PixlBit

To chime in to Anonymous (you really should sign up so we have a name to go with the detailed comments), you seem to keep bringing up worldwide sales for these games. I'm sure that when you take in worldwide sales these games are still doing very well, and possibly better than ever. But I think it's safe to say that we here at PixlBit are talking about the sales climate for North America only, since pretty much the entire staff resides there.

And again, I just don't see a lot of JRPGs crossing over beyond the hardcore niche, which is not where the genre was, say, 15 years ago. I can only speak for how these games did for my store in the 8 years I worked retail, but JRPGs (or as we called them back then, RPGs) were hugely popular, with games like Lunar, Arc the Lad Collection, Final Fantasy (take your pick), and Kingdom Hearts selling far and above most every other game at the time. RPGs were constantly on the covers of gaming magazines, and the announcement of a new game in a popular series was always a cause for mass hysteria.

I don't see that as often anymore. Even the release of FF XIII was met with a kind of muted excitement, and that was before the reviews and fan backlash started to pour in. Dragon Quest IX indeed did amazingly well, especially if you compare it to the sales of VII and VIII, which were pretty disappointing. Can DQ X top that? It remains to be seen. I've heard many hardcore DQ fans raging against that game, criticizing everything from the graphics to the fact that it's an MMO. We'll see how it does. I really feel that the "Wii 3" from Operation Rainfall are going to sell as expected, that is, the hardest of the hardcore will buy them and love them, but they won't crack the top ten on the sales charts.

And I would love to be proven wrong about that, but that's how I feel.

Also, I appreciate that you realize that our comments and statements are our opinions and feelings. Feel free to disagree, but there's no reason to either get angry or take it personally. People may not agree with you all of the time, but that doesn't negate their opinions, nor do their opinions negate your own.

The best Evangeleon game I can think of came out for the Saturn. It was part school/dating sim (yes, really) and part mech battle game. Of course, it was a licensed anime game made on the Saturn, so the 3D models of the evas looked rough.

You know, I was always surprised that the big 80s cartoons weren't leveraged for video games more often. Your SNES JOE idea would have been awesome, and I'm still pissed that a true Transformers G1 game has never been released in the U.S. I love the hell out of Transformers Armada for PS2 and War for Cybertron, but I want the Autobots crash landing on Earth and taking the form of actual vehicles, just like the first cartoon.

You know, I almost said Superman, and Rocksteady was my go-to choice as well. But I opted for Powers simply because all of my other ideas were so obvious. But you and I are on the same page for sure, JD.

And yes to a Beast Wars game. Or more specifically, yes to a Beast Wars game that isn't the atrocious game on PSX, or that abysmal fighter on N64. (although the Japanese fighting game for Game Boy Color was pretty awesome. Chibi Megatron? Yes please.)

You know, when Power Rangers came out, I was a little older than the taget audience, being about 13 at the time. I still thought it was awesome, what with the martial arts action, big robots, and Kimberly's hot ass. I always thought that they could make a really awesome Power Rangers game, but at the time I didn't understand the cold reality of making a licensed game: pump it out fast to catch the trend, and target only the lowest common denominator.

With that being said, Power Rangers is nearly 20 years old (?!!) now, so there's now a market for a nostalgia-heavy game. I think you could take some cues from my G.I. JOE idea: go heavy on the camp. Make the monsters look just as rubbery and fake as the show. Make the city during the Megazord battles look cheap and flimsy. Get voice actors to purposely say their lines as cheesy and over the top as possible.

But the kicker here is that you put some awesome core mechanics at the heart of it. Let's see a combat system like the Arkham games, allowing the Rangers to take on huge groups of enemies at a time, and make it look awesome. Give the Zords weight and heft, and make them feel powerful. Of course, drop in/drop out co-op would be a must.

Unruly? I think this is a great discussion on the state of JRPGs, and the Japanese industry as a whole.

When you're talking about something as broad a genre as JRPGs (which can fall into more subsets than I care to list), you pretty much have to talk generally. Does every JRPG fall into the template that I mentioned? Of course not. But the faux story concept I listed has become so cliche by this point that it's become kind of a running joke. I love JRPGs, and I wish I had time to play more. But I've been playing them since Final Fantasy on NES, and the genre hasn't moved forward enough for me to get excited when a new one comes out. That's great if you do, but I no longer have the time to set aside 60-100 hours on an experience that is so much like other experiences I've had in the past. The last JRPG to hold my attention from start to finish was probably Eternal Sonata, thanks to its interesting battle system, gorgeous visuals, and touching story about loss and death.

Now, I'm an admitted BioWare fanboy, as any reader or listener of PixlTalk can vouch for, but I'll also be the first to admit that their games are very formulaic. The difference is that their formula is still "new" for me, since I came on board with Mass Effect in 2007. But it's wearing thin for me as well, and if their next games don't move things forward I'll probably be moving on.

I wonder though, at your repeated comments on more JRPGs getting localized than ever. I don't see that at all. During the PSX and PS2 days it seemed like major RPGs were coming out every week, and they were big events. Maybe it's because the games aren't marketed or the games press isn't as enthusiastic about them anymore, but I just don't see the output being as high, nor the excitement being there. Maybe part of that is my fault, because I'm so tired of anime character designs that my brain passes over most games that feature a plucky young protagonist with a blue or green-haired female companion. 1up did an interesting article last year about the state of the JRPG, and I feel that many of the statements ring true. Now, this was in response to the news that Xenoblade, Last Story, and Pandora's Tower wouldn't be making it stateside, and thankfully that's no longer the case.

Also, where are you getting your sales numbers from? When was the last time a JRPG broke the top ten in sales here? I'm not trolling, I'd really like to know. At least on the consoles, a lot of JRPGs this generation haven't performed well. Valkyria Chronicles was kind of a flop, and if memory serves, the Mistwalker games didn't do too well, either. I'd venture that, even if some of these games are selling more units than some of the bigger games last generation, the actual market share has shrunk in proportion to the industry as a whole. When you look at RPG coverage these days, the names that come up first are Fallout, Skyrim, and Mass Effect. That's not a comment on what is the "better" type of game, but an indication on where the market has shifted as a whole.

I still cheer for the JRPG, and I'm looking forward to Xenoblade, as I'm in the market for a new RPG. But for me, they don't excite me as much as they used to. I hope that changes one day, and most likely it will. But my tastes have changed as I've gotten older, while many JRPGs have continued to provide the same experiences I enjoyed as a young adult and a teenager. I look to different types of games now, and fire up a good JRPG these days more for nostalgia than anything else. Thanks for your comments.

From a sheer story and thematical slant, JRPGs are totally following the same template. Young boy from a small town gets whisked into a struggle to save the world. He most likely has amnesia or meets a mysterious woman with amnesia that has untapped magical powers. There will likely be some sort of cute animal companion at some point, and a villain that's almost as much a pretty boy as the protagonist. And that's all fine. But I've played that game in different incarnations for years. Dragon Quest IX indeed has customization. You managed to name one of the only JRPGs to have that. 

What Western RPGs have done to move the genre forward is in characterization, world building, and player investment in progression. I have almost no say in how I spec Lightning, nor am I able to learn anything more about her beyond what's depicted in cutscenes. On the other hand, I can equip Morrigan from Dragon Age with gear that works best with the abilities that I've chosen for her to level up. I can find out all about her by talking to her and bringing her on my adventures. And I can learn more about where she comes from by simply exploring the world. I want these elements paired with the tight battle systems and amazing production values I've come to expect from Japan. That's not unreasonable.

Call of Duty and "modern" FPS games have followed the same template for about 10 years. And that's not a template that's been around since Doom. That game was all about resource management and level navigation, whereas shooters today are about scripted events and multiplayer.

RPGs were huge during the PSX and PS2 days, and it wasn't just the Final Fantasy franchise. Were these games all million sellers? No. But they were profitable. Even stinkers like Shadow Madness sold well enough in comparison to other games of the time, so it was a no brainer for JRPGs to get localized.

You could even say that RPGs are bigger now than they've ever been, but the shift has been towards Western games. Fallout 3, Skyrim, Mass Effect, and WoW are all games that have seen success outside of the normal RPG audience. I hope that there are some forward thinking Japanese developers out there that see what has been done with these games to move the genre forward while keeping the things that make JRPGs special. More player choice and customization coupled with Japanese polish and production values could make for some amazing games.

It's a sad fact that JRPGs aren't getting localized as often as they used to. That's due to a lot of factors. With Japanese audiences moving more and more to portable platforms so too have the RPGs gone that route. The problem with that in the West is the rampant piracy on the PSP and DS. Higher dev costs attribute to this as well--it's harder to justify the cost of localization on a game that already didn't sell well in its native language. And another factor is just the fact that JRPGs follow the same template that they've been using for years and Western audiences have moved on in a large sense. I see the JRPG as a niche, much like it was back in the 16 bit era. It breaks my heart, but for me there are few RPGs coming out of Japan that get me excited anymore, and the ones that do tend to get pushed on the backburner to other games that capture my interest more.

That was a wall of text full of salient points! Look to this space for my actual reply.