"But it isn’t just tired game design that’s plaguing Japanese developers. One can only look at the Westernized bastardization of Resident Evil 5 or the glut of ultra niche cookie-cutter RPGs such as Cross Edge being pumped out and blame them for so many problems. Ask anyone that’s played a Japanese game in the past five years if they can remember the plot and almost invariably they’ll give the same response: No."
Get ready to embark on a journey filled with monsters, magic, and overpowered haircuts, because this list features the best JRPGs on the PS3.
There wasn't that many. Thanks to the west's criticism. It was definitely lacking compared to every other ps system. Dont get me wrong there were a few good ones i know that.
Nier, Valkyrie Chronciles, Tales games , Ni No Kuni, Resonance of Fate, FF13’s, Ys8 just a few off the top of my head and there were a lot more.
Not nearly to the degree of PS1 and PS2.
@shinoff2183 makes a good point that around the PS3/Xbox 360 gen is when the genre wasn’t as prevalent and began to shy away from turn-based. There’s some standouts for sure, but look at the PS1 and PS2 JRPG library and then compare that to the PS3 and PS4’s.
Theres definitely a decline in a selection of titles. Even worse was the quality seemed to take a massive hit as well. I think Lost Odyssey was a huge standout for that gen when you look at production values, then you look at something like Fairy Fencer on the PS3 and it’s kind of depressing.
But by that generation there was a shift from western developed games overtaking Japanese developed games. Back from the NES to PS2 Japanese games were the cream of the crop… I don’t know what happened but like midway into the PS3/360 life-time they became less so.
Compared to the ps1 ps2 and he'll even ps4 ps3 doesn't hold a candle to either imo. It's also when turn based damn near disappeared. Again thanks to the west's criticism
Crimson I'd put money on the west being at fault, guys like Phil phish, and numerous others at that time were attacking jrpg and Japanese games in general pretty hard.
Ni no kuni was probably my fav jrpg back then , and the blue dragon
Tales got kinda lucky here. When they took a chance and finally brought tales of graces f over west it sold like 250k lmao a lot of jrpgs did 500k or below. Disgaea was worse i think. Bamco decided to keep bringing more games over though.
Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls II were the best RPGs on PS3 made by Japanese developers. Everything else just fell short always. Ni No Kuni was a full package, an okayish game as well. Nier and Drakengard III had superb writing, setting and voice acting, however, the performance was a real drag on the gameplay. Traditional RPG-wise I'd actually say 360 had better JRPGs, and think that Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon were the best traditional JRPGs of the era. PS3 Valkyria Chronicles was okay, but it is closer to an SRPG.
Ryu Ga Gotoku games were also solid, they were still finding their footing and breaking new ground with new cities and formats.
PS3 was the era that almost made me quit gaming and I started playing on PC because I could not find good performance nor games on the system. PS4 got me back into it, and now PS5 is a mix in and between, I just play my PS4 library on the PS5 and rest on PC, just like during the PS3 era. The only new exclusive Sony JRPG is pretty much FFXVI and it is so streamlined and simplified from the normal RPG experience that I can't fit it into the genre anymore. Dragon Quest XII hopefully remedies all of this, but it is just one game.
These new games will all be on PC (while it does take 2-3 years to wait, and 6-12 months from launch to have them patched + fixed by modders) and they perform better on it. The only point in owning a PS5 is to play games a couple of years earlier, but for a hard-working family man like me, the quality of the experience is more important than playing it as soon as possible. And I can't do modern games at 30fps 720p after playing 120fps at 4K. For older games, that's okay.
PSX and PS2 though, those were the days...Still have a massive collections of classic RPGs in CD and DVD format and a phat PS3 to play them!
It's kinda like that, the PS3 generation was a bad time for JRPGs, especially with the Japanese feeling the need to westernize their games, shooters dominating that gen, the racism from western game journalists (it was bad, between G4, Phill Fish, and a slew of others), and the higher development costs...
It really made me miss the PS1/PS2 days of JRPGs, even the quality of half of those games during the 7th gen weren't as good. The 360 tried, but Microsoft's consoles weren't popular in Japan and no body in the West bought a Xbox for JRPGs (despite Xbox having Vesperia, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey).
" It's kinda like that, the PS3 generation was a bad time for JRPGs, especially with the Japanese feeling the need to westernize their games "
This is when everything fall down and games looks not fun to play anymore except for few games like demon and dark souls for example
Nah. It's a bad trilogy of games
The only reason XIII-2 stands out is because XIII was so bad
When the bar is so low, anything after feels better.
Watching the credits roll on ff16 now it is good but , I'd really like to re try ff13 least it's turn based and would fill that gap for me.
They got better after the first one in the trilogy, not outstanding game though.
Honestly, I played FFXIII a few years after release and maybe because it was after the hype cycle and I knew the flaws of the game, it actually became my favorite FF after VII.
I took off the mini map and never used auto battle and the stuff that mattered to me in an FF was just so well done.
The art and graphics were insane at the time
The music is still special
The story still lingers in memory more than a decade later
The RPG systems were decent
I never really got the hate for it, still have a soft spot for that game inside me.
Only gripe I have with Ar Tonelico 3 is that Saki is annoying as hell whether English or in Japanese. Then Saki's English voice actor became Ionasal on Ar Nosurge she was a little annoying but not as bad. Johnny Young Bosch voicing Tatsumi I thought he did a great job. And Akiko Shikata with her vocals and the music from the games just went hand and hand.
Deadly Premonition is a weird, weird cocktail that doesn't go down smooth for everyone, but it's still absolutely worth sampling.
It’s sooooo janky but the story is so good and the agent is so quirky I loved it thouroughly, the story is that good that you can actually make it through all of its jankiness and issues .
It’s a diamond in the rough and rough is saying lighly.
This game deserves a remake out of any game I can think of .
If they fixed the combat ,driving and movement this would be one of my favorite games all time and it already is in a way.
The first time I turned on my flashlight was one of the funniest things I have ever seen in a game. His suit just sort of lights up. There's no physical flashlight in his hand--hilarious. It's also the only game I've played to truly capture the delightfull quirkiness of Twin Peaks. I'm with you on how much I like this game. Despite all of its flaws, it's a genuinely fun experience. "My coffee warned me about it," is probably my favorite line of all time in any video game.
I still haven't played the sequel, but I will some day.
I enjoyed this back during ps3 days. I'd buy it again if they re released it fixed up a little. I had fun with it.
Nier and Drakengard are two series that couldn't be more different in their setting and stories, but somehow they are still linked.
No they`ve made some of the best games of this gen.
GT5, MGS4, Demon Souls,VC and lots more. Feel free to add more. But those 4 are some of the best of this is gen in the respective genres.
"Time will tell if they can commit to a next evolutionary step, or if the Japanese game industry simply ceases to be."
Hopefully this would be the former instead.
These observations probably apply mainly to large developers and publishers, and for the same reasons that people often complain about large Western developers and publishers. They're all trying to make the safe business decision of doing what worked before. They'll be more willing to try new things if and when their sales drop.
I prefer a lot of the games I see from Japan over games from anywhere else. I've played many J-RPG's and loved most of them.
Tales of Vesperia for the Xbox360 was exquisite. It was plain out awesome. Star Ocean 3 and 4? They were extremely disappointing. Grandia 3? Disappointing. Grandia and Grandia 2? Awesome games. Grandia Extreme, not so much.
Final Fantasy 2/4 and 3/6? Really good and Extremely good. FF7? Extremely good. FF8? It had its' moments. FF9? Really good. FF10? Excellent. FF11? Interesting, but wasn't willing to fork a monthly fee to play. FF12? Extremely good. FF13? Hated it.
The Final Fantasy remakes? FF Advance... Way too easy to be called a remake. FF Tactics? Good, but I didn't care much for it.
Resident Evil got worse and worse as the games went on. The story line is the only thing really enjoyable to me these days... I think it happened when they hit RE3.
Games that NISAmerica sells? Most of those games I want, simply because they look enjoyable.
All in all... There are hardly any innovations people can use that haven't already been seen, so areas other than Japan are feeling the heat as well.
Can I remember the plot of any game I play? Depends on the game. Most Westernized games I cannot remember... Out of the 50 games I have for Xbox360, and 2 I have for PS3... Hm.
I haven't played either PS3 game, but I have seen MGS4 played. Then I went out and bought it despite not owning a PS3. The other was Valkyria Chronicles... I saw the anime, then I saw the game. The game had some uniqueness to it, so I decided to buy it as well, but a lot of that was because I liked the anime.
For the Xbox360, I remember a great majority of Bioshock, don't know much about the plot of Oblivion yet... Never played the story much... Armored Core 4 and For Answer, I know the plots for those.
All in all, I would have to say that I remember more Japanese plots than Western plots primarily because majority of my collection seems to be Americanized Japanese games.
All I have to say is... If I liked the game, I will remember the game. Best console ever? Super Nintendo/Super Famicom. Next in line? Playstation One.
You don't need innovations to make a good game... You need a good plot, good gameplay mechanics, and various other stuff to make the game good. Wasting your time to make innovations that may or may not work for the game while making the game WILL EASILY make or break the game.
Seems this post is pretty long. Hm. Oh well.
the RPGs they develop alone will keep them going for a while.