Poll: What is your stance on JRPGs?

[Slash Dementia]

I don't like the characters. The hair on them is usually just horrible and they're not "manly" enough. Though there are few JRPGs that I like (Mana series, FF8/9, Lost Odyssey). Their stories are/maybe aren't anymore about teens saving the world from some kind of darkness that has "returned" to the land to corrupt.

 

[sokka14]

personal preference, but nothing else grips me like a quality JRPG.

 

[Motakikurushi]

I have to say I am a closet otaku so JRPGs are pretty much part of my blood plasma now they're such a big part of my gaming. Most will assume their stories are overdramatised and they lack substance, paving the way for cute characters and 'the gay', but I advise any on-the-fence player to try Persona 3 and 4. Their plots are mindblowingly good and they're challenging and fresh, stylish and unique JRPGs. It's pretty hard to hate the SMT series. My favourite game is actually Kingdom Hearts, which is easily lovable and more easily hatable.

 

[Quaidis]

I like jrpgs. In the past there were many and all were good to at least some game player. There was Earthbound, Terranigma, the DragonQuest games, Final Fantasy, ChronoTrigger, the Lufia series, Wild Arms, Breath of fire, and more than I cannot list off the top of my head. There were even rpgs I could not beat, including a very old Final Fantasy for the Gameboy and a game called 7th Saga for the snes. Even with the 3d generation, there were good games. Tales of Symphonia (and others from the Tales series), Skies of arcadia, more Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest 8, Valkyrie Profile, more Wild Arms, more Breath of Fire, the Grandia series, as a few more examples.

But recently, when cut scenes became popular, the traditional greatness that made the rpg - the storyline - was set aside for pretty graphics and pictures. In the 2000's up until recently, good gaming in jrpgs hit a decline. If you play PS2 jrpgs, you'll find that many are about an amnesiac or an over-enthusiastic boy. You'll find that the game-play consists of: "Go down a corridor, hit a cut scene. Go down a stairway, hit a cut scene. Go around a corner, hit another boring cut scene." Less are the days where you adventure around the landscape looking for things to discover; more and more people are being spoon-fed the usually badly-thought-out plot.

Mind you, that is not every jrpg out there. There are gems. I am simply beginning to miss the rpgs with more muscular, fitting characters and a well-conceived story.

 

[ClaptonKnophlerHendrix]

I put them on equal footing with Hitler.

Godwin'd, g'night folks.
*camera zooms out and music plays*

Also, have you tried Chrono Trigger or Earthbound? Especially the second one, even Yahtzee likes that.

Nah can't say I've tried either of those 2. Maybe I will one day, but not for a fair while. Im still recovering from a recent attempted suicide after playing the demo for Tales of Vesperia.

 

[Unreliable]

Ok, Chrono Trigger was decent (mostly because of Magus and the talking Frog and the easy drama you can get by travelling through time; its not like Crono had any sort of a personality), and Earthbound was sort of Peanuts vs Cthulu - so I'll give it a pass just for originality, but these are probably THE two exceptions (throw in Mario RPG and call it three)

 

[Same River New Water]

I tend to prefer Western RPGs, but I'm not sure I should compare them. They're just a different genre.

There are certainly some excellent JRPGs, but the genre in general features the same flaws so consistently that it becomes tempting to groan at anything new which is described as a JRPG.