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As a JRPG fan, I always annoyed that some Western gamers claiming JRPG is dying and already dead. I also annoyed when they claimed Fallout 3 is the best RPG game ever made even it is a shooting game with few RPG elements.

I may biased on this situation but I just annoyed when most of JRPG haters never play good JRPGs that aren't Final Fantasy or Squaresoft(later Square-Enix) productions to that matter, like Suikoden(Konami) and Shin Megami Tensei(Atlus) series.

If they think JRPG sucks, then blame Tetsuya Nomura. Not JRPGs, not Final Fantasy and not Square-Enix.

I may little bit one-sided here but I also hate to see when people hate WRPGs, they were labeled as trolls while people who hated JRPGs aren't.

The thing is. JRPG games don't really appeal to Western gamers. At least not most of them. It def not dead though. There just aren't as many good releases :/.

If I wanted to play a game that almost only consists of cutscenes, I'd go watch television instead. :P

I like Atelier Iris though, it doesn't take itself so seriously.

I wouldn't say JRPGs are dying... It's just that, it's quite slow for us in the West to understand it's intricate storyline and gameplay. I love JRPGs myself and I agree with your opinion that the "supposedly" best RPG out there is some shooter game. I wouldn't even call it an RPG considering the amount of time is basically shoot shoot shoot.

I don't think RPGs are dying in general, but I do think they're dying in the West. It kind of ticks me off that half the so-called "RPGs" are really shooters with RPG elements. Also, what I always considered an RPG is now referred to as a JRPG and what I always considered a shooter is now considered an "RPG", like that's the standard. So yeah, there's definitely some bitterness for me.

JRPG's have died down somewhat. I used to be an avid FF geek. But it started to go down around ff7. I am not saying all the games were bad but they started to become too much about flash and flare instead of any substance. Awful characters like In FFX didn't help either.

thank fully there are more SMT games now and that pleases me. Games like Lost Odyssey and Nostalgia help too.

sadly tri-ace has also gone down hill. Star ocean 4 was pretty awful (in everything other than combat and graphics) and infinite undiscovery was the same.

the good news is normally it takes awhile to get a decent amount of JRPG's on newer systems. As time continues on it will be cheaper to develop games for 360 and ps3. so more companies will be willing to take a chance on putting JRPG's on them.

I would like see some more stuff from the xenogears/xenosaga universe.

and the Tales series is still just as good as it was back in the psone days.

I used to love JRPG's the most but my focus has shifted more toward western RPG's. although its mostly PC ones.

I think part of the problem is the decline in the japanese gaming industry as a whole. Its a shame but popularity moves in phases.

I think Square Enix in general is going downhill. FFXIII just makes me roll my eyes and I hate the whole FFXIV online thing. Lucky for me, I'm not really big into any of SE's franchises.

I really can't get into WRPGs. The character development is so...non-existent.

JRPGs aren't dying they just aren't progressing, very rarely do JRGs feature any real innovation they stick to old played out formulas that just don't work anymore. JPGs are horribly niche right now, they are just about as niche as simulation games now. Only do the big names sell anymore, whens the last time a virtually unknown JRPG done very good? WRPGs are doing a hell of alot better then JRPGs ever did.

and Fallout is alot more RPG then it is shooter. And since when does having shooting in a game disqualify it from being an RPG?

I'm getting sick of this innovation craze going on in the west lately. Games don't have to be innovative for me as long as they're fun. I've been in the mood for a traditional JRPG lately, but it's impossible to find one, because everyone's obsessed with innovating and diluting the gameplay.

It didn't die, just went back to the niche status it had pre-FF7 I believe. At least at console level. Most JRPGs are being released by niche companies now or trying to get modern and failing or incorporating MMO elements. On portable JRPGs seem plenty enough.

This.

I just find it hilarious that people will actually look at Wii games and actually call them serious games.

You must not own a DS, cause I can find you a room full of them.

Frankly I rather take innovation over mediocrity, Innovation might fail alot but the one game that does raise the bar, makes it all worth it.

The main problem with JRPGs is it's fans, they wanna sallow then same crap they been spoon fed for the last 15 years, and when ever some thing tries to do some thing new, they flip the fuck out. JRPGs are getting imported less and less, cause it's just not worth it anymore. Innovation keeps things alive. Mediocrity only stagnates, Just look at the MMO industry, that is an industry that is being destroyed by mediocrity.

Care to go more into detail on this statement? Because as of right now, that statement makes you sound completely ignorant.

Recently WRPG's have made a move away from being only available to PC gamers and, largely thanks to Bioware, have become more easily available to console gamers. This has helped increase their popularity. JRPG's have done the opposite in a way. Many Japanese developers are choosing to develop RPG's for handheld consoles. Suikoden, Kingdom Hearts, Valkyrie Profile and Dragon Quest were all previously only on consoles but the most recent entry from each series has been released on a handheld console. While this does not generate as much sales, it is a far cheaper and safer way to develop games then on console and so from a business point of view it makes sense, particularly with the economy. Many JRPG fans care a lot less about graphics and so are happy to play handheld console RPG’s then most western gamers are. The problem is many people ignore handheld RPG’s and don’t seem to take them into consideration when saying JRPG’s are dead. They’re not, many games are still selling well there just hasn’t been as many blockbuster titles this generation. Sure western RPG’s are doing better in the west then Japanese games are but they are aimed at the west so that is understandable.

WRPG's stick to the same formulas as much as JRPG's, if not more. It has always only been the big names that sell well, regardless of genre. To answer your question, Valkyria Chronicles exceeded sales expectations in the west, selling out in many online retailers, and Demons Souls has been selling very well. Sure they are not completely unknown, Sega and Atlus are huge game developers but both games were still new IP's and not would not have been well known outside of JRPG fans. When was the last time a virtually unknown WRPG sold very well anyways? Fallout 3, Mass Effect and Fable 2 are by no means unknown. Oh and WRPG's aren't even close to the bigger JRPG's in terms of sales. Every main Final Fantasy series since VII have sold way, way more than any WRPG has globally, and so have Kingdom Hearts and Dragon Quest. Even now WRPG's are only doing better in the west, they don't sell at all in Japan, and they are not doing that much better.

This. I keep seeing far too much generic titles with little or no innovation. The battle systems are usually the same old with some few twists thrown in and the stories are repetitive and relies far too heavily on old tropes and cliches, which is terrible for a genre that mainly focus on the story.

Obviously, that's still a generalization of course, and there are some good examples of interesting new JRPGS, but in overall, I feel the WRPGs have definitely been superior lately, all owing to the fact that many of these actually try to be true role playing games, giving the players the means to affect the story, rather than the standard JRPG on-rails stories.That is, if they have any intricate stories and gameplay at all... Intricacy quickly begets simplicity once you've run through the same tropes and plot devices a dozen times and realize people are merely repeating the same formulas over and again.

Also, someone seem to be confused here. Just because a game has FPS elements does not make it less of an RPG. Fallout 3 is an RPG by all standards. It has party members, loads of equipment and items, character creation with lots of skills and perks, and a lot of quests that can be solved in different ways.
In fact, as far as role playing is concerned, it is much closer to being a true RPG than any FF game, all due to the fact that you are actually able to influence the story and decide how to do things rather than simply follow wherever the tracks lead you.

Being one who have always been facepalming whenever I see futuristic RPGs like Star Ocean where people use archaic swords and bows, I actually love how WRPGS like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 include more FPS based gameplay.
Honestly, if the setting is a futuristic one, then please explain to me why I see a bunch of nuts with spears and swords beside a guy with a machine gun arm.

I don't see the problem here. Ever since Game Boy, Nintendo's reputation has severely degraded to the point where I don't expect anything of them. Since far before the Wii released I knew it was going to be a failure as a console. The only reason it was kept alive is because of Nintendo's marketing tricks. Make a family console and re-release popular shooter/non family games. It worked.

Well, that sucks for you then. Too bad I feel the same exact way about the PS3 and 360. I'm not going to try and pretend that the Wii doesn't have shovelware, but at the very least it has games I actually like, in contrast to the PS3 and 360, which I guess I should consider crappy systems because they have nothing I like on them and aren't aiming toward my general tastes.

If the Wii were that much of a failure, it would lose all support and we wouldn't get games like No More Heroes and Mad World, which obviously do not fit in with the "family friendly" trait that Nintendo possesses. So yes, while it DOES have that attribute, that doesn't mean that's all that is available for the system.

Also, just because you don't like a system or its games doesn't mean it's crap. Sorry Nintendo doesn't cater to you, but why should they want to cater to you after a statement like that? Nintendo's a business like any other, and they'll go where they're respected. If you do nothing but continue to bash them they'll move onto a different audience and make money elsewhere.

Exactly. Just to clear things up, I don't hate the Wii for it's games, I hate what they put inside the Wii. Nintendo throws all this crap into it, giving it processing power akin to the PSP, then they sell it as a stand-up stationary console. That's one of the biggest mistakes I've seen Nintendo make so far, but before you think I hate Nintendo, truthfully, my favorite game console of all time is the GBA SP. I just think they should stick with portable. Portable can handle RPG's quite well, since RPG's don't need to hog all the graphics.

You're talking about /v/ here, aren't you?
lol anti-weeabo trends on a weeaboo website.

I wouldn't say it is dead, just like other people said, in the western world they dont do it for people. But japan has like a bazillion games that never get released outside their little island, lots of them being rpgs, so there are plenty of them out there, its just a matter of if you can understand japanese well enough.

and as for fallout 3, it is very much an RPG. just because it uses guns doesn't make it "not really an rpg". just think of it has being a real time battle system with firearms instead of traditional melee weapons. Like Baman said its more RPG than many games out there.



those archaic weapons give the game more of a fantasy feel to them, along with the magic that you can usually somehow combine with said weapons. it just wouldn't have the same feeling if everyone was running around PEW PEW PEWing everywhere. and it just makes them that much more of a badass if they can save the universe with a weapon invented sometime around 3300 BC.