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?

Top 5’s: My Top 5 Most Wanted RPG’s of 2008

With 2008 looming on the horizon like a big year shaped thing, it’s time for me to look to the year ahead and what titles due out in 2008 I’m most looking forward too. Of course with quite a few titles release dates still speculative some of the titles im excited about may appear next year or may not so I’m only going for titles with definate release dates.

Blue Dragon Review

 

Mystwalker, one company on whom Microsoft have placed huge aspirations. To conquer the Japanese market where the XBOX 360 has been doing more or less… well… disastrously. Enter their first title, Blue Dragon a JRPG with a pedigree team of experts behind it and promising very, very much for the console. So the question is, is Blue Dragon any good? Well unfortunately no… not really, but fortunately for Mystwalker the title is average enough to be enjoyable and not a complete train wreck.

 

Eternal Sonata Review

 

 

Fredrick Francois Chopin a Polish pianist and his fevered delirium as he lays on his death bed does not sound like the most tasteful or exciting setting for a Japanese RPG adventure. However raised eyebrows and scepticism aside it’s a fact that Eternal Sonata manages to embrace this unusual premise well and deliver an RPG that manages to revolutionize combat and handle the odd storyline and setting quite well.

 

Update

Sorry for the lack of posts been SO busy of late but have found time to finish off some RPG’s. Anyway, Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata are now both complete so expect a review of them soon. I shall also be playing Mass Effect and Oblivion: GOTY addition over the holidays so I expect in terms of newer titles they are what to expect next. Now I have some free time I intend to write up a few more reviews of older JRPG’s.

For the record my reviews of

• Phantasy Star Universe
• Enchanted Arms
• KOTOR I
• KOTOR II
• Baldurs Gate Games

Can be found at http://aiaiai.wordpress.com/ along with my girlfreinds review of Shadow Hearts: Covenant

First Post

Well, here is my obligatory “first post” to my blog all about RPG’s and me. As gooder way as any to get started is to detail my favourite RPG video games.

On the “western” gaming front I’ve always been a huge fangirl for Bioware’s titles so Knights Of The Old Republic, Jade Empire and Baldurs Gate II are some of the all time greats of RPG’s in my humble opinion. Also slightly less known but still a fantastic game in its own right Vampire – The Masquerade: Bloodlines was arguably one of the most fun and original games I’d played for a long time and it’s a shame it’s bug ridden nature meant it was something barely anybody ever played despite how fantastically awesome it was. Of course one can not mention RPG’s with at least giving a brief nod to the manic hack and slash that is Diablo II. I’m sure I’ll do some mini features on some of these titles in the future but for now I believe those are the best of the Western RPG lot.