Just take a look at this data I compiled using Gamerankings and VGChartz. It doesn't look good for the JRPG genre...
Why has there been such a sudden decline? Is it because of Xenophobia?
I wonder what Western RPG's are doing right that Japanese dev's aren't. Maybe Western RPG's are easier to get into and more suited for casual gamers. American RPG's have adapted to the market? On the other hand, Japanese developers have sadly fallen behind on this sort of thing. Can they come back from their current position?
I would say these are the top 5 things which are to blame:
1. Decline in Quality of JRPG's
2. Less advertising and promotion
3. Rise of western video game consoles and FPS games i.e Xbox 360
4. Rising cost of video games, resulting in small japanese companies taking less risks
5. Fewer JRPG's in general
What do you think?
----Number of JRPG's in Gamerankings top 50 PS1 game list----
1. Final Fantasy 9 -93.32% -5.3m sales
2. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night -92.62% - 1.27m sales
3. Chrono Cross - 92.18% - 1.86m sales
4. Final Fantasy 7 - 92.1% - 9.72m sales
5. Vagrant Story 91.97% - 0.87m sales
6. XenoGears - 90.94% - 1.46m sales
7. Final Fantasy 8 - 89.17% -7.86m sales
Number of games which got over 90%: 6
----Number of JRPG's in Gamerankings top 50 PS2 game list----
1. Persona 4 - 92.4% - 0.82m sales
2. Final Fantasy X - 91.84% - 8.05m sales
3. Final Fantasy XII - 90.77% - 5.95m sales
4. Dragon Quest 8. 90.05% - 5.21m sales
Number of games which got over 90%: 4
----Number of JRPG's in Gamerankings top 50 PS3/X360 games list----
0
*Except if you consider demon souls which got 89.8%
Number of games which got over 90%: 0
We were expecting problems with mod support, but there are a lot of other issues.
Not accidental, they want modders to stop modding their older games to force them to mod Shitfield.
Over 14 GBs and doesn't change much at all? What? Taking up that much drive space for a pathetic 'remastering' is shameful.
Par for Bethesda.
LOL people are actually expecting massive improvements or something? From Bethesda?? the same people who released Skyrim multiple times and the all look like shit? THAT Bethesda? are people for real?
The ps5 version doesn't change a ton but from my small playtime it's enough to make me want to replay it just to have it running at 60.
A side note to this my PS4 version no longer boots after it's "update" so I guess that's what it feels like to own a Bethesda game on PC
As of right now, there are no monopolies in the games industry, and for the sake of the medium as a whole, they never should either.
And yet the biggest tech companies in America are essentially that. They buy up all the small comps only to kill them off and steal what they have, and if they can't buy em they bleed them to death.
They buy IPs not talent. That's why these buyouts never work and the IPs die. Right now it's too expensive to develop games - but I expect that to shift maybe as AI tools can make it easier. The best games have been indie games for awhile as big developers fuck their ips to death with "games as a service" -
A voice actor from The Coalition's third-person shooter series, Gears of War, has hinted at a new game announcement coming in June.
Hopefully Microsoft will go back to the original story line and get away from that woke nonsense from the last Gears game Gears of Woke! But were talking about Microsoft so all the betting money is on more of the same woke nonsense.
Am not talking about handhelds, just consoles. But not even that many handheld JRPG's have gotten over 90%.
But there are these which sold a lot:
1. Dragon Quest handhelds
2. FF handhelds on DS
3. Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
4. FF crisis core.
I blame stagnation. Things changed little after the PS1 era and even regressed. Once the the genre became popular, tropes within it became "traditional."
They are declining because of too much focus in graphics, thats why handhelds RPGs succeed because the graphics is the last of worries.
In japan there are a lot of awesome RPGs but given how strange they are (Like conception) we will never get them.
Those are some eye opening numbers there. I think it does not help the genre when the leading developer of JRPGs like Squarenix are so fixated on westernization of their games.
Ever since this gen started when they clearly stated that they will support the Xbox360 more so than the PS3 was a clear indication of the direction they were & are headed. The JRPG genre became mainstream popular on the PSone with the release of FF 7. When Square & Sony were in that partnership it turned out to benefit both companies. Square has had their most successful business during that time while Sony was thankful for Square's games that help sell their consoles. So when Squarenix decided to sever that partnership with Sony the basically abandoned the fanbase they built with that partnership.
Not blaming the Xbox360 for the poor JRPG games this gen cause we know that the platform is capable of some solid games like Lost Odyssey. It was clearly a poor business decision by Squarenix to go for the money more so than the recognition. They sold out their fanbase for a higher paycheck. That is why the JRPG genre is dying cause the main player has forgotten what got them to be the company they once were & sold out to the mighty dollar.
I am glad that some of the smaller companies like NIS, Atlus, Idea Factory although have smaller budgets are trying to make JRPG games that fans still love & remember. Namco Bandai were once like Squarenix going for the chance of higher profits are now trying to re-connect with the fanbase they built with the Xillia games.
That is why i tend to support the lesser know JRPG games despite negative reviews by game sites cause without the lesser known JRPGs we may as well say goodbye to this once popular genre of yore.
JRPG's are thriving on handhelds, aren't they?