Do You Have Any Unpopular Gaming Opinions?

[Segata]

I feel like JRPGs don’t aspire to stretch the genre as much as WRPGs.

The right topic for that comment.

[chuckster]

I can enjoy either one, I prefer JRPGs but I can still greatly enjoy a good WRPG. Skyrim is not one of them. The game is so bad. Last gen on consoles had 3 great ones. Kingdoms of Amalur, Dragon Age Origins, and Dragon's Dogma.

To this day ther's no game that does exactly what Amalur did. It was like Fable meets God of War. Easily the best action-RPG on X360/PS3.

Agree that Skyrim was lame. I enjoyed it at the time of release, and put about 100 hours in on it, but in the end it was a step back for the series. More accessible yes, but a huge reduction in ambition and scope. Then again my bias is high in favor on Morrowind.

[Sarge]

I feel like JRPGs don’t aspire to stretch the genre as much as WRPGs.

That is a much more succinct way to state what I was trying to say. JRPGs mostly originated from creating an experience that matched the limited tech. WRPGs tended to take very complex systems in the early going and cram them all into the limited tech.

I love JRPGs, but with the increases in technology, I find WRPGs much more palatable than I used to.

[Exhuminator]

I see JRPGs and WRPGs as equals, with both approaches offering unique strengths and weaknesses. Depending on what a player values in RPG design, either one could be better for said player.

[Gunstar Green]

I know why some Elder Scrolls fans don't like Skyrim but I don't think it deserves to be called a bad game in any sense of the word. Yeah, yeah "popular" doesn't necessarily equal "good" but it's not still ubiquitous today because it was bad.

It's shallow as a roleplaying game but as an open world action game it was extremely impressive for its time and new retail versions of it are still coming out.

I find the game is actually best when you roleplay. Decide your character's strengths, weaknesses, morals, and stick to them. If you go about doing every single quest on one character and learning every single skill it's going to be pretty lame.

[Ack]

I think JRPGs were in their prime with limited technology, and now that we have reached an incredible point with our tech, the worlds that WRPG often struggled to convey are now much more fleshed out and easier to get into.

That said...I still play both, so eh, what use is my taste?

[chuckster]

Modern Games are bloated these days. It's little things, like longer animations, voiced dialogue, larger worlds, etc. that make games feel a lot slower and less immediate than they used to. These things are all cool and enhance games these days in a lot of ways, but for JRPGs, I feel like it is just crippling.

The final nail for JRPGs though are slower turn-based battles, general padding, a grind-heavy nature inherent to the genre. These defining features made older games into larger, more emotional experiences, and when you stood something like FF or Phantasy Star up against 1-2 hour platformers (once you mastered them), it was a compelling reason to go for a JRPG. In this day and age, it just feels tiring when the technology has allowed for better real-time or pseudo-real-time combat, larger narratives, and are geared so that you rarely have to go out of your way just to progress in the game.

I know not all JRPGs are like this, and I have my own favorites in the genre, but this is what keeps me away from newer releases by and large.

[Xeogred]

Yeah, not sure I follow you there chuckster, to be honest. The only thing I can think of that fits that criteria might be the Xenoblade games, otherwise Japanese games are smaller and lower budget than the AAA stuff today. What turn based stuff is even on consoles thesedays? I miss them (Lost Odyssey was excellent). Everything you described there just sounds like Western modern open world games to me. A recipe for dreadful boredom, uninspired mountains, quest laundry checklists, Bible sized menus and lists, constant loot management, etc.

On a related note since we're closer to wrapping up 2017, I can still easily say Horizon Zero Dawn was the biggest disappointment of the year for me. I sold it for Yakuza 0 and if I could do that again, I would. Best decision ever. Japanese games kicked ass in 2017.

Horizon Zero Dawn sucked!

[Gunstar Green]

Horizon Zero Dawn sucked!

I'm still going to pick it up once the Complete Edition comes out.

As well as Yakuza 0 eventually...

Got to justify this PS4 somehow.

[Segata]

I won't get into the racial issues with the main character of HZD but everything about the game just looks like Ubisoft open world design. It also seems far more limited gameplay wise compared to BotW. The world is not fully open either like Zelda. Lastly, a nitpick but I hate the machine designs, they just look like something from a Micheal Bay film.