@bitmap frogs

I know how crappy SOE is, but The Agency does seem quite interesting, unlike their other MMOs. Though it seems it might be pushed to 2009.

@zenfoldorvgi

Japanese RPGs weren't very niche last gen. I think the combination of the recent wRPG penetration on consoles, and the late reading of the console market from japanese developers is making JRPGs seem quite lackluster in both amount and quality.

I believe the biggest problem of JRPGs is "lack of evolution". The JRPG sub-genre is stale, there have been no innovative or very original titles in a long time, and almost all have cookie-cutter formulae. And now that wRPGs are entering the console market, the JRPGs' sins are even more noticeable. J-Developers need to evolve, or revolutionize... if they stay like this, it will certainly push JRPGs into a much smaller niche in the western world. I think it partly explains the "low" scores they have been getting this gen.

The Last Remnant just seems unimpressive. It oozes the same as the average JRPG, and I hate the fact that all the main characters look like 14 year old teens even though some are adults. I had faith in Infinite Undiscovery to give something good, but it might have been misplaced.

I feel that the feelings of many reviewers mirror your own. However, I still believe that is an opinion, and I also believe that reviewers shouldn't let their personal opinions about a genre affect their review scores for games within said genre.

Reviews aren't the place for ideological discussion. Singling out the jrpg genre and giving the FPS genre a pass just because of personal preference is a perfect example.

Why did you have faith in Infinite Undiscovery?  What about that game didn't ooze typicale JRPG fare, that The Last Remnant did?  Serious question here, because all the videos I saw of Infinite Undiscovery made it look pretty cliche.

@bobobologna

Because IU was supposed to have actual choice/consequences that affected the story later on, like a traditional wRPG (ofcourse I never expected it to be deep or as good). It was only because of that. And yes, the artistic style and teen chars of IU turned me off too.

For instance, there are two minds on the choice/consequence. You automatically assume everyone would think choice is a good idea. I perfer linear design in a story. Therefore, if you were to review a jrpg, you should adjust the score upwards or downwards based on how you personally view genre conventions.

Some prefer to be told a story, some prefer to be able to affect it. One or the others superiority is an opinion, and you may be surprised how many people share my point of view.

It's kind of like assuming that giving Zelda a more adult feel would make it a better game. I contend that it would make it worse.

I'm with you about linear stories. I'm a big fan of being told a story. I don't read a book expecting to read "If you want to go left, turn to page 36, if you go right, turn to page 94" anymore. And for games with strong narratives, I really would rather have the game developer, as the story teller, tell me the story. Especially since most games that give you choices seem to give you 2 extremely polar choices with very few "grey" choices available.

@shio:  I didn't know that was a big feature of IU.  Then again, I guess I didn't pay too much attention to it, just saw a couple gameplay videos/trailers.

Persona 3 won RPG of the Year over Mass Effect and The Witcher from Gamespot , the site everyone says hates JRPGs. Persona 3 FES has a Metacritic score of 89 (used to have 90). This shows the previous one was received excellently. If this game is as good as its predecessor, it will gain a lot of RPGOTYs

Unreleased games shouldn't be making lists just yet....

Yeah, however, ToV got the same review as Persona 3 from gamespot, and Gamespot is actually one of the best sites for jrpgs and reviews, imo. I actually like VanOrd a lot(I think he did the Tools of Destruction review, so a lot of people hate him too, lol).

Persona 3 is a fantastic and amazing game. For the 29.99 dollar price tag and extra 40 hour sequal, FES is like The Orange Box of jrpgs, and one of the best purchases avaialble for any console.

However, just because Orange Box was an amazing and fantastic game, doesn't mean that I think it's better than Bioshock. In this analogy, ToV is the Bioshock to Persona 3's Orange Box.

I think the real problem is that JRPGs have inherent flaws as a whole that developers are having trouble working out.  Also, innovation is not always a good thing if that said innovation happens to be one of the biggests flaws of that game.  cough*UnlimitedSaGa*cough