Why do people hate JRPGs?

Professor Cubbage

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It's games like the Tales series that I really hate. It's hard to take a game seriously when the characters are all teenagers pretending to be adults. Japan obviously didn't get nuked enough.
 

2733

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Sep 13, 2010
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it's not that we hate JRPGs it's that they hate us.

Playing a jrpg is like a blind date with incredibly beautiful girl, with the most wonderful personality, who tells great stories even though you've heard them before. Everything is going fine until you hit the bedroom, at which point she pulls out a life sized anatomically correct doll and says to practice on it because your not good enough for her yet. so you practice for the next 3 hours or so until she's happy with your performance, at which point she climbs in bed with you, which is great, until just as your really starting to have a good time, she kicks you off, tells you you still aren't good enough and forces you to practice on the doll again while she tells you an interesting story. This cycle repeats for the next 50 or so hours. At this point you are the master of sex, and she has given you full reign to do whatever you please, but you don't care anymore. Your tired, hungry, dehydrated, and you hurt in places you didn't even know you had. you finally, with the last off your strength, finish her up, and she then heads for her closet pulls another woman out of her closet and says, this is the postgame, She is impossibly hard to please so you will have to practice on the doll for a few more hours before you can even start with her, Good Luck!
 

Shagdawg

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clockpenalty said:
Kurenaino said:
clockpenalty said:
If you read the reasons people are giving (sweeping generalisations about spunky teengers and long cutscenes etc) you'll understand that they are uninformed and baseless. Like any meme, people are just imbibing and repeating what is currently 'cool' without using their brains.
Or maybe, after playing a ton of JRPGs, people are just noticing trends and are voicing their opinions on the matter. Saying these accusations, as it were, are uninformed and baseless is, in and of itself, an uninformed and baseless statement. Have you ever played a JRPG? Then you'll know that a lot of them feature similar elements, twat waffle teens and cutscenes galore included. Like any genre, you're going to have common elements that are related to other games in the genre, that's how the genre is formed in the first place. Sure, you get a few that rise above the rest, but as the normal curve so aptly dictated, the vast majority will be nothing short of mediocrity.

1. You cannot generalise based on the lower 80% of trashy content, or all WRPGs would be dreary DnD nonsense with busty barmaids and heroes called 'th'tharigan the mighty, slayer of the warg'lathran'

2. The upper 20% does NOT fall into this category. Even the much hated Final Fantasy 13 *deliberately* attempted to subvert this by including an emo-teen as the most useless party member of all, and incluing a stoic, absolutely non-bubbly female and an unshaven muscleman as the leads. Yet somehow, the fog of bias cannot look beyond two minor party members. Even the token bubbly girl turned out to have a completely original role as far as those tropes go.

The point is, since the tide has turned against anime and japanese stuff in general, they stand no chance against the screaming horde baying for J-developer blood. Even the gaming press is on this bandwagon right now. My advice to them is to re-align their priorities and work on the domestic market.... the west has nothing but hate for them now
Except the two leads were a ***** and a moron. You can do a fun drinking game with FF13 were you take a shot every time Lightning punches someone with little context or Snow calls himself a hero. And if you really want to get hammered, you can do a shot every time Hope or Vanille grunts or moans. These are terrible characters and are representative of the problem with JRPGs in the last 10 yrs. Awful dialogue + unlikeable characters = I don't care about the story because I'm being given no reason to care about what happens to these people.
 

clockpenalty

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Nov 25, 2007
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Shagdawg said:
clockpenalty said:
Kurenaino said:
clockpenalty said:
If you read the reasons people are giving (sweeping generalisations about spunky teengers and long cutscenes etc) you'll understand that they are uninformed and baseless. Like any meme, people are just imbibing and repeating what is currently 'cool' without using their brains.
Or maybe, after playing a ton of JRPGs, people are just noticing trends and are voicing their opinions on the matter. Saying these accusations, as it were, are uninformed and baseless is, in and of itself, an uninformed and baseless statement. Have you ever played a JRPG? Then you'll know that a lot of them feature similar elements, twat waffle teens and cutscenes galore included. Like any genre, you're going to have common elements that are related to other games in the genre, that's how the genre is formed in the first place. Sure, you get a few that rise above the rest, but as the normal curve so aptly dictated, the vast majority will be nothing short of mediocrity.

1. You cannot generalise based on the lower 80% of trashy content, or all WRPGs would be dreary DnD nonsense with busty barmaids and heroes called 'th'tharigan the mighty, slayer of the warg'lathran'

2. The upper 20% does NOT fall into this category. Even the much hated Final Fantasy 13 *deliberately* attempted to subvert this by including an emo-teen as the most useless party member of all, and incluing a stoic, absolutely non-bubbly female and an unshaven muscleman as the leads. Yet somehow, the fog of bias cannot look beyond two minor party members. Even the token bubbly girl turned out to have a completely original role as far as those tropes go.

The point is, since the tide has turned against anime and japanese stuff in general, they stand no chance against the screaming horde baying for J-developer blood. Even the gaming press is on this bandwagon right now. My advice to them is to re-align their priorities and work on the domestic market.... the west has nothing but hate for them now
Except the two leads were a ***** and a moron. You can do a fun drinking game with FF13 were you take a shot every time Lightning punches someone with little context or Snow calls himself a hero. And if you really want to get hammered, you can do a shot every time Hope or Vanille grunts or moans. These are terrible characters and are representative of the problem with JRPGs in the last 10 yrs. Awful dialogue + unlikeable characters = I don't care about the story because I'm being given no reason to care about what happens to these people.
well... ff13 was not held up as an example of the 'good' jrpgs, although the battle system was excellent. It had a crappy story and is pretty annoying because, being the most visible, JRPG haters can easily pick on it and generalise

I put it forward just to show how the so-called stereotype of "angsty spiky haired teens with giant weapons" really has no meaning or basis, and is simply a cop-out used to justify irrational hate.

Lightning and Snow are pretty piss-poor as far as characters go. However they just do NOT fit into the stereotype.

Many posters have given valid,genuine reasons for hating JRPGs (linearity, slow pacing, grind, etc) these reasons are just as valid as giving 'complexity' as a reason form hating chess... ie Very, very valid and rooted in personal preference. JRPGs are linear by design, and it is perfctly OK to hate them because they are linear. Some people prefer a linear game, and they will prefer JRPGs. I personally enjoy both.

What I cannot stand are the idiots that mindlessly spew forth sweeping generalisations in the name of propagating the latest japan-hatred meme. Giant weapons, maid costumes, etc. For Gods sake people.


I still stand by what I said. The backlash against Anime and Japanese developed games is the source of this tide of bias against the poor JRPG. I say there is no solution or escape, except to simply abandon the west as a design target and let westerners request the games they want translated. Scale back the dev budgets and aim for domestic success, just like in the old days. Forget the west, the west is happy with Bioware and Bethesda games!

OR just ghostwrite games for bioware and bethesda and laugh as the ignorant pick them up and vehemently claim they are not 'japanese', like that person claiming Demons souls was somehow less japanese just because it was good!

PS: awful dialogue is also a valid criticism, though that should extend to anything translated from a foreign language. Most dubbed foreign movies have pretty awful sounding dialogue, but get a 'pass' because we are aware of their origin. I'm not advocating that we forgive japanese games for the dialogue issues, but chalking them up to 'laziness' is unfair: the mannerisms and speech patterns are difficult because of the cultural divide. If you watch japanese TV or movies, you will see that the weird grunts and apparently cheesy speeches are more-or-less the way things are done there.
 

Twilight_guy

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Nov 24, 2008
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Stereotypes. Anyone who's not an idiot knows the category of "JRPG" is so massive and diverse that the only thing they all have in common is that they are RPGs from Japan. People just have prejudices against certain JRPGS, such as your Final Fantasies or your Valkyrie Chronicle or what have you and apply it to all JRPGs ever as if they were all the same. It's not a good generalization though it'd be like saying all shooters made in America are about WW2 and Modern Warfare sucks so all AFPS suck.

In short: don't be prejudice dudes and dudetts!
 

Archetypal_Maniac

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Nov 19, 2009
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Un-inspired art and concepts. Over complex story archs making it seem like it was written by a child. Failure to follow the rule set of whatever universe, the immense amount of exceptions and loop holes applied by the characters contribute to the un-needed over complex ideas. In the end they end up being one big messy shit pile, no structure, no inspiration just another off the shelf generic boring waste of time. The cherry on top is the complete lack of charisma every character seems to suffer from.
 

TG MLPDashie

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FreelanceButler said:
scoober1111 said:
FreelanceButler said:
scoober1111 said:
FreelanceButler said:
They're dull, samey, involve a lot of grinding and can drag on for quite a while.
But I love 'em all the same. Well, some of them.
alright, you hate JRPG's but you have Scott Pilgrim as your avatar...
I think you'll find the words "love" and "hate" mean two different things.
What does a Scott Pilgrim avatar have to do with it, anyway?

well seeing how Scott Pilgrim is Manga and Japanese AND in a JRPG i think it has a lot to do with it.
I know we're spiralling horribly off topic here, but Scott Pilgrim isn't manga, it's a comic book. That was written in Canada. By a Canadian. And the game's a side-scrolling beat 'em up.
But as someone else pointed out, Scott Pilgrim does throw out a Japan reference, be it to anime or game, every couple of minutes. I'll admit I forgot about that.
... my last thing before going is this. Just because a Canadian made it doesnt mean he didnt draw Scott Pilgrim in Manga...
 

DEAD34345

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Personally, i have never found a JRPG i have enjoyed playing, mainly because the ones i have played seemed like really bad movies with an (only slightly) interactive battle thrown in every half an hour or so...

If there are JRPGs that are vastly different to this then i would like to try them, but as far as i can tell from my (limited) experience, they are all way too ridiculously linear.
 

MOTHERfan42

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Oct 28, 2010
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I'm a big JRPG nut myself, but I see why some people don't like them. When most people think of the genre, they think of Cloud Strife-esque stick figure emos with giant swords angsting about their lives for 50 hours while fighting random encounters every 5 steps. When viewed like that, it's easy to say that all JRPGs are outdated, boring crap. Whenever I meet someone who hates JRPGs, I recommend Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, Persona 4, and The World Ends With You. They're all great games that really put an original twist on the often predictable JRPG formula.
 

Defense

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Archetypal_Maniac said:
Un-inspired art and concepts. Over complex story archs making it seem like it was written by a child. Failure to follow the rule set of whatever universe, the immense amount of exceptions and loop holes applied by the characters contribute to the un-needed over complex ideas. In the end they end up being one big messy shit pile, no structure, no inspiration just another off the shelf generic boring waste of time. The cherry on top is the complete lack of charisma every character seems to suffer from.
Uninspired art? I thought Western games were the ones that always used sci-fi grey apocalypse or medieval equipment.
Saying it's a bad art style is your opinion(which I pretty much agree with with most JRPGs), but saying it's uninspired in general is just wrong.

Even if it is, there's nothing wrong with something uninspired or unoriginal. It's used so much because it's a good concept, and what really matters is the execution itself. Not every game can be a completely new genre changing experience.
 

crazyguy668

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Mr.Petey said:
crazyguy668 said:
Mr.Petey said:
crazyguy668 said:
because they suck ass!!! :)

seriously though, its the same turn based style, the same badly drawn teenager with purple hair, and the same giant grind every time. why would i play that when i can play an awesome western RPG?

hell,id rather play mw2 for 10 hours than any jrpg for 4 hours
As of late JRPGs have taken a vast amount of alternatives from turn-based combat. Plus I seem to recall a few western RPGS still have the same amount of grind element too. It's something that can't really be taken out of a role playing game, no matter how much we despise it

OT however I agree with the subject and would like to see some concrete reasoning behind so many people hating it. I still get laughs and jokes made when I 'fess up to playing some of the lesser known ones "Aw another stoopid anime game!" and such. Not in a while since I've shut 'em up in regards how a good JRPG can be much deeper than a lot of mainstream titles, regardless of where they originate from

i dont mean just a little grind, i dont mind that. i mean the insane repetitive grind of JRPGS

you want concrete reasoning? it's a shitty art style, in nearly all of them a ginormous repetitive grind, in most of them the same crappy turn based gameplay, and if i want to play an RPG, why not play a western one, its everything done better. even a shitty one like two worlds beats nearly all jrpgs hands down.

There is exceptions to every rule, there are some jrpgs without any of those cept the same art style, but why take a risk and see if its true how it has a reasonable amount of grind and good combat, when i can get, for the same price, a western RPG which commonly are already better and not have some crap art?
Yes I asked for some solid reasoning so here goes.
Ok then, I don't really see a "shitty art" style as you so eloquently put it in some of my titles I own, such as:
Rogue Galaxy
Dark Chronicle
Star Ocean 1 2 and 3
Jeanne D'arc

These games all have variations of appearance and a unique style that makes them their own (apart from the first two that are cell shaded but are still in a class of their own)
What I'd see as "shitty" would be poorly drawn, not enough attention to detail in places where it would somewhat warrant it, badly drawn or out of place.
Even White Knight Chronicles and Final Fantasy XIII has a similar style on to some western RPGs in terms of the landscape and towns and they all look rich in colour and vibrant.

I think you're painting with too wide a brush here as yes Final Fantasy I through to VI did look very similar back in the NES/SNES days but it's come a long way since as I've mentioned earlier
i agree that type of drawing is shitty, as well as manga/anime/other names for that art style. typically, jrpg art is already vibrant, everyone has purple hair!!! its not that its dark and unhappy, its just that its a bad art style. could i do it well? no, but that doesnt mean its not bad, my cats look so bad its vomit worthy;) As stated, there are exceptions to every rule, but for the most part they fall into those categories, and i would rather not take risks when the flow of new western rpgs is good enough.
 

AlternatePFG

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Some JPRGs I love, but the genre in general I dislike. It's been getting pretty stale as of late, I think the main problem is that this generation hasn't had many good console JRPGs (don't get me wrong, the DS and the PSP are loaded with quality JRPGs)
 

katsabas

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Probably cause of the sheering number of androgynous teens. Kidding. If I had to guess, I would have to say because the setting, character image and ummm, feelings tend to repeat themselves. A lot if you ask me. And then, it is just a matter of taste. I prefer western RPGs to Js.
 

ntnimara

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Oct 3, 2008
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the style of the ones I've come across are supper sappy drama queeny... I can't be asked to empathize with these ludicrous characters..

I like One Piece, because it doesn't really take itself seriously

I like Death Note cause it has deep characters