[Lily Evans]

In all honesty when I first joined this forum I was like "JRPG? What's that?"

I always considered rpgs, no matter what region they are from, to be rpg's.

Edit: As far as voice acting: both western rpg's and jrpg's have some terrible voice acting

for the most part of Oblivion I can't stand the characters voices

[kirsty joanne hines]

I did like the voice work in ME, but to be fair I haven't seen that many Square games in action as I've never played one I liked. Just Cause 2 for example, did not keep my interest at all.

Square only published JC2. They don't make western games like that.

[Angelina Mayo]

http://www.destructoid.com/what-no-plans-for-a-tales-of-vesperia-ps3-us-release--161856.phtml That's why you should stick to the 360.

No! PS3 has no regional restrictions., so I will learn Japanese, and import it from Japan!!!! I WILL PLAY THIS GAME ON THE PS3!!!!

[Jynx Anthropic]

No! PS3 has no regional restrictions., so I will learn Japanese, and import it from Japan!!!! I WILL PLAY THIS GAME ON THE PS3!!!!

More recent article.... Maybe we won't have to wait long.
http://scrawlfx.com/2010/06/troy-baker-confirms-tales-of-vesperia-ps3-localization-in-video

[Niisha]

More recent article.... Maybe we won't have to wait long.
http://scrawlfx.com/2010/06/troy-baker-confirms-tales-of-vesperia-ps3-localization-in-video

Aha. I stand corrected. It's still maybe...ish. But very likely because doing so will net money.

[phillip crookes]

The ONLY JRPG I've ever played is The Last Remnant which was GREAT. Other than that there aren't many on PC.

[Anna Beattie]

The ONLY JRPG I've ever played is The Last Remnant which was GREAT. Other than that there aren't many on PC.

Well there are more than you think but they are mostly pormographic.

[Beulah Bell]

Well there are more than you think but they are mostly pormographic.

Haha... that's funny. So... you own them all?

[Sylvia Luciani]

Well there are more than you think but they are mostly pormographic.

Thats why you need to have an emergency button that opens up an educational website! (if you live with other people)

[Scared humanity]

:lol:

Haha... that's funny. So... you own them all?

Nah I can't read japanese and all overpriced.

[Taylor Bakos]

I enjoy many JRPGs. My favorite game of all time, Golden Sun for the GBA, is a JRPG. I think it has to do with the fact that Bethesda makes Western RPGs, but I never really noticed any JRPG hate.

As for popular JRPGs you might recognize:
-Final Fantasy
-Golden Sun
-Star Ocean
-Persona
-Kingdom Hearts
-Fire Emblem

[Kayleigh Williams]

Well there are more than you think but they are mostly pormographic.

pormographic?! I have no idea what the hell are you talkin' about! :blink: :blink: :blink:

[Hearts]

pormographic?! I have no idea what the hell are you talkin' about! :blink: :blink: :blink:

YOU ONLY NEED ONE SMILEY PER EMOTION!!!

Ahem. Anyway, anime, manga etc. just don't appeal to me at all. The japanese have such a different culture to me I can't relate to any of the shows/games at all. Plus the characters look weird.

[Erich Lendermon]

JRPGs are games like Final Fantasy. Many here dislike them simply because Bethesda RPGs are worlds apart from JRPGs, therefore the denizens of this forum typically have drastically different tastes.

I think you have explained the reason.

Japan has different culture from the west, and as a result, the tastes of people there might differ from the tastes of people in America or Europe, which will be reflected in their video games and other aspects of popular culture, and generally speaking, most Japanese video games are designed to appeal to Japanese audiences first, and foremost, which works well for Japanese audiences, but then when they get imported to the west, this can cause some problems, as while certainly some like them, obviously enough to make importing at least the popular ones like Final Fantasy a worthwhile endeavor, but there will also be those who, having mostly played western RPGs, will find many aspects of the games originating from a vastly different culture to be not to their tastes, and therefore, they won't like them. Since most members of these boards population are from places in North America or Europe, they percentage of people who do not like Japanese RPGs would likely be much larger than if you visited a Japanese website.

Of course, this is my own speculation on the matter. Since I'm not Japanese, and don't live in Japan, for all I know, Japanese gamers might hate Japanese RPGs, but I find that unlikely as they probably wouldn't make the they way they do if the people of their own country didn't like them. And since I don't choose what games to play based on what country made them, I might not necessarily be able to relate to the notion of resenting games of a specific type from any country. But from looking at the reasons for not liking Japanese RPGs usually sited by those who do not, it sounds like it all really boils down to a difference of taste (Than again, when it comes to not liking any form of entertainment, so long as it's not so bad as to not have any fanbase, it usually comes down to a matter of taste.) which probably stems from different cultures and being used to different things in games.

Edit: As far as voice acting: both western rpg's and jrpg's have some terrible voice acting

Very true.

In fact, voice acting that is, at best, mediocre is pretty common in video games. But regardless, it's really not fair to judge the voice acting of Japanese games if you go by the English version, unless the voice acting in that version is the same as in the Japanese version, like for games like Resident Evil or Silent Hill which use English voice acting even in the original versions, because then, the problem isn't with the original game, but with the translated version, so the fault lies on whoever was responsible for the English voice track, not the original Japanese one, unless the Japanese one was bad too, of course, but if you just go by the English version, you wouldn't know if that's the case. And really, I've come to expect that, with some exceptions, if a video game, movie, or any other medium that features spoken dialog is translated into a language other than the original and has new voice acting dubbed in for the translated version, the voice acting is almost always terrible. It's why is usually only watch anime with subtitles, and in fact watch any foreign production this way even if I could watch it with voice acting in a language I understand.

Now, you could criticize the translated version for bad voice acting, but if you want to criticize the game, as it was originally designed for its voice acting, or indeed Japanese RPGs as a whole, for that matter, you have to go by the original Japanese version, I would say.

Final Fantasy VII is the reason why I can't stand JRPGs. I've explained at length multiple time why that game was the worst game I've ever played... so suffice it to say that because of FF-VII, I'll never play another JRPG

So basically you hate every single game of a specific genre from a specific country because you played one game in that genre that you didn't like? That seems like a odd choice. It would be like if I decided to hate American science fiction movies because of the Star Wars prequels.

though the truly god awful acting and completely ridiculous plots in many FF games also puts me off. From what I've seen of FF8 and 10, I can't fathom why anyone actually likes those games.

To be fair, from what I've seen of those games, I can't see why anyone would praise their plots either, and if they are overall good representations of what the stories of most Final Fantasy games are like, I can't see why anyone would like those stories, but if the gameplay is good, I honestly don't care too much about the story. Sure, if I can get a good story to go along with good gameplay, it's great, but I don't need an exceptionally good story to enjoy a game, I play games for the gameplay, if I'm looking for a story, I'd read a novel, and I do read novels, they're a great means of storytelling, and that's why I turn to them when I want a good story. For a video game, as long as the story doesn't have any overly glaring plot holes (After all, if you're going to bother to have a story in your game, it's a good idea to make it so that it doesn't leave me scratching my head and wondering what the hell just happened, though some Final Fantasy games might be guilty of this.) and serves to explain why I'm doing what I must do in the game, it's good enough to work.

But after all that, I suppose I shall offer my own thoughts on Japanese RPGs. To be honest, I don't usually play many of them, I don't hate them, in fact, if enough people like them to ensure that games like Final Fantasy can continue to to be successful, I figure that they're doing they're job as an entertainment medium, and thus their existence has as much merit as their western counterparts, I just don't play many of them personally, I do play a lot of Japanese games, I don't discriminate based on place of origin in games, if a game appeals to me, I'll play it, regardless of where it comes from, it's just that the stereotypical Japanese RPG, by which I mean games like Final Fantasy, just doesn't appeal that much to me. The character designs usually aren't what turns me away, since I watch a fair amount of anime, I've grown used to spiky, unnaturally colored hair and big eyes often associated with Japanese artwork (Although even so some games still take it further than I'm comfortable with, I look unto Final Fantasy 10, looking at some of the characters from that game, I get the impression that they just recycled designs that were rejected for previous Final Fantasy games.) and I could also very easily complain about the stylistic choices of western RPGs too, I'm talking about huge, spiky armor on man, and women with chainmail bikinis, and knights and elves and a world that in general looks like a romanticized version of Medieval Europe with mythical creatures thrown in for the hell of it, at least in Japanese RPGs, the designs usually feel more original, though that might also be because they're a little less familiar to me, it's not the underaged heroes either, for the same reasons I stated above, it's not even the huge swords. Oversized swords don't bother me that much, although I prefer it when the character wielding them actually looks like someone who I could imagine being able to lift such a large weapon, and really, it's not like American RPGs don't have their own absurd equipment designs, once again, I must bring up the chainmail bikinis, it's not even the stories, I mean, I've already given my thoughts on the importance of a good story in a video game, and it's not like western RPGs don't also often suffer from bad stories. Let's just face it, most video game stories aren't all that great, no matter where they come from, there are exceptions, of course, but as a whole, the potential of video games as a story telling medium has not really been used so well. In the end, the main reason I don't play many Japanese RPGs because of gameplay, more often then not, they just don't have the things I look for in an RPG. Usually they don't seem to offer much choice in terms of character customization or how you develop your character, usually you're forced to play with a specific, pre-defined protagonist, while some western RPGs I play are like that too (Although I don't really approve of the practice, I can live with it if the game makes up for it in other ways.) they often still give you a fair amount of options in how to play that character, offering various skills that help to define your character's abilities, and in games like the Witcher, while you can't choose who you play as, you'll still encounter choices during the course of the game which will effect the game experience, so while you can't change the appearance of your character, you'll still be able to change other aspects of the experience through your choices, by comparison, looking at Japanese RPGs, they often don't seem to offer this, which might be fine if they made up for it with other aspects of gameplay, but all too often, it doesn't look like they do to me, certainly, they don't seem to do combat or any of those other things that RPGs always have better than games that focus on them, so I have no reason to play them for that either. So I don't play them, but if other people do, good for them, they should play whatever games they like, and I doubt most people play games they actually don't like, I know I don't. If I decide I don't like a game, I stop playing it. Unless I concluded I won't like it before even trying it in which case I never bother to start, but people can play whatever games they like, even if I happen to think those games are boring and don't see where the appeal is.

[matt white]

I like JRPGs just fine.

I think many people have a problem with it because it's linear. Some people might just not like art style. English voice actors don't really do the characters any justice and it seems too melodramatic. If you're going to play JRPGs, it's best if you stick to the original Japanese audio with subtitles, if possible.

[Khamaji Taylor]

I don't like them for the following reasons:

The battle music is cheesy
The English voice-overs are beyond horrific
The dialogue is horrendous
All the males will have choppy hair and an advlt voice despite looking 12 years old
All the females will wear sixually suggestive outfits despite looking 12 years old
The save system usually svcks
I don't like the busy arcade-style presentation with numbers flying everywhere and an interface that takes up half the screen
I hate random battles
The characters are annoying

[Kelvin Diaz]

i prefer games with worlds that can actually be explored, not where you are in a little canyon surrounded by unclimbable walls and the only way out is a set passage that leads to another identical canyon

[Irmacuba]

I like a few JRPG's

[Emma Pennington]

So far, one of the main complaints I've seen, is the ridiculous looks of the characters. Can't say I really understand that much. Not every character in a game can look the same as every character in other games, or things would start to decline/stagnate rather fast.

But they do. They all look the same: moody emo teenagers with ridiculously spiked up hair and stupidly big swords.

The whole genre is just a tired cliche, and more than that, it's a stupid childish one.

[jennie xhx]

The main reason is because JRPGs tend to be the total antithesis to Bethesda's games.

The only JRPG that I've played was Lost Odyssey and that one was decent but personally I'm just not a fan of them :shrug: for the fellowing reasons.

-Many use turn based combat that I dislike but not necessary despise; just not a fan.
-To many uses random encounters which I find annoying.
-Many find myself including the plots preditable (Though this can apply to any genre).
-Characters that are cookie cutter cliches or lack luster (Once again may be appied to WRPG's or any other works of fiction).
-Linear gameplay and no choices that is expected out of "RPG's" which is a term in its self being debated on what it means to be a roleplaying game and popular games like ME can be considered linear depending on standards or perspective.
-Art/clothing styles but this is a case of http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YourMileageMayVary.

Overall it depends on ones taste.

...except that for the first 15 years or so (pretty much until the early '90s), almost all those reasons also applied to the vast majority of WRPGs. Anyway, one JRPG that only the last two apply to is http://au.gamespot.com/ds/rpg/wonderfulworld/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary%3Bread-review. Combat is totally real time (and better handled that in most real-time RPGs, I must say), and with a few exceptions the encounters are optional (basically, you press a button to scan the playing field, with enemies represented by little icons you can click on if you want to fight them, with the size and type of icon giving an idea of the number/type of enemies you'll encounter).

[MatthewJontully]

Small list of games that are jrpg

Spoiler

psx Azure Dreams Brave Fencer Musashi Breath of Fire III Breath of Fire IV Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena Chrono Cross Dragon Warrior VII Final Fantasy Chronicles Final Fantasy Anthology Final Fantasy VII Final Fantasy VIII Final Fantasy IX Final Fantasy Tactics Front Mission 3 Grandia Hoshigami: Ruining Blue Earth Legend of Mana Lunar Silver Star Story Complete Lunar 2 Eternal Blue Kartia: The Word of Fate Persona Persona 2 Eternal Punishment Rhapsody Musical Adventure Suikoden Suikoden II Star Ocean: The Second Story Tales of Destiny Tales of Destiny II Thousand Arms Threads of Fate Vagrant Story Valkyrie Profile Vanguard Bandits Wild Arms Wild Arms 2 Xenogears PS2: Ar Tonelico I Ar Tonelico II Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana Dark Cloud Dark Cloud 2 Disgaea Hour of Darkness Disgaea Cursed Memories Dragon Quest VIII Eternal Poison Final Fantasy XII Front Mission 4 Grandia II Grandia III Mana Khemia Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy Metal Saga MS Saga New Dawn Rogue Galaxy Sakura Wars Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Army Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga Shin Megami Tensei Digital Devil Saga 2 Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Fes Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 Suikoden III Suikoden V Star Ocean Till the End of Time Steambot Chronicles Tales of the Abyss Tales of Legendia Wild Arms 5 Wild Arms: Alter Code F Xenosaga I Xenosaga II Xenosaga III PS3: Agarest Generations of War Cross Edge Disgaea 3 Resonance of Fate Star Ocean Last Hope International PSP: Breathe of Fire III Crimson Gem Saga Final Fantasy Final Fantasy Tactics War of the Lion Lunar Silver Star Harmony Jeanne D'Arc Shin Megami Tensei: Persona Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable Star Ocean First Departure Star Ocean Second Evolution Tales of Eternia Tales of the World Nintendo DS: Chrono Trigger Final Fantasy III Front Mission Legacy of Ys: Books I & II Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Suikoden Tierkreis Wii: ales of Symphonia II SNES: 7th Saga Breath of Fire Breath of Fire II Earthbound Final Fantasy II Final Fantasy III Illusion of Gaia Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals Secret of Evermore Secret of Mana Wanderers from Ys III GBA: Summon Night Swordcraft Story Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis

You forgot Golden sun you [censored]

[Ymani Hood]

Maybe because every JRPG has the same characters.

[Francesca]

I don't like the JRPG genre. Final Fantasy disturbs me. The persona games even more so. I have played final fantasy games and, well not only are they bad for a number of reasons, i find them very complicated. I have played final fantasy 7 and 8 both I got lost in. I have no idea whats going on or what I am supposed to do. My aunt whos a final fantasy fanatic played FF8 almost for me and I was....beyond confused. I really needed her to just sit me down and explain to me in plain terms what I needed to do with visual aids. Final Fantasy 8 was just the most confusing game ever to me. I have no idea to this day what junctioning is or what it does. I have no clue either how to play the card game, triple triad. Since I just stay the hell away from JRPGs.

[Jennie Skeletons]

I don't like the JRPG genre. Final Fantasy disturbs me. The persona games even more so. I have played final fantasy games and, well not only are they bad for a number of reasons, i find them very complicated. I have played final fantasy 7 and 8 both I got lost in. I have no idea whats going on or what I am supposed to do. My aunt whos a final fantasy fanatic played FF8 almost for me and I was....beyond confused. I really needed her to just sit me down and explain to me in plain terms what I needed to do with visual aids. Final Fantasy 8 was just the most confusing game ever to me. I have no idea to this day what junctioning is or what it does. I have no clue either how to play the card game, triple triad. Since I just stay the hell away from JRPGs.

want simplicity in a FF game? go back in friggin time to FF1 and 2, now those are the best ones, i keep away from the new ones, but 1 and 2 man, they be [censored]in'.

[Darrell Fawcett]

Maybe because every JRPG has the same characters.

Compared to the diverse cast found in most Western RPGs? The clever mage, the noble knight, bloodthirsty rogue and the dimwitted character with an over-sized weapon. The "blank slate" player character, who's generally just "The Hero", with enough generic dialog options to vaguely cover the spectrum.

Same characters re-skinned, same as JRPGs or just about any other genre.