I notice a lot of hate for JRPG's on this board so I propose a question...
What conventions should JRPG's either discard, change or add in order to sever their ties with the past and bring themselves into the Next Generation of Gaming. Try to avoid the straight "JRPG's are stupid! Only Oblivion is allowed!" arguements one sees so often on these board and try to keep things in the tone of a discussion rather than a fight.
Here are some of my personal suggestions...
1) Non-Random On-Screen Encounters: Is the seperate Battle Screen so necessary anymore? Chrono Trigger discarded it way back in the day, FFXII did it recently and most WRPG's don't use it as a rule.
2) Less Luke, more Han Solo: I am tired of playing as barely out of puberty 17 year olds who look like girls. Give me some mature heroes with real motivations, not some fresh of the farm Luke Skywalker clone! I want some bad ass pirate, or a grizzled war hero as my lead. Balthier or Basch should have been the main character of FFXII, for example, not Vaan.
3) Save the World? Been there, done that: While this seems like the most "epic" plot available, why not shake it up, this has been the convention for YEARS. Give me Political Intrigue with Earthly Goals! Let me have a dark tale of betrayal and redemtion without a "save the world" plot tacked onto the end. Why not do a survival tale, or a mystery, there are many other stories out there, and they can be just as epic. These have been done (see Suikoden Series) and can be done again, give it a try.
That's all the time I've got right now, more later.
What conventions should JRPG's either discard, change or add in order to sever their ties with the past and bring themselves into the Next Generation of Gaming. Try to avoid the straight "JRPG's are stupid! Only Oblivion is allowed!" arguements one sees so often on these board and try to keep things in the tone of a discussion rather than a fight.
Here are some of my personal suggestions...
1) Non-Random On-Screen Encounters: Is the seperate Battle Screen so necessary anymore? Chrono Trigger discarded it way back in the day, FFXII did it recently and most WRPG's don't use it as a rule.
2) Less Luke, more Han Solo: I am tired of playing as barely out of puberty 17 year olds who look like girls. Give me some mature heroes with real motivations, not some fresh of the farm Luke Skywalker clone! I want some bad ass pirate, or a grizzled war hero as my lead. Balthier or Basch should have been the main character of FFXII, for example, not Vaan.
3) Save the World? Been there, done that: While this seems like the most "epic" plot available, why not shake it up, this has been the convention for YEARS. Give me Political Intrigue with Earthly Goals! Let me have a dark tale of betrayal and redemtion without a "save the world" plot tacked onto the end. Why not do a survival tale, or a mystery, there are many other stories out there, and they can be just as epic. These have been done (see Suikoden Series) and can be done again, give it a try.
That's all the time I've got right now, more later.