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Forums - Gaming - Will Final Fantasy XIII revive the JRPG's in the West?

z101 on 11 December 2009
Gilgamesh said:

I think Final Fantasy XIII should definitely help the situation that JRPG's are in for the West. It's my favorite genre and I've been starving for a good console JRPG, I really hope that FFXIII will bring back the amount of JRPG's that the PS2 had in the West. Final Fantasy XIII is one of the biggest JRPG's of all time along with Dragon Quest and Pokemon. Dragon Quest is usually not releaed in the West but if it is then it doesn't sell very well compared to Japan. Pokemon sells well in the West but it's usually a handheld game and is rarely released on a console. You pretty much have to have a Nintendo handheld to play one.

So Final Fantasy XIII will be the first big JRPG to come to the consoles, hopefully it'll kick start a lot of success. I know for a fact we'll be seeing a lot of JRPG's coming to the PS3 in 2010, so hopefully they sell well.

What do you guys think, will it help the JRPG's in the West?

I don't think that FF13 will have much influence in the western market. It is really not hyped enough here to get a large audience. The last trailers were a letdown (they looked like FF13 is a girlie soap for little girls).



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ChrisIsNotSexy on 11 December 2009
z101 said:
Gilgamesh said:

I think Final Fantasy XIII should definitely help the situation that JRPG's are in for the West. It's my favorite genre and I've been starving for a good console JRPG, I really hope that FFXIII will bring back the amount of JRPG's that the PS2 had in the West. Final Fantasy XIII is one of the biggest JRPG's of all time along with Dragon Quest and Pokemon. Dragon Quest is usually not releaed in the West but if it is then it doesn't sell very well compared to Japan. Pokemon sells well in the West but it's usually a handheld game and is rarely released on a console. You pretty much have to have a Nintendo handheld to play one.

So Final Fantasy XIII will be the first big JRPG to come to the consoles, hopefully it'll kick start a lot of success. I know for a fact we'll be seeing a lot of JRPG's coming to the PS3 in 2010, so hopefully they sell well.

What do you guys think, will it help the JRPG's in the West?

I don't think that FF13 will have much influence in the western market. It is really not hyped enough here to get a large audience. The last trailers were a letdown (they looked like FF13 is a girlie soap for little girls).

Not hyped enough?

How do you define hype?



SmokedHostage on 11 December 2009

The problem isn't that the JRPG market isn't there, the problem is that the software isn't there.

2 or 3 JRPG's a year isn't enough. Also contribute the fact that most JRPG's that aren't Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy, Pokemon or Dragon Quest aren't multimillion sellers.



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darthdevidem01 on 11 December 2009

you need to realise one thing

FF13 isn't seen as a JRPG by 90% of my friends at school & by many people who have got FF's before

FF is mainstream, these guys don't think its a "JRPG", they see it as an RPG

so FF13 won't really do that, no

obviously many buyers of FF's do know they are JRPG's, but due to the mainstream appeal & brand the franchise has in general its seen as the "best" RPG....not JRPG



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twesterm on 11 December 2009
Riachu said:
twesterm said:

And again, JRPG's just take too much money to make in order to be profitable.

It's hard enough to make an 8 hour game be profitable, how much harder do you think it is to make a 60 hour game?

Your general AAA game is a GIANT risk unless it's part of an already established franchise (and even then there's still risj).  Making a AAA game means a giant investment, giant risk, and anywhere from little to no return to a decent return unless you're a runaway hit.

Because of Final Fantasy, every game must at least meet the game bar that game sets or else you will look absolutely inferior regardless of how good the game actually is.

If you don't have infinite time and money that just isn't easy to do and makes a big risk even bigger. 

Until making HD games is cheaper (and that isn't going to happen any time soon at all), console JRPG's are going to continue to come around less and less.

Oh, and one thing I did forget to mention is that just like how the DS and PSP are immune to this, the Wii is too, though not in as big as way.  A JRPG will get released on the Wii and still be compared to Final Fantasy, but people will also go easy on it because it is the Wii.  So you can still make a console JRPG on the Wii for a reasonable budget and at least have a justification for not looking as good as FFXIII (but you still need to look as good as FFXII which isn't simple either).

This just proves that our current distribution method of video games has become a hiderance to the industry

That's true too-- making any AAA game is a giant risk.



 

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Gilgamesh on 11 December 2009
xlost4 said:
Point is xxain, the PS3 has and will have the same amount of JRPG's as the 360. I wasn't trying to start an argument with you I was just implying that both systems are equal.

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I can name a few JRPG's releasing in 2010 console exclusive to the PS3, and also some JRPG's coming to the West (but was already released in Japan).

According to VG Chartz there are no JRPG exclusives for the X360 for all of 2010 so far.



Gilgamesh on 11 December 2009
twesterm said:
Gilgamesh said:
twesterm said:
Did FFXII revive the genre?

It didn't have to, the JRPG's were thriving in the West last gen, not so much this gen.

Ah, well, in that case the Final Fantasy series is what is killing the JRPG's then.

It's not that they're bad, it's that they are setting the bar too high.  SE can handle taking five years to make an insanely high budget game but when FFXIII is released, good or bad, a bar on the look of the game will be set.

JRPG's are a funny breed because gameplay doesn't matter so that means the game relies on graphics, story, and characters.  Since you cannot see story and characters (well, character design I guess, but whatever) that means people are left to look at graphics.

Lets jump back for a second-- look at your general shooter game, a major genre these days.  There are without a doubt some shooters that look better than others, but the major ones are all in the same league.  The ones that aren't are instantly compared to those top tier ones and seen as inferior.   If you don't keep up with the cutting edge game or beat it in some way, you get no attention and do not sell.

Ok, so knowing that lets jump back to JRPG's.  SE with their infinite budget and dev time are free to complete their graphical masterpiece.  You see a commercial and see their quality in their graphics and instantly know that's going to be good.  Looking at almost any other non SE RPG it's instantly apparent they do not meet that bar.

Since those other non-SE JRPG's cannot meet that bar, they are instantly in the lower tier of an already low tier genre.

That's the first major strike.

The next major strike is to even make a modest JRPG it's a huge budget.  It's hard to make a AAA game and it's hard to find someone to fund a AAA game.  If they do fund that game, they want something that they know is going to sell.  This doesn't really have anything to do with SE, but, JRG's don't traditionally sell well because, as you said, they are in need of a revival.

So the fact that SE is setting the bar so unrealististly high and the fact the genre is already a high risk, RPG's are no longer on the forefront.  They are doomed to sit in the background with the point and click adventures.

You make a good point.

Other then Final Fantasy XIII the only other JRPG that appeals to me this gen is White Knight Chronicles. I believe that Level-5 can come out soon to match some of SE games, they did develope DQVIII.

(Hmmm just noticed this but I had 0 FPS for my PS2 (well except one but I got it as a gift and I didn't like it) and this gen I have 6...wish I lived in Japan)



Alic0004 on 11 December 2009

I think Twesterm is right, but I also think there's a chance we'll see more JRPGs after Final Fantasy hits, for a number of reasons.

1.) Companies may be waiting to announce and hype JRPGs in the pipeline until the FF hype dies down, so more may appear afterwards.

2.) FF XIII may get some adults who were big Final Fantasy fans to buy into this console generation, and most of those FF fans will have other games like Grandia or Breath of Fire or Lufia that they remember fondly. It's not going to be a huge change numbers-wise, but this does mark the first major inducement those types of gamers have had this generation. (Well, unless they're also a Tales fan.)  They may add to a vocal minority in the US.

3.) It doesn't have to convert a huge American audience in order to spawn more JRPGs in the future -- some companies are going to be making their decision based on the Japanese market, in which there will be a big gaping RPG-shaped hole after FF releases.

Point being, you probably won't see Americans significantly more excited about JRPGs, but we might end up getting more JRPGs anyway... which is what I care about, anyway


The question isn't whether or not making JRPGs is a risk (it's always been kind of a thankless job to make a fifty hour story when you could make a seven hour one) but whether or not the people who want to make JRPGs in Japan will get the backing they need after Final Fantasy XIII hits. If the game does well, I think it's possible some publishers will be more willing to take the chance. I wouldn't bet on it, but I wouldn't bet against it either.



 

perpride on 11 December 2009
darthdevidem01 said:
you need to realise one thing

FF13 isn't seen as a JRPG by 90% of my friends at school & by many people who have got FF's before

FF is mainstream, these guys don't think its a "JRPG", they see it as an RPG

so FF13 won't really do that, no

obviously many buyers of FF's do know they are JRPG's, but due to the mainstream appeal & brand the franchise has in general its seen as the "best" RPG....not JRPG

Going by this analogy, does anybody other than "hardcore" gamers know the difference between an "RPG" and a "JRPG"? I mean, the term JRPG itself was not really used untill the last few of years.

OP - The only thing that can save JRPG's in the west is the people who are developing them. Final Fantasy pulls in the kind of numbers that it does because it completely destroys any other RPG series out there. If developers actually make great games, then they should sell. Sure, they wont pull in Final Fantasy numbers, but could be a start to a new franchise. I'm sorry, but a good 70% of JRPG's that I have played this gen. were complete garbage.



xlost4 on 11 December 2009
outlawauron said:
xlost4 said:
outlawauron said:
xlost4 said:
Point is xxain, the PS3 has and will have the same amount of JRPG's as the 360. I wasn't trying to start an argument with you I was just implying that both systems are equal.

Sent via BlackBerry

You must not keep up with recent announcements....

what did i miss? i mean i'm pretty much caught up with the recent news. fact is final fantasy 13 will do something but it will only hunger for fans to want square enix to release another final fantasy and that will not happen anytime soon.

sent via PC

Well, there's tons of smaller JRPGs like The Last Rebellion, Trinity: Souls of Zill O'll, Ar Tonelico 3, Atelier Rorona, 3D Dot Games Heroes, and Trinity Universe that are all PS3 exclusives at the moment.

Point is, the PS3 has gotten far more new JRPGs announced for it and will continue to.

are they well known? uh no, because i sure as heck don't know none of those titles except 3D Dot Games Heroes. and i barely even knew that game until numerous threads were made talking about this game.

those PS3 jrpgs, are nothing compared to big hit or well known jrpgs like blue dragon or final fantasy 13 or even magna carta. 

so let me rephrase my statement the xbox 360 might not have any jrpgs up to line but they sure as heck can do what they did with final fantasy 13 and can get those titles i quoted above to come to the 360 if they want. then and now then they will be on par with the ps3 in terms of equal jrpgs.

nothing can save this genre really. its just been on a decline throughout years. many will purchase dragon quest or final fantasy but that's about it.

sent via PC