JRPG? Now, It's not so great.

[ajan-ko]

I found some post on facebook talking about JRPG. They are pretty much stale, in comparison to WRPG.

I mean, when I play the JRPG in PSX era, I remmember Legend of Legaia, which is have unique battle system (It's like Tekken, but RPG). You have dark stuff like xenogears, BoF. You have .hack before SAO is cool. You have some crazy stuff like Disgaea (those rangers makes me laugh hard), Earthbound, Shadow Hearts.

Now it's all about anime girl, waifu fest, schoolboi (or some war/magic-school), and backstreet boi (usually FF).

OR!! I'm a lazy boi, I have some childhood friend, and some weird girl come to town, and the war/danger is coming....

The problem is, when I want to buy the game, I'm gonna buy Divinity / darkest dungeon rather than I'm setsuna, or valkrya chronicle.

The combat is also suffers, there's only 2 combat:
1. A-RPG like witcher, or you can say like YS/Rouge Galaxy (before it was cool).
2. FF style RPG, push dat menu, attack-attack-attack.

Hell.. even nintendo try to imitate X-com with their RPG mario games, and at least they do something fresh.

Sorry, gotta write this to clear my mind.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

Have to completely disagree...

Persona 5, Nier:Automata, and Breath of the Wild (if you count it as an RPG) all just came out recently and completely DESTROYED WRPGs in terms of quality and originality. Final Fantasy XV, Dragon Quest XI, and Octopath Traveller were all also well received. The awesome old King's Field series morphed into the incredible and beloved Souls RPGs. Shin Megami Tensei for the Switch is also in the works. They're still making Disgaea, right?

The only thing stale here is the "omg JRPGs are so stale now lol" argument people push without taking a hard look at what WRPGs have been doing for the last thirty years: gritty tough guy fights in post apacolypse, gritty tough guy fights in gritty fantasy open world, and gritty tough guy fights in washed out sepia land.

Go ahead and post screenshots of recent wRPGs, and then post screenshots of the ones I just listed. See which ones look like they're all the same! ;p

 

[JeffJ]

taking a hard look at what WRPGs have been doing for the last thirty years: gritty tough guy fights in post apacolypse, gritty tough guy fights in gritty fantasy open world, and gritty tough guy fights in washed out sepia land.

Eehhh...

Arcanum: Pretty original steampunk setting where you can literally be a nerdy, booksmart female (or something similarly far away from gritty tough guy)
Vampire the Maquerade Bloodlines: Modern day setting where you can be an artistically or even politically oriented vampire
Knights of the Old Republic: Star Wars (not really gritty nor post apocalyptic)
Jade Empire: Fantasy version of ancient Japan, not even remotely post apocalyptic and you can play as anything other than gritty tough guy (how about a magic based female?)
Fable: Probably the most far opposite of your description in just about every way

I just named five WRPG's off the top of my head that aren't even remotely anything like that. While there are definitely a bunch that fits your description, there's just as many that aren't even close. WRPG's are pretty awesome. And most of them does actually offer interactive combat as opposed to "push dat menu, attack-attack-attack" as ajan-ko so aptly put it.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

@JeffJ: Half those games you named are as old as the JRPGs ajan-ko is pining for, and more than half the games I listed offer better, more nuanced combat than the list you just gave.

It's like....sweeping generalizations are likely to have holes in them or something!

Yes, I do love RPGs from both sides of the planet, but I think "wRPGs are less stale than jRPGs" is completely laughable. :')

 

[JeffJ]

Well, you did say WRPGs of the last 30 years.

Them being old is more due to the fact that I really haven't had the time to catch up the past decade or so, but I'd be surprised if there aren't more recent examples. General point being that WRPGs offer very broad diversity and originality too, and that yes, if you do sweeping generalizations of them, there will definitely be major holes in them!

 

[Bearman_18]

What I've learned is that every genre has certain over-used types and themes that are stale. These themes being stale perhaps only because low-quality developers just use whatever is immediately popular (which is not inherently a bad thing, it's just that they do it poorly. Though, I like the idea of every FFXV character being male, mainly because I've always liked the idea of an RPG in which you play as a bunch of bros. I would hardly say this is stale.)
examples of stale and more-often-then-not poorly used themes are ones such as:

Running away from animatronics in a horror.
Quote-unquote "Waifu Fests" in an RPG. (Lol.)
Undertale clones. (Though people don't seem to find this stale. Then again, these examples only seem stale because of people who don't find them stale, and thus make a million of there own.)

Sorry for the unorganized analysis dump. (I'm not sorry, who am I kidding?)

 

[Siolfor the Jackal]

My favourite recent rpg is Miitopia.

 

[ajan-ko]

Have to completely disagree...

Persona 5, Nier:Automata, and Breath of the Wild (if you count it as an RPG) all just came out recently and completely DESTROYED WRPGs in terms of quality and originality. Final Fantasy XV, Dragon Quest XI, and Octopath Traveller were all also well received. The awesome old King's Field series morphed into the incredible and beloved Souls RPGs. Shin Megami Tensei for the Switch is also in the works. They're still making Disgaea, right?

The only thing stale here is the "omg JRPGs are so stale now lol" argument people push without taking a hard look at what WRPGs have been doing for the last thirty years: gritty tough guy fights in post apacolypse, gritty tough guy fights in gritty fantasy open world, and gritty tough guy fights in washed out sepia land.

Go ahead and post screenshots of recent wRPGs, and then post screenshots of the ones I just listed. See which ones look like they're all the same! ;p

Nier, dark souls, and zelda are action games. If you call DS rpg, then monhun is RPG.

Octopath is good, but nowhere good as top tier game. Disgaea become more and more stall storyline wise. Dragon quest is alright, but not my cup of tea.

FFXV? I feel they like want to copy Witcher 3.

I used play JRPG in childhood (cuz I'm live in South asia), in fact I never play WRPG when I was a kid, but once I try Dragon Age Origins. It just DESTROY my opinion on JRPG.

I started to thinking: "Man, there's so much thing to do for JRPG to catch up."

There's so much potential to JRPG, for example they can make
- darkest dungeon style JRPG (better version fire emblem),
- cowboy style JRPG like Trigun (or wild arms) using xcom/mutant year zero mechanics,
- or hell... even copy the mechanics of divinity.

I saw the new front mission (left alive), I just asked to myself, why they don't just copy x-com mechanics to front mission? It will become badass as hell. I mean ability to cover and shoot with mecha? I'm in...

 

[ethian]

"JRPGs aren't so great now" yknow, when one of my followers that is a guest of this website, when they were in 2014, they discovered old stuff like The Simpsons aren't so great in modern days, as well as others... something similar occurs to JRPGs, right?

Undertale clones

Clones like what?
Also, the same follower i talked about before, is currently working on an Undertale clone... but refuses to release it to the public... unless to me and to other known people of himself... in private... i heard it includes Nat Geo Kids and Others...

 

[Bearman_18]

@ethian I suppose it's not fair to include undertale clones, as it's basically its own genre by now. But it's probably going to grow stale if it hasn't already. These days, I'm happy to see an rpg that isn't another "undertale AU." As the fanbase so endearingly calls them.

 

[RichHopefulComposer]

when I was a kid, but once I try Dragon Age Origins. It just DESTROY my opinion on JRPG.

We have *very* different opinions on what makes a good game, then. I couldn't get into Dragon Age at all, even though I've enjoyed many of its wRPG peers. :x

That's okay, though. Different games for different people. I don't think Dragon Age will last thirty years like Final Fantasy has, though.

 

[ajan-ko]

We have *very* different opinions on what makes a good game, then.

Yeah, in the end it just opinion...
I guess my taste is more western-RPG-ish when you can custom your stats, DnD, and choice really matter...

...but I like the east aesthetics (the character design, enemy design, the town design, and the ship design).