So What Are YOU Playing?

[Kiarax]

Atlus has more than that. Knights in the Nightmare, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga, the Luminous Arc games, Dark Spire, and a few others I'm probably forgetting. Of course SE and a few others have also made quite a few JRPGs for the DS though. XSEED and SE do have a stronger lineup on PSP though, I won't deny that. In terms of strategy JRPGs though I probably haven't played one more addicting on a handheld than FFTA2 and Covenant of the Plume wasn't so bad either. Fact is, if you love JRPGs you should own both handhelds really.

Pretty sure Atlus didn't make any of those games. Can definitely agree with that last line though! 360 started off pretty well in terms of RPGs but they've since come to a halt. Now we're just getting over saturated in terrible games like Cross Edge on the PS3. The sad part is people lap that shit up just because it's their only option in terms of console RPGs, so they keep making them since they sell (and cost fuck all to produce, because... well, look at them). I'm sure people here might not agree with that though, since many of you seem to be more than happy to trudge through Hyperdimension Neptunia and are actually welcoming the sequel. To each their own I guess. Xillia can't come soon enough (in b4 never localized).

[Isiolia]

I think JRPGs and Japanese gaming as a whole is definitely in a lot of trouble if JP devs don't start embracing XBL/PSN and other downloadable games (such as iphone) as much as western devs have. It doesn't feel like we're seeing anywhere near as much of an indie explosion on the downloadable services from the Japanese compared to NA/EU studios, and without a shift toward digital distribution you're going to see studios continue to consolidate (this has already begun to happen) until there's only 2-3 big ones and not much else, which means less games in general and probably less risky console releases like RPGs

Is it also possibly a matter of small/indie game devs not having the resources to translate their games for release on US/EU based services? For an RPG (or visual novel, etc), there'd be a comparably large amount of text to translate versus just, say, a menu on something like a shooter.

[Rokku]

Pretty sure Atlus didn't make any of those games. Can definitely agree with that last line though! 360 started off pretty well in terms of RPGs but they've since come to a halt. Now we're just getting over saturated in terrible games like Cross Edge on the PS3. The sad part is people lap that shit up just because it's their only option in terms of console RPGs, so they keep making them since they sell (and cost fuck all to produce, because... well, look at them). I'm sure people here might not agree with that though, since many of you seem to be more than happy to trudge through Hyperdimension Neptunia and are actually welcoming the sequel. To each their own I guess. Xillia can't come soon enough (in b4 never localized).

Can't say that there's really anything to dispute with this statement (though I don't know how many people are really welcoming HDN's sequel), but the console market in terms of RPGs is absolutely stagnant. It's no wonder some of this stuff does well even though in a lot of cases it's absolute trash.

There's a lot of good points made in the last couple posts, and yeah, I completely feel like Square and Enix's overall game quality tanked hard almost immediately after they became Square-Enix.

[Atreides]

yea that's definitely true as well, localization represents a huge portion of the cost of bringing something like an RPG over here, which is probably why we rely on a handful of studios (atlus, xseed) to foot the bill.

It's also a function of the Japanese economy as a whole, after suffering nearly 20 years of recession you've had numerous studio closures and a fair amount of consolidation, and the studios that are left are fairly risk-averse and unwilling to innovate on home consoles where the stakes are much higher. In contrast, the global economic meltdown has left the gaming industry largely untouched in the west, with huge amounts of growth and the rise of the app store/xbl/psn which allows a lot of innovation and gives a place for smaller studios to get started out.

Also something to keep in mind is that the reason we don't really see that many JRPGs on home consoles, in addition to lower costs, is that the install base for home consoles in Japan isn't particularly high (with something like only 5 or 6 million PS3s sold, and around 1-2 million xbox 360s... as opposed to 35 million DSs and 16 million PSPs). This is probably also part of the reason why when home console JRPGs come out these days they're on the wii, since there are about 12 million of those in Japanese households as well. In contrast the US is divided roughly evenly between handhelds and consoles, so while we might see it as unreasonable to not develop an RPG for consoles this would be a big big risk for JP developers who may have no way of guaranteeing their product will ever be localized.

Anyway my point is that the lack of JRPGs on home consoles is the function of a number of different factors, including the economy and the increasing irrelevance of home consoles themselves. I think our best hope is to see developers who put out their games on downloadable services or port them over to XBL/PSN, because of the much lower costs and risks involved.

[chikalin]

@ kiarax and rokku - not going to lie, i'm guilty of buying less than stellar rpgs and playing them a lot more than i would have if there were better games to play. i'm a hopeless rpg addict. that doesn't mean that i'm not disappointed in them, though. i've just come to expect so much less.

@ atreides - any idea why are there so few consoles in japanese households? i definitely believe you that it's true, i'm just surprised.

[Atreides]

Idk the exact reasons, but part of it is probably because they cost so much compared to things like DS or PSP, and with the economy people can only afford 1 thing so they go with whatever's cheapest or whatever they can take on the go with them. A lot more of Japan has Wifi coverage than the US so the glut of games that can be played multiplayer nearly everywhere probably helps a lot too.

I read something somewhere about the PS3 being so large hindering its sales, as Japanese consumers tend to prefer small appliances (as an aesthetic choice, and because they can be stored more easily in small apartments). I think for a lot of Japanese consumers they only really have money/room for a PC or a PS3/360 as well, and considering you can emulate the Wii and get most big-name western console releases on Steam owning a console isn't that big of a deal over there.

[chikalin]

hm, i hadn't thought of it that way. i had been thinking that japan was probably getting console rpgs we weren't getting due to rpgs being more popular there than here, but this definitely makes better sense of it. thanks!

[Atreides]

I think that it's only going to get worse too. I think the 3DS is going to take a long time to get off the ground, assuming it ever does (don't get me started on marketing something you can't demonstrate in photos or video), with a US install base being too low to justify a lot of localization. And if the NGP even comes out this year (it's rumored that the earthquake might really affect this), it won't be until the holiday season, so we're left with the twilight years of the DS and PSP... but granted, the PS2 did have some quality releases in the end of its life so who knows.

Actually I think this is going to be a great year for ios gaming, with Apple getting a much needed lull in the handheld market to allow it to gain a major foothold, especially if they release an iphone 5 before the fall (not likely but possible, this would lower the price on the iphone 4 making it more widespread too). I think from this point forward we're going to be talking about iphone/ipad games almost as much as its competitors.

[Isiolia]

I think it's a lot to do with generally smaller living spaces. While I imagine it's changed since I lived there, PCs are even more rare - my mom tutored some college students in English, and none of them had even used a PC prior to college. That was in the mid-90s though. Still, odd to me since we'd had some sort of home computer since I could remember (C64, Apple II, etc).

[chikalin]

I think it's a lot to do with generally smaller living spaces. While I imagine it's changed since I lived there, PCs are even more rare - my mom tutored some college students in English, and none of them had even used a PC prior to college. That was in the mid-90s though. Still, odd to me since we'd had some sort of home computer since I could remember (C64, Apple II, etc).

space conservation is definitely a big deal. i went to a boarding school, and one of the girls from japan had this super teeny tiny laptop that she bought there. it was so small i wondered how she typed on it. the keyboard like, folded out somehow, if i remember correctly.

[Souj]

Should I feel bad for being really cheap against the Demon's Souls bosses?
2-1 Spider: shoot with magic while in a spot it can't hit me.
4-1 Adjucator: Shoot with magic where it can't hit me
5-1 Leechguy: Shoot with arrows where it can't hit me
1-2 Red Dragon: poison to death where it can't hit me
1-2 Tower Knight: shoot with magic where it can't hit me (though I do have to dodge after each chot)
2-2 Flamelurker: Poison it to death as it stands there
3-2 2Gargoyles: Kill 1st gargoyle with bow before I even enter the fog, then kill 2nd normally
4-2 Old Hero: Shoot magic, wait for it to stop facing me, shoot magic. Though is it really my fault he's blind?
1-3 Blue Dragon: Shoot with arrows where it can't hit me
5-3 Shoot with arrows where she can't hit me
1-4 King guy: poison to death while he stands there

Haven't needed to find cheap ways to beat the other bosses as of yet.
Typing this out as I kill Flamelurker with poison...

[Julian]

beat super robot wars j, so sad

[Insanecyclone]

beat super robot wars j, so sad

Now get to playing SRWZ2 on psp. It's amazing.

[Julian]

Meh, dunno if I really want to play 1/2 of a game in a language i dont understand :/

[Sol-Blackguy]

Still playing Dungeon Fighter and collecting tears in PVP with my Mechanic. People are still butthurt about my aggressive style since I don't stand in a corner spamming Landrunners like 99% of all the Mechs playing. Someone in my guild tried to compare me to Tempester, (see video below) but it's just basic combos and patterns anyone with common sense can do. Even still, everyone cries about how broken Mechs are even though they have no aerial game, terrible normal damage, and can be killed with one combo. Hell, I'm at a disadvantage because I don't use Flamethrower or Silver bullet. But a Launcher can juggle you like a clown beating you over the head with sub weapons and nobody says anything. Almost as broken as MNK/SAM spamming Asura Fists back in the day.

My videos lag too much, so I don't have anything worth uploading, but this is somewhat how I play my mech. (minus all the buffs)

[Kiarax]

Meh, dunno if I really want to play 1/2 of a game in a language i dont understand :/

Yeah you do. Shit's awesome.

Where are my buster machines Banpresto? ;_;

[Klien]

Friend just lent me Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier idk what to expect out of it buuut yeah. Playing that and Gods Eater Burst on and off until something peaks my interest again or i give in and buy BB:CS/attempt to plat some games

[Charismatic]

I keep seeing that around here; it's piques not peaks.

[Souj]

Technically, that depends.
Maybe they mean that they could not possibly care anymore than they do now because they are at their highest point of interest!


and just started Little Big Planet 2. tis interesting. Though we'll see just how I balance out LBP2, Demon's Souls and Portal 2

[Charismatic]

Technically, that depends.
Maybe they mean that they could not possibly care anymore than they do now because they are at their highest point of interest!

Looks like someone's never heard of context clues!