Japanese RPGs Need to Change, Says Final Fantasy Creator

[Defense]

I've been saying that for years, I use to be really into anime and J games, but now more and more I just can't relate to the characters, I'm sorry but how the hell am I suppose to relate to some 13 year old emo with funny hair?

The same way you can relate to a gruff space marine saving the galaxy from an alien race.

On a different note, I don't like turn-based games at all, so I generally don't play anything that has a turn-based system in it. It feels so... unnatural. I mean, who waits to get attacked? I don't.

Well, that can go for any game. In war, everyone takes cover, they don't jump out at the corners and try to Rambo everything that moves. It's a trade-off for strategy.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I think most JRPGs are just... silly, really.
That's why I avoid them.

 

[Skratt]

Yeah, that's a pretty close summary. I still take issue with giant inventories in general and there are other examples of bad inventory execution that I've seen so it's not limited to just those you mentioned, but yeah.

I agree completely with you, if I had to pick one unwieldy inventory over another, carrying 99 potions at zero encumbrance is obviously far superior to hauling everything back to town/home and sorting through it like a grave-robbing authentically costumed trick or treat'er, but NEEDING 99 potions in the first place makes me think something is amiss in the game's design.

It was nice in Mass Effect 2 to just get one or two upgrades in a mission instead of 30 items I had to sort through and determine if I should keep them or not and who to give them to. ME2 style of inventory, or lack of, was pretty much perfect for me. I got my weapons, got my armor, a few just in case items for "oh shit" moments and I'm ready for adventure.

 

[McNinja]

They have already westernized JRPG's too much IMO. Look what they did to Lufia II when they remade it as an action RPG for the DS, it's horrible. I like turn based combat. I'll admit that I could do without all the EMO shit but then again, I am not interested in space marines either.

I play JRPG's for the combat system, not for the characters or the story. I don't want hack n slash RPG's. Never cared for the Diablo games, Dragon Age wasn't great either.

I wouldnt call dragon age "hack and slash" since your not controlling the specifics of combat its more of an RTS with 4 party members

Even worse then. A game that partially plays itself. Whereas FF 13 rightfully gets bashed for it, Dragon Age gets a free pass because it's a WRPG and it's BioWare.

Except Dragon Age let you talk to people, make decisions that literally changed the world...

The only part that Dragon Age plays itself is when you activate a move or spell, or if you've selected something and you push the button to attack it (your character will walk over to it, usually to a terrible, non-flanking spot). Have you played Dragon Age: Origins? The High Dragon at Andraste's Temple isn't an easy fight, and it's far from turn based.

On a different note, I don't like turn-based games at all, so I generally don't play anything that has a turn-based system in it. It feels so... unnatural. I mean, who waits to get attacked? I don't.

I have beaten Dragon Age so YES, I have played it.

We were talking about the combat, not the dialogue system. The combat plays just like FF XII or FF XIII where you control one player and the computer plays the rest. Actually, gambits worked much better than DA's tactics.

So in DA you click and enemy and the computer attacks for you and it controls your teammates. Is that what you call great combat?

When it comes to "talking to people". You can do that in any RPG and those choices that supposedly "changed the world", I don't remember them being that earth shattering. In fact, I got tired of all the damn talking and endless dialogue choices that I knew wouldn't mean anything except "Morrigan disapproves".

Even real time games have turn based under the hood, an amount of time each character has to wait between attacks. In DA, the computer was dealing with the turns under the hood. Same thing, less control for YOU, the player.

No, it's not great combat. At all. The combat was my least favorite part of Dragon Age: Origins because it offered so little control, and because the enemy would randomly "dodge" things that shouldn't be dodge-able. Like when I was trying to hit a dragon. It stood still, and dodged.

 

[McNinja]

I've been saying that for years, I use to be really into anime and J games, but now more and more I just can't relate to the characters, I'm sorry but how the hell am I suppose to relate to some 13 year old emo with funny hair?

The same way you can relate to a gruff space marine saving the galaxy from an alien race.

On a different note, I don't like turn-based games at all, so I generally don't play anything that has a turn-based system in it. It feels so... unnatural. I mean, who waits to get attacked? I don't.

Well, that can go for any game. In war, everyone takes cover, they don't jump out at the corners and try to Rambo everything that moves. It's a trade-off for strategy.

That's true, but they do so whenever they want, they don't stand there in plain sight hoping that the enemy misses them. I mean, look how well that worked in WWI, or the Civil War... or the American Revolution. Two sides duking it out one after the other is not a brilliant war strategy. It'd be like if, during D-Day, the Allies ran up the beaches, shot some Nazis, then stood there and hoped they didn't get hit by the machine guns.

 

[Noctis_XZ]

I'll keep it short. The majority of the western audience that doesn't like JRPGs generally lack any semblance of patience and are somewhat insecure. It has little to do with being able to relate to the character and more to do with thinking the character is just gay. Sorry guys.. let's just throw that excuse out.

Outside of just not liking the play style what is fundamentally wrong with how it works? And forgive me for making such a broad generalization

 

[ronald1840]

While SquareEnix figure out how their change is going to be effective I'll be waiting with these guys as everyone else catches up.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Damn, man. I wish Sakaguchi was still in charge. It was a time when Yoichi Wada was unknown, and bad games like FF 8 were the exception to the rule, as opposed to vice versa. If Sakaguchi were still in charge, maybe 12 and 13 would've been salvageable. And JRPG's would still be popular over COWADOOTY.

Ah, nostalgia. Fuck you for making me miss my childhood, and my old childhood waifu. Or at least my childhood waifu as I remember her. Not that fucked up thing in Third Birthday, as easy as she was on the eyes.

Ah, ode to you, though, technology.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

While SquareEnix figure out how their change is going to be effective I'll be waiting with these guys as everyone else catches up.

Also, you beat me to it.

 

[lapan]

RPG'S in general need a little change. Both WRPG's and JRPG's are too stuck on the same routines.