5. I've never encountered retries...unless it's like crisis core for the missions (which isn't really a retry as it kicks you out).

4. I play RPGs for the story.... not really for the challenge, so more save points is something I like... I hate replaying 2 hours of the same thing. That said I never played a hard RPG... when I have a problem, it's usually only the last boss, I drop the game for 2 months and then when I replay it the boss somehow is a breeze (too much immertion i guess).

3. yeah recently I found item upgrades to be kinda pointless for I had no problem getting them... so you have a point there.

2. errr even with low XP you can power level... look at all the MMO players ....

1. well I recall having items that lowered encounters in the 16bit era already... ditching the randomness is nice I believe as you can skip that part if you have less time to play that day...


so I only grant you point 3.

but I add my own.... However nice sfx are and big explosions, I think battles in jrpgs are way too long now... I've been playing LO a lot recently... and the ring system is nice... but you have to see the guy run to the ennemy for 5 seconds at every attack .... or the ennemies run at you... Another example.. I've been playing crisis core on hard more (maybe that is the reason), and although you have a max 10K pvs, ennemies all have >100K and you hit for 1k.... gets a bit tedious to play the game...

I think model with relatively easy main game and hard side quests is the best. main game should be playable for more of people, even for those that haven´t much experience with JRPG (or any genre, after all). This way, everyone can play.

For more experienced gamers, there should be some difficult side quest, like hard dungeons, monsters, and so. Or, some harder difficulty as whole (Like SO, most Atlus RPG, etc...). SMT: Nocturne on hard definitely wasn´t easy.

IMO, games like FFX are perfect example of good difficulty. Game can be finished with some effort, maybe one, or two deaths, when some boss make weird move (Yunalesca and Megadeath says "HI"), but it´s bearable. On the other hand, there lot of side quest bosses, like Dark Aeons, Penance and such, which are pretty hard and your chars must be in best condition. From difficulty view, perfect game.

if that's your complaint about JRPGs, then WRPGs are for pussies I guess. anyhow, play tales games that have difficulty settings, set it to the hardest mode on your first playthrough, aka no grades or anything, you will die and go "wtf just happened?" skill matters in games like those.

i kind of agree with the points made in the original post, even though i haven't played that many myself.. too much money is definitely a bit of a gamebreaker, and usually when i see a save point i get the idea that something big or important is gonna happen, so i go back and prepare myself. i think it would be good to be caught unawares sometimes. like xxain said you should have to be prepared at all times.

that said, and maybe its just cause im a relative n00b, but i still find them challenging. so maybe its a combination of some significant changes that do make the games less challenging, and the fact that you've become used to the style - you know how its gonna go, you know what to expect, that makes them seem a bit lifeless to you. hmm.

I think it´s a matter of being used to playing them. You know the mechanics, what items to stock, what to expect in each dungeon, do sidequests to beef up, how to optimize each character etc... I´ve gathered experience enough, that even in SMT games I´ll rarely die. To me WRPGs are quite easier, even though I haven´t played that many as JRPGs. SRPGs are probably the most challenging I believe, there aren´t that many and they require most strategy and unit babysitting. Not to mention that even slightly better equipment and skills can make a big difference.

Pokemon id the easiest JRPG ever. You can save game anywhere (except during battle), If you lose battle you just go to PC and retry (others JRPG GAMEOVER), always get a lot of money when battling someone, easy to train pokeon, always can fled from the battle (except battling trainer and certain pokemon, can revive,heal pokemon while using other pokemon.

Convenient Save Points are bad? Dude, I'm 33 years old (Happy Birthday, Me!!). I have a job that calls all the time, a kid that needs attention, and a fiance who craves my penis!! If there weren't a way to conveniently save my game, I'd never play/finish an RPG again.

Bad idea!

The OP is correct, but he cites some of the wrong reasons.

(5), (4), and (1), as someone was quick to point out, just make the game less tedious. However, (3) is something that few, if any, JRPGs have implemented in a balanced way, and (2) really strikes to the heart of the matter: JRPGs are easy because it's generally time invested, and not twitch skills or brain-power, that determines how "good" you are at the game. No matter the challenge, grinding for hours on end against pushover enemies and/or following a walkthrough to get the best items will let you beat it. You can't really say the same for any other genre.

Are you kidding? Grinding doesn't make games more difficult, it makes artifically long games and turns gameplay into a chore rather than something enjoyable.

Everybody remembers that, and it's a testament that, even when some people deny it, JPRGs have after all evolved a bit when they don't have anymore such obsolete gameplay mechanics