I'm currently playing Tales of Xillia and I really love it (could end up being my favorite in the Tales of series so far), the characters are all interesting so far, the humor is present, no characters really piss me off (excluding Teepo), but my question is why do you like JRPGs?

To me, it's always been weird. I can see why many people HATE them. The stories are usually always cliche, the characters are mostly off the wall (too melodramatic), voice acting can be obnoxious, stories can drag on and become too convuluted, and the genre itself hasn't changed much. For the most part, I actually like the stories in JRPGs, I love level grinding, different art styles, deep stories, the intrumentals, and the quirks. I also like the fact that most are 40+ hours to beat the main story, instead of a lot of games that last 8-10; I feel I get my money's worth that way. For battle systems, I feel "Tales of" really nails it with their action-oriented, real time combat system. However, I miss turn based JRPGs (on consoles) and hope we get another for next gen.

If I were to nitpick against them. Despite my love of their length, sometimes they drag far too long with a lot of unnecessary filler, and they REALLY burn you out, unless you are a super JRPG fan. For me I can only play a handful a year, 2013 being the most I've played... Tales of the Abyss 3D, Tales of Graces F, Ni No Kuni, Fire Emblem Awakeing, SMT 4 (sorry EU fans), and currently, Tales of Xillia.

Questions...

1) What JRPGs have you played in 2013? What were your favorites this year that you've played?

2) Why do you like JRPGs?

3) What would you like to see improved upon in the genre?

Thoughts on anything JRPGs, and anything I presented is welcome and appreciated!

Edit: Yeah... about that poll... Just ignore that. Hit the enter key accidently, and well, yeah. Fail. :(

i've played Xillia, Symphonia, Xenoblade, FE: Awakening, Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, Xenogears, and some others.
my favorite is Xenoblade.

i like JRPGs mostly because of the great atmosphere they give off, especially the ones that don't take themselves seriously and have a lot of humor like Mario and Luigi, also, i have fun relating to the characters and the Music is mostly amazing in JRPGs.

i'd like to see some more "refined" JRPGs, what i mean by that is the JRPG genre hasn't been all that active lately compared to the past, and it's really rare that you'd find a good JRPG with decent production values and bug-free gameplay within the PS360's libraries. that's why I'm excited for Xenoblade 2/X, it looks to be a "true" JRPG with great production values and very refined gameplay.

i suggest you edit that poll using the "edit thread" option.

Nothing comes up to edit the poll when I hit that. Is there a specific tab to change the poll?

I used to love jrpg in the ps1 era but nowdays i just can't find the time to play them.. Sometimes i start one up play for 10 hours and then have a way too long break from it.. I can't get back into them..

I actually like the smartphones ones a lot.. Mainly because of the autosaving and i can play them in short bursts.. I really hate jrpgs with hours between save points..

Damn, I 'm stupid, found it, lol. Thanks man!

Forgot to mention I'm playing dream team and will soon start Xenoblade... Agreed with you on the humor JRPGs.. I'd like to see more of that, more JRPGs where they aren't afraid to break the 4th wall. And X looks absolutely incredible, absolute day one must have!

"There is currently not a poll with this thread. Click here to add one"

adding a new one will overwrite the previous one.

1) Too many, since I always go back to older stuff all the time, but among the newer releases "The Guided Fate Paradox" and "Tales of Xillia" are the two most recent ones I bought

2) Not sure, tradition I guess? I have fun playing them D:

3) Either go for interesting combat systems like Legend of Dragoon or the Tales of Series do, or just stay with classic ATB or round-based systems, don't force some shitty new battle system onto your games - I am looking at you Squareenix...

Speaking of Paper Mario 64, I need to go back and play that! Would love it if they put it the Wii U VC, and 3DS (for you!). You have an impressive list, surprised I didn't see any mention of Kingdom Hearts.

The JRPGs I have played this year are as follows:
1. Fire Emblem Awakening (My Game of The Year)
2. Tales of Xillia (I love the Tales series)
3. Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD
4. Ni No Kuni ( Very over-hyped, but still good)

My favorite this year is Fire Emblem Awakening. 

1) -Tried a 100% first playthrough on Tales of Graces f with a friend and his brother. Planning a second to help with the optional dungeon. Loved it. Favorite in the series.

- Now playing every once in a while with two friends Tales of Xillia. Got it for one of them for his birthday. We should play it more often, seems good enough, despite the well....couple of failures it clearly shows. It's still a Tales  game.

-Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne. Screwed up on ONE CHOICE and ended up with such a BAD ending I couldn't even FIGHT the final boss after 80 HOURS. Still, it was so amazing that one day I will totally replay it with a decent ending.

-Pokémon X. Well...not much of a JRPG as in depth, but I got it for my birthday and my friend is still playing around with his team's preparations. Can't wait.

-The Legend of Dragoon: A PS1 Classic. Totally worth it. Loved the timing thing in attacks. Dragoons are too broken, though.

And well...I played a lot of them this year so... I'll just stop there =O

2) Since I first touched Tales of the Abyss 8 years ago, I've been drawn to their japanese clichéd story-driven magic. Yes, it is too action-packed to be the first I played, but in my family they were never too supportive of video games, so I only heard about the genre from a couple of friends. Then I started playing turn-based classics and my mind was just blown. Guess I just love taking my time to beat the crap out of the boss with insane attacks that destroy the world but might miss the target. And besides, their beautiful worlds filled to the brim with interesting yet bizarre characters and locations is just a nice escape from reality.

3)Well...I feel some JRPGs nowadays focus too much on the visual appeal rather than what's important. For example, my first impression on Tales of Xillia was that....IT LOOKS BEAUTIFUL, THE ATTACKS LOOK BEAUTIFUL OH MAI GAD LOOK AT THAT LINK ARTE....but then I watch the cutscenes and I feel like it's going back to the stiff movements like in Eternal Sonata. Can't say it's bad, I love the series and the gameplay is just superb, but I just feel that...Tales of Graces was a Wii Game and even such a little thing like the cutscenes were just brilliantly made.

On the other hand, some games are improvising with the battle systems to make a difference. And a couple of them did a nice job.