A look back at a bygone age when men where men and games were art. Possibly.
Dark Chronicle was nuts. Absolute bonkers, PLAY will concede that. That's nothing strange in itself, being a Japanese RPG, but what astounded them was the enormous depth and continued widening of the mechanics. At almost every stage in the game you're learning something new, some new facet of gameplay to keep you on your toes. This breadth of gameplay is unsurpassed, even in RPG terms, and while it could be considered linear by many standards, playing through (bearing in mind that this is a 100-plus-hours game, at heart) is an unfettered joy.
In Dark Cloud 2, it seems very easy to die to enemies. Enemies are just too hard to kill, and do way too much damage. There is one thing that can help you survive longer: Potato Pies, Witch Parfait, and Eden Fruits.
These items are scattered around Palm Brinks as well as the future world at different points of the game. As you adventure forward and change the future, new small chests, called “Miracle Chests”, will spawn in the future world.
You can buy this on PS4 or PS5 (PS4 version) or download on PSNow . Its a classic that people still play a lot so it’s relevant .
Show some respect to one of the best action RPG‘s ever made it’s timeless. And with all the crap that’s out today it deserves to be mentioned
Dark Cloud 2 is literally my favourite game of all time. I owned the PS4 release day one. Owned the PS2 copy from 2 days after release and still got it. Doesn't change the fact this article is the weirdest timing ever, especially since those upgrades you'll run into basically no matter what and when you do, thing blinks like crazy telling you to use it immediately lol. They got a million guides for the game and not like it's a new rerelease. God tier game but pointless article, even if I clicked because it mentioned the greatest game of all time lol
Exactly what Teflon02 said. I'm not shtting on Dark Cloud 2, it's part of my childhood.
Daav Valentaten from NoobFeed lists down the top 5 impressive game sequels that aren't commonly thought of.
Drakengard 3 was a game that desperately needed to be on PS4 it had one of the worst frame rates I'd ever seen on PS3 (and that's saying something). If the Nier Replicant remaster is financially successful I hope we see a remaster/remake for Drakengard 1 and 3.
"With the impeding release of Final Fantasy XV I think it worth looking at what exactly JRPGs can offer now. I mean, they have long since passed their PlayStation 2 heyday, but does that mean they have nothing left to offer? Recent releases – even Final Fantasy games – have felt lacking that extra jazz of previous generations. Is it that the stories aren’t as engaging? Has the combat been forced to evolve to a point where it’s no longer as enjoyable?"
They are still coming, and a lot of them are even really, really good, it's just that companies besides Square Enix don't have the resources to make a big enough game to compete with the likes of Bethesda, Bioware or Even CDPR (I know they are not that big of a company, but they are getting there, specially when all their resources go in making one game at a time).
Persona 5 and FFXV will lead to a comeback of the BIG JRPGS, but even on the Western Rpgs, it's not like there are a lot of BIG games, Technomancer came and went (and it was a lot better that some gave it credit to be), they have those big 3 making games and that's it.
" Square Enix don't have the resources to make a big enough game to compete with the likes of Bethesda, Bioware or Even CDPR"
Because we got a main Final Fantasy this gen? Buddy, FFXV could move like 12 to 13 million units this fall, it could continue to move huge units when it comes to PC. I see it outselling both Mass Effect and Witcher 3
Consider Witcher 3 moved like 10 million units. The crappiest FF with FFXIII moved close to like 8 million. Seriously think about that lol
I'd say, lets wait til FFXV actually releases as I feel its going to break records.
He said companies besides Square, as in the other publishers releasing jrpgs, such as N.I.S. You are always so quick to talk down to someone, that you missed a very important word in that sentence of his. No need to be uncouth, friend.
@_-EDMIX-_
As @FullmetalRoyale explained, I said companies BESIDES Square Enix, even Atlus, Level-5 or Namco can't compete with the big ones in the west, Only Sony has the money to make something as big as Square in the JRPG Arena (and I sincerely hope they do, A new Legend of Dragoon would rock).
I have high hopes for FFXV, hope it washes the bad taste that FFXIII left in my mouth, I didn't mind the linearity or gameplay of those games, I just couldn't stand the characters, and for me, In a JRPG one of the most important things is a great and diverse cast of characters I can root for.
@Fullmetal- You are correct. Agreed. My fault.
@RPG- Fully agree. I think its largely based on how handhelds are doing in Japan, because its so much install base, they must make titles like World Of Final Fantasy where they are still getting some of that install bases sales along with PS4.
I think if NX is a handheld that outs to a TV and Sony doesn't do another handheld, we'll see more JRPGs on console, but the way Vita is still selling in Japan, something tells me Sony is willing to ride it out for a while in that region.
You are correct though, we only have a few publishers that can even make big budget JRPG titles
I can tell you easily why Jrpgs on life support. A combination of lazy and cheap Devs and entitled gamers. Jrpg Devs bending over to make a quick buck for the 3ds and mobile. Gamers not buying Jrpgs on consoles. It's as simple as that. So you can basically blame yourself and others for ruining Jrpgs.
1. japanese rpg's at times don't do well outside of japan which means resources are not there.
2. japan gamers have moved onto mobile and handheld games, which is where a lot of those games ended up.
3. the wii u and xbox one didn't sell very well in japan which means the ps4 will have to take the bulk of software sales and the ps4 isn't really lighting japan on fire in sales either.
4. japanese developers struggled coping with newer hardware and the pc.
hmmmm....FFXV is a action RPG and the ones square made sale millions where all TURN BASED or MMO action jrpg's. We will see.
I don't think it's about resources, the games SquareEnix produced are simple bad or not good enough.
They never learned how to evolve and game developement stagnated. Too bad really, wold have liked to see some next level jrpgs.
@Indy.
Probably sell just fine as alot of us want to be able to see the combat in action just like in the movies. Don't Get me wrong, but a turn based combat game after Kingsglaive would be much worse for the series than the evil action combat you see
The games that are getting labelled as jrpgs these days were called action adventures etc in the golden PS2 age.
Persona 5 comes out so close to PS4PRO release date, THE LAST GUARDIAN coming in December after PS4PRO is out. Why can't people Admit that the retarded(slow) PS3 CELL Architecture cause the Mass Extinction of Home Console JRPGs developers?! The only AAA JRPG coming out on PS4 is coming out After PS4PRO release!
It really is a bummer because every Squaresoft game that was released on the PS1 were some of my favorite games. I want to get into NIS games, but some of those are a little hard to. Same with Atlus. I'm yet to be sold on any Namco-Bandai games. It seems like since their merger they've gone downhill IMO.
I still say the best JRPGs are turn based. I'm getting more and more turned off by FFXV all the time. Looking forward to Persona 5 next year
JRPGs and western RPGs are not direct competitors. They are two completely different genres serving different fan bases.
There are resources, and even big JRPG's, they just don't get the sales to support them anymore. Only the big well known titles tend to sell well. Things like NiNoKuni did well, but not so well that it lit the fires like FFVII did back in the day.
I think Gust and Idea Factory could manage to make some really compelling JRPG's if they got out of their MO of making cutesy fan service games. Hyperdimension could have been taken more seriously if it took itself more seriously....although it's success has grown pretty steadily over the years.
Nowadays, most either low budget or mid-tier, but a lot of the mid-tier ones are quite good.
Doesn't need to be inflated budgets. I prefer they don't spend hundred of millions or even 50 million for a RPG. We go back the golden age of RPGs the 90s Western or Japan there were insane amounts of games. Made on smaller budgets from smaller companies. Sure Square had bigger budget classics but they still didn't blow it all on one game. I would put Shining Force III or the Quintet Trilogy with anything of the era. Hell even Game Arts with Lunar or Grandia. In the modern era Dragon's Crown the most expensive game Vanillaware ever made (and most successful) cost a whopping 1 million dollars.
Xenoblade X which I am sure had a decent budget but still no doubt a country mile smaller than FFXV and after playing 2 demos of XV and putting 785 hours into XCX. I already can get a good guess which one is better crafted as game. One is prettier the other possibly better crafted if the demos give any indication.
The only thing that happened with JRPG's is they started migrating from console to handhelds. For the past several years, if you've wanted quality JRPG's they were pretty much only available on vita and 3ds which is fine by me. I love those rpg's on the go, but that doesn't mean there shouldn't be more big budget JRPG's on consoles too.
Yeah tons on handheld and seems they release every week. I don't mind, but it would be smarter and only fair to have more on consoles.
I personally think it makes more sense for them to be on handhelds. Think about it logistically. Most Japanese studios are small and have small budgets. They have nowhere near the resources western companies tend to have. Couple that with how popular handheld gaming is in Japan because they're always busy and on the go and it only makes sense that so many JRPG's are on handhelds.
Also, I will be getting persona 5 and final fantasy 15, but for more of the low budget games from smaller studios, it just makes more sense to keep them on handheld. Why would I want a crappy looking ps4 rpg I can only play at home when I could play it anywhere? The genre is such a huge time sink that I don't see how so many people want so many rpg's on consoles. It's too much unless you have all the free time at home in the world. That's why I tend to buy basically every rpg I want on handheld and with console rpg's I'm a lot more selective since I like to finish my games and being relegated to these huge experiences only when I have hours to spend at home with no interruptions is not convenient in the slightest.
Case in point, next month, World of Final Fantasy releases on PS4 and Vita. I've seen comparisons. The ps4 version looks better, but only slightly. The ps4 version is really just a slightly spruced up port of the vita game and it's $20 more and I can only play it at home??? No thanks. I'm getting the vita version.
"it would be smarter and only fair to have more on consoles"
Based on what evidence?
They are moving respectable units on handheld and I'm pretty sure they know how to run a business.
@Kal- ". They CAN afford higher budgets; they just don't believe their games will sell enough to justify it. "
LOL! Maybe you should really look up the word "afford" as if they feel its not enough to "justify it" then it means they feel they can't afford it.
You basically ignored completely what the word actually means
On evidence that their aren't a lot, and a few more would do it justice. Jrpgs still sell well on console; porting the right ones in which would sell would be better for business and the genres diversity on consoles for gamers. Overall, smarter ingeneral for the ones who make the right move. There are too few on consoles as of late while there use to be a ton that sold well. The market didnt die out it just cost more to make for consoles and devs may not want to take the risk or have the budget. But It's an open market atm on consoles, there is room for a couple more businesses to make the right move and take advantage of. Just because they own a business doesn't mean they are always doing the right thing or are always profitable or maximizing profits more than they can. Businesses/devs tank all the time, small and high-profile devs. There were a lot last gen that did well early with not a lot of consoles on the market. It just this gen has been slow with games and is just starting to pick up, imo. There are more then enough ps4s sold to justify the release of a few more jrpgs.
@Post- "There are more then enough ps4s sold to justify the release of a few more jrpgs" In Japan.......?
"There are too few on consoles as of late" Maybe thats because the ones that did sell last gen, didn't sell enough to continue only making them on console.
Example. Valkria Chronicles, it moved 300k on PS3. When put on PC, it moved literally 700k.
On PSP, VC2 moved 500k. So they have great reason to not only just focus on console, handheld and PC is something they can make money from.
"Just because they own a business doesn't mean they are always doing the right thing" I don't really get what this means...
What do you mean by "right" ? Morally or something incorrect? The are correct to move production to platforms that are making them more money.
Yes, they can make money on console, no doubt about that, but they can't just ignore a shift in install base. Those gamers playing on handheld are still gamers that clearly want those titles.
"There are more then enough ps4s sold to justify the release of a few more jrpgs" Like I said, do you have sales numbers to back this up regarding JRPGs?
Did PS3 not have 85 plus million units last gen? How many JRPGs moved past 1 million units last gen not named Final Fantasy?
Its enough to get some on there yes, I don't think its enough to shift focus on PS4 solely as I don't see any numbers to even slightly support that idea.
Not even a little. PSVita and 3DS are still moving huge units for JRPGs, enough that its a hard gamble to skip out on them.
VC4 and World Of Final Fantasy I feel are making the right call coming to both handheld and console. That imho is the best move right now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...
We got Bloodborne at least.
"Maybe thats because the ones that did sell last gen, didn't sell enough to continue only making them on console."
Or maybe they did sell well but the generation jump got too expensive to develop for and CEOS cut down on the number of games they make, as they have stated a long with many other devs.
I never said to focus solely on consoles, handheld is a must for a jrpg. I actually said "port" from handhelds.. But consoles are profitable that's why the next digimon is coming to ps4 as well, if it didn't do well and they didn't profit they wouldn't be stupid enough to do it again... a game doesnt have to sell millions to be profitable... trails of cold Steel did well on the ps3 and Falcom may even consider ps4 exclusive for TOCSIII.
So it really comes down to developers having enough to make ps4 games. Development got expensive this gen. But if they have the funds the proof shows that they can make more profit on ps4 (not more than handhelds, but just more profit for them in general).
@PoSTedUP- well don't disagree with anything of that Post.
I'm all for them getting ported to console so they can make some more money and gamers can get more games. Its why I like the PS Vita PS4 combo we are seeing. If Sony ever makes another handheld, I hope they make it as easy to develop for as PS Vita so we get those titles on console more likely. I'd like to see them come to PC too so devs and publishers get more funds to keep making games.
Persona 5 coming to PS3 and PS4, World Of Final Fantasy and Valkyria Chronicles 4 coming to PS4 and Vita is something we need. The more, the better. The genre is just too small to keep on console if we want to see more titles come out . Not saying you said that either. I want Yakzua at least to come to PC so Sega at least sees someone outside of PS gamers want Yakuza. It would be cheap to port over, PC is open source, huge install base.
I hope the do it with Persona 1-4 along with 5. It did Valkria Chronicles 1 wonders in sales!
Replies(4)Kind of makes one wonder if that's not one of the reasons that mobiles do so well in Japan, and home console sales are declining. Whenever a big JRPG releases in Japan, home console sales spike.
But it does cost a lot more to make a big budget AAA JRPG on the home console compared to a mobile platform, so even if they did make them, it may not sell well enough to sustain the genre on consoles.
*"pizzazz," not "jazz"
They went to handhelds. There's been lots of good ones on DS, 3DS, PSP, Vita and smartphones/tablets.
I recommend the Persona 1 remake on PSP (Not sure if it can be played on PSVita as not aware if it was made as a download on PSN)
Parasite Eve Third Birthday, KH Birth By Sleep (pretty sure its in a collection for PS3), of course the Paper Mario Paper jam game on 3DS (fun fact, my good friend now owns the world record speed run for that game lol) and of the Mario Bros Super Star games. Lots of great JRPGs on handheld.
The best thing I've seen has been the ports from PS Vita to PS4 or PS3. The simple design of PSVita allows for very low cost ports to PS3 or PS4.
I was thinking of getting Persona 1... never did get that far in it on PS1, but still have my copy (which I guess is semi-expensive on the used market now, but I doodled a lot in the instruction manual as a teenager, which probably reduces its price considerably, heh). I'd probably prefer the original, and not like the changes (like the music), but not sure. I know most say the update is better. It'd be more convenient to play on Vita, sure...
Toukiden: Kiwami also looks pretty good on PS4. They ought to put Soul Sacrifice on there if they got some of those others.
there are actually a lot of great jrpg's, they just don't have the marketing that the ff series gets. i actually prefer most of the smaller dev's games because they stick to the simple combat system that i grew up playing. i'm not a big fan of the active battle system, tbh. i liked the old, simple, turn-based combat that the older jrpg's had. one of the reasons why i started to lose interest after ffx.
That's too bad for you :(
I like all the battle systems in rpg's I've played over the years. Only more games for me to play and enjoy :)
it's not like me not playing them frees up a spot for someone else to play lol you make it sound as if i was taking up a spot, and now that i don't play, it's free for someone else to take lol
Same I can't stand the hack n slash/action combat most of the new JRPG have were you control 1 char at a time & the rest party members are controlled by some stupid AI, one of the reasons I lost interest & also stop care about any new FF after FFX, any game that I might be interested to play is either on 3DS or PSVITA & I don't play games on handhelds, so ye I'm out of options pretty much, for someone like me who miss the good old times back in PS1 era were there was so many options, the console was packed with traditional turn based JRPGs, the situation feel so disappointed that I can't describe...
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