What are your opinions on Jrpgs?

For the vast majority of them I don't understand where the "role-playing" comes in. You usually don't get to pick stats or skills or magic, it autosorts itself for you when you level up based on the predetermined class and there's barely any choice and consequence in most of them as far as I've seen.

Only jrpg's I can remember enjoying is Secret Of Mana and Chrono Trigger and it certainly wasn't because of any "role-playing" elements in them.
 
They are relaxing sometimes. Mostly because of turn-based combat (ATB systems can also be relaxing if they pause while on menus) and not many choices to make.

Usually they're too grindy at some points. Good JRPGs will have a way of dealing with that (Repel-like items/abilities, escape system, auto/skip weak battles, etc).

Usually have not much in ways of choices, you are playing a story and follow it, you rarely participate or have a hand on changing it.
Also not much in the way of characterizing/personalize your characters.

Sometimes they have nice writing, characters and stories, that is what appeals to me in JRPGs. Ones without those good things will just bore me quickly.

Many have stereotypical characters, which detracts from the story.

They can have great music though, some of the best game music I heard came from JRPGs.

They are usually easy to get into, even by people who never played a JRPG before.

In sum, I enjoy JRPGs, specially when I'm really tired and have no energy to do much. But I also don't like many JRPGs because of boring characters, story and writing. So it's double-sided blade for me.
 
First RPGs I played were JPRGs, on NES. Dragon Quest kinda got me hooked on the concept of RPGs back when I didn't even know what an RPG is.

However, I've never played them much since then.
 
From what I've played of the genre(srpgs counted), a lot are very generic, bland, annoyingly overly pretentious, and tedious. Ironically tho, some of the most unique games I've played happen to be in that genre.
As for their "role-playing" I don't think they are RPGs and really only enjoy them for the experience and how different(and dumb) they are.
They(the good ones of course) fill a huge chunk of the equivalent of the Eurojank of Japan.
 
Many would raise a pitchforks from me saying that I prefer the gameplay of JRPGs over the story most of the time, as I find it amusing to find ways to destroy what bonus bosses or minigames the game holds in there.
 
No opinion, since I have no experience with them. If anyone has any suggestions for some of the good ones, I’d be interested.
 
I utterly loathe and hate them. Their gameplay, their stories, their artwork even.

The Western RPG is soundly better in nearly every aspect or type.
 
I actually like quite an handful of them. Like Final Fantasy 4, 5, 6, 9 and Dragon Quest 7, 8 and 9. I do admit that they can be pretty cliched at points and some of the gameplay leaves a little bit to be desired.

There's the first two Lunar games and the first two Grandia games as well. I still prefer a proper RPG with character creation, branching paths, choice and consequence and reactivity.
 
Do the pokemon games count as JRPG's? If so, I like Pokemon R/B/G/Y/FR/LG & G/S/C/HG/SS, and that's it. Every other JRPG that I have tried has been trash.
 
I have absolutely no interest in them, probably due to my adept ineptitude in enjoying anything not made by the familiar touch of western thought. I'm closed-minded basically.
 
What I find absolutely hilarious is most people that hate them have not played them. Not disparaging anyone obviously because I don't care what games you play, but hardly anyone knows about Vagrant Story, yet they will suck Wizardry's shriveled up cock every day of the week. They have never delved into Persona 1 and 2 or SMT. Indeed they don't know what that ACRONYM MEANS!

They have rarely attempted to play one of the good Final Fantasy games, if they did it was that overhyped Final Fantasy VII. I pity the fool that has never played Super Mario RPG.

"B-but my role playing!"

"Shut your mouth pedant. The people that made the games defined it. Go make a game and define it faggot."

Undertale or UnderRail? Have you played either? Both? I walk between worlds. I am the (J)RPG GOD. Where were you when Fallout was launched? I was playing Symphony of the Night, the first entry to feature RPG mechanics and dialog. I roleplayed as ALUCARD. My ALUCARD was different from my friends. He was unique. Just like your Fallout character, which is not unique because everyone skips THROWING. MWHAHAHAHAHAHA! *cough*

You poor fucks. ANACHRONOX is a RPG. Earthbound is a RPG. My penis is not a RPG because it can act like a vagina but it will never really be one. The genre was tainted from the start but none of you were alive to play the games then. I know this because I WAS NOT ALIVE to play the games then, at least not as a sentient being. Who of you owned a PC in the 80's? Exactly.

People are defining the genre based on the late 90's. Anyway...ARPEEGEES are dead. Long live the FPS.
 
Atomkilla said:
First RPGs I played were JPRGs, on NES. Dragon Quest kinda got me hooked on the concept of RPGs back when I didn't even know what an RPG is.
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Me too, except it was Breath of Fire 2 on Gameboy Advance.

And from that point onward I was more and more exposed to some varieties of JRPGs, some are tile-based and turn-based like Final Fantasy Tactics (even though I only played those games for a short while, because then something, I can't exactly remember what, happened and I lose access to them), some are turn-based with characters staying where they are like the aforementioned Breath of Fire 2 and also Sword of Mana on GBA, and Suikoden 5 PS2, some are real-time with different kind of combat gameplay like Radiata Stories, Final Fantasy 12 on PS2, and Rogue Galaxy, and also a kind of perhaps phase-based? I'm not sure what it's called, but the game is called Growlanser 3, also on PS2.

While the graphics kinda help making me liking those games since I was just a wee lad, looking back I realized I loved them for the gameplay. In fact, with Final Fantasy 12 remaster released in 2017 as The Zodiac Age I bought it on PS4 and really, really love it especially because the remaster also changes the (admittedly) flawed character progression of the original, and improved it. Final Fantasy 12 is probably the best implementation of real-time with pause (RTwP) combat gameplay (that is, compared to other RTwP gameplay I've seen of RPGs most people knew and loved even though I didn't yet have a chance to actually play them), since it was coupled with a gauge system (where characters will gauge the actions they're commanded with, the speed affected by, well, 'Speed') AND a gambit system where characters will prioritize certain actions based on the situation (like if an ally is below 50% HP, you can set a character to heal that ally, or if an enemy is weak to fire, you can set a character to cast a fire-based spell on that enemy). I also replayed Breath of Fire 2 and Sword of Mana some years ago on emulator, and tried replaying Radiata Stories with PS2 emulator but sadly it doesn't run smoothly on my laptop.

The funniest thing about this is that out of all the games I mentioned, only few of them I actually finished and some I even replayed because I really, really like the gameplay. Breath of Fire 2, Sword of Mana, Final Fantasy 12, and Rogue Galaxy I haven't finished because in case of the GBA games my laptop died without me backing up the data, while with FF12 even though I got it on PS4 I'm completely distracted by other games :facepalm: while Rogue Galaxy I can't finish because it was completely bugged where during certain cutscene the game just completely stop and there was no solution to that problem. Suikoden 5 I finished once, and remembered not really liking it since I didn't spend time to explore what can be assumed as side content and thus, I wasn't as attached to the game. Growlanser I finished and replayed a few times, because I love the gameplay, I even looked up some walkthrough on how to complete side-characters story arcs and get them the most powerful equipment for them, and finally Radiata Stories is literally THE most replayed game of my childhood, rivaling the strategy games which were obviously very replayable. I don't know the exact reason, probably because I love the atmosphere, the world, the story, and some of the characters. But deep down, even though I haven't yet the chance to replay it properly, I realized the gameplay is where it's at. It's basically a real-time action, there are only 4 weapons (one-handed and two-handed swords, axes, and spears), BUT, you can unlock attack moves for each weapons. I forgot how you unlock it, either by leveling up your character or increasing your proficiency with the weapons, and the attack moves can be chained into combos that you can customize. The amazing thing about this system is that certain attack moves will flow better with another certain attack moves, for example: a 'Right Slash' will flow better into a 'Left Slash' as a combo when wielding one-handed swords. This, however, means that certain combos just won't work as good, resulting in your character awkwardly trying to move into the next sequence of attack, which is quite rare and fresh experience for me. There's also special attack moves that can be activated once the gauge is completely filled, the only one I can only remember is Limit Break for one-handed sword (and I found out it was a reference to Final Fantasy 7 special move for Cloud Strife (or something). And finally, another major gameplay feature is you can create a formation with your party, I completely forgot what its primary purpose, but I remembered you can also execute an all-powerful special move once the gauge is completely filled while in a formation, and based on what the formation is the special move can be a huge instant damage on all enemies on the battlefield, which sadly I don't really play around with at the time because I preferred focusing only on the main character.

TorontRayne said:
What I find absolutely hilarious is most people that hate them have not played them.
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That, and I also find it kinda hilarious that in our circle of hardcore RPG audience, including the Codex, anything remotely resembling RPGs and made in Japan are immediately categorized as a JRPG, and that includes the Soulsborne series, even though they're more like Action-RPGs with heavier emphasize on action gameplay.

Damn, this post is such a short nostalgic trip for me.
 
It's a pretty varied genre almost to the point where describing something as a JRPG is not much to go ff on.

I am partial to Strategy, Mon Collecting, Metroidvanias with RPG elements, Sports RPGs and the Classical Walk the earth JRPGs. Pokemon, Dragon Quest, Shin Megami Tensei, Inazuma Eleven is grea fun too, and Advanced wars which recently saw a spiritual revival in Wagroove.

People saying the westeen RPG is automatically better are blinded by nostalgia or just straight up ignorance. You can't tell me you hate Bloodborne, Pokemon, Monster rancher, Sword of Mana, Majin Tensei all equally for the same reasons and the turn around and play another iteration of the same settings and gameplay conventions and feel superior.
 
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Walpknut said:
People saying the westeen RPG is automatically better are blinded by nostalgia or just straight up ignorance. You can't tell me you hate Bloodborne, Pokemon, Monster rancher, Sword of Mana, Majin Tensei all equally for the same reasons and the turn around and play another iteration of the same settings and gameplay conventions and feel superior.
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Yea I can. I don't like them, their stories, their gameplay, their art styles. It's not that Olympic. Bloodborne and the whole Souls series and their derivatives, every Pokemon, every monster rancher and derivatives (Stardew Valley, ugh), SoM (and I'll throw FF in there) and MT with FE grouped in - none of them appeal to me.

They've never clicked, and its because of their core gameplay 'hardware' and software 'stories/characters/plots' which I find more often than not inane or convoluted or simple. Do I have to play every JRPG or like game to know that I, without fail, don't like them?
 
Eshanas said:
Yea I can. I don't like them, their stories, their gameplay, their art styles. It's not that Olympic. Bloodborne and the whole Souls series and their derivatives, every Pokemon, every monster rancher and derivatives (Stardew Valley, ugh), SoM (and I'll throw FF in there) and MT with FE grouped in - none of them appeal to me.

They've never clicked, and its because of their core gameplay 'hardware' and software 'stories/characters/plots' which I find more often than not inane or convoluted or simple. Do I have to play every JRPG or like game to know that I, without fail, don't like them?
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I can't speak for most of those games, but Soulsborne games have very little in common with stereotypical JRPGs. Their gameplay, aesthetics, story, lore and overall design are clearly Western in influence. Even their scripts were written in English first (at least for BB, not sure about DS)
Naturally, there are some traits of Japanese design philosophies and in certain cultural subtleties which are presented in the game, but those are rarely obvious unless you know where to look.

What I am trying to say is that I have a hard time believing that a person unfamiliar with their actual origin of those games would think Soulsborne are JRPGs. They have so little in common with that sub-genre.
 
JRPG is a super broad term but if were just talking about the 'classical' JRPG then i think their balls, and (((western))) indie developers using that JRPG formula to make """"role-playing games""" is such an awful trend. i enjoy more modern JRPGs like final fantasy 15 and the souls series, though.
 
Eshanas said:
Yea I can. I don't like them, their stories, their gameplay, their art styles. It's not that Olympic. Bloodborne and the whole Souls series and their derivatives, every Pokemon, every monster rancher and derivatives (Stardew Valley, ugh), SoM (and I'll throw FF in there) and MT with FE grouped in - none of them appeal to me.

They've never clicked, and its because of their core gameplay 'hardware' and software 'stories/characters/plots' which I find more often than not inane or convoluted or simple. Do I have to play every JRPG or like game to know that I, without fail, don't like them?
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See, this is exactly what Walp said. Every single games you've mentioned aren't even remotely similar to one another, except in terms of presentation with yet another exception of the Soulsborne series. One is more like Action-RPGs, and then others are farm simulation, action-adventures, tactical turn-based, etc etc. In fact, making that whole statement actually implies you don't want to touch anything made by Japanese (except for Stardew Valley, which is not made by them, so more like Japanese-looking), even though as Atomkilla pointed out, the Soulsborne games are clearly Western in influence. You completely missed a chance to experience good gameplay solely because you, supposedly if you aren't actually against Japanese-made or Japanese-looking games, didn't find appeal in their aesthetics.

No, you don't have to play every JRPG to know that you don't like them, just that you need to know you're clearly ignorant of what the 'genre' has to offer, especially mistaking Soulsborne games as yet another JRPGs by lumping them with the likes of Pokemon, Stardew Valley, Sword of Mana, etc etc seemingly not liking them simply because they'e made by Japanese or being Japanese-looking.

I say all this because I don't know what really appeals to you, though, but you can't exactly deny Walp statement where you "turn around and play another iteration of the same settings and gameplay conventions and feel superior."

tgawt said:
JRPG is a super broad term but if were just talking about the 'classical' JRPG then i think their balls, and (((western))) indie developers using that JRPG formula to make """"role-playing games""" is such an awful trend.
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This is probably referring to RPGMaker games, but while there are countless indie stuff that are mostly shitty garbage littering Steam, some are quite Good For What It Is™. The most prominent example is Undertale, ignoring its rather queer overall presentation and even though you might not like its bullet-hell gameplay, but my personal favorite of these recent time is Lisa the Painful.
 
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