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Forums - Gaming - What happened to JRPGs and will the Genre ever dominate again?

 

Will JRPGs ever rise in popularity?

Yes they just had a rough generation 34 29.57%
 
No they are a thing of the past 27 23.48%
 
Maybe really depends on h... 54 46.96%
 
Total:115
kain_kusanagi on 07 January 2013
zero129 said:
kain_kusanagi said:
think-man said:
I hope they come back to there former glory! this gen has been total shit when it comes to JRPGs.


The Lost Odyssey was very good. It had everything that made Final Fantasy good during the hight of Squaresoft's success.

BTW, you might be interested in this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/573261866/pier-solar-hd-an-rpg-for-xbox360-pc-mac-linux-and

I'm getting the Dreamcast version, but there are current gen versions as well.

Pier Solar i will be picking up for PC .

As for the JRPG genre imo is not dead its just other then a few big games its never been "that big". Also on Handhelds the JRPG Genre is very much still doing as well as ever imo.


Glad to hear it. But I personly find playing jRPGs on PC strange. It doesn't feel right to me. I've always felt like jRPGs are part of the console experiences. That's why I pre-purchases the Dreamcast version. That and I like physicle stuff a lot more than digital only. If the Dreamcast version wasn't an option I'd probably go with the XBLA version just for that console experience.



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gergroy on 07 January 2013
Darc Requiem said:
gergroy said:
RolStoppable said:
The only publishers that could sell JRPGs by the millions were Nintendo, Squaresoft and Enix. Nintendo's Pokémon are still going strong while Squaresoft and Enix have merged. So what has Square-Enix been up to this generation?

They poured an enormous amount of resources into Final Fantasy XIII, so they didn't have much time and manpower left to do much else. They released a lot of remakes on handhelds to finance their FF XIII projects, but they weren't able to do many new things. They didn't even have time to make Kingdom Hearts III.

Beyond that, there was a period of time in the '90s when anime was somewhat "in" outside of Japan. We are long past that and smaller JRPG series aren't doing themselves any favor by still trying to look like anime. Those games aren't going to find big success outside of Japan.

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

last remnant

infinite undiscovery

star ocean


The only one of those three that was developed by SE was The Last Remnant.  Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery were developed by Tri-Ace. Infinite Undiscovery is actually MS IP. SE threw all their eggs into the FFXIII basket. That game, and it's sequel, were sub-par at best.

I know, but Square still threw their name on them.  Square is just a shadow of its former self.  Only game they have cooking right now that I am even somewhat excited for is the tomb raider reboot, and it isn't even an RPG, their bread and butter...

edit:  has anybody ever just sat and thought about the name infinite undiscovery... forever not finding stuff... talk about terrible game name...



Max King of the Wild on 07 January 2013
gergroy said:
Darc Requiem said:
gergroy said:
RolStoppable said:
The only publishers that could sell JRPGs by the millions were Nintendo, Squaresoft and Enix. Nintendo's Pokémon are still going strong while Squaresoft and Enix have merged. So what has Square-Enix been up to this generation?

They poured an enormous amount of resources into Final Fantasy XIII, so they didn't have much time and manpower left to do much else. They released a lot of remakes on handhelds to finance their FF XIII projects, but they weren't able to do many new things. They didn't even have time to make Kingdom Hearts III.

Beyond that, there was a period of time in the '90s when anime was somewhat "in" outside of Japan. We are long past that and smaller JRPG series aren't doing themselves any favor by still trying to look like anime. Those games aren't going to find big success outside of Japan.

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

last remnant

infinite undiscovery

star ocean


The only one of those three that was developed by SE was The Last Remnant.  Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery were developed by Tri-Ace. Infinite Undiscovery is actually MS IP. SE threw all their eggs into the FFXIII basket. That game, and it's sequel, were sub-par at best.

I know, but Square still threw their name on them.  Square is just a shadow of its former self.  Only game they have cooking right now that I am even somewhat excited for is the tomb raider reboot, and it isn't even an RPG, their bread and butter...

edit:  has anybody ever just sat and thought about the name infinite undiscovery... forever not finding stuff... talk about terrible game name...



yes,



Naum on 07 January 2013

The more "westernized" the RPGs got the more I "hated" them.



If it isn't turnbased it isn't worth playing   (mostly)

And shepherds we shall be,

For Thee, my Lord, for Thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, That our feet may swiftly carry out Thy command. So we shall flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be. In Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritūs Sancti. -----The Boondock Saints

Darc Requiem on 07 January 2013
gergroy said:
Darc Requiem said:
gergroy said:
RolStoppable said:
The only publishers that could sell JRPGs by the millions were Nintendo, Squaresoft and Enix. Nintendo's Pokémon are still going strong while Squaresoft and Enix have merged. So what has Square-Enix been up to this generation?

They poured an enormous amount of resources into Final Fantasy XIII, so they didn't have much time and manpower left to do much else. They released a lot of remakes on handhelds to finance their FF XIII projects, but they weren't able to do many new things. They didn't even have time to make Kingdom Hearts III.

Beyond that, there was a period of time in the '90s when anime was somewhat "in" outside of Japan. We are long past that and smaller JRPG series aren't doing themselves any favor by still trying to look like anime. Those games aren't going to find big success outside of Japan.

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

last remnant

infinite undiscovery

star ocean


The only one of those three that was developed by SE was The Last Remnant.  Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery were developed by Tri-Ace. Infinite Undiscovery is actually MS IP. SE threw all their eggs into the FFXIII basket. That game, and it's sequel, were sub-par at best.

I know, but Square still threw their name on them.  Square is just a shadow of its former self.  Only game they have cooking right now that I am even somewhat excited for is the tomb raider reboot, and it isn't even an RPG, their bread and butter...

edit:  has anybody ever just sat and thought about the name infinite undiscovery... forever not finding stuff... talk about terrible game name...


Yes but your original post sad "they had time to make crap." Publishing a game, doesn't take the resources that developing one does. They had the bulk of their dev talent on Final Fantasy XIII and publishing doesn't require development resources.



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Carl on 07 January 2013

A few reasons.

Firstly - The rise of the Portable market in Japan.

DS and PSP absolutely dominated in Japan. They were mega-popular platforms, cheap to develop for and the Japanese gamers flocked to them. Software sold amazingly well.

The DS has 14 JRPGs that sold over a Million in Japan alone. 26 of them sold over 500k. 86 games over 100k. The PSP has few 1M and 500k games, but 61 that sold over 100k in Japan.

Secondly - The PlayStation 2 domination, followed by...

The PS3 bombing. The PS3 was expected to destroy everything. It didnt. Sales tanked quickly after release and the console itself was horrible to develop for. Devs got burned early on and moved the focus elsewhere, which takes us to...

Thirdly - The Xbox 360

Instead of supporting the PS3, JP devs decided to support the 360. The console isnt popular in Japan but the huge American userbase made JP devs drool. They wanted HD and they wanted America. The 360 got everything. Star Ocean. Tales. New IPs with Infinite Undiscovery, The Last Remnant, Lost Odyssey from Mistwalker, Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon...

Games that should have been on the popular consoles in JAPAN, were completely wasted.

One more reason? The fall of Square Enix. This one explains itself.



                            

kain_kusanagi on 07 January 2013
zero129 said:
kain_kusanagi said:
zero129 said:
kain_kusanagi said:
think-man said:
I hope they come back to there former glory! this gen has been total shit when it comes to JRPGs.


The Lost Odyssey was very good. It had everything that made Final Fantasy good during the hight of Squaresoft's success.

BTW, you might be interested in this: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/573261866/pier-solar-hd-an-rpg-for-xbox360-pc-mac-linux-and

I'm getting the Dreamcast version, but there are current gen versions as well.

Pier Solar i will be picking up for PC .

As for the JRPG genre imo is not dead its just other then a few big games its never been "that big". Also on Handhelds the JRPG Genre is very much still doing as well as ever imo.


Glad to hear it. But I personly find playing jRPGs on PC strange. It doesn't feel right to me. I've always felt like jRPGs are part of the console experiences. That's why I pre-purchases the Dreamcast version. That and I like physicle stuff a lot more than digital only. If the Dreamcast version wasn't an option I'd probably go with the XBLA version just for that console experience.

I still have my Dreamcast lulz but the game is not in HD on the Dreamcast?? my other choice other then PC was the XBLA version too but since lately i have been buying most of my games on my pc (Just easier to keep them all for me) thats why i planned on getting it on pc, still might end up being my first xbla game xD.

The Dreamcast version is getting all the same HD graphics and will have VGA support with is 480p widescreen output. While that is not strickly HD it is plenty close enough for me. It's the HD graphics that matter the most in my opinion. The game itself will look and play identicle to the XBLA HD version with the only difference being 480p instead of 720p and to me 240p not a huge difference.

I also ordered the Sega Genesis standard definition version as well. As a collector it just felt a lot cooler to get them both on Sega's consoles. The Dreamcast still has new games coming out every year and I like to support that. I have pre-purchases for Sturmwind and Redux which are both Dreamcast shooters comming out this year. Who knows how long the Dreamcast will be supported.



gergroy on 07 January 2013
Darc Requiem said:
gergroy said:
Darc Requiem said:
gergroy said:
RolStoppable said:
The only publishers that could sell JRPGs by the millions were Nintendo, Squaresoft and Enix. Nintendo's Pokémon are still going strong while Squaresoft and Enix have merged. So what has Square-Enix been up to this generation?

They poured an enormous amount of resources into Final Fantasy XIII, so they didn't have much time and manpower left to do much else. They released a lot of remakes on handhelds to finance their FF XIII projects, but they weren't able to do many new things. They didn't even have time to make Kingdom Hearts III.

Beyond that, there was a period of time in the '90s when anime was somewhat "in" outside of Japan. We are long past that and smaller JRPG series aren't doing themselves any favor by still trying to look like anime. Those games aren't going to find big success outside of Japan.

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

last remnant

infinite undiscovery

star ocean


The only one of those three that was developed by SE was The Last Remnant.  Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery were developed by Tri-Ace. Infinite Undiscovery is actually MS IP. SE threw all their eggs into the FFXIII basket. That game, and it's sequel, were sub-par at best.

I know, but Square still threw their name on them.  Square is just a shadow of its former self.  Only game they have cooking right now that I am even somewhat excited for is the tomb raider reboot, and it isn't even an RPG, their bread and butter...

edit:  has anybody ever just sat and thought about the name infinite undiscovery... forever not finding stuff... talk about terrible game name...


Yes but your original post sad "they had time to make crap." Publishing a game, doesn't take the resources that developing one does. They had the bulk of their dev talent on Final Fantasy XIII and publishing doesn't require development resources.

yeah, but I was responding to Rol's post about publishers...



Darc Requiem on 07 January 2013
gergroy said:
Darc Requiem said:
gergroy said:
Darc Requiem said:
gergroy said:
RolStoppable said:
The only publishers that could sell JRPGs by the millions were Nintendo, Squaresoft and Enix. Nintendo's Pokémon are still going strong while Squaresoft and Enix have merged. So what has Square-Enix been up to this generation?

They poured an enormous amount of resources into Final Fantasy XIII, so they didn't have much time and manpower left to do much else. They released a lot of remakes on handhelds to finance their FF XIII projects, but they weren't able to do many new things. They didn't even have time to make Kingdom Hearts III.

Beyond that, there was a period of time in the '90s when anime was somewhat "in" outside of Japan. We are long past that and smaller JRPG series aren't doing themselves any favor by still trying to look like anime. Those games aren't going to find big success outside of Japan.

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

last remnant

infinite undiscovery

star ocean


The only one of those three that was developed by SE was The Last Remnant.  Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery were developed by Tri-Ace. Infinite Undiscovery is actually MS IP. SE threw all their eggs into the FFXIII basket. That game, and it's sequel, were sub-par at best.

I know, but Square still threw their name on them.  Square is just a shadow of its former self.  Only game they have cooking right now that I am even somewhat excited for is the tomb raider reboot, and it isn't even an RPG, their bread and butter...

edit:  has anybody ever just sat and thought about the name infinite undiscovery... forever not finding stuff... talk about terrible game name...


Yes but your original post sad "they had time to make crap." Publishing a game, doesn't take the resources that developing one does. They had the bulk of their dev talent on Final Fantasy XIII and publishing doesn't require development resources.

yeah, but I was responding to Rol's post about publishers...


Ah then the mistake is mine.



MARCUSDJACKSON on 07 January 2013

of course JRPG's will be big again. Developers will have to find a franchise that works for the market. and they have to be willing to localize them as well.



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