Psycho_Mantis
Banned
A lot of people are jrpg fans.
2015 is looking phenomenal for jrpg fans while 2014 was weak.
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The 2015 RPG thread - A weak sequel but still a good year
- Thread starter Durante
- Start date
A lot of people are jrpg fans.
2015 is looking phenomenal for jrpg fans while 2014 was weak.
Basileus777
Member
2014 wasn't a weak year for JRPGs. Not unless you are someone who avoids niche titles, but then why would you be interested in this genre?
I'm a huge jRPG fan but I haven't played a 2014 jRPG, so I can safely say that it was indeed a weak year. That said, I don't own a 3DS, so that's probably why. I play any kind of RPG tho, so 2014 was a blast for me anyway.
Basileus777
Member
Most of them were on the PS3/Vita/PC, the 3DS' lineup was underwhelming last year. This is a better lineup than most years:
Ar no Surge
Tales of Xillia 2
Tales of Hearts R
Atelier Escha and Logy
Atelier Rorona Plus
Demon Gaze
Eliminage Gothic
Tears to Tiara 2
Dark Souls 2
Bravely Default
Fantasy Life
Plus Trails in Sky and Valkryria Chronicles PC ports. And depending on your definition of JRPG, you could throw in games like South Park. I had a great time playing JRPGs in 2014.
Dark Souls 2 and Eliminage Gothic are not a 'jRPG' (genre definition).
The rest is pretty weak / generic / uninteresting or at least definitely not 'a highlight'.
3DS was weak? SMT, Bravely Default, Pokemon - wut?!
I regret my purchase.
Save game corruption 15 hours or so in.
Basileus777
Member
I don't really want to get into genre definition debates, I think regardless of how you define it there were plenty of quality JRPGs in 2014 if you enjoy niche games, which is really what JRPGs are nowadays. As for the 3DS, Bravely Default is a bad game and I was going by NA, so SMT wasn't included. Pokemon is a pretty poor single player game too, I really disliked Pokemon X in 2013.
Yes.
You do realize "the rest" includes Atelier Escha & Logy?
Oh, and Elminage Gothic is an amazing old-school Wizardry-like though-as-nails dungeon crawler.
There is no debate imo. You either use JRPG to describe RPGs that were produced in or by japan, or as a genre definition. The former is bollocks tho and makes 0 sense to use, because we'd have "JFPS" and what not then as well. Yes, the US and EU devs can develop a JRPG, just like japanese devs can make a W-RPG.
Dark Souls 2 is simply an A-RPG.
edit:
And Elminage Gothic is "an amazing old-school Wizardry-like though-as-nails dungeon crawler."
edit 2:
I'm fully aware. Atelier games are a cash grab imo with shallow characters and story. Granted I might be ignorant about Escha & Logy as I haven't played it, but it doesn't seem to be very different from the 353841492323 prequels.
Basileus777
Member
It's useless a genre definition because it's completely arbitrary as games described as JRPGs share enough in common mechanically to be grouped together. This is true of WRPGs as well. What do Mass Effect and Might and Magic X have in common other than being RPGs made in the west? At least grouping titles by country of origin is consistent and makes sense. It's also how the term originated. But I don't really care about how you define JRPGs, as I said earlier, by either definition 2014 was a good year for them.
If Elminage Gothic doesn't count as a JRPG (and I agree that there's at least an argument to be made for that), then all the Etrian Odyssey games don't count either. But people always list those.
Anyway, to get back on topic, I agree that the handheld JRPG libraries are generally massively overrated. Pretty much every franchise which went from console to handheld received an inferior version (sometimes gratuitously so, see Suikoden).
Of course you are, like most people who talk about Atelier games without having played them.
Anyway, to get back on topic, I agree that the handheld JRPG libraries are generally massively overrated. Pretty much every franchise which went from console to handheld received an inferior version (sometimes gratuitously so, see Suikoden).
FlyingSaucer
Banned
Bravely Default at least is terribly overrated. But Strange Journey, the Etrian games and Persona Q make up for it 
And I don't understand all the criticism the Atelier series get; with the Saga series dormant, they are the last JRPG series in the market with an unlinear, freeform gameplay and it should count in favor of the series.
Still playing it (I'm trying to find a way to survive the infamous three-way ambush inside the Lost City) and I can only agree. The game is a dream come true : I've never been able to play the original M&M 1-5 games for long as I found the gameplay a bit too dated to really get into, and I've never liked the artistic direction of M&M 6-9; Legacy feels like the perfect compromise between the two.
And I don't understand all the criticism the Atelier series get; with the Saga series dormant, they are the last JRPG series in the market with an unlinear, freeform gameplay and it should count in favor of the series.
Still playing it (I'm trying to find a way to survive the infamous three-way ambush inside the Lost City) and I can only agree. The game is a dream come true : I've never been able to play the original M&M 1-5 games for long as I found the gameplay a bit too dated to really get into, and I've never liked the artistic direction of M&M 6-9; Legacy feels like the perfect compromise between the two.
Why do you need to 'group them by country' to begin with?
I enjoy my G-RPG, Gothic, but you like your P-RPG Witcher just as much.
It makes no sense.
The term was merely synonymous, since most, if not all RPGs that was produced for a long period of time in japan were a "JRPG" with very discriminant features and characteristics. Think Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Chrono Trigger and the like. RPGs 'like these' formed the term.
Well, it shares a remarkable characteristic of most ("recent") JRPGs, the 'anime' style and also features similar characters. The gameplay is a bit more unique to the genre, but is it its defining feature? I don't think so. E.g. Borderlands is more a A-RPG foremost and a FPS 2nd - all it changes is that instead of using a sword or bow, you shoot. The means of attack is nigh irrelevant. Your damage is mostly unrelated to your personal skill level and is defined by your equipped weapon and your level.
I did try one a while ago. If a title features an amazing story and deep characters, tell me. I will play it, since that is nowadays my biggest draw towards a game. I'm just so sick of JRPG tropes...
How could M&M X not turn a profit?
The game was made on a shoestring budget, with pretty much all assets reused from HoMM6. It must have sold at least 50k, judging by the 7k+ concurrent Steam players.
Just boggles my mind. Unless Ubi somehow expected Skyrim sales for the title, I have no idea what could've went wrong here...
It's a great game, my 2014 GOTY, everyone should at least give it a whirl.
The game was made on a shoestring budget, with pretty much all assets reused from HoMM6. It must have sold at least 50k, judging by the 7k+ concurrent Steam players.
Just boggles my mind. Unless Ubi somehow expected Skyrim sales for the title, I have no idea what could've went wrong here...
It's a great game, my 2014 GOTY, everyone should at least give it a whirl.
Well, considering it's Ubisoft, a mere profit may not be enough.
On a similar topic, I've heard unconfirmed reports that Legend of Grimrock II may not have done nearly as well as the first game. I wonder if that's mostly due to the initial dungeon-crawler revival hype of the original, or the realization from a lot of players who bought the original of what a dungeon-crawler actually entails. If true that's very disappointing.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I miss your write ups from last year, D-man, but good thread again.
They couldn't think of a way to add more DLC.
There was a DLC.
archnemesis
Member
They did release a small expansion (The Falcon & The Unicorn) with a new questline, new enemies and new dungeons.
It's a niche genre and releasing it through uPlay did it no favors.
*more
I couldn't disagree more.
If its not gameplay which defines genre, then we can just start being completely arbitrary in our definitions. And Etrian Odyssey is clearly the exact same subgenre as Elminage Gothic. (Just that the latter is a much better representative of it
)Yeah, it's concerning. On the dungeon crawler front we'll at least get Bard's Tale, and Fargo is great at selling stuff.
But dungeon crawlers don't really quench the thirst for an open-world blobber, and with the apparent demise of M&M (again) I don't see anything even remotely on the horizon which would :/
And Etrian Odyssey is clearly the exact same subgenre as Elminage Gothic. (Just that the latter is a much better representative of it
What I wouldn't give for PC ports of Etrian games.
I know I can just play an old dungeon crawler in a window and do the mapping in Excel or whatever... Still would prefer a PC game that incorporates that as a main game mechanic. :\
Just out of interest which sub-genres do you think are lacking solid releases for 2015 that got the same in 2014?
First-person party-based open world turn-based RPGs, for one. Also first-person realtime dungeon crawlers.
Really, first-person party-based RPGs in general. The lack of any equivalent for M&MX and LoG2 is felt keenly.
TheMoon
Member
Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 is probably coming out in English later this year.
Yeah, that's one turn based FP dungeon crawler. We had a fantastic one of those last year as well in Elminage Gothic.
Still no equivalent to M&MX and LoG2.
FlyingSaucer
Banned
Do you have ever thought about designing your own ?
All the time.
I actually started implementing a FP RPG for Android 3 years ago, and got a rather versatile stat system, exploration, a preliminary map editor, highly optimized rendering (ran at a locked 60 FPS at native res on my Galaxy S2) and a start of a combat prototype (making full use of multitouch) done. It should be part of my next retrospective post on my blog, or at least the one after that, if I ever get time for that!
Recently, thinking about going all the way on PC with UE4, I actually spent some time investigating the best options to contract independent environment and general 3D artists/animators, and trying to find out roughly the price ranges for various types and quality of assets. Getting one or two high quality tilesets done isn't really a huge financial risk, but trying to contract out a decently varied, animated bestiary gets incredibly expensive rather quickly.
Flying Toaster
Member
And this is why your my favorite person on NeoGAF. I would literally throw money at anything you tried to get off the ground.
Oh and wicked awesome year for RPG's.
Agreed, especially since 2014 was really disappointing when it came to RPGs. Bravely Default started off awesome but then proceeded to destroy all its momentum with one of the worst second halves in gaming history. And there was Lightning Returns, which wasn't very good at all...
The games you mention have me much more excited for RPGs than any year in a long while.
I wish people would use the word "JRPG" or "console-style RPG" when they mean exclusively that, and not "RPG".
Unless you really mean that 2014 was bad when looking at the totality of the RPG genre, and then I just don't know what to say.
Basileus777
Member
Even if you're limiting it to that, 2014 was in no way a bad year.
Yeah, I don't disagree, but then I can at least see why someone would start a discussion about it.
When you talk about "RPGs" in general, as in the entire genre, saying 2014 was anything short of great is simply ludicrous.
skLaFarebear
Member
All in for Bloodborne and Legend of Heroes :Trails in the Sky SC!
So excited!
So excited!
decoyplatypus
Member
Just out of curiosity, what is currently considered the GOAT year for RPGs? I imagine 1998-2001 all get a lot of votes.
If you don't mind sharing, how did the stat system work?
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
I don't know. I get how people were pleased at the revival of classic PC-style RPGs last year with stuff like Divinity, Wasteland 2, and M&MX. There was also a good showing from smaller games with Child of Light, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and Transistor. But on the negative side, Dark Souls 2 was a step back for the series & after a good start, Bravely Default falls apart (seriously, what were they thinking with all the repetition?). And there wasn't much of anything interesting on the JRPG side - yeah, there were good Atelier & Tales games, but these days, EVERY year has good Atelier & Tales games. I like Persona Q a lot, but it wasn't enough to save the year for me.
I think 2015 will be a stronger year, regardless of what kinds of RPGs you like.
decoyplatypus
Member
I happen to agree with you that Dark Souls 2 was not a step forward for the series, but I don't think we should count that as a negative for 2014. It's still a good game, after all.
Robert at Zeboyd Games
Banned
No, but being disappointed by two of the biggest RPGs I was looking forward to in 2014 (DS2 & Bravely Default) is one of the major reasons why I don't feel like 2014 was a great year for RPGs. I see how it was a great year for others, but it wasn't for me.
cripterion
Member
Already bought Witcher 3 and Pillars of Eternity.
Really wish I could get my hands on Torment: Tides of Numenera and Shadowrun Hong Kong as soon as possible, love turn based isometric rpgs (Wasteland 2 not so much though..).
Really wish I could get my hands on Torment: Tides of Numenera and Shadowrun Hong Kong as soon as possible, love turn based isometric rpgs (Wasteland 2 not so much though..).
Dark Souls 2 was 'fine', just not as good as DaS1 or DeS, mainly because of the weird feel to the cheated 'connected' world and VERY abstruse story.
Personally, Wasteland 2 was my biggest disappointment last year. I expected.... 'more'. I dunno, but it felt way too much streamlined. I had 4 characters and each would level up the EXACT same things each level, respectively. Weapon skill + 2 non-combat skills. E.g. MC was rifle + intimidation + strength. Another was sniper + lock pick + safe pick etc
Also, I dunno what they were thinking about shot guns, but they were so fucking useless, it's not even funny. Since they are my favorite kind of weapon, that was another downer. Graphic-engine was also really bad and undetailed. When you only have such a crappy engine that doesn't even allow to zoom in all that mach and has little to no unique animations, why not at least feature a multitude of body sizes, beards and hair cuts? Shadowrun is also lacking here, but at least the backgrounds are detailed and satisfying. I didn't really feel the writing either to keep me going, sadly. Bummer.
Personally, Wasteland 2 was my biggest disappointment last year. I expected.... 'more'. I dunno, but it felt way too much streamlined. I had 4 characters and each would level up the EXACT same things each level, respectively. Weapon skill + 2 non-combat skills. E.g. MC was rifle + intimidation + strength. Another was sniper + lock pick + safe pick etc
Also, I dunno what they were thinking about shot guns, but they were so fucking useless, it's not even funny. Since they are my favorite kind of weapon, that was another downer. Graphic-engine was also really bad and undetailed. When you only have such a crappy engine that doesn't even allow to zoom in all that mach and has little to no unique animations, why not at least feature a multitude of body sizes, beards and hair cuts? Shadowrun is also lacking here, but at least the backgrounds are detailed and satisfying. I didn't really feel the writing either to keep me going, sadly. Bummer.
I really couldn't disagree more. First of all, I don't consider Dark Souls 2 a step back, but I've discussed that to death in other threads and will refrain from a repeat performance.
But more importantly, I don't consider a few less-good-than-expected JRPGs to remotely come close to overshadowing the utter fucking glory that was the revival of isometric RPGs with not just one, but three incredible entries (D:OS, WL2, SR
F), the revival of the open world first person party-based game with the fantastic Might and Magic X, and the amazing followup to another distinct under-served sub-genre that was Legend of Grimrock 2.And that's on top of games such as Blackguards (filling the SRPG niche with a surprising amount of PnP-derived depth and impeccably varied encounter design), Stick of Truth (a really solid console-style RPG with great humour), Elminage: Gothic, Dark Souls 2, Consortium, Risen 3 and Lords of Xulima. And the yearly franchises you mentioned
And, well, I guess there was Dragon Age Inquisition. You know, the "RPG of the year". But even that is not enough to drag 2014 down
In conclusion: I maintain my point, which is that you have to have a string JRPG/console-style bias to believe that 2014 was anything other than a great year for RPGs.
At the risk of being nit-picky, does one game in an entire year (that apparently sold poorly) and apparently no "successor" this year really a revival make?
Pallete swaps to the rescue.
What worked for Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest games of yore should also work just fine for you.
No, you are right. And if your goal was to make me sad you succeeded
Doesn't make 2014 any less awesome though, call it the last glorious roar of a dying beast instead of a revival then.
decoyplatypus
Member
But more importantly, I don't consider a few less-good-than-expected JRPGs to remotely come close to overshadowing the utter fucking glory that was the revival of isometric RPGs with not just one, but three incredible entries (D:OS, WL2, SR
"Revival" might be a bit strong
It's a pity. Might and Magic X is super fun.EDIT: Beaten to needlessly cruel commentary.
You guys really hate me don't you"Revival" might be a bit strong