JRPGs: Why They Are Making a Comeback in the West

Chad Awkerman of Dualshockers has been rather disappointed by the performance of JRPGs during the first part of this generation, but sees light at the end of the tunnel.

[Peaceful_Jelly]

Comeback? Where and when is this going to happen?

[Abriael]

I'd say it's already happening.

[evrfighter]

if hd remakes are the comeback you are speaking of...then it just proves how far jrpg's have fallen.

I mean back in the day jrpg's were GoTY contenders. Now they are just filler while wrpg's sit at the top from the witcher 2, to oblivion, fallout 3, dragon age origins, deus ex HR and one of the most anticipated rpg in years resting on skyrims shoulders.

the entire reason I bought a ps3 was for ff13. the entire reason I sold it was because of ff13.

[Army_of_Darkness]

"the entire reason I bought a ps3 was for ff13. the entire reason I sold it was because of ff13."

How does that make any sense?! Lol! FF13 was multiplat first of all, so why would you buy a PS3 for that game?! That doesn't add up bro. Sure the ps3 version was a little better than the 360, but in no way does it justify you buying, then selling a ps3 for that sole reason?!

wait.. ain't you one of those pc trolls?! (sniff, sniff) I smell bullsh1t....

[RedDead]

My eventual choice on getting a Ps3 was Versus Xiii. That'll probably end out multiplat anyway but still. I just didn't expect it too be so....late. The other games just became a big bonus(and some turned out to be system sellers themselves, Demons souls :D )

[JokesOnYou]

List of jrpg's GOTY nominations/winners
or
List of jrpg's at the top of western sales charts
or
It didnt happen.

Actually jrpg's collectively seem to be in decline since their ps2 glory days, many are among the worst scoring games this gen, lol talj about delusion, some are looking for weak BS excuses to blame micro, last I checked they initialy supported the genre and devs for 360, its not their fault that japanese consumers pretty much ignore the "western"console, and wetern 360 owners reaction to any jrpg, aside from FF is "meh". No just lay the blame *Squarely at the feet of the jrpg devs, its largely due to a failure of jrpg devs to ability to adapt, to deversify gameplay, to a change for a ever changing market, although more are releasing now many of them fail to impress all but the hardcore jrpg fans, I on the hand admittedly think 99% of jrpg's are boring, however regardless of my personal feelings no one can deny the FACTS speak to a much different direction than the headline suggests.

[FUxBxAR]

Glory days were Super Nintendo and PS1 my friend.. :)

[JokesOnYou]

Thus, the term "ps2 glory days", meaning the last time jrpg's enjoyed major success was on the ps2. Had I just said "glory days" your comment would make sense my friend. :)

[Godmars290]

No, there may be a market demand for them, they might be doing well on the DS and PSP, but on HD consoles they're not where they should be. Games like Xilla shouldn't be in limbo.

There sure as heck shouldn't have been the drought there was on the PS3.

@Chadness:
I'm saying that there shouldn't have been one in the first place. That what's happening now after 3-4 years is really only a redoubling of the trickle that's been going on.

@Abriael:
Yes, I'm talking about the West FFS D:<

At least Ni no Kuni is confirmed

[Chadness]

By your own use of past tense you imply that the drought was in the past...which it was, because there sure isn't any lack of JRPGs on the PS3 now.

[Abriael]

Xillia in limbo? It just released in Japan to ship 650k copies. Wouldn't call that "limbo".

If you're talking about a western release, it released in Japan a couple weeks ago, FFS :D

[Rainstorm81]

I agree Godmars, the abundance of really good JRPGs died with the PS2, when it comes to consoles,

Games like blue dragon and lost oddessy wouldve thrived on the PS3, my only reasoning is Sony saw the lack of success of the 360 and and figured the JRPG market in the west was dead.

Chalk it up to this gen being the FPS generation.

Name a few good JRPGs in the West and if anyone says FFXIII, i swear...

[ChozenWoan]

The problem has been that JRPG makers have been trying to "Westernize" aka make them all for the XBox, and thus they have avoided a majority of their old fans.

To be honest, I've not bought 1 JRPG since FF12. And I fear FFvs13 might be the last great RPG known to be in production that I might get this gen.

While the FF10 remake sounds nice... I've still got the original so I'm good. Now a FF7 remake and I'm in there like yesterday.

[fluffydelusions]

It's mostly happening on PS3.

[Pozzle]

I never noticed it until now...but the wings on Rinoa's back kinda look like feet. :/

[WhiteLightning]

There Angels feet :) ....

No but being serious I think it's because the picture has been scaled down and squished to fit in the picture box.

[VampiricDragon]

I am just going to ignore this article. Some of it is correct. Some of it is condescending

@Megaton.

Are you pretending stupidity or is that real?

[Megaton]

For a comeback, wouldn't one need JRPGs in the first place? There's been nothing worth noting on the market this whole generation in the JRPG genre. Demon's Souls, I suppose, but that's hardly your typical JRPG. The best JRPGs of this gen are downloadable versions of JRPGs from the PS1. Microsoft invested a ton of money into the genre early on as a method to break into the Japanese market. A decision that yielded very poor results. The JRPG has been in severe decline for the past few years, with the only memorable titles coming by way of PS2, PSP, and DS.

@angry people - By all means, if you've got lists of amazing JRPGs released this gen, bust 'em out. I'd love to see what you would consider to be a game that does justice to a once-amazing genre. What are the future classics that were released this gen?

[Stealth2k]

If there ever was a dumb comment with no fact this is it.

The highest selling rpg of the year was a jrpg. The best reviewed ect. And there have been at least 15 brand spankin new ones just this year that were great

Radiant historia, pokemon black white, dragon quest vi ( best version of the game), tactics ogre psp ( Beat version of the game) , disgaea 4, xenoblade, tales of X, the another world psp, little battlers, gungir, ect

[Chadness]

I'm interested in what you consider "amazing", because it's a very subjective analysis.

I've got Ar Tonelico Qoga, FFXIII, Disgaea 4, White Knight Chronicles II, both Atelier games, Hyperdimension Neptunia, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Eternal Sonata and Record of Agarest War Zero sitting on my shelf. All of which I consider decent to great and certainly worth owning. Plus, there were many mentioned in the article which will be releasing in the next year.

[tiffac008]

A) Purely new IPs this generation:

Lost Odyssey (360)
Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
Ni No Kuni (PS3) - 2012 Internationally
Xenoblade (Wii) - Need NA release
Last Story (Wii) - TBR in EU, No NA
Resonance of Fate (PS3/360)

B) Sequels to popular franchises:

Final Fantasy XIII (PS3/360) - Okay controversial. lol!
Final Fantasy XIII-2 (PS3/360) - TBR
Final Fantasy XIII Versus (PS3/360) - TBR
Star Ocean: Last Hope (PS3/360)
Tales of Symphonia II (Wii)
Tales of Verperia (PS3/360) - The complete ver is Japanese only. Q_Q
Tales of Graces F (PS3) - A complete & fixed version of the Wii one and 2012 internationally.
Tales of Xillia (PS3) - TBR internationally.
Super Robot Taisen OG2 (PS3) - TBR in Japan (SRWs are always an import anyway)
Disgaea 3 & 4 (PS3)
Sakura Taisen 5 (Wii/PS2)

C) Unheralded

Altelier Rorona (PS3)
Altelier Totori (PS3)- This week :D
Altelier Memeru (PS3)- TBR internationally
Ar Tonelico Qoga (PS3)
Blue Dragon (360)
Hyperdimensional Neptunia (PS3)
Hyperdimensional Neptunia MkII (PS3) - 2012 internationally.
White Knight Chronicles I & II (PS3)

Note: I forgot which Dragon Quest was released on the Wii and there are some games that I'm clearly forgetting here. lol!

*TBR = To Be Release.

Edit: But to be honest its not the fanbase that's at fault for the seemingly lack of JRPGs in the west. Its the publishers unrealistic expectation that's stumping the release of this genre.

I mean Valkyria Chronicles sequel on the PSP when its more popular in the west? Sakura Taisen gets a localization buts its the 5th one in the series? I can go on and on and on. Its too depressing ><

[Chadness]

I completely agree with your assessment that "its not the fanbase that's at fault for the seeminigly lack of JRPGs in the west...it's the publishers."

To ad to it, it's partly the attitude that a lot of Western gamers have these days.

Regardless, that's an impressive list. :)

[Megaton]

Played about half of those (the ones that are out), didn't bother finishing any of them. I'm not normally the kind of guy to leave a JRPG unfinished, either. Typically, if it's even remotely enjoyable, I tweak out on it. I'll go above and beyond to find everything one can possibly do.

To me, there's been a huge drop in quality for the genre. Square seemingly dropped off as the big dog and other lesser companies have tried to fill in the gaps. Some more successfully than others.

Looking forward, Ni No Kuni is the only one on my radar.

[rexbolt]

ur missing ark rise 4 the wii

[Godmars290]

I agree with Megaton in that MS caused JRPGs to be broken this gen. That the incentive of money only resulted largely in upscaled PS2 games, though at least Blue Dragon offered a hint at where they should have gone.

Xenoblade is another, but then that's an SD title.

[palaeomerus]

I think Square Enix broke the jrpg.

They published at least two games that hardly worked (Last Remnant and Infinite Undiscovery) on their intended platform both of which had a lot of potential.

Then they made probably the most boring FF design ever (40% prerendered cutscene) and proved why rpgs are better with restricted voice acting (Shut up Vanille! You too Hope! Everybody shut up! Arrgh!).

Then they blew up their own MMORPG business with FF XIV.

Now they are pushing a sequel to FF XIII that looks like it was made up of leftovers from XIII.

They made a lot of noise about FF XIII Versus and it turns out that they only NOW started full production on it.

[Tony P]

I forever can't understand how people keep pointing at *one company* to explain what's been happening to RPGs in general.

Haven't you noticed how RPGs of all kinds have changed this gen? RPGs, especially Western styles, have changed to become far more action-oriented. You see it with the most popular examples by Bethesda and BioWare. Traditional JRPGs have for the most part remained inflexible in their design and so have floundered to find a place on consoles. What are the most popular Japanese-made RPGs? The ones dissimilar to the common perception of the genre like Demon's Souls.

So the point here is not how MS or SE ruined RPGs single-handedly. It's how gaming has expanded FAR beyond the niche markets these genres used to enjoy.

Why is that so hard to see?

[thetorontokid]

Ni No Kuni!!!!!!!!!!

[death2smoochie]

"JRPGs: Why They Are Making a Comeback in the West"

Really? Where?

[fluffydelusions]

On PS3

[death2smoochie]

from a sales point of view JRPG overall are not making a comeback in the west.
What you are seeing is a slight increase.
This has been the case this entire generation for JRPG's in the West. Western Style RPG's have taken over and JRPG's are having a hard time establishing itself once again in the Western market.

[Lavalamp]

A native RPG product outselling a foreign RPG product!? Oh how absurd that is, death2smoochie, how absurd indeed!

[Foxgod]

Itl make a small comeback in the form of Suikoden for the psp, after that jrp is going to be in the drain again.

[PooEgg]

I really miss Suikoden and wish for a new game on PS3. Not a port either, please, I want a full blown epic new game.

[Infernostew]

I'm excited for Tales of Graces F and Ni No Kuni next year so it looks to be getting a bit better for JRPGs.

[shammgod]

Bring me tales of xillia and Ni no kuni now

[Wintersun616]

Just a small quote from the article, for you who are asking "where?"

"The last couple years have seen literally a 500% increase in the amount of JRPGs that have come to Sony’s console – from new IPs like Resonance of Fate to niche titles like the Atelier franchise. We’ve seen White Knight Chronicles (1 and 2), Final Fantasy XIII, Disgaea 4, Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny, Hyperdimension Neptunia and Ar Tonelico Qoga. All these are great games in their own right, some selling into the millions worldwide.
In the next year we have Final Fantasy XIII-2, Atelier Totori, Ni No Kuni and Tales of Graces F to keep us busy until we end up with Final Fantasy Versus XIII, Tales of Xillia, Hyperdimension Neptunia MK-2, Atelier Meruru and others that are likely to be localized for the West."

That's quite a lot more of jrpgs than what we have seen this gen so far I'd say.

[tiffac008]

Atelier Totori is set to be release this month. Hyperdimensional Neptunia MkII has been confirmed for localization and is set for a 2012 release window. :)

[Blood_Tears]

@tiffac008
Final Fantasy XIII Versus (PS3) - TBR
Fixed :)

[Tanir]

if there is any comeback its because maybe japan will learn that 360 only jrpgs are fail and that jrpgs are needed on the ps3 for them to get money, and honestly most of the good jrpg games lately have been on ps3, white knight, rorona, etc. keep on on ps3 and u will be fine japan.

[Chnswdchldrn]

JRPGs are typicallly generic cookie cutter shit, zero originality from game to game unlike many western RPGs

[Hicken]

Yeah, you're right. Western RPGs are so original. None of them fit in that stereotypical medieval-slashing-shit-up or semi-futuristic-shooting-shit- up mold.

[Relientk77]

Tales of Graces F and Ni No Kuni are coming out in 2012

I want Tales of Xillia to release in North America also.. but other than that? what other JRPGs are coming out

I want a JRPG comeback now! I love JRPGs

[forevercloud3000]

Whats wrong with JRPGs this gen? I will Tell you...

1. Japanese gaming market has become stagnant. While US and EU market have grown exponentially, Japan has stuck with traditions for the most part. Traditions other territories have long since gotten over. Some of this is brought on by the fans tho. Many rather these games stay the same(Lost Odyssey) but then others want knew fresh experiences(Valkyria Chronicles). Neither groups seperately generate a big enough fanbase to support their needs. So Japanese Devs are forever trying to find that perfect mix of what they want.

2. The separation and confusion of where the fanbase lies. Why were JRPGs so much more successful on PS1 & 2? Because you could find 90% of all JRPGs(at least the good ones) all in the same place. You knew EXACTLY what system to get if u wanted to play FF,SO,Dark Cloud, etc. Now on the other hand, the splitting of fanbases due to broken exclusivity agreements, failure to bring JRPGs over seas, or the worst offender, putting jrpgs on systems that no one expected them to be on. I realize many will want to deny this so I will give examples...

-So many ppl bought PS3 for FFXIII and Versus, games took forever and then its all of a sudden available on both. Many early PS3 adopters felt lied too and cheated.
-Star ocean has always been on playstation since the system started. Why the hell did SO4 come EXCLUSIVELY to the 360? Which by the way has the smallest Japanese game fanbase which shows in the sales.

-Systematically every JRPG was delayed and or missing from PS3 roster early on, everyone was expecting them to be on PS3 and they were not. Too many of them on systems where they were doomed to fail. Now its a guessing game.

-genuine quality of the genre has declined. See NIS first level 3D games(although they are newbies to 3D)

[KingofGambling]

If JRPG want to make a comeback bring back the Suikoden series.

[MilkMan]

WHERE?! WHERE is this renaissance taking place?

[gano]

Stop trying to make shyt westernized then we'll see that come
back you speak of.
But maybe we should level up first,grab the ultima weapon,
have 99 phoenix downs and master curaga and it could happen