The Decline of jRPGs

[Esau of Isaac]

Honestly, I loved VII-X. Wish they'd get onto a track more like those.

I was myself annoyed mostly by linearity of XIII. I'm fine with having a primary objective, but when most of the game involves walking in a straight line, there is a very, very big problem.

[Lucent]

Honestly, I loved VII-X. Wish they'd get onto a track more like those.

I was myself annoyed mostly by linearity of XIII. I'm fine with having a primary objective, but when most of the game involves walking in a straight line, there is a very, very big problem.

I think the focus from anime needs to disappear entirely.

[Fayt Zelpher]

Honestly, I loved VII-X. Wish they'd get onto a track more like those.

I was myself annoyed mostly by linearity of XIII. I'm fine with having a primary objective, but when most of the game involves walking in a straight line, there is a very, very big problem.

Wasn't that also considered to be a problem with FFX? I mean, pretty much the first 90-95% of the game is linear progression before you get the airship (which is right before the final battle...) I mean, even in XII, you had access to the marks and a lot of optional stuff well before you get the airship (when you go to Ridorana), but in X, I can't think of one thing besides Blitzball that you can go out of your way to do during the first 80% of the game.

[Luna]

I'm sure there are those of you out there who've seen/heard/experienced this conversation:

A: You should play Chrono Trigger/Earthbound/FFVI/ insert classic RPG here.

B: No thanks!

A: But these are some of the greatest games of all time!

B: Not interested. Graphics suck!

A:

There's too much to read so I didn't read it all and thereby don't know if this has already been mentioned BUT:

Baldur's Gate I

Possibly my favorite rpg for the computer. Great story, and everything that, in my opinion, makes those kinds of games great. Problems for most people: It's 10 years old, so most people in my age group haven't heard of it (it came out when I was 5), the graphics by todays standards are HORRIBLE, (but not too shabby for then in my opinion), it's got a D&D label (ooooh it's so "uncool" ...), and if you don't know how to do things, it's really confusing (but for lots of these things, you gotta invest time into it and figure things out. It's difficult at the start especailly if you choose a class like mage, but later, when you actually have allies OTHER than just Imoen who joins at the start, it becomes much easier. I hear lots of complaints about high beginning difficulties, but I've found that in lots of the really good games, you have to stick with it, and I feel like the decline of RPGs is to cater to the staggeringly huge number of people that feel the need for a game that doesn't require that much effort, and in order to do that, the game designers and developers take out a lot of the things that they would put in that makes games great. Maybe the games simply appear to be declining because the people that love the games where you need to put forth effort are still around, while the games that we want become more and more difficult to find because of the majority who don't want a challenge, then perhaps complain because of a lack thereof.

[Esau of Isaac]

Wasn't that also considered to be a problem with FFX? I mean, pretty much the first 90-95% of the game is linear progression before you get the airship (which is right before the final battle...) I mean, even in XII, you had access to the marks and a lot of optional stuff well before you get the airship (when you go to Ridorana), but in X, I can't think of one thing besides Blitzball that you can go out of your way to do during the first 80% of the game.

Yeah, it was a problem in X. But it was somewhat unnoticeable because of well-made environments, and the amount of time it lasted before allowing the player some measure of control was comparatively less.

[Original Alear]

Wasn't that also considered to be a problem with FFX? I mean, pretty much the first 90-95% of the game is linear progression before you get the airship (which is right before the final battle...) I mean, even in XII, you had access to the marks and a lot of optional stuff well before you get the airship (when you go to Ridorana), but in X, I can't think of one thing besides Blitzball that you can go out of your way to do during the first 80% of the game.

If Blitzball counts as something "out of your way" even though it's available at every save point, then I suppose other sidequests (lightning plains, Al Bhed dictionaries, the temple where you fight against summons, Yojimbo, etc) also count. However, simply because there are some sidequests that take you to out-of-the-way places around the Calm Lands doesn't detract much from the strong linear feeling of the main game, so I still agree with you.

Did anyone notice the female vs. male trend?

-retreats back into the audience-

You do know Sheena is a guy, right?

Edited December 10, 2010 by SeverIan

[eclipse]

Honestly, I loved VII-X. Wish they'd get onto a track more like those.

I was myself annoyed mostly by linearity of XIII. I'm fine with having a primary objective, but when most of the game involves walking in a straight line, there is a very, very big problem.

I happened to like the linearity of XIII. It means we gamers have different tastes, and that makes me happy.

[IGdood]

You do know Sheena is a guy, right?

Oops. Nope.

I happened to like the linearity of XIII. It means we gamers have different tastes, and that makes me happy.

I LIKE EVERYTHING.

[Esau of Isaac]

I happened to like the linearity of XIII. It means we gamers have different tastes, and that makes me happy.

I happen to like some of the music, and a few of the character interactions. Sazh as a larger talking role is certainly interesting.

I just think it was depressingly bad for a Final Fantasy game, perhaps moreso than Final Fantasy XII.

[bunny: spider bitten]

Without picking through the topic, I will say that graphics are hurting the genre. But not in that lame excuse of a concept of gamers ignoring the genre over it.

It has a lot to do with the developers sitting on their asses trying too hard to make the games look good to release something worthwhile. Final Fantasy is currently the definition of that issue. Instead of creating a fleshed out world with lots of nooks and crannies and making that accessible through the whole game, FFXIII was designed to look nice. The battle system is intuitive, but the world isn't remotely immersive. And VS is practically in development hell trying to perfect the constant FMV look while slowly aging graphically.

Beyond that? They should really considering adding more ways to play the game and using branching paths more often.

Edit: Also, the games are 'planned' to be fairly short, something that has always bothered me for some reason. Designers intend you to beat most RPG final bosses by level 50. Those other 49 levels may as well not exist. Obviously, they can't drag that out to where every player would be level 99 by the final boss, but 75-80 should be their mark for total material.

Edited December 12, 2010 by bunny: now with batmask