Where are the Japanese RPGs?

[SedentaryJourney]

Actually Final Fantasy hasn't been relying on the same old formula for a while. I think it's quite innovative for a marquee title, especially the last one.

 

[Akumajou]

The problem is that the JRPGs released for DS or PSP are usually pretty childish too the point where they really don't hold my attention. LO does look good, that's about the only game atm that really interests me. The Last Remnant looks somewhat promising.. hopefully it pans out but it'll probably be too formulaic for my tastes.

I'm looking for JRPGs with more mature stories, something that's targeted to my demographic instead of 10 yr old girls ala blue dragon or eternal sonata.

My favorite JRPG was Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne for PS2. Absolutely loved that game, great deep story, very realistic characters, lots and lots of stuff kids wouldn't understand. And SUPER hard, I absolutely had to be level 99 to beat the secret boss.

So what did you do when Dragon Quest VIII was released for the PS2?

Also SMT3 was released on 02/20/03 in Japan while the PS2 was released in March 2000, thats almost three years for the game dev to ramp up and learn the platform while the PS3 barely has one year and 8 months as of July.

Please note though that on Xb360 although Blue Dragon was released a little more than one year after the console launched, the dev tools are Microsoft Direct X based.

Also on average Japanese RPGs since the early 90s (and probably late 80s) have had an average of two years of development time for the RPG to make the cut. If you add the factor that the current gen consoles are much more complex on the CPU front, specially with CellBE and that as of late game devs have been apparently expected by game magazines/websites/reviewers/bloggers to include some type of online functionallity even in traditionally single player games like RPGs in the first couple years of console life cycle, then there may be an additional set of months to the development cycle.

 

[Cornsnake]

Actually Final Fantasy hasn't been relying on the same old formula for a while. I think it's quite innovative for a marquee title, especially the last one.

In all the Final Fantasy games 80% of the enemies, spells, weapons, items and summons are the same. The only change they make is how you do things and never why you do things. Every strategy you can think of will work in almost all the FF games. From a gameplay standpoint, the original FF and FFXII, are almost identical.

 

[obonicus]

In all the Final Fantasy games 80% of the enemies, spells, weapons, items and summons are the same. The only change they make is how you do things and never why you do things. Every strategy you can think of will work in almost all the FF games. From a gameplay standpoint, the original FF and FFXII, are almost identical.

That's absurd. RPGs are mainly about combat and levelling, gameplay-wise. If either of those changes dramatically, then the gameplay's changed. FF games have been changing the latter on practically every single game, and the former was dramatically overhauled for FFXII.

What's next? Final Fantasy Tactics also has the same gameplay as FF1? Monsters, spells, weapons, items and summons are all content. If they changed all of those completely, giving them new graphics and names, but changed nothing else, the gameplay would be unchanged.

 

[Cornsnake]

The order in which you unlock new spell, weapons, ect. is irrelevant if you end up with largely the same kit. And yes. FF Tactics is not all that different from the main series. They have never changed the basic rules in those games. All they do is add a little extra stuff and then remix the whole deal. Ever within the same game the use the same enemies over and over again. Most of them have 10 different versions of the same enemies. A normal one, fire, ice, water, earth, poisonous, bigger, non elemental, all a little stronger as you move through the game. The series is suppose to have some of the biggest production values in the games industry, yet it cuts corners left and right like a budget game.

 

[obonicus]

The order in which you unlock new spell, weapons, ect. is irrelevant if you end up with largely the same kit. And yes. FF Tactics is not all that different from the main series. They have never changed the basic rules in those games. All they do is add a little extra stuff and then remix the whole deal. Ever within the same game the use the same enemies over and over again. Most of them have 10 different versions of the same enemies. A normal one, fire, ice, water, earth, poisonous, bigger, non elemental, all a little stronger as you move through the game. The series is suppose to have some of the biggest production values in the games industry, yet it cuts corners left and right like a budget game.

I don't think your definition of gameplay matches with my definition of gameplay. There seems to be a fundamental disconnect, so I don't think there's any point in arguing this.

 

[LordNerevar]

I suppose the JRPG King of this gen' is sadly a king of a very small domain with invaders on every side. Personally I've outgrown the conventional JRPGs and they need to evolve the concept if they want to get me to buy anything. White Knight Story has peeked my interest due to being a Level 5 creation and they impressed me with DQVIII and Rogue Galaxy, but if the game is fundamentally the same slug-fest level-a-thon of the traditional JRPG, I won't be buying. I don't know how the rest of the gaming world feels on this, but their doesn't seem to be much clamour for JRPGs. I don't know what the handheld scene is like though.

There are also some rumors that the Level 5 are working on Dark Cloud 3, exclusively for Playstation 3.
If the rumors are true, it should come out during 2009.
None of this has been confirmed ofc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Cloud_3

 

[Freak'n Big Panda]

So what did you do when Dragon Quest VIII was released for the PS2?

Also SMT3 was released on 02/20/03 in Japan while the PS2 was released in March 2000, thats almost three years for the game dev to ramp up and learn the platform while the PS3 barely has one year and 8 months as of July.

Please note though that on Xb360 although Blue Dragon was released a little more than one year after the console launched, the dev tools are Microsoft Direct X based.

Also on average Japanese RPGs since the early 90s (and probably late 80s) have had an average of two years of development time for the RPG to make the cut. If you add the factor that the current gen consoles are much more complex on the CPU front, specially with CellBE and that as of late game devs have been apparently expected by game magazines/websites/reviewers/bloggers to include some type of online functionallity even in traditionally single player games like RPGs in the first couple years of console life cycle, then there may be an additional set of months to the development cycle.

Yeah it is true that the RPG genre didn't really start picking up on PS2 until late in it's life cycle. Xenosaga didn't come untill 2002 if I remember correctly. So I guess it's a bit premature to be calling this gen devoid of JRPGs but nothing is even on the horizon. There are whispers of a SMT game for PS3 but nothing more than that. I suppose ff13 will be pretty good tho so I have that to look forward too.

What did I do when dragon quest 8 came out? I didn't play it, nothing interesting there IMO

Btw I download the SMT 1 fan translation. So far i'm enjoying it! It's hard getting over the truly ancient game mechanics though. Things were very different in 1992. What surprised me is that it's done from a 1st person perspective while in dungeons... if SMT 4 goes first person for PS3 I'll seriously loose it. That would be the best thing since god gave us heroin XD

 

[vazel]

Yeah it is true that the RPG genre didn't really start picking up on PS2 until late in it's life cycle.

Not true. The PS2 had Dark Cloud, Shadow Hearts, and Final Fantasy X among others early in its lifecycle. The PS2 was carrying JRPG's popularity right after the psx. This gen in comparison to the same point in PS2's lifecyce is pathetic not just in numbers but in quality of the titles we do get.

 

[Freak'n Big Panda]

yea true. I was trying to be optimistic