Bumcheek:
aint mgs4 a jrpg?

No, Metal Gear Solid isn't an RPG, it's a "third person, stealth, action" title. An RPG focuses on leveling and customizable characters and advanced story development. MGS focuses on the stealth / fighting aspects.

As for the death of JRPG's; WRPG's will definitely fall from the genre of gaming before JRPG's. Neither one will ever completely disappear, they are an established gaming genre.

kitetsu:
For once I'd like to play a JRPG that's much more reliant on actual skills with command inputs/timing/whatever...

... But then it wouldn't be a JRPG anymore. God i love purists.

What about Shadow Hearts? (Edit) Oh on second thought someone already mentioned it.

The last JRPG I played through in its entirety was... Skies of Arcadia.

Wait no... FFTA2.
But that was so unmemorable that I almost forgot I even had it.

I do play Disgaea a lot, but that's more of a SRPG and its got a replay value equal to a porn dispenser, where as most traditional JRPGs have the you play them once and your done because you don't want to sit through the level grind for another go at the final boss.

That's why I don't get why people still play Phantasy Star Online... the ORIGINAL one... with 4 levels that have 2/3 variations.
Yay! You beat the game! Now try to beat it on HARD!!! Wow, you beat it on hard! Now try VERY HARD!!!! Crap... you beat it on very hard... WELL TRY TO BEAT IT ON ULTIMATE!!! THE LEVEL GRIND TAKES 5000 HOURS!!! AAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Crap... the battle mode bugged and you retained your boosted level.... ... DAMN IT!!! Well you can play on ultimate again! Try to find the rares with the .00000000000000000000000000001% drop rate! *thumbs up*

no. I love em but i haven't had a good one in a while lost odyessy sucked. but hey khbbs is coming so i can wait.

Snakktastic:
Level caps and monster limits DO stop the grinding.In most Western RPGs both of these problem do appear. When I'm bored i'll brake out Final Fantasy 8 and grind the training room.

i guess the difference is i view grinding as inherently not fun. either the combat is a chore, and i just do it so i can accomplish my goals in the game, or the combat itself is fun and i don't need any added incentive like experience or items or whatever to enjoy it. in the first case i'm glad to have any excuse to stop grinding; in the latter, i can keep doing it as long as there's more enemies to fight (and i know of very few RPGs that set a hard limit on the number of battles you can fight.)

Johny_X2:
they are basically dying out because THEY DON'T RELASE A BLOODY (J)THING ON PC!

Did they ever release on PC regularly?

The only JRPG's I remember playing on the PC were the ports of FFVII and FFVIII. And of the two ports, FFVII suffered from catastrophic, game-shattering bugs. Bugs that were never fixed, by the way. The "fix" per customer service, was to visit the website and download a save file from the next save point after the bug is encountered. Wow...thanks a lot guys...

I've always preferred JRPG's to be on consoles and handhelds. They just don't feel right on the PC.

To dissuade a stereotype mentioned on page one, I love me my JRPG's, but there are only a few anime series I can tolerate watching. Not even I'm sure why that is, considering one of the main reasons I enjoy JRPG's is because of the overly complicated storylines.

to me they are dead
and cooked
and served up with an apple pie with a slice of sharp cheddar cheese on top with some vanilla ice cream.

they might make a comeback but they better try to change some things up. the grind is horrible in most of them, but if they would change the scenery (kinda like WOW) and had different beasts for different areas it could make the came more interesting and therefore hold my interest.

Oblivion had a varied landscape if you looked in all the nooks and crannies but the beasts were almost always the same.

No, period. As long as their fun, they'll be alive.

they remade chrono trigger. persona 4 is great and the tales are still good

Off the top of my head I can think of a FUCKTON of JRPG's and even some weird ones like Persona 4 and Valkyria Chronicles - then the shitty ones like infinite undiscovery. Then there is that upcoming one that's called operation dark-something with like, Werewolf Nazi's or something. Cool concept but the game kinda looks like shit to me - but nevertheless, looks like JRPG's are fine, just gotta look harder.

If they died, I wouldn't miss them.

I thought they died.

When JRPG's are being released solely for the money of fangirls (damn Crisis Core and Castlevania Judgment.), its usually time to abandon ship.

But I started playing Blue Dragon recently. My mind is completely changed. I'm on disc two now, and I love it. The English voices sound like Jimmy Neutron, and the first hour or two is horribly childish... The rest is really good, though. There are tons of side quests, mini games, a mostly open world, and decent character development and story. I'm amazed.

Viva la JRPG? Maybe??

VoleurdeThym:
I thought they died.

When JRPG's are being released solely for the money of fangirls (damn Crisis Core and Castlevania Judgment.), its usually time to abandon ship.

But I started playing Blue Dragon recently. My mind is completely changed. I'm on disc two now, and I love it. The English voices sound like Jimmy Neutron, and the first hour or two is horribly childish... The rest is really good, though. There are tons of side quests, mini games, a mostly open world, and decent character development and story. I'm amazed.

Viva la JRPG? Maybe??

First Castlevania is a JRPG? (Seriously I have never played a Castlevania game)

Secondly thats two examples, and they don't represent an entire genre with a tonne of devs.

Also, Blue Dragon? meh didn't like that one to much, but hey 'Your Mileage May Vary'

Onmi:

Secondly thats two examples, and they don't represent an entire genre with a tonne of devs.

Also, Blue Dragon? meh didn't like that one to much, but hey 'Your Mileage May Vary'

I know it doesn't quite cover the entire genre, but it was to make a point that big titles may be running out of ideas and/or originality. You can't expect some one to go through a list of the past three years' worth of JRPG's to make a small point, right?

And yeah, taste varies. Out of curiosity- how far did you get into Blue Dragon?

VoleurdeThym:

Onmi:

Secondly thats two examples, and they don't represent an entire genre with a tonne of devs.

Also, Blue Dragon? meh didn't like that one to much, but hey 'Your Mileage May Vary'

I know it doesn't quite cover the entire genre, but it was to make a point that big titles may be running out of ideas and/or originality. You can't expect some one to go through a list of the past three years' worth of JRPG's to make a small point, right?

And yeah, taste varies. Out of curiosity- how far did you get into Blue Dragon?

The only game I never finished was Excalibur 2*** (With *** filling in for numbers I don't remember) which I could barely play.

I got to the end of Blue Dragon, but keep in mind I was in my 'Mecha' phase at the time so that might have made an influence, it wasn't a bad game, just wasn't something I could get to deep into (Considering the 360 is my brothers and I had to buy the game and return it I probably didn't have the time to really)

The Japaense seem to love RPGs so as long as they keep lovin' them, they will keep making them and I'm sure someone will keep translating them to release over in other countries just to make more money.

I used to be a big JRPG fan till Square soft forgot about Nintendo. I started playing PC RPGs. Now in days most JRPGs are all to flashy and have really bad dialogue and the stories are kind of getting worse, there's no more originality in them anymore they kind of blend in together.

Old FF games are turn based for the same reason the space bar (pause) is the most commonly used button in old PC RPGS: when your party with X number of individuals each with dozens of spells and items are fighting, its impossible to use your abilities to their full potential in real time

FF XII fixed that with the gambit system , that alone is a huge achievement that is very very underappreciated

SimpleReally:
Old FF games are turn based for the same reason the space bar (pause) is the most commonly used button in old PC RPGS: when your party with X number of individuals each with dozens of spells and items are fighting, its impossible to use your abilities to their full potential in real time

FF XII fixed that with the gambit system , that alone is a huge achievement that is very very underappreciated

Not to mention very hated the ungrateful fucks. Seriously I cried tears of joy when I saw that FFXIII was supposedly going to be similar to FFXII, because it is showing that square knows how to 'Evolve' which is good.

I hate purists, I really do.

cobra_ky:

Snakktastic:
Level caps and monster limits DO stop the grinding.In most Western RPGs both of these problem do appear. When I'm bored i'll brake out Final Fantasy 8 and grind the training room.

i guess the difference is i view grinding as inherently not fun. either the combat is a chore, and i just do it so i can accomplish my goals in the game, or the combat itself is fun and i don't need any added incentive like experience or items or whatever to enjoy it. in the first case i'm glad to have any excuse to stop grinding; in the latter, i can keep doing it as long as there's more enemies to fight (and i know of very few RPGs that set a hard limit on the number of battles you can fight.)

Ah yes I must agree I also know of very few Western RPGs that set a limit. But for me it seems that every fucking WRPG wants to set some kind of limit (I assume to keep the game balanced.) Kotor 1&2 set monster limits,Mass Effect did the same. Id say Fallout 3 did the same but if I could get passed lvl 20 the game just become a joke and id probably stop playing it xD.

What? They're not dead, I've got like 4000 of the naked ladies on my harddrive.

*is handed a note*

Ohhhh, JRPG, not JPEG.

Yeah, I don't think JRPG's are dead either. I just think that we live in more demanding times, where people seem to get bored easily and always want something new and improved, and it's tough to keep renovating JRPG's. Especially when they were pretty good to begin with.

But that's just a guess. I'm not so deep into the genre that I really know.

Snakktastic:

cobra_ky:

Snakktastic:
Level caps and monster limits DO stop the grinding.In most Western RPGs both of these problem do appear. When I'm bored i'll brake out Final Fantasy 8 and grind the training room.

i guess the difference is i view grinding as inherently not fun. either the combat is a chore, and i just do it so i can accomplish my goals in the game, or the combat itself is fun and i don't need any added incentive like experience or items or whatever to enjoy it. in the first case i'm glad to have any excuse to stop grinding; in the latter, i can keep doing it as long as there's more enemies to fight (and i know of very few RPGs that set a hard limit on the number of battles you can fight.)

Ah yes I must agree I also know of very few Western RPGs that set a limit. But for me it seems that every fucking WRPG wants to set some kind of limit (I assume to keep the game balanced.) Kotor 1&2 set monster limits,Mass Effect did the same. Id say Fallout 3 did the same but if I could get passed lvl 20 the game just become a joke and id probably stop playing it xD.

This is why I play Morrowind with the Galsiah's Character Development mod. No level/skill caps ftw!

Back on topic though, While I play and quite enjoy playing JRPGs, I'm picky about the ones I play. The only 2 Final Fantasy games I rate are VI (You gotta admit, Kefka was an awesome antagonist) and VIII (Aside from Captain Emo being the protagonist). I quite enjoy playing The World Ends With You, Disgaea DS and a few others I can't be bothered mentioning at this point in time.

White Knight Chronicles, Final Fantasy XIII and Versus XIII, The Last Remnant, Valkyria Chronicles, Tales of Vesperia and Enchanted Arms are some JRPGs for the PS3 that came out/will come out in the recent/next months.

Also, a game from one of my favorite game series ever, isn't Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (Birth By Sleep too) a JRPG?

JRPGs aren't dead by a long shot, especially in Japan.

JRPG's aren't dead, it's just that the good ones aren't released that frequently. Persona 4 came out last month in the US(Comes out Spring in EU - I imported) and that was an awesome game, fair play it didn't add much to the series, it just improved on the formula that Persona 3 had, like removing the monotonous Tartarus grind. Plus I don't think JRPG's are everyone cup of tea.

That does lead me onto another thing though, what I find hilarious is how people say that JRPG's haven't "evolved" much since the genre started. Yet if you look at other genre's, they haven't "evolved" much either. FPS' are still the same as ever, pick up a gun and some ammo and shoot enemies which often only have about 10 different models throughout the game(excluding bosses) and go through a building, city, or whatever. Adventure/Platformer games haven't changed much, jump, dive through areas, killing the odd mob you find crawling the area etc. RTS' still the same style, have a uni at the bottom, build your troops up, and destroy the enemies camps.

One massive thing about this generation is that people care too much about graphics, course you don't want it to look like a pile of shit in this day and age, and naturally it's nice for things to look really pretty. However if it means that the quality of the gameplay and story is interupted, then it seems a bit of a waste, since its a game, not a movie. I think thats why alot of the really awesome games on the PS2 are being overlooked.

We can go on about how the genre is dead untill we're all dead, but when you think about it, the question should be, are all games dying out, not just a genre itself.

Codgo:
You could almost call MGS4 a JRPG.

No you can't.

Well in a sense it has about as many cutscenes as a JRPG. XD

Akihiko:
Well in a sense it has about as many cutscenes as a JRPG. XD

I would almost say that combined it has more...

Codgo:

Vlane:

Codgo:
You could almost call MGS4 a JRPG.

No you can't.

I just did.

It still makes no sense.

Codgo:

Vlane:

Codgo:

Vlane:

Codgo:
You could almost call MGS4 a JRPG.

No you can't.

I just did.

It still makes no sense.

Maybe.. just maybe it does.

If you want to live in your dream world ok.

Fingers crossed, I wait staring at the official square site, not breathing, waiting 'till FF XIII:serbicorthinc comes out- What do you think, 'course not!!!