kei look and an absolutely incomprehensible story. RPGs with a high fantasy, medieval Europe atmosphere, such as FF6, would probably perform better in the west.

Very much so.  Please remind me what was over complicated about it. The summons were easy that I remember along with collecting them and powering them up. The card game was stupid but easy for the most part. Only thing was the weapon building but it was a lot simplier than most now where you need build three things to get the components for 1 weapon. JRPG I played this gen was Disgea 3 which i hated and FF13/2. I played FF12 and 10 last gen and really didn't enjoy those along with Valkeria Persona (I believe that was the name)

I really hope they do. A world without more grandia/suikoden/lunar/chrono/Xeno is indeed a very sad world.

To be honest, the genre was never hugely popular in the west, but it remains popular in Japan. Aslong as there are enough of us to justify a localisation we should be ok. If not then it might happen like the tales series and the fans will take it upon themselves to localise the games. I doubt any other genre could motivate such action.

square enix had time to make a lot of crap at the beginning of the gen.

last remnant

infinite undiscovery

star ocean

how about the spell synch crap to your stats.  its been a while since i played VIII so I can't go into specific details, I just remember pretty much everything about the character build was ridiculous.  

Call of Duty and the 360 happened to them!

Think about it, shooters became popular in the US on the 360 especially and a lot of japanese developers like Square-Enix and Capcom thought that their games would sell better if they were more action orienated and more western like. The result games like FFXIII :(