What does a JRPG need in your oppinion to be good?
What do you expect in it?
What makes you mad?
Why are modern JRPGs mostly shit?
How can they be fixed?
For me the thing I liked most was the turn-based battle system because I do not want to be stressed with time limits. I do not care for stories in videogames but characters should be not annoying. What are your ideas?
So, anyone getting Nier: Automata?
...
When I think JRPG I think a classic turned based RPG, or an SRPG.
An anime aesthetic is whatever doesn't have to have it. It doesn't have to be story focused, all of my favorite JRPGs the story is just kind of the thing that keeps you on rails and pushing forward, I don't want cut scenes and dialogue shoved down my throat. As a general rule of thumb I don't care about the characters at all, they can just be "The Thief" or whatever.
I want them to actually be challenging with interesting unforgiving puzzles in dungeons, and I want their to be autism potential with min maxing.
Gameplay that keeps me engaged (battle system a little more than menus)
Encounters
Light on the need for reading dialog
Anime
Cool characters
Some gags
No try-hardness
WRPGs always turn out to be WORDS WORDS WORDS talk to a billion people and run around all over to proceed. Jesus I just want to explore the world you made shut up.
if it comes out on pc
for me it would be:
A good story that doesn't go 2weeb4me because anime rpgs always seem to to go too wild with magic stuff,
Shit needs to be a bit more down to earth or if you re going to give your characters gold superman tier powers then at least put a credible and long explanation for it instead of claiming muh magic / darkness
Challenge, Fanservice lots of it, No bad jokes, good and extensive character development for everyone
Random ass pulls in the story, filler characters in the party, grinding for levels instead of loot, overpowered weapons / armor instead of strategic ones.Getting the useful skills / magics at the endgame because by that point you barely need them, if you do this then you better have lots of NG+ shit to do
Like i said 2weeb4me plots, too many cliches, and gameplay that doesn't even try to be original, that is why Barkley Shtu up and Jam was good western Jrpg.
Avoiding what i mentioned in the last 2 answers
JRPGs will probably never be as deep and mature as WRPGs(used to be), so they should focus on their strengths instead and focus on being nice comfy adventures with a good, or at least fun stories and combat that doesn't get repetitive or tedious quickly. Also waifus. For whatever reason WRPGs could never do waifus right, even during their supposed golden age in the 90s and early 2000s.
cutscene, town, cutscene, wilderness, cutscene, dungeon, cutscene. Repeat about 10-20 times then roll credits.
Retarded plot twists that are only there for the sake of being a retarded plot twist.
They all want the Persona audience and their shekels.
I don't know if that's possible anymore.
I expect a good amount of getting my ass kicked for not using all of my available skills and abilities.
Fuck tons of customization and team composition. That and weird, creative looking bosses; some of them being hidden challenge fights that test your skills.
REEEEEE
...
Meaty, mechanical combat with extensive customization/character growth (especially if preparation & knowledge allow you to overcome challenges without grinding), backed by passable writing and a solid cast/world.
A linear story with cinematic sequences and setpiece events, strung together by exploration-heavy areas, long stretches of world and character interaction, and worldbuilding. Final bosses with multiple forms, secret bosses of immense challenge, and "buy the guide" secrets that span the world and game.
Linear character progression, especially with forced grinding. Last minute boss swaps/villain reveals. Easy gameplay and/or linear areas. Forced and unwarned forced character selection. Bad romance options.
AAA following tail-chasing trends, developer/brand worship, heavy muddling of what defines a "JRPG". The height of shit like Dragon Quest has faded and people are still just recycling the same ideas and people without understanding where their successes came from. Excessive waifufaggotry and pandering outweighing actual writing are the newest cancer.
By waiting until the big names and companies settle down and Indies/AA-tier developers can start to crop up and go back to making decent vidya; until then just keep an eye out for the diamonds in the rough.
FUCKING THIS
God damn everything is going to shit because Persona is apparently making mad dosh despite Atlus being sold out to yet another party. You're right how it can't be fixed anymore too. We had one last hope in falcom with legened of heroes but the last games are so persona and the newest one coming out even steals the battle system.
I don't think it can be fixed that way as games always cost so much to make for the little guys. There's no stable platform for them to invest their time in and videogames isn't a way to make a living wage even if you love it.
Lost Odyssey was a good JRPG. It's too bad it borrowed so heavily from FF.
IN FF15 AGAIN WE SEE THE BEST EXAMPLE OF THE JRPG GENRE IS ITS WORST ENTRY
outside of persona dq and ff dominate what nips think it means to create a jrpg and they fucking suck.
Nigga, streamlining it isn't stealing it. World of FF has a similar streamlining where it did away with the initial battle menu.
It's less of a matter of the big names dieing and smaller devs suddenly becoming viable; pleb markets like Steam and indie distribution sources are growing more prominent as time goes on regardless; it's more about the quality of the genre as a whole rising as these investments become less common. Just like we saw the endless self-cloning PS2 era JRPGs die off, this new age of overly streamlined and pandering-heavy games will fade away as its market moves on and suffers from oversaturation and poor practices.
At minimum the playable characters should not be insufferable shitstains and there should be at least an attempt to mask the linearity if the story is completely on rails.
Deep customization is nice, but I don't necessarily need it if the combat mechanics in general is overall solid, skills not just being tiered upgrades of each other, status shit not being worthless or whatnot.
One thing that really pissed me off playing some relatively older games, is having no NG+ for long ass vidya with branching paths.
Also this probably doesn't need to be said, but culturalization is pretty much an instant deal breaker.
What is these "overly streamlined and pandering heavy games" you speak of? Just Nep and Persona?
Waifus and grind without a worldmap, interesting bosses, or dungeon design?
Persona really is what I had in mind when writing that, especially with how it swallowed up and overshadowed other games from the same creators, if not parts of the genre as a whole.
would you say persona is to Jrpg what mASS effect is to wrpg?
completely shit? nah persona is at least enjoyable
well i mean both were a negative influence on their genre, persona fags demanding more and more slice of life shit and dating sim stuff and mass effects fags demanding more gay sex
...
Doesn't take itself too seriously.
engaging battle system and frankly the ability to sac all of your friends
shit story, mindless grinding, if I'm lucky a nice surprise
awful fucking writing, tales of the abyss
waifu pandering
allow the option to kill/betray the waifus
Lost Dimension was really good.
A catchy battle theme is pretty much all it takes to get me to at least try one. If the gameplay isn't insufferable I'll usually stick with it. P5 was great, stay mad autismos.
I'd say that. Everyone wants to be mass effect and it's all you can think of when it comes to rpgs anymore. Much like persona. People still think final fantasy matters for some reason though.
be like Skies of Arcadia minus the bullshit random battles at every 5 steps, let me see and evade or even better turn it off so i can enjoy exploring the world without low level trash brothering me. Xenoblade Chronicles did almost everything right, the only problems are a lack luster cast and being a Nintendo exclusive running on a fucking low resolution toaster, at least you can play it in HD on Dolphin with a texture pack.
Sounds like the Anarchy path from SMT IV: Apocalypse is right up your alley.
Yeah exclusives are pretty shit but exclusive JRPGs on a console for babies LMAOx10. Why would people that have that system play a maturer game and why would adults have a wiiu?
For every Planescape there's probably 50 shitty games like if you're going by deep and mature even when it "used to be."
Speaking of writing JRPGs are more like plays in their plot progression and scenario design and this gives them the opportunity for more engaging character development as well as allows them to use certain dramatic devices. One of the better examples of this is FFT where cutscenes of Delita are used to contrast with Ramza's heroism or the dramatic irony used in the scenes building up to Ovilia trying to stab Delita Basically JRPGs should aim to be more like Shakespeare to WRPG tolkein, which shit btw and spawned generations of banal "good vs evil" plotlines and then lauded "good vs gray" with a twist in that the "gray" portrayed isn't actually all that evil their motivations but then that's just how things work in anything if you're not a drooling retard.
Good combat, likeable characters and memorable villains, as well as curayzee world logic and lore that at least aren't tolkein.
Many beloved series have gone to shit.
Since games are more expensive to make devs have to focus on tried and true genres, tropes and designs. Basically creativity is stagnated.
Games become cheaper to make which means more creative freedom. This would have been mobile at least for turn based games if the monetization schemes didn't suck.
I meant deep in terms of gameplay.
What get's my goat about Persona was that Persona 2 was an amazing duology and then they make P3 which, I think it was a good experiment, but P3 introduced the calendar and waifuing and that killed the dungeon aspect. If Persona 1 leaned too hard on the Dungeon Crawling aspect of RPGs, and Persona 2 was in the middle of Story/Gameplay for the JRPG genre. Then Persona 3 leaned too far into the story side of things and the gameplay was a lot less deep.
To this day I hate what the Fool arcana became, and how it changed party dynamics. I want to feel like the whole party is important in a Persona game, but since only one person can switch out Persona to adapt to a situation it's really the bland MC carrying the show.
A quirk to the turn based combat style that isn't just Action -> Brief animation -> Numbers change. The game is balanced well enough that as long as you're not avoiding encounters besides those rare escapes, you don't need to grind. No random encounters, enemies are visible on the overworld and can be avoided if necessary.
Group of kids/teens with maybe a couple odd members like a robot or alien or ancient loli engage in murderhobo activities only to dicover that they're destined for greatness and an ancient/alien/supernatural/magical being is greatly affecting the world they live in so they need to fight their way to stopping them. Meta humor and awkward gags, and a number of cliches in writing.
Angsty wrecks for MCs that are painfully childish and oblivious, despite the disgustingly 'moe' female characters that want his dick.
Recycling DQ, FF, or SMT/Persona and forgetting that creativity and heart are the only things that hold JRPGs together because their mechanics wouldn't be tolerated otherwise.
Satoru Iwata's spirit posesses a Nintendo game designer and their creation becomes the standard which other developers attempt to achieve.
Crazy as fuck animations for abilities, just don't go Knights of the Round tier.
Either a roster that's large with a humungous skill set OR a small party with very specifically designed skillsets. If you want to throw 20 pointless characters at me at least let me customize them to hell and back. Compare FFT skills to FF4 skills.
At least 60 hours
Better story but I know that won't happen. You can have a shit story and still have good characters at least.
Replayability should be in most of these types of games through either NG+ or post game.
Filler characters that you can't do anything with. Chrono Cross is the best example of this. Secondary party members share dialogue for fucks sake.
Also the largest offender: Status effects are pointless.
Lack of silly weapons
Exponential scaling
Leveling up doesn't feel impactful
Magic being useless.
MOST of them are low budget with either gimmick characters or meant to appeal to a niche. They need more focus on mixing up the gameplay, or making characters extremely entertaining. Most of them fall short on both fronts.
Bring back the fucking world map you faggots.
More choices throughout the story that affect the world
Multiple endings
Interesting characters
Animations that are awesome without going full summon materia
If class system is customizable, dozens of varied abilities and make sure all of them are useful.
If not customizable, characters that have weaknesses and strengths that have clear synergies with other characters
Post game. I'm talking post beating the boss
New Game +. Carry levels over, higher difficulty, unlocks for NG+, silly cosmetics. Just go wild.
Oh yeah one more thing that fucking pisses me off, characters in cutscenes that have their default equipment on. Obviously older games had limitations but this one is just bullshit.
I'm overly fond of characters having different strengths and weaknesses (or rather have a set job/class as a part of their background). I've only played far too many 'your character can do any jobs and learn everything!' JRPGs which irks me a little.
Examples like Final Fantasy 4, 6, 9, Tales series etc.
I have nothing against the Job system but it's too common in my opinion. Also it's always fascinating to see new/experimental jobs like a drunken swordmaster that uses alcohol to change form into black mage or white mage, while the default form is physical attacker. Forever's End (RPGmaker game) had a character like that
Another thing that bothers me is the amount of missables in JRPGs or worse still, it is time-limited like a secret OP weapon. Speaking of FINAL ULTIMATE SECRET MYSTERIOUS WEAPON, I'll rather have a useful passive (or multiple passives) weapon with a good balance of stats over a silly amount of high stats that 1-hits everything. Final Fantasy 10's celestial weapons were a good example of good reasonable weapons - save for tedious grindy shit to unlock/upgrade them.
...