deadt0m said:
A lot of things are wrong with JRPGs today.
#1 - They are hardly ever turn based. And yes, I know that this is a matter of opinion. I just vastly prefer turn based jrpgs to "action" RPGs. Western developers, especially Bioware, are so far ahead of the curve in terms of action RPGs that the Japanese attempts fall flat for me.
#2 - Graphics, although I guess that isn't really a new issue. When consoles moved to CDs, graphics became a huge selling point, not just for RPGs but for consoles as a whole. It had a particular effect on the RPG market, though. RPG developers started spending a large amount of their dev time and budgets on sweeping, visually impressive cinematics in order to capture the graphics-hungry new consumers. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of gameplay and especially story writing. When characters were sprites, they had to be extremely compelling for a gamer to really relate to the story. Now, though, you can just have a party of spiky-haired androgynous white people, give them big swords, and sprinkle the game with cutscenes of them swinging said swords, and it's a lot easier way to get a game out. They are trying to sell games on visual appeal instead of actual meaningful content. As technology has improved, this has become more and more pronounced.
#3 - Enix :P |
#1 - I somewhat agree with you. It seems to be a minus these days if a game has turn-based battles. But I also think that experimenting is important to move the genre forward. I like what Bioware and Bethesda did with Mass Effect and Fallout, mixing RPGs with shooters. FFVII:Dirge of Cerberus was an attempt at doing this, but because the gameplay was clunky it failed, but I urge Square Enix to keep improving on what they started. I also like it when developers mix other genres into their RPGs, like the sidescrolling platform elements in Valkyrie Profile, the sidescrolling action in Odin Sphere, the strategy in Final Fantasy Tactics and Valkyria Chronicles, and the puzzle gameplay in Puzzle Quest.
#2 - You know, games had crap storylines in 2D RPGs on the SNES as well... And it's actually easier to relate to simple sprites and character graphics than something highly detailed. It's like reading a book compared to watching a movie. You might not agree, but it's a common fact in the animation and comic industry. If characters have detailed, but for some reason, annoying design these days, it becomes so overly evident, while in games with simple graphics it's not so big an issue. Also, you could read much more between the lines in older games, because of the technical limitations you had to flesh out certain aspects with you own mind.
Games like Lost Odyssey and Persona 4 shows that you can make games focusing on graphics and/or design, and still tell a good story.
I think it's amusing you're implying that Final Fantasy VII had less focus on story and gameplay than previous games. What Final Fantasy VII did however, was that it made JPRGs appealing to a mass western audience and it opened the door for more RPG developers to publish their games in the west. And with more games, came more crap.
#3 - Enix aren't really masters of storytelling, I'll give you that. But personally I loved Dragon Quest VIII, just because it was such a nostalgic experience, but in a beautiful package. That game is also a great example of that something simple can be better than something overly complicated. It's easily the most charming RPG last generation. The Star Ocean games had good gameplay in my opinion, but the storylines (as is the case in most tri-ace games) were pretty bad. The main story isn't necessarily awful, but the horrible script and voice acting ruins what might have been slightly good. I had troubles finishing Star Ocean 2 because of the horrible translation and dialogue, even though I enjoyed the gameplay and challenging battles. And the big twist in Star Ocean 3 is the most retarded thing I've ever encountered in an RPG to date. The game was actually pretty enjoyable up until that point where it became almost unbearable.
