Im not saying dont innovate. Im saying dont follow the norms of what a modern RPG should be. There's a reason why JRPGs are not as well-liked as before and one of the core reasons is the lack of focus on story. Have there been good JRPGs? Sure, but not even close to the adulation they had in the PS1 era. Was there not enough change even within JRPGs during the "PS1 shit"?
In fact its your way of thinking that makes the genre insipid. You have a view of what a modern game should be and feel all games need to adopt it. Its the formula for creating generic and mediocrity which is what is happening.
Really?
If you're talking about me being realistic about which jrpgs have the sales to have gone to 360/PS3, and which ones transiitoned to portables, that's just being realistic. I would say in the same breath that the portable consoles have better jrpg libraries by far.
Tell me more about how you determined objectively that the core reason jrpgs are disliked these days is lack of focus on story?
Sorry to say, but taking cues from modern rpgs, or mixing and matching, or making their own flavor or take on a system, isn't an example of jrpgs being forced into being modern. FFS, I don't own next-gen consoles, and in the past, I've taken forever to get new consoles. I get into series years and years after they began, I rarely buy games on release. But pls, tell me more about how I want jrpgs to be more like the modern games I play so little of, I'd love to hear more.
Xenoblade taking cues from MMOs in it's battle system isn't an example of "muh jrpgs are being forced to be like modern bland WESTERN rpgs", it's an example of Xenoblade mixing and matching and adding it's own stuff to the genre to change it up. Me praising that isn't me wanting every jrpg to have a more MMO style combat system (I damn well prefer turn-based, no real time, in general). It's just me liking the fact that the game innovated.
And did we play the same PS1 jrpgs? I'm not sure many of their stories were ever that focused, what's more, a bunch of the stuff people complain about in jrpgs starts there (FF8 story is so meeeh, FF7 is decent but set the course that way, and the whole overly pretentious jrpg thing starts around here too).
Guess what, sometimes, after all of that, playing an rpg that keeps it's plot relatively simple and straightforward is a nice change of pace. Because attempts at complex plots that are taken seriously but not done well are often just really bad.
The stereotypical jRPG tries to have a "serious" plot but is honestly just a mess to go through. When complex plots are done well, holy shit yes, but if you don't know what the fuck you're doing, just give me good guys, bad guys, good character development (not inherently tied to a good plot), and try to keep things a little more simple. Sure, have your twists and stuff, but keep it overall straightforward (Golden Sun, Xenoblade were really refreshing in this way. Yeah, they weren't story focused, but there are plenty of rpgs that focus on being story focused)
I'd honestly like to hear why the lack of focus on story is what's hurting jrpgs.