I Really Miss the Glory Days of Japanese RPGs

Explosion.com's Dave Walsh takes a look at how Japanese RPGs went from a once beloved genre to one that seems to be cast aside and shamed into a corner.

[Kratoscar2008]

If it werent for NIS and ATLUS the genre would be dead now, at least ouside japan.

[Hicken]

For the most part, I agree. Sega has put out one or two(mostly Valkyria Chronicles), and a few other companies like Mistwalker have, as well. But not too many big names have come West.

That said, many of them have been quite good, or enjoyable at the least.

[Ranma1]

Many JRPG series have declined, especially those from Square Enix. Before they were the ones you could rely on.

Then they turned to sh*t for some reason...

[Godmars290]

And even then they've gone too meta and surreal to really be taken seriously. Left plenty of room for WRPGs to take over in the west.

@3-4-5:
Because they're only seeing the under 20 crowd as the ones buying them. Even Ni no Kuni, though the older crowd is buying it, is aimed at kids.

And then there's Square and Wada again reducing the overall development and design of FF into vapid and glossy yearly releases while DQ is made into a literal money syphon on Japan.

[chrispseuphoria]

Add Namco Bandai to that equation. We have Ni No Kuni and two Tales of games for the PS3 right now because of them. Plus, they've released Tales of Vesperia on the Xbox.

[3-4-5]

People love RPG's...but the people who run these companies don't seem to think so.

Look at Pokemon.....Look at Skylanders.......

Kid's are buying RPG's.....teens like RPG's....people in their 20's,30's,40's,50& #39;s love RPG's...

Why don't dev's realize this and think of more creative ways to make them.

[GrumpyOla]

I also often wonder why developers don't think of more creative ways to make JRPG. I guess people are bored not with the genre itself, but with the recurring themes, such as desert cities with their sand dunes, palm trees, turbanned NPCs and scorpion or centipedes enemies, snow covered cities theme, volcano and caves themes and so on. Also Half beast half human or half this half that enemies.
I think the genre will make a great come back if the devs come up with fantastical and out of this world architecture for cities, flora and fauna etc.

[3-4-5]

Yea it doesn't seem that hard though. I could sit down for a few days and come up with some good new ideas for locations. I'm sure a lot of us could. Why can't they ? And they are getting paid for it.

[Cirran]

Ni No Kuni says hi.

[KrimsonKody]

Ni No Kuni looks REALLY good!
I especially enjoyed the demo. As short as it was, it drew me in quick & not many games have done that for me lately.
I'm getting a physical copy of the game on Monday!

[TooTall19]

There are still good jrpgs. It's a shame that great games like Valkyria Chronicles didn't get the attention it deserved.

[MattS]

Do you have a PS3? Then it's not the end of the glory days of JRPGs.

I have like, 50 of them. On one console.

[CrescentFang]

I really do miss Square... man those PS1 games they kept churning out. They even tried different types of stuff like brave fencer musashi or threads of fate (prism dew).
Capcom hasn't made a Breath of Fire in years...
Konami at least has some spin-off Suikoden games they've made.
Sega has been making some weird, yet interesting Shinning games (the DS I heard was more like the traditionally Shinning Force games) and of course Valkyria Chronicles.
Namco Bandai has the Tales series under them and I am glad they are releasing more of the games in the series.
Though I have branched of my comfort zone years ago and I was not disappointed. They aren't AAA games by popular websites, but I love games from Falcom, Gust, NIS, Compile Heart, Idea Factory, Imageepoch, Atlus and many other developers or companies that I probably forgot.
I kind of don't care if we aren't in the "glory days" but that doesn't stop me from buying and playing games from all these companies/developers.

[TongkatAli]

I like playing RPGS on my Iphone 5 :)

[Flipgeneral]

Our imaginations helped to flesh out the 16bit sprites (started playing RPGs in SNES era). When the dialogue of old school games was not the greatest, Our imaginations created and established character relationships. The hand holding was not so forced and I remember spending hours trying to figure out where I was supposed to go after being sidetracked with airships and open worlds.

We, the gamers have aged. But it appears that the cherished genre merely waned and faded into unoriginal obscurity.

16bit sprites fleshed out into overly Done spiky haired one dimensional tools. Female characters look like they were spawned from sexually repressed creators. Dialogue became trite.

And overall I've become jaded.

Save me No No Kuni! This is my last breath!

[RogueStatus28]

I'd suggest getting a 3DS for JRPGs. Bravely Default, Dragon Quest VII, Pokemon XY, Shin Megami Tensei 4, Fire Emblem Awakening, Etrian Odyssey IV, Devil Summoner Soul Hackers, and Monster Hunter 3U are all coming out.

[dvewlsh]

Honestly, it ain't easy being an adult and being like, "yeah, I really want this handheld system" especially when smartphones are uber expensive, usually as or more powerful and most people have them.

It'd be rad is more games were coming out for them of that quality, but sadly, they aren't.

Trust me, I've long been debating just biting the bullet and getting a 3DS.

[RogueStatus28]

Bravely Default FF is looking to be possibly the best JRPG this gen and the closest thing you'd get to the classic Final Fantasies (1 to 8)... It's going to be excellent and I hope they localize this Triple A Square Enix masterpiece.

[contradictory]

it's not really dead as a genre but there's not nearly as much of them coming out anymore

[DivineAssault]

i do too. I want another Grandia game as well as the 3rd sequel to Valkyrie Profile.. This gen was missing GREAT Jrpgs.. It has some good ones but none were on the level of how Ni No Kuni looks & plays.. Valkyria Chronicles was great SRPG but no trophies & other features that are standard in todays console/handheld gaming for PS products... More is always better if theyre good..

[Relientk77]

I agree with the title, way more RPGs in past generations and more quality

That said, I'm really excitied for Ni no Kuni, theres a JRPG I really want

[wheresmymonkey]

I've just finished review Ni NO Kuni and i can confirm its absolutely awesome. This gens Chrono Trigger. Its that bloody good.

http://n4g.com/news/1156550...

Reviews through there if anyones interested.

[BanBrother]

Quite a long review, but an amazing read. Highly detailed. Love it how you point out the fact that JRPG's don't need innovation. It is all about the heart and spirit of the JRPG genre. This game has me so excited. Not once this gen have I been this excited for a release that I can recall.

It just looks like a piece of amazing art, seamlessly transformed into a game. I can't exp.ain the excitement I feel over this. I'm sure many others here are getting that same feeling. Almost like a childish joy you thought your old self could not experience again. Day 1.

[wheresmymonkey]

Thanks man. If you have any questions about it, just send me a pm or comment on the article and i'll try and get back to you.

[phantomexe]

I feel the same way, miss the story based rpgs that came out of japan during the old days. It's like all we get are these hybrids anymore part fps or hack and slash, not that there bad. I just wouldn't mind playing an old school story driven turn based rpg.