Do you dislike JRPGs? (Flamewars unwelcome)

malestrithe

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JRPGs are what I've been playing since I was a kid and I prefer that play style over the western one. I like playing characters that feel alive to me. I don't mind being the angry little id/ delivery service whose because that is not what I play these games for. I like seeing the characters grow and evolve over time. I like seeing how their particular journey shapes and transforms them from what they were at the start to what they are at the end. I also like seeing how their interactions with the world shapes it for the better of worse.

I tend to dislike Western RPGs in general because I never get the sense that my choices in the game matter to the world. It seems like in most of them, what I do never seems to make any difference to anyone. This is something I noticed a lot more in Fantasy RPGs than in Science Fiction ones. Oblivion, Skyrim, Sacred 1, Sacred 2, and practically all of Bioware's games made me feel worthless, like I was doing next to nothing to change the outcome of the universe. It's all the same, I go into town, do everyone's ***** work then move onto the next town. When I come back to the town, everyone still act likes I've done nothing for them. I feel like a tool playing them and I really hate when games condescend me.

Fallout 3 and New Vegas gave me a different feeling because they make me feel like what I'm doing matters to the world.
 

Crazy Zaul

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The only JRPG I've played and liked is Lost Odyssey. Most of the others had annoying 12 year old characters and the rest had annoying adult characters. They all either had bad stories or annoying combat systems or were just annoying in general.

And just while people are talking about Japan/Anime, I watched the Futurama anime parody the other day and its awesome. I've only seen a few episodes of anime but it got all the things that are weird about it - the mental hair, the making weird noises to show emotions instead of just using facial expressions like an actual human, the using split screen and freeze frames instead of action scenes, the subtitles completely over simplifying what they are actually saying.

As Bob would say - JAPAN IS WEIRD.
 

Eddie the head

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Mostly. In most Jrpgs they tend to focus on the story and have turn based combat. I don't like there story's and I hate turn based combat. You might say it's a whole genre there is likely something in it you like. With might be true but that is like saying there might be an ice cream shop in the sewer, I guess but I am not going to go look.
 

Eric Morales

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At the risk of sounding cliche, some of my favorite games are JRPGs, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI (or 2 if you believe the label on the cartridge), and Earthbound are easily the best games in my SNES library. I'm even okay with the idea of turn based combat in theory since it lends itself to careful strategy.

But it seems like a lot of a lot of newer JRPGs emphasize style over substance. A while back a friend showed me FF10 to try to sell me on it but for the hour or two I played, at least half of it was gaudy cinematics.

This may be a stylistic thing but I'm definitely not a fan of the androgynous teenager character design, granted its no worse than the 'roided up slab of meat in say Gears of War but surely there's some middle ground to be had?
 

Kahunaburger

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King of Asgaard said:
That being said, I'm having a lot of fun playing Dark Souls, which is an Action JRPG.
Yeah, AJRPGs (lol) seem to do a pretty good job as a sub-sub-genre of remembering that gameplay should be deep/challenging. AWRPGs seem to fall into the trap of prioritizing the cinematic experience of combat vs. the gameplay experience of combat more than they should.
 

Arina Love

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i love J-RPGs! i love the Japanese writing, characters and world design. J-RPGs are deciding factor when i buy new consoles.
Now i'm playing Tales of Graces F and it's so much better than any western game i played lately, notably skyrim.
 

Alphavillain

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No, I dont particularly like JRPGs. They are slaves to convention even more than Western games, and are symptomatic of the malaise in the Japanese game industry.

JRPs are content to be fan service rather than try to convert new gamers. And that way only leads to the death of a genre.
 

likalaruku

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Oldschool 2D JRPGs: Play them all the time. The turn-based combat is annoyingly slow, but I grew up with it.

Newschool 3D JRPGs: Play em when I want more of a story & some eyecandy. The men are infinitely more attractive than in WRPGs, but the women are terribly annoying.

WRPGs: My default go-to games. Play them for well...gaming. Perfect for "I'm in the mood to hit things" therapy.
 

Kahunaburger

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Alphavillain said:
They are slaves to convention even more than Western games,
I wouldn't go quite that far haha. Haven't played that many WRPGs about running item shops, solving supernatural murder mysteries, or surviving the apocalypse using hacked demon-summoning computers.
 

Manji187

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Flailing Escapist said:
I don't like what they've become, if that makes sense.
Definitely. And in my eyes, they have become stale. Unable to captive my imagination. What can I say, with age (and plenty of reading) come higher standards. So uhm Japan, I'm not a teen anymore...would you kindly make more mature JRPGs? Maybe something along the lines of Vagrant Story?

OP: Sure, tropes ARE tools. But tools can be mishandled, hurting the narrative as a consequence. There may be nothing wrong with the concept of JRPGs as such, but the actual execution/ performance can still be pretty fucked up.
 

dimensional

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I dont like to label all of one (sub) genre as good or bad because sweeping statements like these are usually used due to ignorance for example I would have to say I dont like sports games because I dont like sport really and it does nothing for me but I bet I havent played more than 10 sports games in my life which is a pathetically small amount, but I didnt like them so now I base all my knowledge of these games off of my own small experience and tar them all with the same brush which is a little stupid. The situation is unlikely to improve as im not going to play more of something I have disliked.

My ignorance on this carries over when someone mentions an awesome sports game I think what theres actually a decent one give me a break they havent changed at all its just the same crap year after year despite me having no grounding for such a statement.

In the past I would have put RPGS down as rubbish but I did keep trying them and I have enjoyed quite a number of them japanese and western but I have disliked quite a number from both sides as well. Whether a game is labeled as a JRPG or WRPG will not affect my buying decision I will just try and judge each game on its own I tend to find both have quite a variety of games but each has its own trappings as well and both continue to evolve and stay behind (they both have a lot of games each doing their own thing after all).

so yes I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy JRPGS I also continue to dislike them some I like some I dont simple as.
 

Rawne1980

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I prefer JRPG's to most WRPG's.

The only exception being the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games.

I like games that eat up hours of my life to get through. I really, really dislike games that take me 20 hours to finish.

Although I did enjoy the ME and DA series they are far too short for my liking. I managed to get through ME2 and ME3 in 35 hours played. That's 2 games gone through quicker than most other RPG's.
 

deadish

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I don't hate them, but I feel kind of disappointed as of late - maybe I'm getting old and my expectations have reach unreasonable levels.

I feel they need to innovate their game mechanics more - I don't mind turn based; but I need it to be "interesting" - and get their story telling back up to a decent standard.

That said, WRPGs like Skyrim aren't my cup of tea either, so it's not really a case of JRPG vs WRPG.

The last RPG I had fun with was ... WoW. But even that has gotten old.

PS: I have considered getting Tales of Graces F, but why no Japanese voice track? WTH? Seriously, how hard can it be to include the Japanese voice track and English subtitles? From the trailer, the English dubbing is fucking horrible - not necessarily the VAs fault; but if the result suck, the results suck - and I have heard enough ear-bleed inducing dubbing from the 90s/00s to last me a lifetime, I really don't want to hear anymore.
 

Don Savik

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Games are a great medium for story telling because you can have the player learn about your world through interaction. Many jrpgs stick to a formula of force feeding lore, characters, motives, events, and everything through monologing cutscenes that are too numerous and immersion breaking.

Turn based combat isn't a problem for me, there are pros and cons just the same as action combat. Actiony combat is more fun....WHEN EXECUTED CORRECTLY.

The art styles....I'm indifferent about. I'm no anime fan at all, and a lot of anime/manga/japanese games are just...for a lack of a better word, intolerable. Do all the males have to look like hipster scene kids? Some games have gorgeous art, but too many of them look the same and don't do enough new to make me want to pick their title over the sea of other jrpgs.

I think the stagnation of the genre's sameness just makes the games boring compared to other titles. And yes, they aren't derivative of Tolkien, but I would rather fight orcs than be another band of annoying half-dressed teens with superpowers that saves the world.
 

AlternatePFG

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I don't play too many JRPG's but there are a few game in the genre that I really like. The Tales games are, for the most part, really good and actually are really fun to play. They play more like a Fighting game rather than an RPG. Vesperia would be my favorite, but I have yet to pick up Graces F. I liked the story in Abyss better, but Vesperia was much more polished and Abyss had some loading time issues. Besides, the way the characters in Vesperia played off each other was great, and while he does get a lot of good character development, Luke at the beginning of Tales of the Abyss just annoys the hell out of me. I also really liked The World Ends With You when I played it, though I haven't picked it up again in a very long time.
 

370999

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CrimsonBlaze said:
370999 said:
No I quite like some JRPGs, In fact one of my favorite games of all times in a JRPG (Tales of Symphonia for anyone who cares)

I think part of the frustration with them is sometimes they don't really change the whole set up. The settings change but often the same character archetypes and plots are kept.

There is also the issue of them often lacking the ability of the player to have meaningful choice.

And I think some people just dislike the more outlandish style or settings.

As a somewhat minor point, sometimes the JRPG fandom can slip into the "glorious Nippon" mindset where the make JRPGs to be the sole bastion of good stories which can be infuriating.
I hear you, brother (for I, too, enjoyed Tales of Symphonia).

What makes JRPGs memorable is not so much the story or gameplay, but the characters. Whether some memorable JRPG characters deserve all their hype and popularity is completely subjective.
If I may be so bold I would suggest it's not just the characters, I mean they can be great, but rather how the characters can interact with each other. Take ToS, that game does a great job of not only showing how characters interact with the main character Lloyd, but how they interact with each other. Zelos and Sheena irritate each other but do have a genuine friendship buried underneath it, Regal looks at Genis' romantic ambitions towards Presea with a sense of mirth, Raine knows something is up with Kratos, etc.

It does a good job of making me feel like I'm actually with a group of friends, which quite a lot of western RPGs don't try to do.