The state of JRPG

It's amazing the video game trends we go through. In the beginning we were swamped by a hundreds of old pencil and paper rpgs. Then we moved on to console platformers that ushered in an explosion of games and ideas (plenty that have not aged well). Towards the end of the platform game dominance, story telling techniques became more important, more people people wanted to know who the icons on the screen were, and saving princesses in another castle needed some justification.

Hence It should be no surprise that the SNES era and PS1 era of games saw a huge influx of a new breed of role playing game. Casual gamers at the time didn't want to write down or keep track hundreds of stats at a time. They wanted a little simplicity, games that had substance. Games like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and others helped shaped role playing games to be fantastic time burners, and carried fantastical stories unheard of for it's time.

By the late 90's jrpgs have invaded consoles everywhere and many video game companies have built themselves on this foundation.

Since then however jrpgs have suffered heavily from other kinds of games. The nature of technology made realism the norm and jrpgs have taken a back seat to more faster paced first person shooters. Pushing the graphics to the top, having the most blood, biggest explosion, top voice actors, movie style presentation, and other modern conveniences made the day.

Most interesting is the resurgence of western style role playing games. Almost as if brainwashed and looking for new ideas, some game companies have started to bring the old paper and pencil formula and updated it to today's standard.

I'm tired of all the first person shooters. It is the most prevalent kind of game out there and I want that to change. Bring me back to the age of grand stories that span multiple time periods, stories where toppling evil kingdoms is not a cliche but a duty. Stories where reading skills is actually needed and some basic math skills are actually used. Western role playing games are starting to get it right, now what's Japan's answer? What would be tomorrows game that tips the scale.

(Strictly my opinion, I play all types of games)

I don't think gaming is being invaded by FPS. FPS are definitely very popular, but instead of the core of hard gamers shifting to FPS, I think the gaming industry is becoming more open to other audiences through FPS, and these audiences are becoming the majority of customers. So RPGs aren't becoming less popular, but their level of popularity and sales just don't compare to the new possibility of sales to the new audience.

if you want more jrpg's, learn japanese. There are a huge selection of untranslated games out there. Like for example, the rest of "the tales of the world" series and the "trails of the sky" trilogy is still untranslated, sure there are unofficial patches but they only cover the system messages, not the story.

Its not like those games you've mentioned have disappeared, they've only been overshadowed by more famous games, and most of those just turned out to be fps.

MrYoSo901 wrote:if you want more jrpg's, learn japanese. There are a huge selection of untranslated games out there. Like for example, the rest of "the tales of the world" series and the "trails of the sky" trilogy is still untranslated, sure there are unofficial patches but they only cover the system messages, not the story.

Its not like those games you've mentioned have disappeared, they've only been overshadowed by more famous games, and most of those just turned out to be fps.

The tales games are fun but like you said more then half of them are sitting on the other side of the ocean from me. Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky is one of my new favorite games but I only played the first chapter (that ending ). There are jrpgs but I either have to wait for them to be translated, or take up time learning a whole other language . See my predicament here? I'm like a lost little puppy waiting for scraps from the table. Just kinda wished it was the role playing game market that overshadows the first person shooter market.

*wishes i was born in japan*

america sucks, although, most countries knowing english is quite nice

Doomguy wrote:

MrYoSo901 wrote:if you want more jrpg's, learn japanese. There are a huge selection of untranslated games out there. Like for example, the rest of "the tales of the world" series and the "trails of the sky" trilogy is still untranslated, sure there are unofficial patches but they only cover the system messages, not the story.

Its not like those games you've mentioned have disappeared, they've only been overshadowed by more famous games, and most of those just turned out to be fps.

The tales games are fun but like you said more then half of them are sitting on the other side of the ocean from me. Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky is one of my new favorite games but I only played the first chapter (that ending ). There are jrpgs but I either have to wait for them to be translated, or take up time learning a whole other language . See my predicament here? I'm like a lost little puppy waiting for scraps from the table. Just kinda wished it was the role playing game market that overshadows the first person shooter market.

As i said, learn japanese lol. Think of it as a cheat code. Learn the language, and unlock more games available for you. Untranslated JRPG's, Ero visual novels, doujin's, manga, and light novels, all of those will be unlocked. Just think of the wonders you'll be able to explore once you learn just one language. Sure it may take time, but when you do learn it you'll be set for the rest of your life playing jrpg's you love so much.

Currently imma playing corpse party book of shadows PSP, maybe you should gave that a try if you still haven't.

JRPGs are thriving on handhelds. Cheaper to make and cheaper to buy. I could go on and on naming off great handheld JRPGs, and I think it's more accessible to me than ever. There have been unfortunate cases where games (Valkyria Chronicles 3, Final Fantasy: Type 0, Bravely Default) haven't come over because handhelds aren't as popular here in the West, which sucks.

I'd say at least half my current game collection are jrpgs & this year we will see a few more entering the ring. FPS & online gaming has lost its appeal with me. Unless its 007, borderlands, bioshock, MoH i won't play it.

ahem....History lesson commenced....class is in session

As I said the first real home video game system is the Atari system.

In those days it was all about the FPS games although we did play against other players.

toward the end of its era Atari did smell the coffee and tried their hand with RPG's. Unfortunately for them they sucked.

Around this time computers had its first start in the home market. They did not have Windows back then and computers rarely had of 64k in ram. Yes you read it right - 64k in ram. No mb or gb. No internal hard drives, no video cards. nothing like they are today.

A college student by the name of Scott Adams designed a pure text rpg for these computers and left them in the main computer bulliten site for different communities. No there were no internet or servers like we have today. People had to phone into these computer bulliten sites for various reasons - they were mostly for colleges or communities job sites. Some were for agricultural price guides - what is the current price of corn?

That game was only text based and we had to use our own imaginations to see what was going on based on what the text said. But it was an instant hit.

Then the NES came out and that brought in a whole new realm of games. That is in RPG's really became a hit as super mario brothers was huge back then. And when the first Legend of Zelda can in well the rest is history.

So FPS is making a comeback, does not surprise me any as they always will be popular among the masses. They are quick entertainment when people don't have a lot of time.

FPS games were always big, but its crowd is usually quite different from the RPG fans. Just because its crowd is growing due to its appeal to our current society, it doesn't mean that the JRPG crowd is suffering.

The mainstream sources for gaming have been consoles and computer download based platforms like steam. FPS has taken a great footing in there because of the fact its multiplayer and competition. The other types, not so much.

The state of RPGS in general is comparable to RTS games, which don't dominate a region like the FPS games do, but when a great title (Starcraft 2) is released, its a frenzy.


Btw... When I started my account on Justdubs, I was into a JRPG called Elona, which was ALOT of fun...
http://homepage3.nifty.com/rfish/index_e.html
Thats the link for it

im always checking steam for JRPGs, but the only one is last remnant and i heard it wasnt that great, got it for $5 anyway

DemonEyesJoe wrote:im always checking steam for JRPGs, but the only one is last remnant and i heard it wasnt that great, got it for $5 anyway

Some of the Ys series is on Steam, although they're more action orientated. They're definitely worth checking out.

Dcmac wrote:

DemonEyesJoe wrote:im always checking steam for JRPGs, but the only one is last remnant and i heard it wasnt that great, got it for $5 anyway

Some of the Ys series is on Steam, although they're more action orientated. They're definitely worth checking out.

\

i always see them and i always think about it and idk, the 16bit graphics kind of deter me

I for one, still play 16 bit games. I paid a large prenium to get someone to make me a Star ocean repro (I hate emulators) and I bought a flash cart.

I've beat star ocean, at the end of Tales of Phantasia, Stuck on Chrono trigger, Some Secret of Mana, Started evermore, Somewhere in earthbound, and a ton of other games which have been translated to English. I'd recommend all of the games listed above. Also, you might find some cool games made with one of the RPGmakers.

mgalekgolo wrote:I for one, still play 16 bit games. I paid a large prenium to get someone to make me a Star ocean repro (I hate emulators) and I bought a flash cart.

I've beat star ocean, at the end of Tales of Phantasia, Stuck on Chrono trigger, Some Secret of Mana, Started evermore, Somewhere in earthbound, and a ton of other games which have been translated to English. I'd recommend all of the games listed above. Also, you might find some cool games made with one of the RPGmakers.

Playing 16-bit games is one of my favorite hobbies. You just got to be willing to forgive any of there shortcomings to fully enjoy them. Of the ones you mention the only one I could not get into was earthbound.

i loved the "Tales" series, although i only play the first symphonia for about 1000 hours, countless all nighters beating New Game++++

the 2nd symphonia wasnt as good, i didnt like having only 2 characters, the rest being a pokemon-esq game

DemonEyesJoe wrote:i loved the "Tales" series, although i only play the first symphonia for about 1000 hours, countless all nighters beating New Game++++

the 2nd symphonia wasnt as good, i didnt like having only 2 characters, the rest being a pokemon-esq game

Agree that the second game wasn't as good but it wasn't bad. The first tales was pretty addicting and you would play it over and over. The second one just was not the same. Having only 2 characters kinda killed the replay factor but one thing I did like though. Tenebe, that guy is boss

he was pretty funny to, he had some of the best lines in that game, spoken and unspoken

Spoiler: