Alcotholic
Banned
JRPGs used to be my favorite form of RPG growing up. Even before I knew there was a distinction between the two. The stories were interesting and varied, the combat light but deep, and the sense of adventure was immense. These days I have had this craving for a good feeling JRPG, wanting to feel the excitement and connection to the characters I once did. I kept an eye out for RPGs I've never played before, looking at videos of gameplay, kinda skipping on reviews for the most part, and just to make sure I was getting the experience I was looking for I went back a couple generations. I bought and downloaded Rogue Galaxy. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. The characters were a parody of themselves, awful campy dialogue and voice acting, inconsistent and weird names, a barren world, bland combat and a vomit of side content. The game felt like it was developed without thought.
It follows many tropes that most other JRPGs do. I mean, here is a list that encompasses RPGs in general, but JRPGs are more guilty of:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...n.TheGrandListOfConsoleRolePlayingGameCliches
You can kinda get the gist of what I'm getting at.
Why have JRPGs stagnated so much? They fell into a hole of arbitrary systems, fighting mechanics, and tech trees.The plot is generally the same across most games with some variances of direction. Amnesia-ridden, fatherless, sword wielding guy going on adventures for some sort of higher meaning. A lead female who is a spell caster and love interest to the dude, follows him with a ragtag group of outcasts hope to save humanity. Is that all these games strive for? Probably the most unique JRPGs I've played in the past 10 years have been The World Ends with You and Persona 4. Now these games still follow some standard JRPG conventions, but at least they tried for something unique.
I feel like developers could really trim the fat on most of these games to create something truly memorable and refreshing. Chrono Trigger, FFVI, and Super Mario RPG had simple systems, but a robust game focused on the plot and exploration. You didn't have tech trees, a synthesizer system, bug catching, and monster rating system. And guess what, they are still as fun as ever.
Despite my gripes, I am stoked for Persona 5, and cautiously optimistic of Ni No Kuni 2.
Anyway, sorry if my rant is a jumbled mess, it's just my stream of thoughts.
EDIT:
Just to make it clear to everyone, I am not making these assumptions purely on Rogue Galaxy. I just noticed a trend after playing a bit of this game that is consistent with all the other JRPGs that I have played in the past few years.
And to just refocus my statements here, JRPGs these days are a jumbled mess of thoughtless mechanics and recycled characters and themes. To extend my thoughts on these matters further, I will CLEARLY separate them and explain my issues with each.
The Mechanics:
Fighting is either real time or turn based- I have no issue with either, but what I do have a problem with is how other systems within the game are tacked on with no thought to how it's supposed to fit. You gain new abilities by doing side quests or finding Item A and fitting it into Slot A. Sometimes you have to play some tech tree mini game to unlock abilities. It's like fitting a square peg into a round hole- the two don't fit, it's not an elegant system. Real time fighting systems are often just button mash fests. You gain new abilities, but they don't really affect the fight, they affect how you fight. Most of the time it ends up being an exercise in maintaining health bars while attacking. While I know that maintaining health is a portion of the battles, it shouldn't be the focus- The focus is in how one is fighting against the enemy. And you could turn to me and say, "you should direct your team mates better." To that I say the developers need to work on a system that makes you feel in control of your team mates as I think they are husks of what combat partners should be like.
There often is content for the sake of content and not really anything else. Half way through a game you're still going through tutorials, because at that point developers wanted to pad the game more with a bug collect-a-thons and synthesis-fusion systems. How does this help me and my journey to save the world? How does this fit into the world that I am exploring? And what are the benefits of participating in this?
The characters and the world:
Everything is a trope. The worlds are barren waste lands, because everything has comical proportions and it takes too long to get anywhere. The character dialogues are a joke and it's bizarre to me that they try to pan this off to adults (and to that extent teens who may play these as well). I don't know what else I should say.
In regards to console vs handheld games, I clearly was referring to console games. I have not played hand held games in a looooong time, because it feels pointless to me- I would always play at home and like others have stated, would prefer to play on a TV. I sold my 3ds, because the prospects just weren't appealing anymore.
But why can't we have better console JRPG experiences? Just because the handheld consoles have good games, doesn't mean that consoles can't. Why are console JRPGs so bad right now?
I hope that clarifies my point a little bit more.
It follows many tropes that most other JRPGs do. I mean, here is a list that encompasses RPGs in general, but JRPGs are more guilty of:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p...n.TheGrandListOfConsoleRolePlayingGameCliches
You can kinda get the gist of what I'm getting at.
Why have JRPGs stagnated so much? They fell into a hole of arbitrary systems, fighting mechanics, and tech trees.The plot is generally the same across most games with some variances of direction. Amnesia-ridden, fatherless, sword wielding guy going on adventures for some sort of higher meaning. A lead female who is a spell caster and love interest to the dude, follows him with a ragtag group of outcasts hope to save humanity. Is that all these games strive for? Probably the most unique JRPGs I've played in the past 10 years have been The World Ends with You and Persona 4. Now these games still follow some standard JRPG conventions, but at least they tried for something unique.
I feel like developers could really trim the fat on most of these games to create something truly memorable and refreshing. Chrono Trigger, FFVI, and Super Mario RPG had simple systems, but a robust game focused on the plot and exploration. You didn't have tech trees, a synthesizer system, bug catching, and monster rating system. And guess what, they are still as fun as ever.
Despite my gripes, I am stoked for Persona 5, and cautiously optimistic of Ni No Kuni 2.
Anyway, sorry if my rant is a jumbled mess, it's just my stream of thoughts.
EDIT:
Just to make it clear to everyone, I am not making these assumptions purely on Rogue Galaxy. I just noticed a trend after playing a bit of this game that is consistent with all the other JRPGs that I have played in the past few years.
And to just refocus my statements here, JRPGs these days are a jumbled mess of thoughtless mechanics and recycled characters and themes. To extend my thoughts on these matters further, I will CLEARLY separate them and explain my issues with each.
The Mechanics:
Fighting is either real time or turn based- I have no issue with either, but what I do have a problem with is how other systems within the game are tacked on with no thought to how it's supposed to fit. You gain new abilities by doing side quests or finding Item A and fitting it into Slot A. Sometimes you have to play some tech tree mini game to unlock abilities. It's like fitting a square peg into a round hole- the two don't fit, it's not an elegant system. Real time fighting systems are often just button mash fests. You gain new abilities, but they don't really affect the fight, they affect how you fight. Most of the time it ends up being an exercise in maintaining health bars while attacking. While I know that maintaining health is a portion of the battles, it shouldn't be the focus- The focus is in how one is fighting against the enemy. And you could turn to me and say, "you should direct your team mates better." To that I say the developers need to work on a system that makes you feel in control of your team mates as I think they are husks of what combat partners should be like.
There often is content for the sake of content and not really anything else. Half way through a game you're still going through tutorials, because at that point developers wanted to pad the game more with a bug collect-a-thons and synthesis-fusion systems. How does this help me and my journey to save the world? How does this fit into the world that I am exploring? And what are the benefits of participating in this?
The characters and the world:
Everything is a trope. The worlds are barren waste lands, because everything has comical proportions and it takes too long to get anywhere. The character dialogues are a joke and it's bizarre to me that they try to pan this off to adults (and to that extent teens who may play these as well). I don't know what else I should say.
In regards to console vs handheld games, I clearly was referring to console games. I have not played hand held games in a looooong time, because it feels pointless to me- I would always play at home and like others have stated, would prefer to play on a TV. I sold my 3ds, because the prospects just weren't appealing anymore.
But why can't we have better console JRPG experiences? Just because the handheld consoles have good games, doesn't mean that consoles can't. Why are console JRPGs so bad right now?
I hope that clarifies my point a little bit more.