The Future of JRPG’s ?
The fact is lately JRPG’s don’t seem to have been hitting as hard as they used too. Back in the glory days of Final Fantasy people would want a PS1 just to get hold of the seventh installment but gradually wstern increase in JRPG’s have been decreasing and judging by several reports out of Japan this is gradually happening there to some degree. Now in my opinion to truly succeed and bring JRPG’s into the “next-gen” as it were they need to be different. Lets face it, Blue Dragon was bad at worst and extremely average at best. The PS2 is still the place to be for RPG’s and the new consoles are slogging away while Persona III manages to better anything they can produce. So where do I feel the JRPG genre has gotten a little lost? And how can it bring itself into the next gen?
To be 100% truthful I came late to the JRPG fare. I played Final Fantasy VII on the PS1 as most people if they had the opportunity. However I didn’t like it. Random encounters? Turn based combat? I remember being outraged! True I was only 12 at the time and a die-hard Nintendo fangirl. But I didn’t get it. Fortunately by the time I was 16 Final Fantasy X cemented my enjoyment of JRPG’s and I went back to replay plenty of them, I found the genre a lot more exciting as I aged. Unfortunately as I age even further the genre has become stale. Blue Dragon was dull and while Eternal Sonata was fun it wasn’t amazing either. What’s going on? There was once a point when every JRPG I played was fantastic and consistently a good experience? Why have things gone off the rails?
Shadow Hearts for me at least is the shining example all JRPG’s should aspire to be. While I myself have never truly mastered the series my girlfriend thinks they are some of the best games ever and after being on the edge of my seat watching her play I am inclined to agree. The judgement ring, mature adult stories and dark horror edge gave the series something I always thought FF lacked. Style. The judgement ring in particular is one of the most innovative pieces of gameplay I have ever encountered in this genre and if the creators of JRPG’s could stop sitting around scratching their arses then perhaps there would be some new innovative combat measures in the next gen too. This would be a very good step to taking things forward.
From the PS2’s glory days another title that sits in my mind like a wonderful piece of RPG loveliness is Star Ocean: Till The End Of Time. The combat system was a little bit crap too, but at least it bothered to do something different and link an amazing storyline in with a likable cast and a game with a truly epic sense to it. I had so much fun on the medieval planet with Fayt, Nell and Cliff fighting a wide variety of enemies and exploring together and I haven’t played a title since that put me in such a fun, original and creative world. More LIKABLE characters and interesting worlds please developers, k, thnx.
Sadly since these days very few JRPG’s have impressed me. Lost Odyssey may be number one in my most anticipated games of the year list but part of me is kinda wondering if I’m just kidding myself and it’ll be as poor as Blue Dragon. Hopefully Mystwalker are no longer stuck in the past and produce something enjoyable and/or innovative especially as their third title Cry On actually looks like it might be doing things differently. The key thing here though is every time a JRPG is churned out that suffers the wrath of western reviewers the genre is weakened significantly outside of Japan and this issue of averageness must be ironed out if the genre is to survive.
Fortunately there is growing evidence that companies like Squaresoft and Tri-Ace have actually noticed this. Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant both look to be attempting something different so I suppose only time will tell. Here’s to 2008 being revolutionary for JRPG’s.
