Does anyone else here like JRPGS?

[Mcradden]

I like 'em. But like any kind of game there are some really awesome ones and really horrible ones. And the boxes all look so pretty it's hard to tell them apart until you've played them =(

I agree with this. While I am a massive fan of the RPG genre there are just like other genres out there many titles that are um, not as good as the rest

I do like my JRPG just as much as my WRPG and here is a short(ish) list of some of my closest favourites

- Secret of Mana (one of the first RPG's I played and one that I have dedicated most of my time to, flawless perfection)
- Chrono Trigger (great game that has some nice touches throughout the game and keeps things moving along nicely)
- Terranigma (Very old Enix game that has a truely awesome game style, plus replayability!)
- Secret of Evermore (Very old Square game that was one of the first to utilise the man/beast combo, oh and very very funny too )
- Suikoden (It has acutal auto-combat! Something that all games of this type should have, oh and it's a fun game too!)
- Kingdom Hearts 1&2 (Wow, it's like one game that has everything you need in it, not since Secret of Mana have I poured so much time and energy into a game. The gameboy version was strange but nice and I enjoyed playing to continue the gripping story and the fact the sequels continued the story well and improved on the previous version)
- Golden Sun (Apart from the fact that 1 ended so abruptly I thought the game had crashed, it worked very well for portable only. Plus I had hours of fun chasing up all the djinns!)
- Wild Arms (I think this was a western game done like a JRPG, but whatever it was it was done *VERY* well. Although I could never get that one damned piece of armor from the ocean )

I left off Final Fantasy for a reason, it is very much a love/hate thing, some things they did well and in others not at all. I love the ability to run around and take things at my own pace and not be forced down a single path, but at the same time I find that over grind gets boring. To be honest that pretty much sums up most JRPG's

Wall over

 

[Hafnium]

Don't play them, and I don't care whether others like them or not, really. Some of them must be good, since they have so many fans, but I'm not attracted to the genre, so I can't say if they are better or worse than other rpgs/games.

 

[Blankmessenger]

The only one I liked was "The World Ends With You". Other than that guys, sorry I just don't like that genre of gaming.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

I like a lot of JRPGs, although of course there are also a lot that I don't like. I tend to think a lot the hate for JRPGs in general is a bit unfounded because the majority of games any genre will suck.

Some of my favorites are the Xenosaga series (with which I have a long standing love/hate relationship because it also has a lot of issues), Shadow Hearts, and Skies of Arcadia (which I think has the best exploration of anything I've ever played). I think a few Final Fantasy games are alright, but I tend to find them severely lacking in terms of character, story, and overall world design (it probably doesn't help that FF Tactics overshadows them all so much in terms of quality).

 

[Fidelias]

I hate most jrpg's, but I find that the ones that I like end up being some of my favorite games of all time. I'm kinda picky though.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

There's a bunch of us who do like JRPG's. It's just that we don't have any reason to shout it out. The haters on the other hand feel like doing it fairly often for some reason.

 

[DarkRyter]

Love those JRPG's to bits yo.

Can't really get into wrpgs. Except Fallout, but fallout's special.

 

[OtherSideofSky]

no...jrpgs are linear shit for people who lack independent thought, much like the entire japanese race.

Whoa, way to initiate an intelligent discourse there, big guy.

Sorry but i'm unrepentant, the japanese are excellent at taking other people ideas and improving them enormously but they lack innovation! seriously what did they ever discover or invent!

JRPGs reflect and idiotic mindset where everything needs to be signposted and players are discouraged from attempting to use inititive or independent thought and the characters are guided through the well crafted plot... sure they can have great stories but the gameplay is often more shallow than the imperial bloodline, this is why I rarely play jrpgs anymore and stick to watching anime, all the excellent storytelling without the mind numbingly bad "gameplay" random encounters and boring turn based combat. It's time to realise that the jrpg is japans equivalent of the FPS... dead and in need of burial so we can find new types of gameplay and the jrpg will only be missed in the west by munchkin morons who seem to think this kind of crap is worth playing.

The second paragraph is a valid criticism of problems common to many (but by no means all) JRPGs (and, I would argue, a couple other genres as well) up until the insult at the end (they just don't make for any kind of useful discourse). If you are using such a narrow definition of "JRPG" that you can imagine it dissapearing entirely, then you may well be correct. I, for one, would be quite sad if Japanese game companies just stopped making RPGs of any kind, because then there would be quite a lot fewer games I would actually like.

I would hazard a guess, however, that you have never engaged in a formal study of Japanese culture and are quite unfamiliar with quite a lot of its literature, film, theater and other cultural achievements, to say nothing of technological innovations. I highly doubt you could be familiar with the work of authors like Akutagawa Ryunosuke, artists like Katsuhika Hokusai, or directors like Mamoru Oshii (especially his experimental work) and still call the entire nation uncreative. If you said a lot of the game developers have gotten stuck in a rut, you would be on much more solid ground.

Also, what the Hell is a "munchkin moron"? Are you saying that JRPGs will be missed by stupid short people from the land of Oz, mentally deficient children, or sentient donut holes that are to be congratulated for thinking at all, however badly?

 

[BlumiereBleck]

What are you talking about? Practically everyone on this site is a huge anime jrpg fan.

 

[Mr. Eff_v1legacy]

Not really.

 

[trac]

Grrrrrrrrrrr i agree jrpg's rock!

 

[chuckman1]

Yes we're just not that vocal.

 

[Zhalath]

I'm a fan of JRPGs. Final Fantasy, Tales series, Pokemon.

 

[Fightgarr]

No. No I am not. I am not a "fan" of any genre in particular. I will say that I like certain JRPGs. I've enjoyed many of the Final Fantasy titles. I enjoyed a few miscellaneous titles, mostly from Square. On the other hand, I've had bad experiences with JRPGs which has led me to distrust the genre. It's come to a point where I usually like the gameplay (yes I do like turn-based combat much of the time) and I generally hate the characters or story or both. Most recently I played through all of Final Fantasy X, a game in which I hated every single character I encountered. On the other hand, I think the overall story was pretty cool and thought that the system was the coolest I've encountered in a while. But you know what my biggest problem with JRPGs is? The sidequests. JRPGs seem to think of sidequests and secrets as some kind of 'bonus challenge' wherein you have to be very lucky to find them without a guide and psychotic to be able to finish some of them, they being either incredibly difficult, incredibly time-consuming or both. That is not good game design. I should not have to waste 5-6 hours of extra game-time just to get a third of a final weapon of a character...

 

[Ultress]

Definitely yes as you can tell by my avatar and Username. Mind you there are some I don't like but that's a fact of life with any genre. I like the FF series but it's not my favorite(The Tales series holds that honor).

Some great ones to me: Persona 3/4,Wild Arms 1-3, FF4/6/9,The Tales of Series,Lost Odyssey, Dragon Quest 8,etc...

 

[Ultress]

Definitely yes as you can tell by my avatar and Username. Mind you there are some I don't like but that's a fact of life with any genre. I like the FF series but it's not my favorite(The Tales series holds that honor).

Some great ones to me: Persona 3/4,Wild Arms 1-3, FF4/6/9,The Tales of Series,Lost Odyssey, Dragon Quest 8,etc...

 

[CyanLink]

Occasionally, but most of the time they just make me roll my eyes.

 

[Lim3]

I love JRPGs - Tales of Vesperia is my favorite.

 

[hazabaza1]

I think they can be okay. I'm never normally completely against one genre, so yeah, I can enjoy them.

 

[Kiju]

Hmn...I view it as this:

There is no such thing as a JRPG. There are only RPGs, and the ones that have a certain artistic flair and gameplay-design to them.

With that said...I like Breath of Fire IV, otherwise...not entirely impressed.