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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Are Western reviewers becoming biased against JRPGs?

GamingChartzFTW on 22 November 2008

"Are Western reviewers becoming biased against JRPGs?"

I certainly do hope so <( ^-^)>

:P

 

btw..the best JRPGs were made in the 90s. The golden age of JRPGs is long gone.



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damkira on 22 November 2008

Honestly, I've been playing the new Tales of Symphonia game and couldn't believe it had been ravaged in such a way by reviewers. Its completely solid and got a 72% ranking on gamerankings :(



bouzane on 22 November 2008

JRPGs are typically repetitive, linear and lacking in any substantial decision making. There are plenty of valid complaints to be made against JRPGs. The only real problem I see with western gaming journalism is the laughable frequency at which they hand out their 10/10 ratings. Instead of bringing up all JRPGs (I would rate a few higher than average) I'd knock down games like Bioshock, Halo 3 and GTA 4.



Sullla on 22 November 2008

I think most of you are missing the point here. Reviewers aren't necessarily biased in favor of Western or Japanese RPGs; they're biased in favor of the big blockbuster franchises. Look, we all know review scores work something like this:

80% - marketing, hype, advertising
20% - is the game actually good

The comment on how Final Fantasy X-2 recieved higher scores across the board than ANY Japanese RPG this generation is classic proof. If the game is from a big name established franchise, it's going to get a higher score. (Call it the Famitsu effect.) I guarantee that if you changed the name of Lost Odyssey to "Final Fantasy 13" and stuck a 100 million dollar advertising campaign behind it, the exact same game would have scored 9s and 10s across the board.

Go on, tell me I'm wrong. We all know that's how the review system works nowadays...



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Kasz216 on 22 November 2008
Khuutra said:
Riachu said:
Khuutra said:
Riachu said:
Khuutra said:
Madanial said:
Reviewers these day mostly expect godly graphic from RPG ,and seems many JRPG won't match their taste.

 

I would say that it is more a problem of narrative and experimentation with gameplay forms. JRPGs are stale. WRPGs are not.

I am pretty sure the "JRPGs are stale" thing was a misconception caused by the fact that alot of those cookie cutter JRPGs are from the big companies and not the super niche companies like Atlus and Nippon Ichi.

 

 

I wasn't aware that Atlus developed games. Or that any of the JRPGs they published had fresh narratives.

You clearly never heard of the Shin Megami Tensei series, Atlus's flagship RPG series

 

 

That's pretty fair, actually. I've heard of them, but I have yet to play them.

I own a PS2. Which one should I pick up?

All of them?  They're about to reprint Persona 1... which would be cool.

 



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Khuutra on 22 November 2008
Kasz216 said:

All of them?  They're about to reprint Persona 1... which would be cool.

 

 

So the original is a good jumping off point, then, that would get me familiar with the "fresh narrative" of the series? Good.

How hard are all of they to find?



coolestguyever on 22 November 2008

ever think that WRPG's are just better. Oblivion was amazing, Fallout 3 is great, Fable 2 is popular but I've never played it. WoW is hella popular even though its nerdy as hell.



Kasz216 on 22 November 2008
Khuutra said:
Kasz216 said:

All of them?  They're about to reprint Persona 1... which would be cool.

 

 

So the original is a good jumping off point, then, that would get me familiar with the "fresh narrative" of the series? Good.

How hard are all of they to find?

Well they're not all connected by story actually.  So maybe it'd be better to go with 3 now that i think of it.

It's the easiest to find.

Actually Persona 4 is about to come out too....

Also it's not really the first one.  Persona is just the most popular of the Shin Megami franchise.  There are re-releases of the originals on the PS1-PS2 as well.

The originals actually being out on SNES... (or maybe even one before on NES.)

Either way, as a comment on their quality, i do know people that pretty much only play those games.

Oh, also... if your religious... some of the games may somewhat offend you.

They tend to have "monsters"  based on just about all religions.



Khuutra on 22 November 2008
Kasz216 said:
Khuutra said:
Kasz216 said:

All of them?  They're about to reprint Persona 1... which would be cool.

 

 

So the original is a good jumping off point, then, that would get me familiar with the "fresh narrative" of the series? Good.

How hard are all of they to find?

Well they're not all connected by story actually.  So maybe it'd be better to go with 3 now that i think of it.

It's the easiest to find.

Actually Persona 4 is about to come out too....

Also it's not really the first one.  Persona is just the most popular of the Shin Megami franchise.  There are re-releases of the originals on the PS1-PS2 as well.

The originals actually being out on SNES... (or maybe even one before on NES.)

 

 

Gimme a breakdown. The only "Shin Megami Tensei" I'm familiar with is Nocturne, and that only by name.

So the best game to pick up would be Persona 3? Is it just the bst gme in the series?



Darc Requiem on 22 November 2008
outlawauron said:
--OkeyDokey-- said:
You think any of those JRPG's actually deserve a 90+ average?...

Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, and Valkyria Chronicles all deserve imo.

 

I agree with you completely Outlawauron. I was bitching about those three games getting underrated in another thread. You all have made an excellent point about Mass Effect. Mass Effect is one of my favorite games of this generation but its unfair that inspite of its technical issues it was given such high ratings yet JRPGs with lesser technical problems get penalized heavily.