"If there’s one genre that I miss this generation, it is the JRPGs that graced both the PS2 and PSOne over a decade ago. Popular RPG franchises like Wild Arms, Suikoden, Shadow Hearts, and Grandia are among the titles that went MIA ever since the PS3 was released. While the RPG genre isn’t necessarily dead as there are Western RPG titles that are still popular like the Elder Scrolls game, the one thing that appears to be dead are the RPGs from Japan as we continue to see them less every year." - JPS
Today it was announced that the gaming and anime industry has lost another beloved artist and creator. Mutsumi Inomata has passed away.
The Tales Of series are some of the best RPGs I've ever played, and the characters are a big reason for that. I don't think I played a single game in the series that I didn't enjoy. Rest in peace.
We're 3 months into the year and I feel like we're taking nothing but L's.
Wow she was the character designer for Tales of Destiny one of my favorites of all time =(
I love the Tales games. Phantasia will always be my favorite. Ironically I felt like as the series progressed the character design became too “anime cliche.”
Matt from We Game Daily writes: "Cross Worlds isn’t going away. It’s making a small fortune, particularly in Asian markets, so there’s no reason for Level-5 to pull the plug. That said, there’s no real reason why a full PC/console sequel can’t be developed alongside efforts to support Cross Worlds."
While Ni no Kuni 3 would be cool, if it was like the first game, where is Dark Cloud 3 and Rogue Galaxy 2?
I thought the dev recently went mobile and Japan only. They shut down their American offices. So don't expect anything for consoles
I swear they just announced a few new games.
https://www.nintendolife.co...
I stand corrected then. Never heard about these games and also i just remember ni no kuni online being mobile only.
they said a loooooong time ago that Level 5 was working on a new installment but there has been no news since afaik. I just hope that they take more inspiration from 1 than 2, especially when it comes to the story.
Ni No Kuni Cross Worlds is the mobile game you're thinking of.
It looks amazing but I don't like to play mobile games.
Yeah the sequel was okay but had nothing on the first game, especially the battle system.
The story just didn't have that charm and even the twist at the end of the game wasn't really anything cool like Wrath of the White Witch.
Also the fact there was like ZERO mention of Oliver or his adventures in the game, no references, nothing was such weird. It's set a hundred or so years after but still, I'd have expected to seen some throw backs. I think we just got like a temple with his statue in it or something.
yeah, especially outside of japan. They should have released on pc at the same time as the ps3 version or a short time after.
They should've worked with Ghibli to put out a proper movie. Should've also made a Pokemon-esque spin-off rather than make Yokai Watch. If they do make a third game they gotta work with Ghibli!
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.
I would love a new Shadow Hearts game. The 3rd one sucked but the first two were excellent examples of horror rpgs that I really miss. I don't know who owns the IP, but I would love for them to bust out a new game and surprise everyone with it.
Suikoden is a series Konami is killing. All they do is release spin off titles in other words on handhelds. I wanna see another game with Georg Prime in it, explore more of the world. Maybe a game where the heroes join up to face off against a greater threat than any of them have faced before. We need another Suikoden 2.
Wow, only one on a non-Sony system. Sony's been doing well with JRPGs lately.
However, I am very excited for Fire Emblem, was definitely glad to see that in there. :]
Final Fantasy Versus XIII but oh wait, one can only hope...
I'll be getting Ni no Kuni (can't afford it now though), Tales of Xillia and probably Ys. It certainly will be a good year.
i enjoyed the Ys on PSP, i'll go for the new one on Vita.