I have been gaming for a long time, Final Fantasy 2 for the SNES (4 for those of you who are purists) was the first game that really played). It is true that I haven't played many JRPG's the generation so you can feel free to correct me.

However, it just seems to me that most if not all of the modern JRPG's are lacking some sort of quality that I can't quite define. For a little while I thought I was getting old until I played through Final Fantasy 4 remake. It had all the magic (figurative not literal) that I felt was missing from the genre.

I am still going to try and list out some of the the problems that I have found:

First and for most, cliches. JRPGs have a huge amount of cliches, there are listed out there on the internet. You can argue its hard to do something new when it's all been done before. There isn't that can be done except for new setting or just working completely new ideas. No ones fault, it just happens that way.

Tetsuya Nomura: 

For me Final Fantasy 7 was the begining of the end. I knew that there was a fundamental shift in how things were done. Part of it was popularity, but for the final fantasy series it was how the characters developed. Final Fantasy 7 was vastly different from its earlier counterparts just with how serious every one was all the time. They took themselves too seriously. 8 was even worse with less characters and even less personality between them. Anyways, I am getting off topic, Nomura tries way too hard to be edgey while forgeting most of the other human characteristics. I really miss yoshitaka amano.

Square no longer has the lumbering RPG giant that it used to be.

Right now I am having trouble thinking of other issues but you are welcome to add to the list. Don't get me wrong, I like the genre and I would gladly pick up a game of quality (I want to buy Valkria Chronicles when I have the time and can afford it). I just wish they would take a few risks and put out better games.

Actually, the problem with Square-Enix is precisely that it is a lumbering giant. It's not nearly as agile or hungry as it was when it was making its best games.

I agree with you about Nomura, though. He is a dink.

JRPG's are at a low point right now because no Japanese console has the most JRPG's. The majority are on an American console. Wait til next gen when Sony learns their lesson and launches. Japan will follow and JRPG's will be revitalized. The Japanese and the Japanese brainwashed followers world wide wont support a company that isn't Japanese and notable. The Japanese themselves wont buy a console from the outside if they already have consoles in their country. No console in their country is catering to JRPG's properly as Sony has been pandering to the west, but next gen it will fix itself when Sony changes their gameplan. :)

P.S.

This R.I.P JRPG's bullshit is killing me. Everyone has some idea of why JRPG's aren't doing as well as they should. Just look at the "J" in JRPG...and you'll figure it out.

It's as simple as the fact that since JRPGs went mainstream, more and more started to be released in the West. Unfortunately, this causes the genre to be oversaturated with a ton of generic JRPGs. When we has less JRPGs, the general quality of what we got was high. Now, a lot of the ones we get are mediocre if not slightly above average.

Have you played lost odyssey, it's developed by mistwalker (the new square imo) and is old school in all the good ways but also very modern, best jrpg i've ever played in my opinion although the level cap could be quite annoying for a jrpg purist like yourself.

This is the other problem with Square. Since Sakaguchi left, the magic is gone. Even though Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey weren't pushing any boundaries gameplay-wise, they are unashamedly emotional experiences like Final Fantasy used to be.

I havent seen any JRPG's on the PS3 yet and I doubt the JRPG's on the Wii,PSP and DS are doing as poorly that we can call the genre dead

Only reason I don't like console RPGs as much as I used to is how long some cutscenes are. The FF remakes on PsP are supposedly updated and better because of the cutscenes, however that doesn't make me want a game. If you really want to play good RPGs get a DS or PSP, and theres some good ones for Ps2 as well. Persona series is good, Suikoden is on PSN for a good price. It's really hard for me to replay a RPG when you can't skip cutscenes like in FFX. Having to watch every single one again just delays me from enjoying the game.

@S.T.A.G.E.
I don't think they are doomed, few genres ever are, (well maybe westerns and musicals)

I don't want JRPG's to go away, I want them to come back with something new.

I also think the over reliance on cutscenes has a lot to do with it. I don't mind it, but it does get wearing after a while.