JRPG's in the current generation - What happened?

[G-Boobie]

As for you rocking out with your girlfriend with some turn based action...I was wondering what plannet or dimension that is . I cannot complain, my wife will play mario kart and wii sports with me

She's very understanding of my 'game habit'.

I want to get a jrpg for 360. You mentioned 2. Are those the only good ones. I want to play a game that takes forever (RPG), but at the same time has an awesome story line (JRPG).

I pound through games way to quick, and want a nice long game with a great story line to put me in my place when I try to beat it fast.

I thought Vesperia was 'meh;, but I'm the only one I know who didn't really care for Lost Odyssey. I'd give that one a shot, with Vesperia as your backup, since it's story sucked hard hard hard.

There's also Infinite Undiscovery. A minor oversight, but it was a Square-Enix release.

Don't forget that there are two FFXIII titles coming (actually, three if you count the 360 version) White Knight Chronicles and Star Ocean 4.

As for the JRPG drought...I think it's pretty simple. Games cost more and take longer to develop this generation.

True.

Infinite Undiscovery is actually a Tri-Ace game (published by Enix-Square) as well as the upcoming Star Ocean IV.

Also true.

Is it really that bad? I was thinking about picking it up, but I still need to get through Lost Odyssey and Infinite Undiscovery first. Maybe I'll wait until it goes to the bargin bin...

Tempest

It is an embarrassment. We can probably thank FF XIII and Kawazu for that.

Go play Fallout 3. I heart it so.

Played it, loved it, but it's not really JRPG like.

I still think the Wii will eventually rule the JRPG field down the road. DQX, Tales... the transition has already begun, in my eyes. PS3 did seem like a lock for JRPGs... Then again, many people bought a N64 in anticipation of Final Fantasy 7 so there you have it.

You and Heybtbm are probably right about the Wii thing, Master Moonsight.

[dairugger]

i dont know about anyone else but im not looking forward to the next final fantasy. emo type characters with way too many zippers/belts just doesnt do it for me.. i wish theyd go back to actual midevil dungeons & dragons type characters (ff4/5) even something along 6 would rock..

I'd love to see the long fabeled Lunar 3 in the style of eternal sonata graphics, battles could be different tho.. or a super high def hand drawn artwork style, but old school.

im currently playing through phantasy star 4, its my first time even though i got the game back in 98 with the guide,and the game is awesome! i played phantasy star online back on the dreamcast and its nothing like this, i also hated the fact that there were no story to be found in pso. sega should make part 5!

[Sudo]

Wow, you seriously read my mind.

I was going into the modern gaming forum to ask what a good one in, but you created a thread already. I will ask in here since it is totally on topic.

I want to get a jrpg for 360. You mentioned 2. Are those the only good ones. I want to play a game that takes forever (RPG), but at the same time has an awesome story line (JRPG).

I pound through games way to quick, and want a nice long game with a great story line to put me in my place when I try to beat it fast.

Lost Odyssey is the best RPG this console gen IMO, and it's my second favorite game period on the current consoles behind MGS 4. Infinite Undiscovery, Tales of Vesperia, Eternal Sonata and Blue Dragon are all good as well, with IU being the best of the bunch after LO. I have The Last Remnant as well, but have yet to play it since I've been trying to get through the rest of my backlog first.

i dont know about anyone else but im not looking forward to the next final fantasy. emo type characters with way too many zippers/belts just doesnt do it for me.. i wish theyd go back to actual midevil dungeons & dragons type characters (ff4/5) even something along 6 would rock..

Neither Final Fantasy XIII or Versus XIII feature emo characters with many belts and zippers. Look at some of the trailers and screeenshots and you'll see this.

[Tempest]

Emo characters in the next FF? How about the last 3 or 4? It's almost a staple of the series at this point.

Tempest

[SegaAges]

G-Boobie, you mentioned the story line was meh.

I want to find a game that has an awesome story line tied in with the rpg.

Without spoiling it, how is the Lost Odessey storyline?

Same with blue dragon and those others. There are about 5 or 6 good ones mentioned, which one has the best story line or at least an awesome one?

This is one of the times where I am seriously going to buy the game after work instead of saying I am thinking about it (I asked for MegaMan games for X-mas, which means no buying mm games until afterwards).

[unwinddesign]

@SegaAges: I found the storyline to be decent, but not great. The ending annoyed me, and the main bad guy is really, really queer. I liked about half of the characters, and the other half of them were questionable. I'd say the storyline relies a bit too much on cliches, but there is some original stuff there, like the whole immortal theme. That livens it up a bit and makes it worth playing.

The best part of the story are the "Thousand Years of Dreams Segments" -- little short stories filling you in on Kaim's (main character) thousand year past. They are written exceptionally well, and are diverse and wholly original. There's about 30 of them, and they take about 10 - 15 minutes each to read (they're all text -- sounds like a minus, but the presentation is top notch). Easily worth playing the game for.

If you've played Final Fantasy, expect Lost Odyssey to be extremely derivative of the series. Not necessarily a bad thing, just know what you're getting in to. I put 65 hours into it and enjoyed it. For $40 or less, it's worth the cash for a RPG fan.

[SegaAges]

This game sounds cool and all, but of the jrpg's, what is the game that has the best story along with the awesome gameplay?

it definetelty looks like there are some questions about the LO story, and not good ones.

I will consider this one, but is there one with a better story that i should look into as well?

[Sudo]

This game sounds cool and all, but of the jrpg's, what is the game that has the best story along with the awesome gameplay?

it definetelty looks like there are some questions about the LO story, and not good ones.

I will consider this one, but is there one with a better story that i should look into as well?

LO definitely has the best story out of the 360's RPG library.

[Tempest]

I don't know, I thought Tales of Vesperia had a nice story. Well maybe not a great story, but the voice acting was top notch anyway. I like humor in my RPGs.

What about Enchanted Arms? I think it counts as a JRPG (tactical, but RPG nonetheless). It gets a bad rap for some reason, but I thought it was pretty good.

Tempest

[G-Boobie]

G-Boobie, you mentioned the story line was meh.

Without spoiling it, how is the Lost Odessey storyline?

Same with blue dragon and those others. There are about 5 or 6 good ones mentioned, which one has the best story line or at least an awesome one?

Lost Odyssey was Final Fantasy IV with an immortal main character and a worse save point spread. However, If you can get past the obvious parallels to FF IV, it's not a bad story at all. As Unwinddesign already said, there are excellent short stories that you read to sort out some of Kaim's(NOT Kain! NOT Kain!! Seriously!!! And Ced isn't Cid, even if he has an airship!! While we're at it, please disregard the pair of magical twins who are NOT Palim and Porum in any way! Please continue!) past. It's a great mechanic, and one I hope someone shamelessly rips off for future games.

Blue Dragon I have no opinion about. Everyone I know was disappointed with it, so I didn't touch it. Also, Akira Toriyama can stop recycling Dragonball character designs anytime he wants to.

I played the demo for Vesperia, but it didn't really grab me. The characters seemed to be the same stale rehashed stereotypes you find in every JRPG.

Ah, something becomes clear to me: part of the problem I have with most 'next gen' JRPG's has to do with how goddamn tired the story tropes and character archetypes are. Everyone has a plucky young hero, a magical princess or priestess who falls for the hero, a stern but kind mentor character, an evil, misunderstood villain who may or may not be leading an evil empire... That isn't to say that the JRPG genre is alone in that particular sin, but it's more and more apparent with everyone released.

I really enjoy the SMT games precisely because they avoid most of those cliches, or if they embrace one or two, they give them a depth that most others don't. It's also why I enjoyed XII so much: it had a pretty adult story(compared to, say, any of the Tales games).

Anyway, end of digression. SegaAges, if you need a next gen JRPG, I'd go with Lost Odyssey.

[BHvrd]

I'm really stoked for White Knight Chronicles, looks bad ass, but yeah there has been a lack as far as next gen AAA Rpg goes.

Look into White Knight Chronicles ASAP.

[jdc]

I too bought the PS3 at launch with the expectation of having at least SOME selection in rpgs on it by now. (where the hell IS the next instalment of Legend Of Dragoon...huh, Sony? lol) They all seem to be popping up on the PSP and DS. Maybe we'll see some in 2009.

[eugenek]

I'm really stoked for White Knight Chronicles, looks bad ass, but yeah there has been a lack as far as next gen AAA Rpg goes.

Look into White Knight Chronicles ASAP.

I was super-excited for White Knight Chronicles, but Famitsu gave it a 29/40. This is the same Famitsu that gave Last Remnant, of all games, a 38/40, so it's gotta be pretty damn bad. I'm still looking forward to it, but much more cautiously.

[G-Boobie]

I was super-excited for White Knight Chronicles, but Famitsu gave it a 29/40. This is the same Famitsu that gave Last Remnant, of all games, a 38/40, so it's gotta be pretty damn bad. I'm still looking forward to it, but much more cautiously.

Famitsu is infamous for granting good scores to, hey guess what, advertisers, friends, and business partners. You want to know why Last Remnant got the score it did? Nepotistic industry fellatio. 'Journalistic integrity' means different things in different countries, I guess. If Akira Toriyama or Nomura had been involved, that fucker would have gotten a perfect score.

Level Five probably just opted out of the two page spread advertising option and were punished accordingly.

[Daria]

Yeah everyone always quote Famitsu as scripture, but their scores generally seem way off to me. Level-5 has yet to put out a bad game so my hopes are held high for White Knight.

[eugenek]

Famitsu is infamous for granting good scores to, hey guess what, advertisers, friends, and business partners. You want to know why Last Remnant got the score it did? Nepotistic industry fellatio. 'Journalistic integrity' means different things in different countries, I guess. If Akira Toriyama or Nomura had been involved, that fucker would have gotten a perfect score.

Level Five probably just opted out of the two page spread advertising option and were punished accordingly.

I'm not arguing that the cultural norms are different over there and that reviews have to be filtered in that light. But a 29? This isn't some indie developer, it's Level 5, and Famitsu gave their last big RPG (DQVIII) a sparkling 39.

Besides, for as many times as they get something spectacularly wrong, they do reward good games. They gave Elder Scrolls IV a 38 and I doubt that they are "friends" or "business partners" with Bethesda Softworks. Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3 got great ratings too.

I mean, whatever. I hope White Knight is good. But I can't say I'm encouraged right now.

[Daria]

I'm not arguing that the cultural norms are different over there and that reviews have to be filtered in that light. But a 29? This isn't some indie developer, it's Level 5, and Famitsu gave their last big RPG (DQVIII) a sparkling 39.

You don't think it's odd that also happens to be another Square-Enix title? It's still a great game, but it's also got a lot of advertising behind it.

[eugenek]

You don't think it's odd that also happens to be another Square-Enix title? It's still a great game, but it's also got a lot of advertising behind it.

Well you have a point. Perhaps it wouldn't surprise me if they're...slightly gracious towards Square titles. Especially in light of Last Remnant. Or maybe they just enjoy patently unfun games...

But honestly, I just can't see them punishing a game that's otherwise good by giving it low scores. There's good reason to doubt high Famitsu scores, but are they ever wrong about the low ones? That's a real question, I actually don't know. Personally, I have agreed with their lower rated games, but of course I haven't played them all.

[Sudo]

Famitsu is one of the least credible sources when it comes to game reviews.

[nectarsis]

IMHO jrpgs are going for more flash, and style over substance (can be said about most genres these days). The older jrpgs didn't have Shakesperean plots all the time, but they were damn fun. No learning obtuse battle systems that actually can detract from the game as a whole.