I do own Culdcept Saga for X360, FYI.

The story sucks, I agree.

Secondly, you can't level up your monsters per-se, but leveling the land up has the same effect: a Level 5 territory will yield better values for a monster should they be of the same element. If I switch an Aspidochalone (love that guy) out on a Level 5 Ice/Water territory with a Skeleton, I'm going to incurr a huge strategic penalty. Yes, no effect is permanant from battle to battle, but it's still the entire battle, and however many turns they are.

Although the game doesn't have EXP in it, you still have to grind to get better, more effective cards for your book. After all, would you really want to keep your initial deck through the entire game? C'mon. It's not the set-in-stone linear progression of typical RPGs, but it's still there.

You get equipment in the forms of dress for your character via certain milestones in battle, as well as the ability-modifying EQ in the form of cards - Don't tell me that a Chain Mail card, or a Club do nothing in battle. Yes, all of the creature-specific EQ is for that specific attack, or defense, but it's still there and still modifies damage, or HP values, just like any other RPG.

It is like Magic and Monopoly, but I feel there are enough RPG elements (HP, Strength values, EQ, Battles, stats, and gold) to make it a hybrid RPG...

And the whole argument about CS was about Folklore. If you want to use Folklore as a PS3 exclusive RPG, then I have every right to use Culdcept Saga as a X360 RPG, as both games are "questionable", but their core audiences are most likely RPG gamers.

 You don't have to grind to get better cards if you get lucky enough. I actually pulled 2 Kelpies, 3 Undines, and an Aspidochalone in the first three matches and laughed histerically the entire time. Given I got the game equivalent of winning the lotto twice (but only for blue =() but it can work out like that. Side note: due to being used to the terrible translations of the PS2 Culdcept I didn't use Aspidpchalone until I had gotten my third (about 6 matches in) and made a pure blue deck with them as a filler card to be replaced later.

 The equipment you gain via cards is fairly close to real equipment, but falls short by being one shot. It is more the equivalent to picking up a power up in a platformer than equiping a new bad ass sword. I could see an arguement being made for a new creature being equivalent to a new sword though. I kinda see where you are going with this but just can't agree on that note.

 The leveling up of land just isn't the same as leveling up a creature in my book. We may have to agree to disagree here. They are not even guaranteed to be most helpful to you. I can take you land with one good card combo (Aspidochaloneor Soul Eater with crit wins) and thus steal the equivalent of levels.

 I will concede if you are stretching out the RPG tendrils it can make the cut. The definition would have to be fairly broad and encompass a rather large set of game (Zelda comes to mind) but if thats what you are after go nuts.

For me, it doesn't matter. LO is awesome, and I am glad I have a 360 for it, but other then that, there is no JRPG for the 360 that I will own. I will get FFXIII on the PS3.

As for all the western RPG's, I will get Fable II for the 360, bet everything that comes out on the PC (everything else) is far better on the PC.

So the 360 has LO and Fable, not really a selling point to me. I will stick with PC RPG's for the most part, as I love WRPG's a lot more then JRPG's, and the PC is king of RPG's

I like how everybody ignores the leading japanese console. I think right now the 360 is the leader, but the wii will eventually take that place. Firstly the 360 does have FFXIII, but that and SO4 are about the only large rpgs it has left. It just lost the main tales series to the wii after vespiria the main series will be on Wii, and DS. I expect KH3 and DQX(IF not ds) to go to wii. The wii most likely will get many smaller rpgs that are still good, or even better than the bigger ones. Not to mention first party rpgs from Monolith Soft, and Nintendo.(Examples of first party rpgs are pokemon, Soma Bringer, and GOlden Sun) You guys argue PS3 vs 360, but just look  at this thread and you would see that the wii is closer to the 360 in terms of rpgs than the ps3, discounting FFXIII, since its on both platforms. The wii's support will just increase more and more along with its install base. Also in terms of consoles 360 is the main WRPG platform, but if you count pc then it loses that. I think we should wait longer to declare the winner of the generation. Right now the 360 is the jrpg console(excluding ds) of the year.

I would not expect to see any concessions on the validity of the statement. The reality was that Microsoft was the better platform for role-playing games last year, the first half of this year, this year, and probably next year as well. They had both volume and quality, and no single game would change that. A great many of them were in denial then and will be in denial now.

The arguments that Japan matters are actually looking more and more dubious. Were these titles so important to this market the high definition consoles should be showing drastically better sales. In spite of that the Wii is doing far better, and the only rational answer is that gamers in Japan are more then happy playing sprite based role-playing games on their portables. The fact that Final Fantasy will be going to windows will only give them less incentive to purchase a console for said game, and none of the other console exclusive offerings seem to be swaying them too terribly much.

To me what really matters in this debate is the balance that Microsoft has with their platform, and the mere fact that they have the best titles in both Japanese and western role-playing games, and happen to be bringing that to the North American market which should be the far more appreciative market. I would say that Microsoft will probably win the console war where this offering actually matters in North America. I think Japan just isn't interested in the genre anymore, and more to the point Europe is entranced by brand loyalty. I suppose you can say it is somewhat ironic.

The stereotype is that role-playing on consoles matters most in Japan which is probably no longer true. The machine that is labeled shooter will probably be the strongest support for the genre that is least like a shooter in a market that is not supposedly the strongest for the product. I think local tastes are actually changing, and perhaps Microsoft has seen where things are going.

Sort of like starting a ridiculous bitterness threads.  Like hypothetically if someone made a "How many times will Rrod happen to you're 360 while you play JRPG's?" thread?

Stickball is right.  He's not talking consoles, he's asking what the PS3 has left.

Don't be mean! MrCraft.

Btw what about games like Age of Conan? Whens that meant to hit the streets?

Most jrpgs, especially the very niche ones get almost all of their sales in japan. I will agree with you though that the U.S is just as important in the case of mainstream rpgs like Final Fantasy. While this may be true, are a significant part of the jrpgs audience, and when you have many Jrpgs on a console that is basically a nonentity in japan, you should expect sales to be significantly less than an rpg would be on another console. Also when you have a console that is selling in japan almost 4-5 times more weekly, than the second place competition, you should expect that console to get a huge amount of niche Jrpgs, and a good number of Mainstream ones. And when this console also sells more than its competition in other regions including japan by a huge amount, you should expect even more. The ds(the leading Jrpg platform) had most of the Jrpgs for it announced in the last year, despite it being on the market many years before. So while Japan isn't as important as people make it out to be, when talking about Mainstream Jrpgs, it is one of the most important regions for Jrpgs, and we should see increasing support ever growing on consoles that dominate in Japan along with other regions.( Examples of these are the Wii, and DS) So I think there is a Huge chance that the Wii will end up being the leading Jrpg Platform at the end of this generation(excluding DS). It won't lead by as much as previous generations though, and this one seems to be the first where all platforms have a considerable amount of Jrpgs.

It's kind of weird saying that xbox has the best rpgs...but it's true.

It definitly has its edge in rpgs, though maybe not forever, but for this year and at least early next it is the undisputed leader.

I love the thread mr stick, ive wanted to make one myself. Its funny to watch all the sony fanboys comments how FF isnt that great, when they recently just said its the only rpg that matters and is bigger then all others combined.