The reasons so many JRPGs don't make it to the US

[J T]

As a fan of JRPGs, I thought this was a good read:

http://kotaku.com/5897741/the-reasons-s ... ted-states

Maybe this will inspire you to contribute to that kickstarter project MrPopo posted about earlier:

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 11&t=37012

[Xeogred]

I'm not surprised that Japanese company relationships sound kind of terrible with the West, covering a large chunk of the issue here. Reminds me of this article my friend showed me just recently as well in regards to Bandai (US) folding in the anime market:
http://www.toplessrobot.com/2012/01/ban ... 8-2012.php

I definitely miss when JRPG's were everywhere and Japanese game design ruled the consoles.

[J T]

I realized in my lineage of favorite RPGs thread that all of my favorite RPGs have been from Japan until recently. The state of JRPGs today just feels kind of sad. They rarely make it over seas, and when they do, they often get really negative responses about being outdated or full of anime people. I see a lot of bitching about japanese games, anime-style graphics, and effeminate male protagonists with a fetish for buckled clothing.

I'm now learning to love the WRPG though. I basically ignored those games for a long time, but now I'm starting to get into them. It's a different aesthetic and the mechanics are a bit different, but there is some satisfying depth to them.

[Xeogred]

Same deal here JT. Feels like the JRPG well had kind of dried up for me, still always going to uncover that hidden SNES/PSX classic beneath the cracks from time to time... but yeah, there's only a handful of newer titles actually localized here that I'm probably interested in now. They still kind of thrive in Japan and on the handhelds, but like you said our market and the gaming community has kind of killed the potential off entirely. I still think Square sucks nowadays and might joke about the belts and zippers lol, but yeah beyond that I hate most of the other arguments... I'd still play turn based JRPG's to this day if they existed beyond Lost Odyssey and a few others. I guess it's kind of like the static camera angle though, just another lost art not in today's game design.

On the other hand I'm going back and playing a lot of old PC games I missed out on and still have tons of WRPG's and adventure games to hit up, it's pretty exciting. I'm really interested and looking forward to seeing how the Baldurs Gate Enhanced releases turn out.

[Erik_Twice]

I don't think it's just that they do not like risks, which applies to every single company out there, it's that they do not understand the risks, do not wish to understand them and think everything is secondary compared to selling slighty more to the same audience in Japan.


As you may know, I do think that JRPGs are flawed and truth to be told, I see very little in most new games that hasn't been already done several years ago. And without a hype machine working behind the scenery, the backlash was inevitable or rather, predicatable because more than reviewers suddenly learning about game design, they simply stopped supporting the prevailing culture of "all JRPGs are great" after several bombs and now it's regarded as cool to kick a previously respected genre, in the same way it was cool to bash Duke Nukem Forever.

[MrNash]

Same deal here JT. Feels like the JRPG well had kind of dried up for me, still always going to uncover that hidden SNES/PSX classic beneath the cracks from time to time... but yeah, there's only a handful of newer titles actually localized here that I'm probably interested in now. They still kind of thrive in Japan and on the handhelds, but like you said our market and the gaming community has kind of killed the potential off entirely. I still think Square sucks nowadays and might joke about the belts and zippers lol, but yeah beyond that I hate most of the other arguments... I'd still play turn based JRPG's to this day if they existed beyond Lost Odyssey and a few others. I guess it's kind of like the static camera angle though, just another lost art not in today's game design.

I don't know if I'd say the JRPG well has dried up in recent years. Things haven't been great on the console front, but the DS has been an absolute powerhouse for those games over the last five years or so. We got stuff like Radiant Historia, SMT: Strange Journey, the Etrian Odyssey series, Devil Survivor 1 & 2, Infinite Space, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga, Dragon Quest IX, a slew of nice DQ remakes and FF remakes, a couple of good Mario RPGs, and The World Ends With You. And that's only mentioning the upper echelon JRPGs on the system, and not taking into account SRPGs either. There have been a ton of good JRPGs to come out. You just gotta know where to look.

[Retronomy]

One thing to keep in mind is that the stereotypes and tropes common to many japanese characters are almost completely foreign to us in the USA, and thus only the very small American Otaku niche would even be able to appreciate these games, such as myself.
Americans don't get Moe and Tsundere, and the market isn't likely to change in that regard.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Same deal here JT. Feels like the JRPG well had kind of dried up for me, still always going to uncover that hidden SNES/PSX classic beneath the cracks from time to time... but yeah, there's only a handful of newer titles actually localized here that I'm probably interested in now. They still kind of thrive in Japan and on the handhelds, but like you said our market and the gaming community has kind of killed the potential off entirely. I still think Square sucks nowadays and might joke about the belts and zippers lol, but yeah beyond that I hate most of the other arguments... I'd still play turn based JRPG's to this day if they existed beyond Lost Odyssey and a few others. I guess it's kind of like the static camera angle though, just another lost art not in today's game design.

I don't know if I'd say the JRPG well has dried up in recent years. Things haven't been great on the console front, but the DS has been an absolute powerhouse for those games over the last five years or so. We got stuff like Radiant Historia, SMT: Strange Journey, the Etrian Odyssey series, Devil Survivor 1 & 2, Infinite Space, Super Robot Taisen OG Saga, Dragon Quest IX, a slew of nice DQ remakes and FF remakes, a couple of good Mario RPGs, and The World Ends With You. And that's only mentioning the upper echelon JRPGs on the system, and not taking into account SRPGs either. There have been a ton of good JRPGs to come out. You just gotta know where to look.

This. Lots of fantastic JRPGs have made it to the US in the last 5+ years... but they've all been on handhelds. I'd say that the PSP has been a powerhouse along with the DS: Trails in the Sky, Oath in Felghana, Ys Seven, Tales of the World... Gungnir and Growlanser: Wayfarer of Time should be fantastic as well.

Consoles are now the home for flashy AAA titles. I think JRPGs work best when they're kept "old school": hand-drawn graphics and relatively simple mechanics.

On the topic of WRPGS, I gotta disagree with my man JT. I've been less interested in this genre these past few years as I feel like the games have gotten worse. Or at least the popular ones have: most of them seem to play like third-person shooters with RPG elements shoehorned in somewhere or they're dull "sandbox" exploration games with some RPG leveling/crafting mechanics. I miss games like Ultima VII, Betrayal at Krondor, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, etc...

[Xeogred]

Well I kind of mentioned the handheld thing myself. It's pretty true. The only personal problem I have with that factor, is that I've got a bad neck from an injury years ago. If I try and play a handheld for more than like 30 minutes at a time, I'm guaranteed to have major headaches and shoulder aches throughout the rest of the day. It's exciting to know there's still a lot of JRPG's out there that I need to play, but also fairly disappointing they're all on handhelds. I've gone back and played GBA games via emulation (that I even own already) just for the sake of comfort... well maybe someday DS emulation will be pretty good and I'll have a computer that can run it no problem, and enjoy those games then.

On that note I wish connectivity to a TV/console with handhelds was -always- a standard. To me that'd just be another incentive to more sales, but oh well.

I'm happy to see the 3DS and Vita have larger screens though, maybe I'll be able to use them more frequently and be comfortable, and JRPG's will keep coming out strong on them.

[J T]

Hmmm... I've never owned a handheld gaming device, so I guess I've been missing out recently. I'll keep that in mind if I feel I need a JRPG fix in the future. For now, I'm hoping more JRPGs make their way over to PC. Steam recently got Ys: The Oath in Felghana, which is really enjoyable and surprisingly challenging. I hope it is successful enough to encourage further JRPGs to make their way to the PC.