Chrono Break?

It seems to me like many Japanese RPG developers have shifted towards portable gaming (which is probably a combination of their home market, their economic situation, and probably other factors), with only a few of the bigger developers finding success on the home console market.

While I don't think that Japanese RPGs will die off, I do think that the few, existing Western RPG developers will likely continue to be more popular outside Japan. With that said, even the fighting game genre is still chugging along, with its competitive tournament scene interestingly growing larger than when the genre had mainstream popularity.

I think it depends on how you define JRPGs:

If it's any RPG made in Japan, then no - many devs are adapting to the market with their IPs, like Souls or Dragon Dogma and upcoming Deep Down, and by making them feel more like WRPGs, they are attracting more of mainstream audience.

If it's JRPG in classic sense - again I would say no, but they will be niche genre.

I really think that SE is going to have to be the one to save them. They need a huge old style FF type game, one that will make other companies want to turn one out. Some people may tell me to "jump off of a cliff and die" because I said this, but it makes sense to me. We need real Final Fantasy!

Xenoblade was among the best ever, and Last Story was good. Their follow-ups on Wii U should be outstanding.

Unfortunately this genre of gaming is becoming increasingly niche on console. Western audiences are increasingly moving away from the genre. As they become more sophisticated, edgier, and more mature. While Japanese audiences seem to still be attracted to lighthearted fare in their games. Story telling used to be this genres saving grace, but it has become increasingly apparent. That the better story telling is actually to be found in other genres now. That is a really big problem for Japanese Role Playing games.

Outside of story telling the rest of the mechanics involved in the genre are pretty weak by the standards of today. Turn based combat, arena based combat, and instanced encounters. Simply aren't as thrilling as the more dynamic combat that can be found in their Western counterparts. Along with the associated greater freedom that players have to customize their characters, and exploit the worlds those characters inhabit.

The genre may not be doomed, but it seems to be relegated to niche. Unless the Japanese audience for the games suddenly starts to align itself more favorably with Western audiences. Who are obviously craving something more then PG rated fare. If the story is what has to carry the genre. Then the stories need to be really good. They cannot expressly come out of Saturday morning cartoons. They need to have more elements more mature gamers might find appealing.

Anyway I just don't really see that happening. The divide in tastes seems to be too great. I just find it kind of ironic that a game like Halo is beating Final Fantasy in the story department hands down. Japanese developers really need to up their game seriously in the writing department.

+1... We'll see a lot more jRPG for the Vita/ps3 combo.. like Legend of Heroes Sen no Kiseki.. i wouldn't surprise if Persona 5 released in both consoles...

and about the genre being niche.. it was niche from the beginning.. is just that Final fantasy and dragon quest were so great that make the genre shine a lot.. but most of the beloved sagas of this genre had low to decent sales... nothing spectacular or FinalFantasy-like... is just that the genre have less spotigth because the bad times on final fantasy saga...

1, JRPGs are most popular in Japan.

2, Japanese gamers prefer handhelds.

Console JRPGs aren't going away any time soon, but the risky, experimental JRPGs -- and new IPs -- will be more likely to land on handhelds.

What? Every week there is a new JRPG for PS3... even more releases than the last gen.

Since the fall of Squeenix with their massive numbers of RPGs there's been a notable gap, but it's being filled quite well by other developers like Falcom, Bandai Namco, Compile Heart, Nipponichi, Gust, Sega, Atlus, Monolith.