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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Top 10 Ways to Fix JRPGs

Kenryoku_Maxis said:
RageBot said:
Senlis said:
RageBot said:
Senlis said:
first, to the "JRPG gamers are getting tired, moving to WRPGs and, seeing how they are different, assume it is innovation". That may be true for some people, but what about older gamers like myself and the editors of IGN. I (I can't speak for IGN) have been playing JRPGs and WRPGs for years and have seen far more innovation on the WRPG side.

As for posters such as Rastline, it is apparent that the JRPG fans don't seem to want innovation. Most of them want the same game they got on the SNES. If the JRPG developers sensed that JRPG fans wanted something new, they would innovate their games in a new and unique way for their market.

And random encounters suck. I don't see why anyone would like them or argue that they are good. It is just lazy programming if you ask me.

This will really get some people mad, but it must be said. Video games are an interactive media. The best stories are ones that you, the player, interact with. WRPGs tend to play more to this aspect by making you the main character, and if you play the story that way, it can be very rewarding. JRPGs tend to play more non-interactive, where it is more like watching a movie or reading a book rather than playing a game. The sad thing is that a great JRPG cannot compare with a great movie or book. This is besides the point, however, since IGN is not saying JRPGs should be like WRGPs. That would completely defeat the purpose of innovation if they were to innovate to something that already exists (and therefore would not be innovation).

Lol, so, since Movies are a passive form of entertainment, the best movie stories are the ones you're passive towards?

You didn't play enough good JRPGs (or WRPGs), don't argue with those who did.

First off, you have no idea what JRPGs I've played.  Secondly, your post makes little sense.  I assume your criticising my assessment that JRPG story can't compete with movie/book story.

Movies are a non-interactive form of entertainment.  They are mainly story driven (also flashy effects driven, but they tend to amount to bad movies).

Books are a better example of what I am trying to say.  They are also non-interactive, just like the story of (most) JRPGs.  When I say non-interactive, I mean the story progresses in such a way that the player has no (or little) method of changing it.

Great video games have a hard time competing with great books or great movies when it comes to the story.  I would say it is impossible to compete with books and movies.  Why? because story is the only thing a book or movie has to worry about.  Video games have to worry about programming, design, graphics (yes, I know movies have to worry about this too), testing, gameplay, etc.  In other words, the games that are trying to focus on story will be outdone by a good book.  Period.  I don't see why anyone would try to argue this.

WRPGs tend to have a story that is interactive.  By that, I mean that you can guide the direction the dialogue and story goes.  That is something a non-interactive medium, movies and books don't do (or don't do well.  Choose your own adventure books tend to suck).

If you would've played games with really great story you wouldn't have said that statement.

Especially the movie statement, there are several games with plots that are better than the plot of every movie ever created.

Oh, and almost every time, a WRPGs stpry isn't interactive, the twists are the same twists, the characters are the same characters, the ending can sometimes be different, but the ending doesn't reflect the story up to this point, I can give you KotOR as an example for this.

So you've played every game ever made and seen every movie ever made?  Pretty much, you're calling his statements arrogant and countering it with an absolute statement that's more arrogant than his could ever be perceived.

The simple fact is, video game plots and movie plots shouldn't be compared as it is.  Not only are they completely different mediums and hardly comparable, but they focus on completely different modes of interaction.  Where movies are a passive interaction medium people watch but are driven almost entirely by the story and video games are an active medium the user plays which have a whole host of secondary parts influencing not only the story but the users influence (such as the visuals, interface, audio and most importantly, the gameplay itself).  All of this aside, there's just the simple fact that a movie plot is usually between 1-3 hours and a game plot can range anywhere from 10 minutes to 200 hours.  And that same 10 minute plot can arguably have more substance to it than the same game which has 200 hours of dialogue and cutscenes (such as an MMO).

A better story = if you take the story of the game/movie, and translate it into a book, which will you prefer?

An MMO can't be given as an example for a game with a story, MMO experience is solely around interaction and gameplay, you can't have a story in a game that is about multiplayer experience only -_-



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To fix JRPGs, they should make it much more engaging which can create a clique of that franchise.

See: Persona 4, Valkyria Chronicles, Skies of Arcadia.

Also, they should make it charming and light if they can't make it epic or deep (see Persona 4?). If they want to make it epic or deep, they should do more research enough to cover the plot holes (see Xenosaga).



 


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RageBot said:
Kenryoku_Maxis said:
RageBot said:

If you would've played games with really great story you wouldn't have said that statement.

Especially the movie statement, there are several games with plots that are better than the plot of every movie ever created.

Oh, and almost every time, a WRPGs stpry isn't interactive, the twists are the same twists, the characters are the same characters, the ending can sometimes be different, but the ending doesn't reflect the story up to this point, I can give you KotOR as an example for this.

So you've played every game ever made and seen every movie ever made?  Pretty much, you're calling his statements arrogant and countering it with an absolute statement that's more arrogant than his could ever be perceived.

The simple fact is, video game plots and movie plots shouldn't be compared as it is.  Not only are they completely different mediums and hardly comparable, but they focus on completely different modes of interaction.  Where movies are a passive interaction medium people watch but are driven almost entirely by the story and video games are an active medium the user plays which have a whole host of secondary parts influencing not only the story but the users influence (such as the visuals, interface, audio and most importantly, the gameplay itself).  All of this aside, there's just the simple fact that a movie plot is usually between 1-3 hours and a game plot can range anywhere from 10 minutes to 200 hours.  And that same 10 minute plot can arguably have more substance to it than the same game which has 200 hours of dialogue and cutscenes (such as an MMO).

A better story = if you take the story of the game/movie, and translate it into a book, which will you prefer?

An MMO can't be given as an example for a game with a story, MMO experience is solely around interaction and gameplay, you can't have a story in a game that is about multiplayer experience only -_-

I wont mention genres in this statement, since there are games that try this from more than JRPGs. (MGS4, really)

There are many games out there that try to be a movie.  You have player gameplay (often, nothing special about the gameplay (not a MGS4 remark in particular)) through a dungeon or something, then you are shown a non-interactive 'movie'.  Basically, there are a lot of people out there who will play these games just for the story, not the gameplay, and I think that is stupid.

So Kenryoku_Maxis, your second sentience is true, for most games.  But there are games out there which try to be movies.

Really, is there any game which can compare to these movies? http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/11655-top2002 (sorry, couldn't find the embed link).




 

Senlis said:
RageBot said:
Kenryoku_Maxis said:
RageBot said:

If you would've played games with really great story you wouldn't have said that statement.

Especially the movie statement, there are several games with plots that are better than the plot of every movie ever created.

Oh, and almost every time, a WRPGs stpry isn't interactive, the twists are the same twists, the characters are the same characters, the ending can sometimes be different, but the ending doesn't reflect the story up to this point, I can give you KotOR as an example for this.

So you've played every game ever made and seen every movie ever made?  Pretty much, you're calling his statements arrogant and countering it with an absolute statement that's more arrogant than his could ever be perceived.

The simple fact is, video game plots and movie plots shouldn't be compared as it is.  Not only are they completely different mediums and hardly comparable, but they focus on completely different modes of interaction.  Where movies are a passive interaction medium people watch but are driven almost entirely by the story and video games are an active medium the user plays which have a whole host of secondary parts influencing not only the story but the users influence (such as the visuals, interface, audio and most importantly, the gameplay itself).  All of this aside, there's just the simple fact that a movie plot is usually between 1-3 hours and a game plot can range anywhere from 10 minutes to 200 hours.  And that same 10 minute plot can arguably have more substance to it than the same game which has 200 hours of dialogue and cutscenes (such as an MMO).

A better story = if you take the story of the game/movie, and translate it into a book, which will you prefer?

An MMO can't be given as an example for a game with a story, MMO experience is solely around interaction and gameplay, you can't have a story in a game that is about multiplayer experience only -_-

I wont mention genres in this statement, since there are games that try this from more than JRPGs. (MGS4, really)

There are many games out there that try to be a movie.  You have player gameplay (often, nothing special about the gameplay (not a MGS4 remark in particular)) through a dungeon or something, then you are shown a non-interactive 'movie'.  Basically, there are a lot of people out there who will play these games just for the story, not the gameplay, and I think that is stupid.

So Kenryoku_Maxis, your second sentience is true, for most games.  But there are games out there which try to be movies.

Really, is there any game which can compare to these movies? http://www.thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/11655-top2002 (sorry, couldn't find the embed link).

Again, you didn't get the point out of my post.  I wasn't saying games are inferior to movies.  I was saying they are completely different mediums that do completely different things and have completely different variables and shouldn't be compared.  Movies for the most part only have a few variables.  Which most people boil down to the generic things such as plot, audio and 'direction'.  Games have many more variables, which all influence each other (including the story) and the persons perception of the story.  You may think Uncharted 2 or MGS 4 is the 'best story ever'.  But the game also has presentation, gameplay, audio content, etc that the player interacts with and yes, influences the story as well. 

In games, its not so much the writing that delivers the story like in a book or movie, but how you see and play the game.  Whether its through cutscenes like in Final Fantasy, getting drawn into a battle and a story develops such as in Company of Heroes or just being told 'the princess has been stolen' and discovering over the course of the game who took her as in Mario.  'Plot' is a completely different medium in a game than in a Book or Movie.  And no matter how much a game tried to emulate a movie in graphics, they still need to make the player feel connected to the game interactively.  Otherwise, you're just pressing A and watching a Movie.

After you realize this, its just your personal opinion if you think one medium is better than another.  Personally I have yet to find a game come close to the writing of many of the better movies or TV series I've seen.



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Kenryoku_Maxis said:

After you realize this, its just your personal opinion if you think one medium is better than another.  Personally I have yet to find a game come close to the writing of many of the better movies or TV series I've seen.

It's not the one medium is better than another but 95% of games cater to the absolute bottom-feeders of the intellectual scale, particularly when it comes to dialogue and story. I play games, listen to the dialogue, and spend most of my time cringing at it. Part of the problem is that too many games are written by geeks for geeks. These people also aren't proficient writers in any way, shape, or form. On the other hand, most traditional writers seem to have real difficulty grasping how to adapt to writing for a game versus a movie. It's obviously a difficult transition or we'd see more intelligent and well-done game writing.

Other than Tim Schafer, I can't list many "good" game writers. They're an incredibly rare breed.




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you know, I walked into this thread ready to hate IGN for insulting my fav genre but after reading through, I have to agree with them though I'd say that the fans are perhaps one of the reason that JRPGs are somewhat stagnant...they don't want change. Many want FF7 remake instead of new and improved versions of FF.

I thought FFxii's battle system to be new and refreshing and found it to be the only FF where I never got tired of grinding (it was actually fun and painless) but many hated it and clamored for the return of the turn based system. I do think FF has perhaps undergone the most evoluion. They have a female hero now and characters are voiced in the single town they have.

The only part I'd disagree with them is the online component. Not every game needs it. Side quests and dlc can improve replayability and MMOs are there for online RPG enthusiasts. I also generally replay a lot of my fav JRPGs every few months or every year. Replayability doesn' have to be immediate and those online games may lose their online capacity when it counts (just ask EA about how many servers they shut down) so its best not to center a JRPG around such



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Pristine20 said:

The only part I'd disagree with them is the online component. Not every game needs it. Side quests and dlc can improve replayability and MMOs are there for online RPG enthusiasts. I also generally replay a lot of my fav JRPGs every few months or every year. Replayability doesn' have to be immediate and those online games may lose their online capacity when it counts (just ask EA about how many servers they shut down) so its best not to center a JRPG around such

I also agreed with portions of this list and disagreed strongly with the online idea. Classic RPGs do not need an online component. I'm okay with them being entirely single-player-based most of the time.

With that said, a co-op playthrough of Mass Effect could be a lot of fun. But most JRPGs? I don't see the point.




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Garcian Smith said:
I would've taken it a few steps further...

1) And this is the most important: Cut out the filler. Nobody cares if your game is 50 hours long if 40 of those hours are spent mindlessly grinding easy enemies. Imagine a 10-15 hour JRPG where every enemy encounter was as unique, involved, and interesting as your average boss fight, and you've got the start of a winning genre-reboot formula.

2) Never make another "everyone stands in a row and takes turns pummeling each-other" battle system ever again.

3) Stop using generic anime character designs. Find artists who can produce something unique.

4) No more "save the world." Ever.

5) Heroes shouldn't be spiky-haired teenage boys, and not everyone over 30 is an "old man." Let your games star adults.

6) Stop drawing inspiration from a few specific genres (Tolkein-fantasy and steampunk are the biggest offenders). We've already seen it 1000 times before.

7) Embrace the ability to save anywhere.

8) Randomize loot, or at the very least find some way to make it more interesting than, "oh look another town guess I'd better upgrade my stuff at the weapons shop."

9) No more "fighter/archer/mage/healer" templates. Find some way to make your characters unique in terms of their ability sets.

10) No more friggin' annoying cute things, please. Yes, that includes moogles.

Basically, if developers and publishers want JRPGs to stop being increasingly irrelevant, they need to gear them toward a wider audience than teenage Japanese kids (or teenage American otakus).

I don't agree with a single word of all this.

at this point, just go play WRPG.

i still agree with almost everything IGN said



Pristine20 said:
you know, I walked into this thread ready to hate IGN for insulting my fav genre but after reading through, I have to agree with them though I'd say that the fans are perhaps one of the reason that JRPGs are somewhat stagnant...they don't want change. Many want FF7 remake instead of new and improved versions of FF.

Part of the reason (western) fans obsess over and crave a FF7 remake so bad is because Japan has done little to show them there's other better JRPGs out there.  Take Drago nQuest for example.  How can a series that is even more popular and enjoyed by all audiences in Japan have absolutely no attach rate in the west?  Its not because we 'hate turn based battles (look at Final Fantasy).  Or because we 'hate old school RPGs' (Look at Persona, Pokemon....Final Fantasy).  Its simply because SquareEnix has done little to market the game to the west to make it popular.  And its a similar story for most JRPGs in the last 10 years.  The few JRPGs that have gotten popular in the last few years (Disgaea, Tales, Persona) were just from dumb luck or word of mouth.  There was little or no advertising.

SO you can partially blame the fans if you want, but I would also blame the companies for not actually telling the people the games exist.  You have to advertise the games and make them available for people to buy them.  I mean, on the flip side, you can't turn on the TV without seeing 10 commercials an hour for Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2.  Not that this is bad, its just good marketing for BioWare.  That's what the JRPG companies should be doing.  And what are the only JRPGs which will get this kind of marketing?  Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.  Games which have no trouble selling.



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RukiSama said:
Garcian Smith said:
I would've taken it a few steps further...

1) And this is the most important: Cut out the filler. Nobody cares if your game is 50 hours long if 40 of those hours are spent mindlessly grinding easy enemies. Imagine a 10-15 hour JRPG where every enemy encounter was as unique, involved, and interesting as your average boss fight, and you've got the start of a winning genre-reboot formula.

2) Never make another "everyone stands in a row and takes turns pummeling each-other" battle system ever again.

3) Stop using generic anime character designs. Find artists who can produce something unique.

4) No more "save the world." Ever.

5) Heroes shouldn't be spiky-haired teenage boys, and not everyone over 30 is an "old man." Let your games star adults.

6) Stop drawing inspiration from a few specific genres (Tolkein-fantasy and steampunk are the biggest offenders). We've already seen it 1000 times before.

7) Embrace the ability to save anywhere.

8) Randomize loot, or at the very least find some way to make it more interesting than, "oh look another town guess I'd better upgrade my stuff at the weapons shop."

9) No more "fighter/archer/mage/healer" templates. Find some way to make your characters unique in terms of their ability sets.

10) No more friggin' annoying cute things, please. Yes, that includes moogles.

Basically, if developers and publishers want JRPGs to stop being increasingly irrelevant, they need to gear them toward a wider audience than teenage Japanese kids (or teenage American otakus).

I don't agree with a single word of all this.

at this point, just go play WRPG.

i still agree with almost everything IGN said

None of those things listed are what define "JRPG" and frankly, I'd LOVE to see a game break every one of those conventions. If done by a good developer, it could revitalize the entire genre and become a legendary game.

Why are some people stuck on JRPGs including all of these elements? Have you all been drilled in the head with these plot/game devices so many times that you're resistant to see someone smash the mold to bits and go in a new direction? It wouldn't make it any less "JRPG", it would just mean that someone out there was brave enough to try something new instead of relying on game elements that were created in the original NES generation.

I think I'd die of a heart attack if I ever saw a JRPG that featured adult characters, an old west setting, and a story about the quest to find a new home or something like that. If it featured one party (with characters that can actually die) and wasn't turn-based, I'd start shoveling money in that developers' direction. Not that it necessarily has to be the Old West, that idea just popped in my head while I was typing this. The game could even be linear, I wouldn't care. The entire premise would be so foreign for a JRPG that I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat.




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