Dragon Quest Creator: Western Reviewers Dislike Turn-Based Games

[ArmorArmadillo]

I don't think this is fair, "Turn-Based Combat" isn't created equally...I have had incredible times with fluid systems like Grandia II. Really though, systems that are still just Bob->Attack->Goblin are outdated, no matter how advanced the animations are.

Also, that's something that kind of annoys me in a lot of turn based games, you have these pre-rendered attack cinematics, and they're impressive the first time, but they always get really old really fast. That was a tangent.

 

[Rack]

Western reviewers realise not all turn based games are equal. Sure King's Bounty, Civilization and Advance Wars have plenty of strategy in place of the action of a real time system, but Final Fantasy has significantly less strategy than even something like Halo and so the game gets marked down for it.

 

[ultimasupersaiyan]

I love turn based combat! I have noticed that a lot of JRPGs do get ragged on by reviewers for it's turn based combat but it's always the JRPGs that don't sell well, which I usually buy and enjoy even more then the popular franchises. I guess those reviewer find a couple things wrong with it and then rag on the combat while on the rage machine. What's worse is if it doesn't sell in the USA I only have a 20% chance of seeing it down under and because of that I missed out on a lot of games over the years because the European distributors won't touch it and on the rare occasion Aussie distributor won't touch it even if the European distributors release it. It sucks to be in the PAL region!!!!

 

[teh_gunslinger]

Fallout 1+2, Panzer General, X-Com 1-3, Civilization, Arcanum Colonization and Baldur's Gate 1+2 are among my favourite games ever. So I positively love turn based games.

I just hate Japanese games and culture. Nothing more to it for me. It's not just JRPGs. I hate all Japanese games, except for Metal Gear and that mostly because it looks more western.

Just to clarify: I do hate Japanese culture. I positively loathe it. Thus I don't like their games. At times I worry if I may be a racist bastard when in comes to Japanese. But then, I don't mind Japanese people. Just their twisted culture.

 

[Grampy_bone]

It's not the reviewers, it's the developers. When was the last time someone made a western RPG that was turn based? Bioware's "Real time with pause" doesn't count.

Fact is, if you like turn-based gaming you HAVE to play jRPGs. Reviewers have no problems with it when it is done well, such as with Final Fantasy 10.

 

[ItsAPaul]

Yahtzee is the only turn-based hater I've seen really. Personally I don't mind them, and you can't honestly tell me adding tactics to various games was a bad thing.

 

[weker]

what absolute rubbish the genre has been stale and dying for too long not enough turn based games are trying anything and its been even longer since the last game actually changed the genre

other genres have things like mass effect and dawn of war 2 which breath new life last thing i know was jrpg and good was that gun one

Hey you! I like this genre! It's a good genre! It's made me happy with the choices it has made. Those other games. They are good too! Just different! Maybe we have different intrest in what type of games are fun and reviewers are not giant calculators of data and also have certain ideals of fun based on personal prefrence?

That dude shouldn't worry as good as his games are he has that dynasty warriors stamp of being the same game to people who don't like the compenants or the main parts of it. And that's okay. Gameinformer gives a very meh review of patapon and that games is loads of fun and very enjoyable though a lot of people won't feel it. I like that dragon quest is still keeping it old school.
I don't really understand why people don't like turn based we have been doing it for a long time before real time showed up at our doorsteps? Now we are going to shove it off? Whatever happened to the challange of having to make stragies to endure and overcome fights you just can't walk away and hide behind something from?
Where is the loyalty? Are random encounters really that bad? I don't think they are.

i was not meaning that i dislike the genre in any i personally adore any genre of games its just this is the most un changing genre there is sadly and jrpg are starting to clone more then war games and space marine games

 

[Kyuubi Fanatic]

Personally I think Real Time Turn Based systems are the best. I get to choose every action I want and can strategize for any situation, yet the ability for the enemy to attack me while I'm thinking keeps me on my toes and helps me think on the fly and move faster.

That's one of the things I absolutely adored about FF7. My very first battle I was like "WTF?! Why are they attacking me out of turn?!?" ^_^ Really got my adrenaline pumping

 

[thenamelessloser]

I like turn based but most JRPGS are pretty poor designed when it comes to being turned based. Random battles are unrealistic and time wasters. Grinding can get really boring which basically every Dragon Quest game I played required. Slow animations and loading times can easily kill a turn based game. Having each battle having more meaningful content such as having more mini bosses, lack of grinding, fast paced animations and loading times, could easily make turned based battles much more fun. How many turned based JRPGs can I think of that actually follow those concepts? I wonder how many people hate turned based combat system solely because so many of them have been done POORLY.

 

[FloodOne]

Why does he blame it on the mechanic, rather than the content and execution?
For example, I loved FF2 and 3 (AKA IV and VI, respectively), when I was younger, but over the years the game became more and more tedious for my tastes (I don't want to watch that LOOONG summoning animation every combat round, during a million rounds of a trillion repetitive matches against the same enemy model. Skip please).
Plus, it caters too much to anime lovers, which I'm not. I bet westerners who go ape over every spiky-haired angst ridden crybaby with a giant sword they see would like these games too... and then write fan fiction (oh, the horror).

Wow. I don't think I've seen a post so full of stereotypes on this site. Congrats?

I love turn based RPG's.

And to whoever said Dragon Age is turn based must not know what the term is generally describing. Dragon Age is like WoW (as far as combat is concerned) and I've never heard WoW described as a turn based game. Ever.

i was not meaning that i dislike the genre in any i personally adore any genre of games its just this is the most un changing genre there is sadly and jrpg are starting to clone more then war games and space marine games

How many JRPG's have come out in the last five years? How many shooters have come out in that same span? FPS titles remain largely unchanged from the Doom formula.

And for the record, the FF series continues to reinvent itself with each release, so there's that to consider.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

The reviewers, no. Turn based games can still have great scores, especially if you take the last few DQ games into consideration, DQ4 and DQ5 on DS are highly praised, and of course, 8 on the PS2, and now 9.

The Escapist forum community of Valve and Bioware adoration? YES.

As for my personal opinion:

I love me some turn based action. Especially in strategy games. Give me Fire Emblem or Advance Wars over Starcraft and Company of Heroes any day.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

Fallout 1+2, Panzer General, X-Com 1-3, Civilization, Arcanum Colonization and Baldur's Gate 1+2 are among my favourite games ever. So I positively love turn based games.

I just hate Japanese games and culture. Nothing more to it for me. It's not just JRPGs. I hate all Japanese games, except for Metal Gear and that mostly because it looks more western.

Just to clarify: I do hate Japanese culture. I positively loathe it. Thus I don't like their games. At times I worry if I may be a racist bastard when in comes to Japanese. But then, I don't mind Japanese people. Just their twisted culture.

Nothing wrong with that. As an American, I'm constantly told how useless and worthless I am just because of the people in power and our celebrities that have a story on eight different networks if they go to the bathroom. I also find the Japanese culture repugnant (Yeah America isn't perfect, but at least we don't sell used panties from schoolgirls in vending machines).

That said, I am liking DQ9 because it does seem to be a throwback to old JRPGs instead of the sprawling, wannabe movies that Final Fantasy has become.

 

[Erick.S]

Wow. I don't think I've seen a post so full of stereotypes on this site. Congrats?

I love turn based RPG's.

No, congrats to you - you've just used a long word without supporting your case in any way, AND you have an Anime character as your avatar, so thanks for further proving my point.
Better luck next time.

 

[The Great Sage]

The problem with most JRPGs turn-based combat system is that they give you so few useful options instead of fight or appropriate elemental magic. Its no fun to ponder a decision when you have only one or two choices. To improve it you need more flanking maneuvers, more situational attacks more interesting bosses who don't just have 20x health to keep you occupied for half an hour. The Last Remnant had some good ideas and was different from the norm even if it didn't work out that well.

 

[Grey_Focks]

American gamers are most often the type of "Hardcore" geeks that think that anything turn based is for "babies" and the reviewers pander to their flocks.

Uhm...that isn't true? At all? Pokemon still sells like drugs here, and that's turn based. I'm pretty sure most of the FF games are turn-based, and they all sold well. I'd also encourage you to check the meta-critic scores for quite a few turn-based games and then get back to me.

OT: I think turn-based has its place in games, and I enjoy it when it's done well. I think he's just plain wrong about that "bias" though. I would agree with Funk and say that it isn't the battle systems were sick of, it's the re-hashed JRPG tropes that we're sick of.

 

[tkioz]

Some turn based games are fun, some aren't, my all time favourite game, X-Com is turn based, but the reason for disliking JRPGs is mostly because of different reasons, the aesthetic isn't really for me, the storylines are confusing and full of plot-holes.

 

[tkioz]

Fallout 1+2, Panzer General, X-Com 1-3, Civilization, Arcanum Colonization and Baldur's Gate 1+2 are among my favourite games ever. So I positively love turn based games.

I just hate Japanese games and culture. Nothing more to it for me. It's not just JRPGs. I hate all Japanese games, except for Metal Gear and that mostly because it looks more western.

Just to clarify: I do hate Japanese culture. I positively loathe it. Thus I don't like their games. At times I worry if I may be a racist bastard when in comes to Japanese. But then, I don't mind Japanese people. Just their twisted culture.

I agree with you to a point, I don't hate Japanese culture, I just dislike a lot of it, I dislike the trend to set even historical or real world games in "fake" nations, I dislike the dialogue in JRPGs (seriously saying someone's name 50 times in a cut-scene is obnoxious), I dislike the style of having every bloody protagonist being 14-16, and I really detest the cutesy slap-stick crap (sweat-drops, huge bloody noses, etc)

 

[Low Key]

I'm one of those western people that hates turn based combat. Sometimes it works, though most times it doesn't.

What pisses me off the most is that while playing JRPGs, if I'm fighting a boss with massive HP, I'll make a critical hit or do a special move only to see the boss almost completely heal itself the next turn. It basically takes you getting lucky than actual skill to beat the bastard. There is nothing "tactical" about crossing your fingers hoping the game forgets to turn on god mode.

Perhaps if these turn based games started to display how much mana the boss has and all of the crap it's carrying, it would then become tactical once again. Then, you would know the enemy can't heal itself because it is out of magic, but after the next turn you see they'll probably use an item to increase their mana, etc. etc.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

You know, I think turn-based combat might work better if they tried to make each encounter interesing rather than making it a grind.

No more three minutes of animations for a 5 second fight.