If I could just say "No, let's reshape the world to fit my views" every time I was wrong, we'd have flying turtles and real life penguins by now.

*gets into time machine*

*gets out of time machine*

Okay, we've got penguins now.  Time for flying turtles...

Two popular titles can't be used to demonstrate the existance of a popular genre , they could be anomolies which are popular for reasons other than being turn based games ( like my pokemon explanation above )

For example it's clear the FPS gaming is popular with the popularity of Halo 3 , Killzone 2 , Half Life 2 , Resistance 2 etc ... there's consistency we know there's a high probability of success for any quality new FPS released into the market that's not neccaserily true of turn based games however .

FFXII was turn-based.

If by turn-based you mean RPGs with random encounters and lack of ability to move characters during battles then there are a lot of such jRPG games and I'd probably argue that they are the majority.

Everyone has the right to their own views. I don't consider pokemon a jRPG simple as that. Now you can go play with your flying turtles.

You know I never forget bout Pokemon

I am mainly talking bout HOME consoles here

________

@Sulla

LOWEST SELLING FF

but One of the highest selling console JRPG's last gen yet

It has outsold IX and X-2. Its european figures at vgchartz are undertracked. Not to mention that all FFs at vgchartz are shown with combined sales of different versions (PS2 the best, international etc.) except for XII which isnt combined with Zodiac job system edition.

really? that's nice to hear. I hated the character design of ffix but played it anyway just because it was ff.

Turn-based JRPGs are a bit like trying to use a menu system to order things. Select this, select that, and watch. They have TWO things that are appealing for them: the storyline, and grinding for goodies (can throw in some exploring also). Throw in an entertaining action mode, and the masses will find it more appealing.

Don't blame KH.

Now that's over and done with. I think a lot of it has to do with the shift of focus onto other genre's, namely Shooters and WRPG's. But we can also blame the genre for not re-invigorating itself, which is what happened to platformers, the genre got stale and it needed a Super Mario Galaxy 7 years ago to revive it, but it got Sunshine instead.

Similarly, JRPG's got DQ8 when what it really needed was Persona 3 or 4, and a Final Fantasy 12 (which split the fanbase right down the middle) when it needed something as good and as fresh as FF10. So if anything, blame the games that were released in the last 5 years for making the genre feel stale.

This point was driven further by Blue dragon and LO. Both decent JRPG's, but neither were mindblowingly new or epic (case can be made for LO's story though) and so the genre got two new editions that felt like rehashes.

Not to mention some substandard JRPG's popping up from time to time (Last Remnant, Infinite undiscovery, Enchanted Arms), the genre starts showing it's age because these games fail at providing something new that is actually fun and challenging.

fingers cross FF13 does something about that, because aside from another game from tri-ace, I don't see any other JRPG on the horizon that breaks the trend of either being average JRPG that sticks to conventions or trying something new and then falling flat on their face (that includes WKC and DQ9 by the way).

well, many of us find the turn-based style more appealing. There are already lots of RPGs and other genres that use the action mode and the turn-based style is nice and different