Poll: Do you hate JRPGS?

[PedroSteckecilo]

hmmm... I find them to be all clones of FF7. If I wanted to play FF7 again I would.

Otherwise I will stick with the worlds best game ever developed ever.

DDKRMMORPG!! (The WoW killer we were all waiting for!)

Clearly you've never played a Suikoden game...

They're about as different from Final Fantasy as you get.

EDIT:

Except for the latest one for the DS (Suikoden: Tierkries). It's a fairly generic JRPG that just happens to be riding on the coat tails of it's superior cousin. That said, if you have a tolerance for JRPG cliche's and some VERY boring turn based battles... it's not a bad game.

 

[AllHailTheAltmer]

There's not a lot better than a good JRPG, in my book. But then again, there's not a lot worse than a bad JRPG.

 

[Vlane]

Okay, so far I've been recommended the Tales of Vesperia, Tales of Symphonia, The Last Remnant, Dark Cloud 2 and Eternal Sonata as JRPGs that do things differently and/or stand out from the gelatineous mass of gloob I think the genre has become.

Thanks for suggestion, I'll try at least some of those (All of them if I have the time) during the following few months. We'll see if these games can prove me wrong.

Can I add one? Digital Devil Saga (the second part is better but you won't be able to understand the story). The story is very unique, the characters aren't your typical JRPG heroes, the battle system takes a lot of strategy to master (it is still turn based) and it has Steve Blum in it (aka Spike from Cowboy Bebop).

 

[ssgt splatter]

YES!!! With every fiber in my body!!!!!!!!!

 

[Vlane]

hmmm... I find them to be all clones of FF7. If I wanted to play FF7 again I would.

Otherwise I will stick with the worlds best game ever developed ever.

DDKRMMORPG!! (The WoW killer we were all waiting for!)

Play some SMT games. You will change your opinion after you finished one.

 

[tehweave]

It does seem there's a consistent hatred for JRPGs in the escapist, maybe its because of Yahtzee's popularity, or maybe people genuinely hate their themes and styles.

I for one, like some JRPGs like the final fantasy series and kingdom hearts, but beyond the really popular ones, I can't bring myself to play any others. Maybe its because they take soo freaking long to play and I don't like to leave a game unfinished, but I can understand where the hatred of these come from. The styles are almost identical to each other, and it can get tiresome and repetitive very quickly.

I saw my roommates playing Lost Oddessy recently, they really enjoyed it, but I found the story and gameplay didn't capture me on it.

Maybe its just because I only trust square with JRPGs or maybe I need to branch out, but yeah... I don't hate JRPGs but I can't find any that really WOW me.

 

[Ultress]

i used to not like them but now I enjoy them more. I prefer battles to be Real time ala a Tales game or ATB from FF but can enjoy a good turned based game. JRPGs know how to have a good laugh and provide excellent charcters and story. I like WRPGs but as others have said the morality chocies are getting tiresome. JRPGS all the way

 

[Sissas]

Some of the first games I've played are JRPG's; I'm not sure if it is entirely because of that but I've always liked them. Some of my favorite games of all time are JRPG's, but not all, obviously! Most of the times the storyline is cool and there's always the comic character that rarely disappoints me, but I guess that will depend from person to person. The characters are sometimes annoying but there aren't many games where I don't dislike a character or two. Or ten. And yes, the hair sucks. But while playing you kind of go with the flow and believe those weird hairstyles are perfectly normal and hardly notice them... Kinda

 

[Sissas]

I saw my roommates playing Lost Oddessy recently, they really enjoyed it, but I found the story and gameplay didn't capture me on it.

Maybe its just because I only trust square with JRPGs or maybe I need to branch out, but yeah... I don't hate JRPGs but I can't find any that really WOW me.

I'm not sure but doesn't the FF series and Lost Odissey share at least part of the development team? Sorry for the double posting

 

[tehweave]

Well, yeah. I forgot to say that Lost Oddessy was from a different company.

 

[rowly36]

it depends, they absolutely HAVE to have a good storyline *stares at final fantasy 12*
also have to have good customization of equipment and just the right amount of level grinding.

 

[Spektre41]

I love JRPGS. Best type of RPG in my opinion.

 

[Sissas]

Yes it's not from square but I think the producer or something like that - I'm not sure who AT ALL - from FF also produced (or wtvr) Lost Odissey. And I kind of got the same feeling I get from FF when playing LO, although I only played for about an hour, I don't really own an xbox...

 

[ILPPendant]

The one thing that always strikes me about JRPGs is that they're wonderful value for money. I've bought four Final Fantasy games and I've never spent less than fifty hours working my way through a single one. It's the same with The Last Remnant (mercifully I bought the PC version). If you can manage to tolerate the combat which gets repetitive after while you can expect to be rewarded with a very long storyline: it took me about 25 hours to play through Mass Effect; The Last Remnant took me about 60 hours. I dread to think how long it'll take me to complete Persona 4.

Say what you want about them, they're the most efficient use of your money on the market, rivalled only by the visual novel (in fact, that competition's probably the main reason they're so long in the first place).

One final thought: I do notice that combat mechanics don't seem to have developed much over the years. To be fair, we're still using D&D in some games but I don't think that explains everything. My personal opinion is that developers have spent so long being familiar with what they've got (and there's no point in trying to compete with Western studios) that nobody knows how to do real time properly any more. I don't know if any of you have played Tears to Tiara but that was what seemed like an honest stab at taking the strategic type JRPG into real time. The trouble was it sucked. Like really sucked. It's a shame because I can think of plenty of ways that games like Utawarerumono, TtT or Super Robot Wars could have been improved by porting everything over to the ToEE engine.

 

[MasterSqueak]

I think they are mostly "Meh". There are a few I like, but I generally prefer WRPG's like Elder Scrolls and Fallout.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Since defending JRPG's is old hat for me, I thought I'd shift gears a little and level some criticisms at the genre from the perspective of a fan...

The biggest flaws with JRPG's, the only criticisms I'm willing to accept at face value from "His Grand Assholeness" Yahtzee is his annoyance at the untouchable nature of the story and the fact that the basic JRPG formula hasn't changed since FF7 was released.

These are BAD things that need to be improved, an RPG SHOULD ALLOW PLAYERS TO EFFECT STORY EVENTS, and I am willing to state that as a constant. Any RPG that doesn't allow the player SOME control over story events should go back to the drawing board, this should be the new standard.

As well I have gotten very sick of the Town, Dungeon, Cutscene formula that JRPG's can't let go... SHAKE THINGS UP A LITTLE JAPAN!

Grind Must Go!

Random Encounters Must Go!

Maze Like Dungeon Design (unless that's the point I guess, like Etrian Odyssey) Must Go!

Lastly... if you're going to put in Turn Based Battles, make them GOOD. If you can't look at Chrono Trigger, FFX, Shadow Hearts: Covenant and Persona 3/4 and go... yeah, my Turn Based Combat is that engaging and interesting... then you fail! Go back to the drawing board! (I'm looking at YOU Suikoden: Tierkries!)

 

[Varamathras]

I enjoy jrpg's, just not so much the mainstream ones. The closest thing to mainstream jrpg's that I enjoy would probably be Valkyrie Profile and Monster Hunter, but they don't follow the standard jrpg ruleset.

 

[PeaceFistCreations]

I don't necessarily hate them, but, like Anime, they are just so stereotypical. Even the good ones will inevitably have some cliche buried within.
Of course, western games have their own cliches, but to me, western cliches are much more bearable than eastern cliches(for obvious reasons).
Also, JRPG usually give up on gameplay for the sake of giving you a good story. But it's often too common that a JRPG will sacrifice its gameplay capabilities, and still have a story that is boring, or a bunch of stupid looking characters with bland personalities.

My 1# JRPG is Final Fantasy Tactics, I love FFT.

 

[TetsuoKaneda]

With the exception of Persona and Dragoon, I'm a WRPG fan all the way...I'm just waiting for one that takes place neither in the dark future or the far medieval past, but something rather...present day. As for the bad alignment systems...Witcher fixed it.

 

[Jupsto]

pokemon red + blue was awesome when I was 10, but admitly only fun now because of nostalgia. and zelda ocarina of time was too and STILL IS FUN.

here is why JRPG's suck.

-turn based combat
-encounters
-lack of Y chromoshomes
-majorly OTT (animations, sound effects, colours, proportions, weapon sizes!)
-lack of realism meaning...
-lack of imersion
-all the graphics/art look the same
-immature, tacky, kitch themes and generic stories
-horrible keyboard music (my friend is obsessed with FF music, WTF)

I don't consider zelda a JRPG really because its few of those things even though its japanese, wow feels more like a japanese game to me even though its western (which is why its more popular in asia).

If they remade the gameboy pokemon rpgs properly 3d, realtime fights, huge world to explore I would be sold. despite the overall kiddyness.