LucanDesmond:
Wow, somebody didn't like Xenogears.

Everyone is wrong sometime.

LucanDesmond:

I'm sure this statement will be flamed. I don't care. This is my opinion. Square-Enix. Formerly know as Squaresoft. In their better days. They can't stop beating the VERY DEAD Final Fantasy horse to make anything that is any good these days. Square hasn't put out a great game in about ten years. The best stuff they've put out in recent years are remakes of their classics for the DS and PSP. They made a lot of mistakes with regards to prioritizing what games to make, in my opinion. Final Fantasy was ALWAYS too important to be put on hold to give any time or money to something that might end up being better. Xenogears, FF Tactics, and Chrono Trigger are all games that had great potential but got minimal attention in favor of the latest FF to have an over convoluted, ridiculous storyline played out by a cast of feminine emo boys and their slutty girlfriends. Even Kingdom Hearts, a decent series with a lot of potential hasn't seen a full console release in over 3 years now with nothing new in site (I'm not talking about hand held stuff).

I've been flamed many times for voicing this opinion, but here goes: SquareEnix needs to hire new writers and designers. They need to try something different, something other than "boy meets girl, saves world". Back in the day, they were known for breaking trends: Squaresoft made playing RPGs cool back when FFVII came out, and Enix was always that underappreciated little company that made the most awesome games, like the Dragon Warrior and Star Ocean series. I'd like for once to play a SquareEnix game where the hero isn't some generic sword wielding prettyboy who could be mistaken for the leading lady.

TL;DR: SquareEnix has fallen into a rut, needs way out

geldonyetich:
As a 25 year gamer, I'm left thinking anyone who classifies games by their ethnicity is inadvertently demonstrating a kind of racism. Games are games, nationality hardly matters, and whether you want a JRPG-style command box or a point and click interface is just a difference in design decision.

Different countries have different cultures. Games, or any creation for that matter, will always reflect the cultures in which they were created given they are products of their cultures. Thus, nationality clearly matters in the creation of a game.

That being said, it's about time Japanese games died.

I hear ya, man, and I agree with everything you said except:

LucanDesmond:
Square hasn't put out a great game in about ten years.

The World Ends With You is awesome. Aside from the protagonist being a whiny teenager at the start (he gets better), you'd hardly think it was a Square game!

It is mostly western developers who are going bankrupt right now, I am hoping companies like Capcom and Square-enix can bring gaming back to what it was and make sure we have no more garbage like Gears and Halo. Don't get me wrong, I love Bethesda and Valve, but they are both two great companies swimming in a sea of mediocre western title from other companies.

For me, the problem is, ironicly, that many japanese games are so fucking japanese ! Playing thirteen years old manga girls with foxy ears in pedophilic skin tight girlshool "armor" that can easily dual-wield 3 meters long swords in john-wooish overstyled emo action cutszenes totaly alienates me. (that was some overdramatisation, but I hope you get the point...)

See #8 on Gamasutra's top 20 trends for 2008 list. and the linked interview in the article. There's a decent amount of people out there who share some of the TS's opinions.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3884/gamasutras_top_20_trends_of_2008.php?page=4

eatenbyagrue:

LucanDesmond:

I'm sure this statement will be flamed. I don't care. This is my opinion. Square-Enix. Formerly know as Squaresoft. In their better days. They can't stop beating the VERY DEAD Final Fantasy horse to make anything that is any good these days. Square hasn't put out a great game in about ten years. The best stuff they've put out in recent years are remakes of their classics for the DS and PSP. They made a lot of mistakes with regards to prioritizing what games to make, in my opinion. Final Fantasy was ALWAYS too important to be put on hold to give any time or money to something that might end up being better. Xenogears, FF Tactics, and Chrono Trigger are all games that had great potential but got minimal attention in favor of the latest FF to have an over convoluted, ridiculous storyline played out by a cast of feminine emo boys and their slutty girlfriends. Even Kingdom Hearts, a decent series with a lot of potential hasn't seen a full console release in over 3 years now with nothing new in site (I'm not talking about hand held stuff).

I've been flamed many times for voicing this opinion, but here goes: SquareEnix needs to hire new writers and designers. They need to try something different, something other than "boy meets girl, saves world". Back in the day, they were known for breaking trends: Squaresoft made playing RPGs cool back when FFVII came out, and Enix was always that underappreciated little company that made the most awesome games, like the Dragon Warrior and Star Ocean series. I'd like for once to play a SquareEnix game where the hero isn't some generic sword wielding prettyboy who could be mistaken for the leading lady.

TL;DR: SquareEnix has fallen into a rut, needs way out

I totally agree. Square and JRPGs were big in the West because they were the most story oriented of genres, but now the stories suck. Square-Enix hasn't adapted their stories for an older demographic and sticks with the same stories it has for years. When most gamers were kids, the care free 'save the world' stories were easier to relate to, but doing the same thing now is just overdone. An older demographic wants more diverse moral questions in games, more emotional development of characters and less good guy meets bad guy (who some times is just misunderstood).

I'd really like Square to make a JRPG with a realistic sense of politics or games where they world doesn't end up supporting you and some armies that continue to fight for reasons that aren't demon possession or something similar.

I personally feel FFX was the last good final fantasy. Every other game made after that was made by Square-enix instead of Squaresoft who look to ressurect the old games and create unfun spin-offs. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest (from Enix) were both great RPG series, but try combining the two and you get some mutant bi-product that nobody wants. Also considering that the original creators and a lot of the original team for Final Fantasy along with Nobuo Uematsu left to create Mistwalker games after they released the aweful spirits within and Enix then merged afterwards, you can see a pattern in the quality of games.

My own opinion on these:

I'm still for Nintendo myself. They've never really been big on releasing big name titles frequently, but when they do they usually keep me busy for a while.

Squenix definitely likes to beat dead horses, though each time they do they at least use a different blunt object. Unless it's Dragon Quest, in which case the gameplay is still as bland as it was on the NES.

Seriously Sega, hand Sonic over to BioWare, rename Sonic Team to Phantasy Star Team (since it's all they know how to do), then get to work on making Skies of Arcadia 2.

Sony, I know you want to unify everything under your media, but your media is too damn expensive. Let's see, do I want a 1 GB memory stick for $40 or a 3 GB SD card for $19?

And Capcom, Megaman is dead. Stop trying to reboot it with lame duck games like Star Force. Also, hire back Clover Studios so that you can make some good, original games again instead of cut and paste zombie shooters.

Cadren:

I'd really like Square to make a JRPG with a realistic sense of politics or games where they world doesn't end up supporting you and some armies that continue to fight for reasons that aren't demon possession or something similar.

They did that in FFXII. And yeah, it was very refreshing to end up fighting to save your country instead of the whole damn planet. And yet the game brought on more haters than lovers. And guess what their number one complaint was?

Ungrateful hacks.

This is kind of a pointless thread...

This is exactly the same thing as when people say "PC Gaming is dead." -- So long as there is a Japan, Japanese games aren't going anywhere.

The thing you fail to realize is-- Japanese games are meant for Japanese people. They're released globally because they can make money off the niche gamers for what is essentially a ten cent patch [Translation] to a game they've already made a shitload on in their native country. Just because you particularly don't like it, and prefer western developed RPGs [Which is natural considering you're from a western country], doesn't mean they're 'going away' or 'sucking more'. You've just changed your particular tastes.

Personally, I still love JRPGs and japanese-originating games, and I'll probably continue to like them more than most western games I play, because I like games with great storyline -- Not OK story and good gameplay, or great gameplay and a matching story, I like great story period. And when you compare a culture with a story telling society centuries old to an industrial instant gratification culture, story-wise the former will always win.

And in all honesty, if you can't appreciate a JRPG's story because it's 'Unrealistic' and then go play Gears of War and mow down mutated insects from the bowels of the earth for a half hour, then you sir are a hypocritical prick. It's not that you don't like the 'unrealistic' story, it's that you don't like the fantasy setting.

So have you guys who are bashing JRPGs played...

- any Suikoden games
- any Xeno- games
- any MegaTen games

?

Because it doesn't sound like it. Square Enix aren't the be all and end all.

johnx61:

klaypeeple:
Damn, I was hoping to be inb4 the obligatory "FFVII was the last great offering" praise, but alas, I had stuff to do today.
Yes, Squeenix has been on the downhill trot, but so has every thing in video games. It's all about the glitzy glam of the visuals than about the story. My point though, is that while I've watched Samus, Mario, Link, Sonic, and Megaman slip into (and in many cases, well beyond) mediocrity, the one thing I can stand tall and proud to exclaim is that the Final Fantasy franchise is still alive.
The average video gamer will stand firm on the belief that FFVII was the last thing Square made of any signifigance, but the hardcore RPGer in me will argue that among RPG's, the FF series is a safe bet, nay, a sure thing when it comes to RPG greatness. I'll admit there were duds in the mix; specifically 8 and 9, but that's completely forgiveable considering the FF series has taken things from scratch each and every time, aside from some cameos. No two games act/look/play alike. Even the one direct "sequel" in the series, FFX-2, stands alone in gameplay style and character maturation. Sure beats the old resident evil/god of war/mario copy paste you get with every new title.
Please don't jump on the "Final Fantasy died after FFVII" bandwagon without at least having played the games!

There's a lot of Hate on FF8, but why? It's easily got some of the best story telling, and you can't tell me that there weren't times when you could feel your heart strings being tugged by Squall and Riona.

I don't think that Final Fantasy died after FFVII. I think it died when FFXI came out and while I liked FFT and FFVIII, (I actually think FFT was better then FFVII.) FFVIII was when the franchise started to drop off and FFIX was when it went into a full blown coma. FFXII was not enough to save the franchise from it's awful attempt at the MMO market. So unless FFXIII is freaking ambrosia, I'm gonna declare the series done.

Eiseman:

Cadren:

I'd really like Square to make a JRPG with a realistic sense of politics or games where they world doesn't end up supporting you and some armies that continue to fight for reasons that aren't demon possession or something similar.

They did that in FFXII. And yeah, it was very refreshing to end up fighting to save your country instead of the whole damn planet. And yet the game brought on more haters than lovers. And guess what their number one complaint was?

Ungrateful hacks.

It's because the story was INSANELY hard to follow. I found myself talking to characters or landing in places and I wondered why I was there. Not to mention it was easy. (Although I will openly admit, I enjoyed the combat system.)

LucanDesmond:
When I was five years old, I got a Nintendo Entertainment System for my birthday. I grew up playing games made by Nintendo, Sega, Tecmo, and Square, just to name a few. I grew older, and my systems became more powerful, but I was still playing games made by the same people. I loved Mario and Zelda games, Sonic, Final Fantasy, and more.

So what happened? I realize that I won't touch almost anything made by those people anymore.

Nintendo is too busy rolling around in money they got from soccer moms to care about making games for me with any frequency. One Zelda, Mario or Metroid game every other year isn't enough to keep me, and many others, interested. And since Nintendo is making so much money with their simpler games for people that aren't "gamers" it's unlikely that this will change anytime soon. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, I'm glad Nintendo is doing well, I'm just not interested in what they're selling anymore.

Sega. Dear lord. Yahtzee summed this one up pretty well in the Sonic Unleashed ZP. They need to be taken out behind the tool shed and put out of their misery. They keep trying to sell us increasingly poorly made Sonic games and many of there other IPs are a little on the lackluster side.

I'm sure this statement will be flamed. I don't care. This is my opinion. Square-Enix. Formerly know as Squaresoft. In their better days. They can't stop beating the VERY DEAD Final Fantasy horse to make anything that is any good these days. Square hasn't put out a great game in about ten years. The best stuff they've put out in recent years are remakes of their classics for the DS and PSP. They made a lot of mistakes with regards to prioritizing what games to make, in my opinion. Final Fantasy was ALWAYS too important to be put on hold to give any time or money to something that might end up being better. Xenogears, FF Tactics, and Chrono Trigger are all games that had great potential but got minimal attention in favor of the latest FF to have an over convoluted, ridiculous storyline played out by a cast of feminine emo boys and their slutty girlfriends. Even Kingdom Hearts, a decent series with a lot of potential hasn't seen a full console release in over 3 years now with nothing new in site (I'm not talking about hand held stuff).

Finally, there's Sony. The PS1 and 2 were great. I loved them and hundreds of games for them. Now we have the PS3. I want to like it. I really do. I have one and it mostly collects dust when I'm not watching movies on it. I haven't played a game on it since MGS4. Its an overpowered, under supported machine with only a handful of great games and a poor substitute for Xbox Live. I know that makes me sound like an MS fanboy. I'm not. I just like whats good. The console came out 2 years before its "community" software was available and it [Home] is a JOKE. It's like Sony looked at their competition in MS and said: "Let's do something different! It will be great! We'll take out everything that makes any sense or makes it any good, and then release it and call ourselves awesome! People will believe us because we made the PS2 and that was awesome, so this will be awesome!"

So now I find myself playing games mostly on my Xbox 360 and PC. And the games I play are made by studios and companies like Valve, Blizzard, Bethesda, Lionhead, and Ubisoft. None of those studios are japanese.

The gaming industry became a success because of Japanese developers in the 1980's. But I have to wonder if the Japanese are past their prime in the industry. Obviously they aren't out yet, especially Nintendo. What will they do in the future?

Share your opinions.

TL/DR: Don't post. If you're too lazy to read my opinion, I don't wanna read yours either.

You sir have summed up all my opinions on Nintendo, Sega and Sony. I also resort to the Xbox 360 and the PC as they have the vast majority of developers who come up with good original games.

Westerns like western games.... nuff said

Western games are much more open ended, and have less cut scenes then Eastern games. Eastern games are very story driven, and make you do things. As with western games we can do what we want when we want, GTA, Fallout, etc, etc. Its all based on our culture and what each likes more, Westerns like the freedom to do what they wanted because that's what we can do in our real lives. As with Easterns, they like respecting authority more, and being told what to do, or how to do it. Its all about the culture; that's why with the rise of western gaming companies, the Japanese gaming companies lost most of there market share over in the west in the late 90s. The Japanese dont understand our culture therefore have a hard time making games that represent that, as with western game companies have the same problems, with the Japanese culture.
That's my idea on why the Japanese game companies seems to fail over here.

stevenrkorea:
Thus, nationality clearly matters in the creation of a game.

That being said, it's about time Japanese games died.

Man, I wouldn't make a "nationality matters here, therefore this nationality must stop" argument. One might mistake me for racist.

You're basically saying, "every person in that country who does this should knock it off!"

It's interesting than animé is more popular than ever in the West yet Japanese games appear to be losing their appeal.

Maybe it's just a harmless trend rather than a sign of declining quality?

harhol:
Maybe it's just a harmless trend rather than a sign of declining quality?

Yes, another harmless trend, like Guro.

Kidding. ;)

Anywho, this is a really silly thread. It's like saying, "Hey, Electronic Arts keeps re-releasing that darn Madden series, they have no originality. Therefore, all American game developers must stop making games." No, you tit, one development group's bad decision does not reflect upon the entire body of a nation throughout the perpetuity of time.

I don't care if 95% of the companies in that nation are making bad games, people are individuals, and you should respect them as such. Genius oft stems from the rare individual, not from the people when considered as a mass, and denying the rare genius the opportunity to create something great is a foolish move, at best.

Besides, anyone who looks at the Final Fantasy series as "milking the franchise" just because there's 12 of them is not paying attention to the fundamental fact that Squaresoft pretty much reinvents the game, throwing out all the old characters and implementing a whole new RPG mechanic, nearly every game. (With the rare exception such as X-2 and XII hashing out the land of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.) You might not like all the feminine emo-boys, but that's just a matter of style, stop spitting in their artists' eyes just because you disagree with their concepts of beauty, you philistine.

The state of the Japanese game scene is misleading. While arguably the quality of games made over there that are brought over here is declining a bit, the fact remains that very, very few games made over there are actually brought over here.

Plus the XBox (and XBox360) can barely get a foothold over there. However, it took only one game to put XBox Live on the map in Japan, Idolm@aster. Of course, that game has never been released anywhere outside of Japan.

On the flipside, despite having a userbase larger than many medium sized countries, WoW has never been released in Japan.

Eiseman:

Cadren:

I'd really like Square to make a JRPG with a realistic sense of politics or games where they world doesn't end up supporting you and some armies that continue to fight for reasons that aren't demon possession or something similar.

They did that in FFXII. And yeah, it was very refreshing to end up fighting to save your country instead of the whole damn planet. And yet the game brought on more haters than lovers. And guess what their number one complaint was?

Ungrateful hacks.

Something to do with the battle system (well, for me and everyone else I know). It plays a bit like an MMO, where you wander around and see loads of creatures running around, problem is, half the time, you have no idea whether they're above your level or not, or if they're aggro, and with no saving on the overland map ('far as I know), you're left with "Oops, too strong, start again loser lol".

Let me break it to you how it is.

1) The best companies back in the NES/SNES days were all Japanese because a large majority of good western studios were focused on the PC, not console. Bullfrog, Westwood, Bethesda, Bioware, Valve, Epic, id Software, and so many more were completely focused on the PC in the early years, so if you only gamed on a console, it seemed like Western developers couldn't put out a good game.

2) We are seeing more of the top-tier Western developers finally move to consoles.

3) Japanese developers seem to be in this rut of only releasing sequels. I know many of you will point to the endless Madden sequels, but for every No More Heroes that gets released we get a Dead Space or a Mass Effect or a Portal or a Mirror's Edge. Now, there isn't anything wrong with sequals, but when you get Capcom, Nintendo, and Squenix pretty much shooting out as many Megaman and Final Fantasy offshoots as they possibly can, it gets pretty annoying.

4) Japan isn't the mecha of video games anymore. It was for a brief time, but now the closest place to a mecha for video games is back in the USA. Even then, we are seeing tons of countries all over the world step up their video game production, particularly in Western Europe.

Japan does still release great games and they are second only to the USA in terms of producing those great games, but their influence has certainly faded.

Quick question, wut happened to the final fantasy series? i have an old nes that works and i have final fantasy 1, its a straight up mideval themed game, theres wizards and fighters and shit like that, now its a buncha transvestites runnin around with sword bigger than the fuckin sears tower

Joeshie:
4) Japan isn't the mecha of video games anymore. It was for a brief time, but now the closest place to a mecha for video games is back in the USA. Even then, we are seeing tons of countries all over the world step up their video game production, particularly in Western Europe.

The word you're looking for is "mecca." (Mecha refers to giant robots :P )

I'm not so quick to give up Japan as relinquishing its title as the mecca of video games because so much more of their culture is mired in it. You go to some blocks in Japan and every other street corner is a video arcade, or so I've heard. Here in the U.S., not so much.

Another good candidate would be South Korea. That place is so wired that video games are like a national sport, or perhaps religion. Your average Eastern MMORPG will have millions of South Korean subscribers, where in the U.S. we get excited if a MMORPG pulls over 500k. World of Warcraft was a really surprising exception and it's currently sitting at about 12 million world wide.. Ragnarok Online, something like 15-25 million?

Sethran:
This is kind of a pointless thread...

This is exactly the same thing as when people say "PC Gaming is dead." -- So long as there is a Japan, Japanese games aren't going anywhere.

The thing you fail to realize is-- Japanese games are meant for Japanese people. They're released globally because they can make money off the niche gamers for what is essentially a ten cent patch [Translation] to a game they've already made a shitload on in their native country. Just because you particularly don't like it, and prefer western developed RPGs [Which is natural considering you're from a western country], doesn't mean they're 'going away' or 'sucking more'. You've just changed your particular tastes.

Personally, I still love JRPGs and japanese-originating games, and I'll probably continue to like them more than most western games I play, because I like games with great storyline -- Not OK story and good gameplay, or great gameplay and a matching story, I like great story period. And when you compare a culture with a story telling society centuries old to an industrial instant gratification culture, story-wise the former will always win.

And in all honesty, if you can't appreciate a JRPG's story because it's 'Unrealistic' and then go play Gears of War and mow down mutated insects from the bowels of the earth for a half hour, then you sir are a hypocritical prick. It's not that you don't like the 'unrealistic' story, it's that you don't like the fantasy setting.

You seem a little hostile. Thats ok. I'll try to explain a little better why I'm disappointed with JRPGs and other Japanese games in recent times.

First, I LOVE a good story. It's why I started playing RPGs in the first place. And while the Japanese are great at TELLING stories, that doesn't mean that they're good at making up new ones. The people at Square have used up many of their best stories and the well is running dry. In their most recent attempts to make their stories "deep" or whatever, they just make them confusing or stupid. In some cases they even make them inconsistent. IF I recall correctly, FF8 had a BIG plot hole. Something about Irvine not using the Guardian Force so he should have remembered everything from the orphanage and the group's childhoods. To be honest its been like 9 years since I played it so that could be completely wrong.

I have no problem with the story being unrealistic either. I love fantasy settings of any kind. LotR, Harry Potter, Star Trek, Star Wars.... and many more. I'm a D&D player! I've created my own fantasy settings! I'm not about instant gratification either. I think the story of games like Gears of War and Halo are very shallow. On the other hand, a story needs to be engaging from the beginning. I'm a writer in my spare time and I'll tell you one of the first lessons I learned is that if you can't draw the reader in with the first chapter, you've failed as a writer. I don't know what qualifies as "the first chapter" in a video game, but I got about 6 hours into FF12 and I just couldn't stay interested.

Square seems to be under the impression that the level of complication is equal to the level of quality the game is. This is best shown in the recent release Dissidia. Just check out the review over at Kotaku here:
http://kotaku.com/5119519/dissidia-final-fantasy-import-review-the-%5Bevil%5D-emperors-new-%5Bsuit-of-armor%5D
I haven't played it yet, but if its HALF as complicated as that reviewer says, than I'm not interested anyway. Square needs to just make something simple, yet great. A good example of great simplicity is Portal. Almost no characters, your only option are move, jump, IN portal and OUT portal, and a very simple objective: escape. That's all Valve needed to make a great game.

My gaming preferences may have changed over the years, but I wouldn't hesitate to run back to Final Fantasy and all the rest if they could just make a decent game.

Fightgarr:
Two words: Team Ico.

Ah yes. I didn't really like their games, but they certainly were original and compelling. They creating a very interesting IP.

The last good Japanese game I played was Gundam: Zeonic Front on the PS2 everything since that especially Gundam has sucked balls.

Is this thread about Japanese games or Final Fantasy?

geldonyetich:

Another good candidate would be South Korea. That place is so wired that video games are like a national sport, or perhaps religion. Your average Eastern MMORPG will have millions of South Korean subscribers, where in the U.S. we get excited if a MMORPG pulls over 500k. World of Warcraft was a really surprising exception and it's currently sitting at about 12 million world wide.. Ragnarok Online, something like 15-25 million?

Any other games other MMORPGs that are popular over there or notable games that they've made? I'm just asking, I've never heard of any games that were made by South Korea.

Only very popular Japanese games get ported over to America. I'm pretty sure many great games made over there never get ported to America (and many, many bad games don't get ported over, but that's good).

z121231211:
Any other games other MMORPGs that are popular over there or notable games that they've made? I'm just asking, I've never heard of any games that were made by South Korea.

Tons of games. Chances are you've heard of quite a few of them but you didn't realize they were made in South Korea: Lineage (and 2), Maple Story, Gunbound, Ace Online (formerly Space Cowboys), Cabal Online, ect.

Considering how many people go online over there, they've got hundreds of MMORPGs, many of which you'll see over on Fileplanet's Free MMORPG list.

It's similar to Japanese games in that only the very popular ones tend to get ported over to America.

TheBluesader:
Look at what happened to Tomonobu Itagaki and Team Ninja. Money makes artistic and programming ability irrelevant.

This.
@topic

I wouldn't necessarily agree with you, and I wouldn't disagree. I think the reason we're seeing this "downfall" is because the big Japanese developers (as in the ones with enough moolah to export games to US shores) keep beating their respective dead horses. They make money off of it; if that's what they want to do, let them.

However, the smaller developers in Japan don't seem to get that much attention. Either that, or they get gobbled up and assimilated into the Overmind of one of the larger ones. It's the curse of commerce; creativity < money.

The developer comment above also goes for the people that come up with innovations for the game. The word escapes me. But you know what I mean. The job that Miyamoto used to have.

geldonyetich:

z121231211:
Any other games other MMORPGs that are popular over there or notable games that they've made? I'm just asking, I've never heard of any games that were made by South Korea.

Tons of games. Chances are you've heard of quite a few of them but you didn't realize they were made in South Korea: Lineage (and 2), Maple Story, Gunbound, Ace Online (formerly Space Cowboys), Cabal Online, ect.

Considering how many people go online over there, they've got hundreds of MMORPGs, many of which you'll see over on Fileplanet's Free MMORPG list.

It's similar to Japanese games in that only the very popular ones tend to get ported over to America.

I'm sorry, I just relized the mistake I made in my question, I meant to say "any other games *other than* MMORPGs" (as in, games that are not MMORPGs) that they've made.

z121231211:
I'm sorry, I just realized the mistake I made in my question, I meant to say any other games other than MMORPGs (as in, games that are not MMORPGs) that they've made.

Good question. Being such a wired community that 1 in 2 people in South Korea have a broadband connection, I'm not sure they have that many offline game developers. Offline games probably seem largely obsolete to them.

They probably have a fair number of console developers. Doing a little search, I found this Gamasutra article that mentions a few. Kingdom Under Fire being one -- apparently it had quite a few sequels and expansions released too. The same company also made that mecha game "Phantom Crash" and "Nintety-Nine Nights." All X-Box/360 games.

Probably infinitely more prominent games have had some work done in South Korea. They have a lot of studios that can be outsourced to get various things done. You wouldn't know unless you see the credits.