i seriously hate JRPGs, and it's not b/c of the gameplay, here's why: ANIMETARDS.
"cloud from FF7 looks soooo cooool with that sword!" "hey, wouldn't it be cool if cloud, from FF7, was in super smash bros. brawl? lololol"
fuck animetards, they're annoying as hell. they think you care about some 900 episode anime they're going on about that no one's heard about and is even old and stupid in japan. not only that, they're usually ugly people with no friends, i wonder why. at least, that's how it is at my school.
as for JRPGs, still, it's pretty bad. the gameplay is a great concept though. party of adeventurers with stats you level up so you fight evil, just like lord of the rings, which was awesome! except in lord of the rings, Aaragorn=badass Legolas=sick Gimli=f**king awesome! gandalf=pimp (YOU SHALL NOT......wait for itPAAAAASS!!!) Sauron is even described as essential manifested evil, and he looked f**king boss. lord of the rings essentially followed the hero's journey, the basic outline for all good adventure movies and books. star wars is probably the best example of the hero's journey ever b/c we all know star wars so when i say "antagonist" you say "DARTHVADER!!!"
but JRPGs, jesus christ, remember that rant i had about animetards? ok, imagine everyone dressed up like them. now... in a lot of JRPG's, or at leas the one's that get a lot of notoriety b/c the animetards flame about them, the protagonist (or main character) is a sad lonley emo child with some social. NO!!! the protagonist is supposed to be relatable!!! we all understand the hardships frodo and luke skywalker go though b/c at the begining of the series, they were like us! in FF7, it's to my knowledge that cloud is this lonely emo child with no friends who looks too weak and scrony to carry the big-ass sword he has in his swiss army knife. here's the problem, he's like that from the start, CAN ANYONE RELATE TO THAT? (i bet those lonely animetards can, that's why they love this shit) the party is all there, there's even that black guy with a minigun for an arm, but everything else makes no sense! in order to properly understand the back story and eviroment, the reader/viewer/gamer needs to be introduced to the protagonists' world the right way. lord of the rings does this by following frodo the whole time. star wars does this by following luke the whole time (mostly. the intro scene to part IV wasn't a bit off the beaten path, but it kept viewers watching b/c it was fun to watch, come on, ACTION! .....dark helmet-headed figure approaches with all badass in respect!) from what i understand in FF7 it starts out with a boring lengthy cutscene/boring lengthly history lesson. the gamer isn't gonna care about that! so when we get to the protagonist, not only can't we understand him, BUT WE DON'T KNOW WHY THE F**K HE'S RIDING what i hear is called A CHOCOBO!!!
i looked up at some earlier comments and saw a girl talking about life and death after having a discussion with her mom about puddles. i instantly said "sounds like eternal sonata". someone else said "if you're skipping the middle of the story, you're missing the 'meat' of it". well well my friend, to that i say "how can it be a good story if it's about A FUCKING EMO LEMMING MISTAKEN FOR A LITTLE GIRL WHO WON'T SHUT-UP GOD DAMN PUDDLES?!?!? IS THIS AN RPG OR A EULOGY!?!!?!?"
anyway, enough with flaming FF7, let's move on to FF12 and the recent 13, which i know nothing about.
in 12, there is vaan, and the plot ins't even related to him, and he sucks as a character. enough said.
in 13, after looking at a preview of the characters in gameinformer magazine, it looks like our protagonist is a sad kid looking for his mother, OH HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH THE USELESS EMO PROTAGONIST. REALLY JAPAN!?!?!? also, the black guy looks kinda cool, he's got (what i hear is called) a baby chocobo living in his 'fro, that's pretty pimp.
in short, all i have to say is this; before japan comes out with another RPG they want america to buy, i'd suggest
1. they make the look of the game appeal to everyone, none of this artsy clothing or armor and weird looking vehicles that don't make any sense what so ever. plus, if they have cool looking tie fighter things, why don't they have motor cycles and cars? why giant chickens? wtf?
2. try not to have another emo or ****** (vaan) as the protagonist. try mixing it up and use a normal person who is the chosen one and doesn't know it until he's saved from bad guys that want to use him as a power source for their evilness! and instead of having superior party members protect him, how about we really mix it up, and he learns to use his new powers fight the bad guys who wanna kidnap him! oh, and here's a REALLY good idea, once he learns his powers, let's make him totally badass fun to play as!
3. INTRODUCTIONS PLEASE. the intro to FF12 was so random. i get there's a war going on, but, and i quote from the unskippable episode of FF12 using the date of a calendar we don't even use isn't very helpful at all" and then all hell breaks loose right after a wedding the showcase dressed up animals for than it did the bride and groom. it was pretty much "unless you understand what's going on in this opening cutscene prior to watching it, this game will not make any sense.
4. plots for bollocks sake, make a good one. revolution and sky pirates sound fine, i dunno how they're related, but maybe some forces of darkness would be as appealing as porn is for teens. seriously, take a moment and think this through. in the hero's journey, the second stage is called "the call to action". in star wars, luke joins ben kenobi, his gay lover, and sets forth to destroy the empire, who is very evil i might add. in lord of the rings, sam and frodo must chuck the the ring (WHICH IS PURE 100% I MIGHT ADD) into the firey pits of the awesome looking mt. doom like micheal jordan can sink a bucket, jordon would dick around with shelob the spider ***** though.
5. and last one, give the characters a meaning. in star wars, c-3p0 and r2-d2 played "the chorus". they keep the audience informed of what's going on. haven't you noticed how redundant 3p0 is? vaan wasn't even a necessary character, he's bantha fodder as they say, except he looks pretty damn gay.
well that's it. google 'the hero's journey' and 'the hero with a thousand faces' if you want a good story. they're not actually stories, they're documentaries about stuff like lord of the rings and star wars.