JRPG fans- are you a handheld gamer?

[Ando85]

I've had a DS for quite awhile but it used to collect dust until a few years ago. I didn't even own a PSP until a few years back either. But, this has changed as I am a huge JRPG fan. Seems consoles these days have to have gigantic budgets to compete in the JRPG department. For example a simple dialogue in FF13 requires voice actors and meticulous animation. The dialogue in a PSP or DS JRPG could simply be a few lines of text and maybe a character portrait.

It seems that for the most part JRPGs that are released on portables are a throwback to the 16 bit era. They have aged well in my opinion. These games don't require a huge budget and production values as their console counter-parts, but I feel they are just as good or better.

So, I ask if you are a fan of the genre have you seemed to be forced to migrate to handhelds?

 

[Powereaver]

I own a psp and im suprised at the large number of JRPG's i now own... some really good ones also.. Innocent Sin and Final Fantasy IV and Star Ocean 1 and 2 and so on.. so im happy i have my psp as a JRPGer

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I play games on handhelds and indeed a lot of Jrpgs are on psp but that's more due to the fact that PSP is huge in Japan than anything else. You can't compare them to things like FF. Disgaea 4 for example is a great console Jrpg but not like FF at the same time.


I don't consider myself a handheld gamer over just a gamer and more of my Jrpgs are played on my ps3 than any handheld. People just finally figured that you don't need to have a game that looks like FFXIII for it to be a ps3 game. PSN release games such as Record of Agarest War show this quite well.

 

[Palademon]

I own a PSP, and it took some thinking to notice that all four games I own for it are JRPGs, and I'm not even particular fan of JRPGs. They usually lure me in with an interesting concept, but bore me with the massive gaps between any motivating story elements.

 

[Ando85]

JRPG has fans?

Yes, although they are sadly a dying breed. These days I'm stocking up much like a bomb shelter. Newer ones on DS and PSP, and a lot of retro ones I never got around to buying/playing in the good ole days.

 

[EvilPicnic]

I'm not a massive JRPG fan, but I bought Final Fantasy IV (cos it was soooooo cheap on eBay) for GBA and it has entertained me for the past few weeks of my commute to work. Thumbs up for 16bit JRPGs on handhelds.

 

[Ando85]

I play games on handhelds and indeed a lot of Jrpgs are on psp but that's more due to the fact that PSP is huge in Japan than anything else. You can't compare them to things like FF. Disgaea 4 for example is a great console Jrpg but not like FF at the same time.


I don't consider myself a handheld gamer over just a gamer and more of my Jrpgs are played on my ps3 than any handheld. People just finally figured that you don't need to have a game that looks like FFXIII for it to be a ps3 game. PSN release games such as Record of Agarest War show this quite well.

Yeah I am glad at least some JRPGs like that exist. Disgaea 4 and Record of Agarest War like you mentioned. But, for the most part these titles get largely ignored. I recall going into Gamestop to buy games like that, and when I asked the clerk had no clue what I was talking about.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

JRPG has fans?

Yes, although they are sadly a dying breed. These days I'm stocking up much like a bomb shelter. Newer ones on DS and PSP, and a lot of retro ones I never got around to buying/playing in the good ole days.

Jrpg is not dying, it's staying as it was and should be. The "popular opinion" or what constitutes gamers is what's changing and in doing so it excludes certain things from competing.


Simply put, Jrpgs are more now than 10 years ago made mainly for Japanese people without any plan at all for their out-of-Japan release. Some end up getting released here and there but that does not change the philosophy behind their creation and in effect their content.


This, for someone like me (and I assume you) who likes what Jrpgs who don't try to cater to the west are, is a great thing. It just means we have to import a few games more here and there. The genre isn't dying because all those CoD or angry birds people aren't playing Jrpgs, these people never played em in the first place, they didn't play games at all back when Jrpgs were "big". They are mostly new additions to the community fromwhom we should not have any expectations.

 

[phantasmalWordsmith]

I must admit, so far RPGs and JRPGs are the most enjoyable games for me to play on my PSP (once I find the bloody thing...) They just feel like they fit together right to me. Just like how I feel like a FPS feels right on a console and a RTS feels right on a PC. This is just me though

 

[Googenstien]

Some of the best RPGs in the past 3 or so years have been released on the PSP/DS/3ds. I dont see putting my PSPGo down even if I get a vita because I have some great games on it still. Persona, Trails in the Sky, Phantasy Star, Crimson Gem Saga , Ys Seven, Tactics Ogre... hehe I am happy that the 3DS can play old DS games on it to extending it and their life.

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

I play games on handhelds and indeed a lot of Jrpgs are on psp but that's more due to the fact that PSP is huge in Japan than anything else. You can't compare them to things like FF. Disgaea 4 for example is a great console Jrpg but not like FF at the same time.


I don't consider myself a handheld gamer over just a gamer and more of my Jrpgs are played on my ps3 than any handheld. People just finally figured that you don't need to have a game that looks like FFXIII for it to be a ps3 game. PSN release games such as Record of Agarest War show this quite well.

Yeah I am glad at least some JRPGs like that exist. Disgaea 4 and Record of Agarest War like you mentioned. But, for the most part these titles get largely ignored. I recall going into Gamestop to buy games like that, and when I asked the clerk had no clue what I was talking about.

Well, see my other response to you regarding most of this post but on the topic of Agarest, it only was a PSN release for ps3, there was no actual disk version. As for D4, if the clerk didn't know of it then you were serviced by one of the worst gamestop clerks ever.

 

[Ando85]

I play games on handhelds and indeed a lot of Jrpgs are on psp but that's more due to the fact that PSP is huge in Japan than anything else. You can't compare them to things like FF. Disgaea 4 for example is a great console Jrpg but not like FF at the same time.


I don't consider myself a handheld gamer over just a gamer and more of my Jrpgs are played on my ps3 than any handheld. People just finally figured that you don't need to have a game that looks like FFXIII for it to be a ps3 game. PSN release games such as Record of Agarest War show this quite well.

Yeah I am glad at least some JRPGs like that exist. Disgaea 4 and Record of Agarest War like you mentioned. But, for the most part these titles get largely ignored. I recall going into Gamestop to buy games like that, and when I asked the clerk had no clue what I was talking about.

Well, see my other response to you regarding most of this post but on the topic of Agarest, it only was a PSN release for ps3, there was no actual disk version. As for D4, if the clerk didn't know of it then you were serviced by one of the worst gamestop clerks ever.

Yeah, same thing happened the day Persona 3 came out, Atelier Rorona, and Ys the Oath in Felghana (pronouncing it "Es" instead of "Whys" I think threw him off. As for Agarest, I was buying the Xbox 360 version complete with pillow case and a mouse with a very busty wrist pad. The game was sitting right behind him behind the counter in plain site, but he still didn't know what I was talking about at first.

 

[Ando85]

Some of the best RPGs in the past 3 or so years have been released on the PSP/DS/3ds. I dont see putting my PSPGo down even if I get a vita because I have some great games on it still. Persona, Trails in the Sky, Phantasy Star, Crimson Gem Saga , Ys Seven, Tactics Ogre... hehe I am happy that the 3DS can play old DS games on it to extending it and their life.

Trails in the Sky was outstanding. But, funny thing was my local gamestop got 3 copies of it, and I was the only person to actually reserve one.

 

[TheGamerElite33]

personally i cant stand JRPG. I hate them to death. they are too childish.

but id say best jrpg these days are on handheld..

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

personally i cant stand JRPG. I hate them to death. they are too childish.

but id say best jrpg these days are on handheld..

You need to differentiate between fake maturity and youthful inspirational themes my friend. The average realistic-looking FPS is much more childish than the average Jrpg since it doesn't actually do anything to evoke higher level cognitive functions. Kill everything while looking at realistic depictions of what killing stuff looks like isn't much of a challenge sadly.


You may see the simple fantasy settings that when taken at face value come off rather childish but if you dig in a bit deeper you will discover that there is quite a bit of meaning to be found in the lair of the cute or preposterous.


You need to have your disbelief thrown off a mountain and take everything seriously, if you start making fun of what you're playing or not "buying" stuff you've already lost the battle and deprived yourself of an amazing experience.

 

[TheGamerElite33]

personally i cant stand JRPG. I hate them to death. they are too childish.

but id say best jrpg these days are on handheld..

You need to differentiate between fake maturity and youthful inspirational themes my friend. The average realistic-looking FPS is much more childish than the average Jrpg since it doesn't actually do anything to evoke higher level cognitive functions. Kill everything while looking at realistic depictions of what killing stuff looks like isn't much of a challenge sadly.


You may see the simple fantasy settings that when taken at face value come off rather childish but if you dig in a bit deeper you will discover that there is quite a bit of meaning to be found in the lair of the cute or preposterous.


You need to have your disbelief thrown off a mountain and take everything seriously, if you start making fun of what you're playing or not "buying" stuff you've already lost the battle and deprived yourself of an amazing experience.

JRPG doesnot suit me. good for them who like it.

Im not into anime and kawaii thing. i hate anime to death and they mostly based on them

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

Yeah, it's like how you have Infamous which is a ton like comics. Most Jrpgs are like that with anime and since anime is by nature way crazier than the average comic you get the games that you do.


Kawaii as found in Jrpgs is just a word for the Japanese concept of "cute" btw, something like the emotion you have when you watch kitten licking a puppy's nose, in the form of human beings, if that makes sense.


Not all anime-like stuff is like that though, give something like Killer 7 a shot, you won't come wanting.

 

[TheGamerElite33]

infamous? i have TF2 spy avatar

 

[Michael Hirst]

Yeah to play modern JRPG's pretty much means you're playing on a portable I can count a total of 4 RPG's from Japan on MY PS3 shelves, Demons Souls and Dark Souls (which look and feel more like western rpgs) Valkyria Chronicles (amazing game) and Final Fantasy 13 (What the hell Square?)

 

[Dreiko_v1legacy]

That's an expression, I didn't mean literally "you" had infamous, that's just another way of saying "like how there is the game called Infamous".