Are you really basing niche status off sales... and by the sales of a few big name titles?

How well does Suikoden?

How well does Wild ARMs?

How well does Grandia sell?

How well does Valkyrie Profile sell?

I'm sorry but if sales is your metric then you only need to glance across the board to see dozens of RPGs with lackluster sales.  You can point to the few JRPGs that have sold really well, but they're the exceptions, not the rule. 

Of course, I think that using sales to determine niche status is a bit silly.  I'd say Metal Gear Solid 4 is an even more niche game than most JRPGs, but look at its sales.

I can almost promise you that if the game got a metacritic of 90+ it would sell very well. This gen, things seem to be like that.

However, BD and Eternal Sonata sales aren't crappy just because they are JRPG. They were only decently reviewed.

That's not why they sold poorly. BD sold poorly because it wasn't merketed very well and ES got the marketing but fell victim to the Halo 3 hype

Those series often have their games released so close to a bigger game that they get overshadowed.

Grandia(Saturn)...overshadowed by FFVII

Grandia(playstation)...overshadowed by FFVIII

Suikoden....released when JRPGs were still niche

Suikoden II...overshadowed by FFVIII

Suikoden III...overshadowed by Kingdom Hearts

Suikoden IV....was released at a bad time(right after Christmas)

Suikoden V...overshadowed by Oblivion and KHII

Wild Arms series....overshadowed by bigger series and has a reputation as being a second rate series

Grandia II...was overshadowed by FFIX

Grandia 3...was overshadowed by KHII

Valyrie Profile...overshadowed by other Square games, Chrono Cross in particular

Valkyrie Profile 2...overshadowed by FFXII

Also, little to no marketing most likely plays a role in these games not selling particulary well

I really didn't like it either. I played it and after I thought, "This is it? People are excited for this?"

Oh well. It's a RPG and I'm a bit of an RPG fan (check my games section ), so I'll get this in the bargain bin sometime next year.

RPG demos tend to not do the full game justice.  I am interested in ToV but I might not get it if IU is really the gem previews have been calling it

Well, I REALLY enjoyed Tales of Symphonia, and I enjoyed the Vesperia demo as well. The main (huge) difference between Vesperia and Eternal Sonata (besides the horrid character design and voice acting in Sonata) is the depth in the battle system. In Sonata, you could only do so much with the attacks. In Vesperia, you can link specific attacks from different characters and create more powerful ones, you can switch to whichever attacks you have learned... I mean, the possibilities aren't limitless, but they are many. And the battles are in real time, not semi real time like Sonata.

But to each there own.

You missed my point. It was that you can call any genre niche, based off the poor sales of cherrypicked titles in that genre, like the guy did I was talking to. I wasn't making a point, I was replying to a post.

As far as "niche" goes for videogame genres, JRPGs isn't. You didn't comment on your beliefs, but I'll assume you agree with me.

You missed some key points here

Character development can be good, even if you didn't like the characters.

The improvement I'm discussing has less to do with strategy and more to do with pacing. Numbers build to an appropriately powerful level and leveling up actually feels impressive.

Not only that, but to max out characters you may need to venture through the game upwards of 6 times.

The gameplay isn't as simple as you would assume. However, my first Tales of title was Tales of Symphonia. If you are claiming that titles before that are too similar, I can't comment, but if you claim that Tales of the Abyss was too similar, then I see your point, but I took it as more of a good thing.

As for the engine itself, I felt it was fun, deep, and addictive.

If feel you are very cynical about this subject. It seems to me you truely believe ToS isn't deserving of the praise it gets, and you've obviously argued against it many times.

However, I ask you to remember that many people do such things everyday about games that you love, as well.

Your opinion is not a fact, and saying that ToS is over-rated is a "truth"(which you didn't say, but might have been or may soon be implied) is impossible because truth requires facts. It's an opinion. Your opinion, and by definition, there is no evidence to back it up.

I only ask that you respect others opinions, as Symphonia is a great game in a lot of people's minds, including mine. Believe me, there are others who have flamed games I've loved in the past, and I've commented a lot "harder" than I've commented right now. I believe your distaste from the series derives as much from spite of the series fans(some of whom call it the best game ever made), as it does from your precieved failings of the actual game.

In my experience, most people who play the game, enjoy it. However, a game is never gonna get 100 percent good ratings. If this happens to be a game where you just happen to fall into that rare dissenting opinion, then by all means express yourself, but don't try to convince the rest of us we are wrong in our opinions and assertions, because we thought the game was great.

The point was the annoyance factor was so high, that they all seemed like pre-teens.  Even if there was only 1 pre-teen that doesn't make my comment full of fail.  You are an RPG fan, so you see what you want to see, but I do not see this game having wide appeal.