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The X Button - From the Future

Heh, I had a good laugh about the pink/blue zits. I understand it's a lighting thing, but I never understood some the hues they'd come up for with those.

Japanese RPGs were never huge in North America, Final Fantasy aside, and the best they can hope for is a comfortable niche driven by DS games.

Eh, I really hope you're wrong about this. All I buy are RPGs, mostly for the main consoles. Honestly, I've been trying to get a workout with my DS in that category, but I enjoy playing RPGs on my big screen tv any day over the DS. If RPGs die out like you say then I guess I'll just have to get swallowed up by MMORPGs I can play on my big screen instead.

but i digress, the reason JRPGs arn't doing well in america is that american nerds want story and game play to be great and not completely ridiculous, which is the majority of what JPRGs are.

he was talking specifically about JRPGs, which are not doing too well in the states right now, mostly because most of them are crap. Western rpgs are doing a lot better. just ask any hardcore gamer how excited he/she is for ME2 or how many hours he has logged in for Dragon Age.

I couldn't agree more. There really has been a notable lack of quality in JRPGs on current gen consoles. Not even for lack of releases either. There has been a steady stream of games I considered buying and then didn't when they were panned to varying degree's by critics. Star Ocean 4, Last Remnant, Infinite Undiscovery, Enchanted Arms, Tales of Symphonia 2.

Hell, Even the more well recieved ones didn't do so hot. Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata, Blue Dragon. None of em got over an 80 on Metacritic. The only one that did were Valkyria Chronicles and Demon's Souls. Meanwhile there are over half a dozen western RPGs up in the 80's and high 90's.

I don't mean to say Metacritic is law or comment on the accuracy of reviews for any particular game but it's a pretty good general indicator. JRPGs have not really been up to snuff this generation. It sure doesn't help either that if listed them from lowest to highest score you'd also probably have a list in order of mainstream accessibility.

AiddonValentine wrote:

Not really sure how you would make something after CC considering how much it wrapped up that entire universe plus it'd be impossible to outdo its plot after it set the bar that bloody high.

Oh, CC (I assume you're talking about Chrono Cross) had a stunning resolution alright, but it still left a few threads hanging. Like, what exactly happened to Guardia? Did Crono, Marle and Lucca really die? What are the whereabouts of Dalton and Magus? Relatively little is still known about the nature of Lavos, as well. Where did he come from? Was he a sentient being? And although he was trying to save the universe, Belthasar's manipulations of time and human life on a massive scale put him dangerously close to villain material. All in all I'd say there's ample room for a sequel, and Kato himself has said he'd like to do one.

true, but that's just a bunch of salad dressing; it didn't have THAT much bearing on the plot of the series and those were never the point to begin with. That kind of story telling doesn't bother with superfluous details. Plus Square is adamant in not doing another one in the series unless they can scrounge up the original team who have been scattered to the winds, including Sakaguchi who is a little too busy doing other things at the moment to cater to the nostalgia crowd.

(Incidentally, I can't think of another video game that is as utterly polarizing in the responses it elicits from players as Chrono Cross. Obviously I fall into the "Love It" category, but I can understand why a lot of others fall into "Hate It".)

littlegreenwolf wrote:

Heh, I had a good laugh about the pink/blue zits. I understand it's a lighting thing, but I never understood some the hues they'd come up for with those. Japanese RPGs were never huge in North America, Final Fantasy aside, and the best they can hope for is a comfortable niche driven by DS games. Eh, I really hope you're wrong about this. All I buy are RPGs, mostly for the main consoles. Honestly, I've been trying to get a workout with my DS in that category, but I enjoy playing RPGs on my big screen tv any day over the DS. If RPGs die out like you say then I guess I'll just have to get swallowed up by MMORPGs I can play on my big screen instead.

he was talking specifically about JRPGs, which are not doing too well in the states right now, mostly because most of them are crap. Western rpgs are doing a lot better. just ask any hardcore gamer how excited he/she is for ME2 or how many hours he has logged in for Dragon Age.

Final Fantasy does well, but i think thats mostly due to fact the games actually change up some of the game play elements from game to game, its not just the same old turn based or ATB rip off non-sense. also american audiences really do not want androgynous male characters as protagonists, FF XIII hopes to remedy this by making the main character a woman(even if she is just is a cloud clone).

but i digress, the reason JRPGs arn't doing well in america is that american nerds want story and game play to be great and not completely ridiculous, which is the majority of what JPRGs are.

Also it sort of makes me sad that jrpgs aren't doing so well, or that they aren't as good as they used to be. I remember how immersed i used to get into Final Fantasy. makes me sad really.

animehermit wrote:

Also it sort of makes me sad that jrpgs aren't doing so well, or that they aren't as good as they used to be. I remember how immersed i used to get into Final Fantasy. makes me sad really.

It could be that you just don't enjoy JRPGs anymore, and that's fine.

But there have been some GREAT games in the genre in the past several years. Persona 4 was easily my game of the year when Atlus released it in '08.

Lets see how the character looks without the tone effects that create depth to the character. To me, the arm looks particularly flat in the shoulder to me now. Nothing too bad, but they created the effect for a reason.



Tadah!

I'm confused, you slate Last Ranker as being a generic JRPG and then crap all over it for this reason, then seem to say Sands of Destruction is also a generic JRPG but then proceed to make excuses for it despite going to lengths to point out the high calibre of the design teams on both games. Why the double standards?

I thought Lunar 3 was "Dragon Song". But then it was complete garbage and I pretend that it doesn't exist either.

'Dragon Song' was supposed to be prequel of sorts to the series. The only thing that this game ended up doing was piss a lot of 'Lunar' fans off for being nothing more than a doggy biscuit to keep folks pacified and not a REAL TRUE 'LUNAR 3' game. Despite the name. And for those that kept logs on the chronology, 'Dragon Song' is supposed to fall in there somewhere in the distant past. But the dates are off when compared to the dates recorded from the Sega CD version. So you're right there's nothing memorable about the game, sooooo it doesn't exist.

Funny thing is that I can say is that 'Dragon Song' is the very first 'NDS' title I ever purchased before I actually purchased the system. I still haven't played it yet.

Barmaid should be a class in the new Etrian Odyssey

I don't give a #$@& what Americans want in their RPG.

I know what *I* want, and it's nothing Western companies will ever give me. I will be more then happy for JRPGs to remain a small tangent in the american market; with only a handful of publishers catering to this audience.

but it will be interesting to see how a JRPG designed to look like a WRPG will sell.

I like the older stuff better.