Historical hallmarks of the JRPG genre

[MrPopo]

I don't think Hyperdimention Neptunia's monumental contributions to the genre are getting enough attention here.

Other games did scantily clad anime babes first.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I'm one of those weirdos that liked Dragon Quest VI a ton. I don't know why I love it so, but I do.

To be fair, I very much enjoyed VI when I first played through it as well. After I found a copy of IV lying in the street and fell in love with Dragon Quest, VI scratched that itch very well. But going to play through it again after playing DQV, I just got annoyed at the design choices (things like needing to talk to people in a very specific order/fashion in order to get a gate-NPC to move). Also, the plot is fairly cool, but the individual character writing isn't up to snuff with IV or V, so that kind of hampers its replayability for me. Still a good game, but overshadowed by its superior predecessors. Kind of the black sheep among Dragon Quests in that way, I suppose.

[ElkinFencer10]

I don't think Hyperdimention Neptunia's monumental contributions to the genre are getting enough attention here.

Other games did scantily clad anime babes first.

Nonsense. They went back in time to make those games to make it LOOK like they did it first. Neptunia is the true progenitor of all JRPG greatness.

[marurun]

PSIII's chronology is cool stuff, I just wonder if it is enough to warrant inclusion.

I agree. I don't know that it really had much of an effect on the genre as a whole. There certainly wasn't a rush of clones doing the same thing afterwards.

[chuckster]

Not big on JRPGs overall, but I do believe Earthbound deserves a spot. It laid the template for what is one of the best-selling game franchises of all time. I only played it about a year ago, but it was remarkable how much I'd heard about EB without people being more vocal about how much they basically lifted straight out of it for Pokemon Red and Blue. It gets all sorts of credit for being in a modern, more light-hearted setting, which was well-done and unique, but it didn't really influence a lot in the grand scheme. The stamp it leaves on Pokemon is the most important part of it's commercial legacy--Undertale or no--which is so large as to be undeniable.

[ElkinFencer10]

Earthbound's greatness is subject to a legendary amount of hyperbole, but it is a great and extremely witty JRPG; I agree that deserves a the title of "historical hallmark" even if it's not the second coming of Christ encased in plastic as some people make it out to be.

[PartridgeSenpai]

Not big on JRPGs overall, but I do believe Earthbound deserves a spot. It laid the template for what is one of the best-selling game franchises of all time. I only played it about a year ago, but it was remarkable how much I'd heard about EB without people being more vocal about how much they basically lifted straight out of it for Pokemon Red and Blue. It gets all sorts of credit for being in a modern, more light-hearted setting, which was well-done and unique, but it didn't really influence a lot in the grand scheme. The stamp it leaves on Pokemon is the most important part of it's commercial legacy--Undertale or no--which is so large as to be undeniable.

Can you be more specific? That's a claim I've never heard before, and it's a fairly intriguing one. Other than the fact that they're both in fairly modern settings, I don't see too much in common between the two. In which case, was Earthbound really the first JRPG to take place in a modern setting? 1994 (or I guess 1989 if you wanna go by the first game) just seems like a really late goal post for that landmark.

[Xeogred]

I hate Earthbound.

/shuts door

[marurun]

I guess we don't really know what kind of impact Mother had on the Japanese market and scene. I think Earthbound definitely doesn't earn a spot on the list, but Mother might.

[Exhuminator]

I don't know that it really had much of an effect on the genre as a whole. There certainly wasn't a rush of clones doing the same thing afterwards.

So were there a rush of clones doing the generational descendant protagonists thing after DQV either? Not to my knowledge.

But if we're saying DQV deserves to be listed because of that aspect, then PSIII deserves the spot even more so. Considering it did it first. And did it better.

If you guys are saying DQV deserves to be on the list simply because it's "just awesome", then I strongly disagree. I really don't understand people's fervor for DQV. It's not even in the top tier of Dragon Quests, and it's pretty boring compared to plenty of its contemporaries.