Do you dislike JRPGs? (Flamewars unwelcome)

[TheVioletBandit]

No, I don't really like JRPGs, anime, or manga well at least I haven't enjoyed any I have come in contact with. My foster brother is really into that stuff so I have tried out a lot of it, but it's just not for me. It all reminds me to much of the soap operas my grandma use to watch.

 

[NiPah]

Oh I love JRPGs, the Tales series, the Rune Factory series, anything by GUST and Atlus, if it's a JRPG on the PS3 or 360 I'll buy it.

I can't fault most people for disliking JRPGs, just like I can't fault people for disliking other series. I can even see why Yatzee uses them as the butt of some jokes, hell JRPGs make up some of my favorite Unskippables, but in the end I still love them just as much.

I do however get a little erked by the same people using the same old arguments against JRPGs, which leads me to write off any post using the the words "spiky haired angsty teenagers" to label all JRPGs.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well JRPGs are in a pickle because what used to be hardware limitations is now used as features, and now the genre is stuck the people who still play are demanding the old stuff and devs feel nice and snug doing the same old stuff.

I just dislike the 30+ year old mechanics, alternate dimension combat, turn based something or other(it's a really time wasting system), scroll menu skills, ... it just makes the whole thing so disconnected, the continuity just isn't there.
And they could break away from angsty teens every once in a while or just tone it down a bit, it's hard to play a game where half the characters make me want to kill myself.

Like I said the main problem is people who buy JRPGs expect and demand that sort of thing, so maybe the only way forward is to expand into a new genre.

 

[TheVioletBandit]

Oh I love JRPGs, the Tales series, the Rune Factory series, anything by GUST and Atlus, if it's a JRPG on the PS3 or 360 I'll buy it.

I can't fault most people for disliking JRPGs, just like I can't fault people for disliking other series. I can even see why Yatzee uses them as the butt of some jokes, hell JRPGs make up some of my favorite Unskippables, but in the end I still love them just as much.

I do however get a little erked by the same people using the same old arguments against JRPGs, which leads me to write off any post using the the words "spiky haired angsty teenagers" to label all JRPGs.

Are there JRPGs that don't have any "spiky haired angsty teenagers"? < This isn't a snarky remark. I'm actually curious if there is or not.

 

[Flailing Escapist]

I don't like what they've become, if that makes sense. I don't like lengthy cutscenes in any game if it looks like the characters are having more fun than I am. I can put up with some of the more ridiculous stuff but there's a point that most JRPGs cross that I just can't follow. Final Fantasy VII is about the extreme I'm willing to go for these games, they become too angsty and too .... ridiculous(?) too "love and peacey" after that.

For instance: I haven't been able to get into a FF game since FF7 and even then I wouldn't call myself a fan of FF7. But a friend of mine bought me FF12: Revenant Wings or somthing for the DS a couple Christmas's ago and I kinda enjoyed it. There were virtually no cutscenes, little brooding and no voiced dialogue (Eeeeh!). Granted the gameplay wasn't very good but it was a good kind of time waster like Pokemon is. In all I enjoyed it enough to play through it 3 times, which is twice more than most games get and all in all I pretty much enjoyed it. But then I tried to watch a friend play FF12 and I walked out of the room 20 minutes later.

Different strokes, I guess.

 

[Deviluk]

I tend to like most of them, the only thing that puts me off is...well I can't really explain it, its that uncomfortable feeling you get when someone is watching you play it, with all the squeaky, cheesy dialogue and the kinda-lame, for-kids feel to it. I'd feel more comfortable playing something a bit more....manly. I know thats open to discussion but being a SAS soldier running around a russian nuclear silo is a lot cooler to do than watch a 10 minute cutscene about how my character(s) actually do have feelings for each other, despite their crazy hair, and annoying noises, and are getting all emotional whilst fighting against all odds...I don't know. Its like comparing Dante and Nero in DMC4. When I had to explain the series to my girlfriend, I showed her Dante being all cheeky and cool to a demon frog, not Nero jumping in slow motion after his totally-too-placid girlfriend.

 

[Space Spoons]

I don't dislike JRPGs in general. How could I? I practically grew up on them. No, I hate what JRPGs have become.

This is a vastly unpopular opinion, but to me, a game is not a real RPG if it does not have turn-based combat and a heavy emphasis on number-crunching. That's partially why I get irritated when people call Mass Effect an RPG- to me, it isn't. It's an action game with some stats in it.

Even Final Fantasy, once the bastion of old-school JRPG conventions, has strayed from the path, trading substance for style and ditching compelling gameplay for overly dramatic visuals and excessively long animations.

 

[Gatx]

I personally dislike turn based combat but as an anime fan, love their visuals. I'm also a HUGE fan of how despite at least being partially "fantasy," the settings are almost never derivative of Tolkien.

My main problem with JRPGs is that, while there are several types of them, I don't feel like they have changed much at all in 15+ years.

Its kinda like pokemon, sure the add weather and stuff but hats mostly gimmick stuff, the base gameplay of them is still the same and it gets.... old fast.

The Japanese seem to love it though. I mean Dragon Quest is as popular as ever and that's about as formulaic as it gets for JRPGs.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

The only jrpg i can remember playing is "Secret of Mana" on the SNES a long time ago. I havn`t touched one jrpg in 10-12 years. I started to dislike japanese storytelling in games. Even in series that aren`t jrpg like Yakuza. They always put in some kind of extra drama and wannabe heartmelting scenes with kids. I`m pretty sure that there are examples without these elements but then the artstyle puts me off.

 

[Jezzascmezza]

I'm really not a fan of the "stop and start" combat of those games- turn-based combat, I believe it's called.
Plus I can never really get behind the characters of JRPGs; I usually find them too ridiculous.

 

[lunam-kardas]

I'm a bigger fan of western rpgs myself, just a preference of story narrative style.

 

[NiPah]

Oh I love JRPGs, the Tales series, the Rune Factory series, anything by GUST and Atlus, if it's a JRPG on the PS3 or 360 I'll buy it.

I can't fault most people for disliking JRPGs, just like I can't fault people for disliking other series. I can even see why Yatzee uses them as the butt of some jokes, hell JRPGs make up some of my favorite Unskippables, but in the end I still love them just as much.

I do however get a little erked by the same people using the same old arguments against JRPGs, which leads me to write off any post using the the words "spiky haired angsty teenagers" to label all JRPGs.

Are there JRPGs that don't have any "spiky haired angsty teenagers"? < This isn't a snarky remark. I'm actually curious if there is or not.

Xenosaga, Hyperdimensional Neptunia, Altelier Rorona/Totori, Devil Summoner, Disgaea, La Pucelle: Tactics, Recettear, Dragon Quest 8, those are the ones I've played and can think off the top of my head. They all have the spiky hair thing going, but none of them have an angsty teenager. These days you're seeing a shift in most JRPGs to center around Moe character archtypes, but those are hardly advertised outside of the hardcore niche JRPG fans outside of Japan.

Here's some promotional art for three games NIS America just announced:

Spoiler

The classic angsty teenager character type is pretty much dead, you'll only see them pop up in 5 year old games getting brought over to the states. Hell even Square Enix is doing it (see FF13 X2's main character.

 

[Gennadios]

Not a big fan of them. The characters just aren't relatable to me and the general style of gameplay doesn't suit my needs. Love Tactics RPGs though, Tactics Ogre is one of my desert island games.

 

[endtherapture]

Some JRPGs are great like Chrono Trigger.

However most of them feel the same, and the characters are quite boring.

My favourite one ever is probably Crisis Core. I love that game.

 

[King of Asgaard]

I used to love JRPGs.
Every one of the Final Fantasies before 11, I loved (except for 9).
But then JRPGs became formulaic and cliched, and their mechanics became archaic or gimmicky.
Even acclaimed JRPGs, such as Persona 3, which had mind-blowingly good combat, was let down by its drawn out, cliched story, whose supposed twists were predictable.
I guess what I mean is that I love what JRPGs used to be, i.e. good stories and fun gameplay,
and despise what they've become (if someone used more than two fingers playing FF13, you're showing off)
That being said, I'm having a lot of fun playing Dark Souls, which is an Action JRPG.
Even though the story is nigh non-existant, the gameplay is so much fun and so engrossing that it doesn't matter as much since you play Dark souls for the gameplay and not the story.

EDIT:Captcha = words of wisdom. Huh. Looks like the captchas are sentient now.