RPG's Just Aren’t What They Used to Be

ScreenGurus Emily explores why she's fallen out of love with modern RPG's - and what needs to be done to bring her back into the genre.

[shinoff2183]

I agree. Maybe im just to old. I do believe theres room for some old school jrpg's. In fact one of my most anticipated games coming is cosmic star heroine. Its an old school type of jrpg.

[wtchytbe]

SONY, Where's the Hype for World of Final Fantasy? Wasted on No Man's Sky. SONY doesn't care a lot about old school type of jrpg.

[wtchytbe]

@kalkano By your standard Is there any JRPG on PS4, not a shovelware? If all of them shovelware, by you own standard SONY sucks at bringing non-shovelware JRPGs on to PS4.

[wtchytbe]

kalkano can't even answer a simple a question.Brain problem? Is Nintendo exclusive Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE a shovelware? yes/no?

[-Foxtrot]

Last good one I played was Lost Odyssey

[Lon3wolf]

Just playing that again now via BC, just hoping Blue Dragon and Infinite Undiscovery come to it soon (so glad I kept those 3 games).

[SegaGamer]

I still really enjoy my JRPG's personally.

[PhoenixUp]

Because they evolved

[Red_Renegade]

if they were made like the old days, everybody would complain about how the games are stuck in the past.

[rainslacker]

That's what the press complained about when JRPG's fell out of fashion last gen. That they weren't anything new.

Now everyone complains that they are nothing like the old.

It's a no win situation.

On the plus side, there is plenty which represents the old, and plenty which represents the new on the actual market, so it's only hyperbole that things aren't the way they used to be. AAA JRPG development has taken a nosedive in selection for older styles, but AAA JRPG's still exist in some form. The mid range JRPG's of today are about akin to the AAA JRPG's of old.

Nothing has really been lost except the marketing budgets for these games.

[Red_Renegade]

i think i'm good at liking games for what they are, not what i want em to be, so i can't complain.

[Cy]

I literally could not care less why one girl on the internet doesn't like JRPGs.

[Pookandpie]

Sometimes, as people age, their tastes change.

I have no issue finding new and fun JRPGs for myself to play, but then again, I have played over 300-400 games in the RPG genre- from Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate II and Ultima IV to Final Fantasy VI, Ar Tonelico 2, and Ys Oath of Felgana.

From what it sounds like, the writer only appreciated one singular type of JRPG and heavily romanticizes what she liked back at that time. Dragon Quest Heroes has only slightly more RPG elements than any other Dynasty Warriors game, so it seems like an exceptionally odd choice to herald as what made her miss large, roaming world maps, all things considered. God Eater is more of an action-JRPG than DQ Heroes. Heroes has elements of a JRPG, but it is still very much a beat 'em up like Hyrule Warriors and other games in the Warriors series- not exactly something to compare to a turn based JRPG from 2004.

Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade X both have what she wants, for example- huge environments, lots of freedom and exploration, etc.. Hell, I remember obtaining my copy of PAL Xenoblade and being blown away by the sheer scope of it: And it's at least newer than Dragon Quest VIII. From how much she speaks of Final Fantasy, especially IX, Bravely Default or Bravely Second would be absolutely perfect for her with unique towns, imaginative secondary characters, and a great story. I'm imagining the writer either doesn't know about these kind of JRPGs which would easily scratch the itch she has; either that or she doesn't care and simply wanted a subject for a an article.

From the sound of it, this particular writer wasn't huge into RPGs as she really only threw around the names of the most well-known franchises (Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy), and somehow expected Dragon Quest Heroes, a Warriors spin-off game, to be similar to DQVIII: Journey of the Cursed King. Sorry, but that's extremely telling of the experience she has with JRPGs, or just RPGs as a whole. These kinds of JRPGs aren't gone. Sure, there are definitely far fewer thanks to rising development costs, but they still exist and they are still incredible, assuming you were at least marginally interested in the genre.

[rainslacker]

JRPG is kind of a broad genre. It always has been. More recently, it's been attributed to the turn based JRPG's that we saw a lot of in the PS1/2/before days, and most of those moved their way over to handhelds where they are plentiful and pretty diverse.

Most of the lamenting I see is that the turn based JRPG genre hasn't really moved its way into the AAA gaming environment of today.

However, when looking at the genre in broader terms, the action-JRPG genre has grown in several ways to become fuller and even bigger than it was in the past.

I think the general RPG term itself has become diluted as genre's have intermingled. When you see games like Mass Effect or Bioshock get labelled as RPG's because they have some RPG elements, it really makes the whole nomenclature meaningless.

Pigeonholing these games into specific genres just isn't applicable anymore, because JRPG's, and RPG's in general has always been pretty diverse in what it had to offer.

[rainslacker]

Too true. But in general, JRPG has contextually been thought of as the turn based genre, while action RPG's were also acceptable to include within because they shared a lot of the same presentation mechanics, albeit different game play.

[Pookandpie]

That's very true. JRPGs encompass everything from Xenogears to Valkryie Profile 2: Silmeria to Tales of Vesperia to God Eater to Eternal Poison. Some are turn based, some are strategy, some are action, but they're all still JRPGs.

I've been very against the moniker of JRPG for quite some time, actually, as the purpose of a term like that should be to describe what type of game it is and JRPG doesn't do a very good job of this. Grandia II plays very, very differently from Tales of Eternia and some people may prefer Kingdom Heart's approach to combat more than Lost Odyssey's, while others may appreciate Trails in the Sky over Disgaea. There's even more subdivisions than these, so I'm barely scratching the surface for the point of brevity, lol.

My general point was that even if you profess to like JRPGs, you definitely shouldn't compare across genre lines. There are still games like Dragon Quest VIII being made, and it's nonsensical to compare DQ Heroes, a Dynasty Warriors spin off with RPG elements, to a completely different game's "genre" and then complain that it isn't like the others, which is what I believe the writer of this article did.

But I am in total agreement with you, though. JRPG is a super broad genre and is outliving its usefulness since it no longer just defines, "Console-styled RPGs" or whatever people used to use when describing them differently than Ultima IV and the like back in the 90s.

[rainslacker]

@pooka

I agree. It is kind of a broad term to be used as a definative genre. I don't mind using the term, because for the most part, I like every variation that encompasses the types of games we get in it. Been playing games since the 2600 days, and before last gen, anything in JRPG was my go to game.

I don't mind just adding the monikers like Kalkano used, but I typically only do that when I'm trying to relate two different games in the same genre.

I suppose it does cause some confusion when discussing it though. Like I know Kalkano has a fondness for the turn based JRPG(which I do to), and we've gotten into arguments when he says that JRPG's aren't what they used to be....even though I disagree because I keep it more broad.

All that being said, I wouldn't mind seeing a return to more new JRPG's of all genre's making their way into the mainstream. There is a lot of reliance on popular titles, and new IP's tend to be much less frequent here in the west. The turn based one's in particular tend to be lower budget titles, or within more popular IP's like Persona. The higher budget ones tend to be more cutesy and fanservicy compared to some of the older one's which could be pretty serious. While I often enjoy the cutesy ones, I still enjoy my more serious ones.

[Lon3wolf]

Edge of Eternity is shaping up nicely.

[reaper602]

Sure there are,mabey your just looking in the wrong places.

[BlackDoomAx]

World of FF for waiting till Persona 5 :)

[classic19]

Rpg's are way better! Now