From what I can see, if anything it's not just JRPGs that are being more about style than substance, it's games in general. Just look at Mass Effect 2 and Planescape: Torment. Hell, it looks like Mass Effect and Final Fantasy did the same thing. Give up a nonlinear approach for more linear, action based combat.
A question to people who like or who used to like JRPGs.
- Thread starter Eric the Orange
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Square already demonstrated that real-time combat worked in their games at least as far back as 1993, with Secret of Mana. Even earlier, if you count stuff like FFA/SD1, which I was kind of underwhelmed by, and that actually came out before the first ATB game. With that logic, they never should've used it in the first place. Heh.Strife2GFAQs said:
I'm not sure that's really the problem, though. While I haven't really liked any FF games much in a long time, I still enjoy turn-based games, even some made by Squeenix. The Last Remnant was one of the more fun games I played last year, and it's made by them and turn-based (and wouldn't work any other way). It does definitely have some "the writers have been hitting the crack pipe again" moments, though.
That seems to be a recurring problem in their games. They start out with some really interesting ideas that open up all sorts of possibilities, but then as the mysteries get explained in the second half of the game, it gets progressively stupider, especially in FFX (which I only even played because my laptop was in for repairs that week, and I'd already gone through all my roommates' other games). It's particularly bad when that happens in a game where there are lots of cutscenes and exposition and whatnot all focusing on a mind-numbingly stupid plot full of obnoxious characters, because that just makes it stand out even more.
I pretty much ignore the FF games at this point, but some of Squeenix's non-mainline stuff is still ok, and like many people have said, other companies have continued to make good games, so the situation isn't completely hopeless.
I take offense at this.Strife2GFAQs said:
Nothing would have made XII bearable. It was shit. With the godawful voice acting, the moron 'main' character and the fact that there was no first-person camera (which really drives me crazy, they must've spent ages on the scenery and yet the only way to look at it is with Vaan's ass in the fucking way), the game was unbearable, and this is coming from someone who played it like three fucking times.
Persona 3 is my favorite game of all time, and with the level of strategy that goes into its turn based system, I honestly think it would have been a much worse game if it had anything else.Senaro said:
Heck, I don't think the final boss would have been anywhere near as epic if it had been real time.
I played P4 first, and the only thing I can think of that I wish P3 had was letting me give more specific instructions to my party members. Besides that, it's golden. I'm more surprised that P4 got gimped of a few features that P3 had. Fusion Spells are bad-ass.Rabid Toilet said:
I used to like JRPGs when I had a PS2, half my collection of games were JRPGs...
I've moved on since then.
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And I used to think JRPG stood for junior Role Playing game, not japanese...
I've moved on since then.
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And I used to think JRPG stood for junior Role Playing game, not japanese...
Not being able to give specific instructions was annoying on the occasion that they do something stupid, but for the most part, I loved not having direct control of them. It made them feel more like real characters, rather than just pawns for me to move.Senaro said:
I'm playing the PSP version right now, where they introduced the direct control mechanic, and I always leave it off unless I'm up against a really hard boss.
That sounds pretty awesome, and I see where you're coming from with that. The AI does seem to be pretty smart most of the time, thankfully. P3P would certainly be one of the reasons to actually consider picking up a PSP. Maybe someday I'll finally buy one, but the PS2 version sates me for now.
I have not really dabbled much in the art of the JRPG, the last one i played was Legened of the Dragoon, if thats even consuidered a JRPG, but recently ive been playing a few, and i have to say that it is still pretty similar to what they used to be, My most recent, Recettear, and it is growing on me.
I speak treason, I know, but I LIKE my cutscenes in video games. I mean cutscenes in the sense of the CGI movies that are scattered about in Final Fantasy games. Xenosaga had some good ones too. I think JRPGs are suffering in the main line of storytelling. The stories have always been a bit far fetched and a bit cliched. That's why I like them. However, lately it seems like many JRPGs are trying to mix that in with "politics" and "real world" stuff and, to me at least, are losing the magic. Characters are becoming boring because they're trying to make them more normal--or turning characters into one emotional being. Hope was nothing but whining. Snow was nothing but determination. The world's not worth saving because it's a corrupted, boring, miserable place to live. The fantastic element is being sucked out of JRPGs it seems like because they are trying to be something they are not: WRPGs.
I like...
1. Cutscenes
2. Turn Based Combat
3. Romance in the stories
4. The likeable characters that are unfortunately lacking in modern JRPGs (Final Fantasy XIII, I'm looking at you)
5. The emotions they make me feel for the characters and story in general.
6. Their art style
6. Whatever else they're known for that I like.
I don't want JRPGs to change. They've been fine all along until now because they're trying to change. All I wish is that they had bigger budgets so that every JRPG could be as high quality as something like Final Fantasy in the way they do their graphics. This doesn't mean they have to lose their anime style graphics or anything.
1. Cutscenes
2. Turn Based Combat
3. Romance in the stories
4. The likeable characters that are unfortunately lacking in modern JRPGs (Final Fantasy XIII, I'm looking at you)
5. The emotions they make me feel for the characters and story in general.
6. Their art style
6. Whatever else they're known for that I like.
I don't want JRPGs to change. They've been fine all along until now because they're trying to change. All I wish is that they had bigger budgets so that every JRPG could be as high quality as something like Final Fantasy in the way they do their graphics. This doesn't mean they have to lose their anime style graphics or anything.
The only JRPGs I still play are my old Final Fantasy games (7, 8, 9, 10 and the like) Chrono Trigger, the like, and some current ones, But mainly just the SMT games, like Persona 3 and 4 and the like.
I never thought of it like a JRPG, i thought of it as a tactic game, maybe thats just me.Dreiko said:
JRPGs haven't really changed, so it must be you. There's the odd one that tries something different or innovative (if y'all care so much about the JRPG genre being innovative, buy Resonance of Fate, goddamn), but they're pretty much how they were back in the old days, albeit better graphics, and the ones that do try to be different - Resonance of Fate this generation - fail, and then nobody wants to try anything new.
It's an srpg/Jrpg but the story is entirely Jrpg and so is the over-the-top-ness.Brad Shepard said:
Just like how FF:Tactics was an Srpg while is also considered a Jrpg so is disgaea. There's also other games like Cross Edge where disgaea chars are into and those are more traditional turn based as opposed to tactics and stuff...though that one is pretty deep too.
Yeah, Tales of Graces F was amazing...I loved the code geass DLC.
Too bad they probably won't ever release it out of Japan lol.
Too bad they probably won't ever release it out of Japan lol.