Mass_Pincup
Banned
Of course not, that's were the best games are at.
Yikes, one more person that doesn't know what he's talking about.
Yikes, one more person that doesn't know what he's talking about.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Is your connotation of the term "JRPG" negative?
- Thread starter Inuhanyou
- Start date
Unfortunately, I think the term has taken on a negative connotation over time for me. I really liked the turn-based gameplay and interesting art of JRPGs past, but then nearly everything started adopting an anime aesthetic, overwritten plots/dialog, and obnoxious voice acting. Actually, Final Fantasy XII is the only JRPG that currently comes to mind that has acceptable (good, even) voice acting in my opinion.
Battle systems often still bring something interesting to the table, though. Too bad it gets buried beneath a bunch of tropey crap.
Battle systems often still bring something interesting to the table, though. Too bad it gets buried beneath a bunch of tropey crap.
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I associate it with positivity. It tells me I'm going to get a prescribed story, ethereal music and sentimental emotional themes.
But I guess I am the converted
But I guess I am the converted
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
This is a goddamn great way to put it. This is also why more recent JRPGs I tend to enjoy tend to be on lower powered handhelds as well, the visual restrictions placed on a game like Radiant Historia or even Bravely Default create a far more interesting aesthetic for me than...uhm, this
In particular, Imageepoch has become a lighting rod for negativity of the issue whenever the term "JRPG" is brought up, because of how they went under fairly painfully.
Its a very complex issue, but for me, its always just meant an RPG made in Japan. I think the fact that it is seen as something that 'westerners' term differently from RPG because they see them as inferior was a big enough misconception to address with a thread.
They said this
Which seems fairly innocent to me, however the outcome was taken in Japan as Monolith, "striking back" against a racist term, which really confused me, and i don't think that is necessarily fair for people who do actively follow Japanese games and Japanese RPGs in the west.
PreyingShark
Member
Relatively neutral connotation for me. The term "JRPG" usually makes me interested to find out more about a game, but I don't make a real judgement about a game in that genre until I find out more about it.
For comparison, "this is totally a pokemon rip-off" = "Damn I need to buy that game ASAP" for me.
For comparison, "this is totally a pokemon rip-off" = "Damn I need to buy that game ASAP" for me.
It's the opposite for me. I liked Bravely Default, but hated the chibi character models. I wished it was on a more powerful platform so the character models would be more realistic.
Heh.
This thread is already a mess. I'll just say the term was invented by bigots and will always have been invented by bigots.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/251150/
No, it didn't.
https://www.gog.com/game/the_legend_of_heroes_trails_in_the_sky
http://store.steampowered.com/app/251150/
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
Nibel always knows what's up
Imperfected
Member
A little bit. Not so much because I dislike JRPGs (I like them a lot, actually), but more because it seems like people only bother to use the term when they mean "JRPGs I don't like"; ie, Dark Souls and Persona don't seem to get called "JRPGs" nearly as often as the Tales games or Star Ocean.
So, when it comes up in a conversation with a designer, I usually assume that's what they're driving at. The same with "WRPGs", by the by; in my experience, people are usually using the term to denote their personal distaste for a game (and again, usually without regards to the actual origin of the game or any defining traits it may have).
So, when it comes up in a conversation with a designer, I usually assume that's what they're driving at. The same with "WRPGs", by the by; in my experience, people are usually using the term to denote their personal distaste for a game (and again, usually without regards to the actual origin of the game or any defining traits it may have).
Not really negative, because I want all games to be great, but I usually assume it's no longer a game I will play myself. It's all I ever played as a kid but something about the normal aesthetic now just totally turns me off. If everything looked like the Tactics Ogre remake (and didn't involve saving the world) then I'd play all of them.
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
:/
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
Think he was joking.
Ohlawd always disappoints me.
Supermanisdead
Member
I used to love seeing the word JRPG, now I just hope that the hypersexualized girls portrayed in them are at least adults.
GloriousBagel
Banned
Megidolaon
Member
To me it does not. It is my favorite genre. I like them better than WRPGs due to their focus on characters and gameplay.
It's sad to hear that Japanese developers think that we look down on them. Some do probably, but the genre has tons of fans.
There's so many JRPGs too, so theres a lot of mediocre ones that give the genre a bad name.
It's sad to hear that Japanese developers think that we look down on them. Some do probably, but the genre has tons of fans.
There's so many JRPGs too, so theres a lot of mediocre ones that give the genre a bad name.
Think he was joking.
me or Nibel? I ain't joking tho
Dangansona
Member
Absolutely not. I play a lot of games but have decided in the last year or so that it is my favorite genre. Right now I am playing SMT: IV, SMT: Devil Survivor Overclocked, Lost Dimension, FF: VIII, and plenty more games in my backlogue and I have several anticipated titles (mostly Persona 5 and FFXV). Who cares that it isn't as strong as during the PS1/2 era? Why does that diminish the genre in any way? I still love 3D platformers even though until recently that was basically a dead genre.
Stereogatari
Banned
Mine is positive, because I think of the games worth playing and not the Animu trash.
Okay then.
What makes Dragon's Dogma a WRPG?
What are the common gameplay and artistic elements of a JRPG? Turn-based battle? No, many famous JRPGs like Kingdom Hearts and Star Ocean are action-based. Pre-made non-customizable player character? Xenoblade Chronicles X says hi. The only thing that all JRPGs actually have in common is being made in Japan.
Vital Tundra
Member
Currently for me, yes. Anytime the Japanese make a JRPG, they always end up making the characters like they don't know how people look or behave. Seriously that Vita joke was on point. There are to many Japanese developers that seem to think half naked girls with 3 different emotions are okay and its really not. It makes me not want to by yor games.
Edit: I guess this falls into the problem with a lot of Japanese culture and more specifically anime and manga. Miyazaki ain't lying.
Edit: I guess this falls into the problem with a lot of Japanese culture and more specifically anime and manga. Miyazaki ain't lying.
3DS is powerful enough for realistic character models. The problem is the insistence of most JRPG developers on using chibi character models as a stylistic choice. It was never a hardware issue.
Suit yourself. Makes me want to buy it even more.
Well, I don't see a problem with chibi characters.
Dark_castle
Junior Member
Oi mate! Don't you dare talk shit about my waifus.
Dark_castle
Junior Member
I think the advent of voice acting really hurts JRPG as a whole. Before, we can imagine how the characters would sound like, and they sound like actual people in our mind rather than badly acted caricature.
Sorry. Can't agree with you there.
Dark_castle
Junior Member
M'kay?
"JRPG" to me means:
The Good:
Turn based, tactical or systems based combat, interesting levelling systems, unusual stories.
The Bad:
Random battles, heavily menu driven combat, poor UI, endless cutscenes, unusual and slightly creepy stories.
The Ugly:
Endless cutscenes where you have to button mash through every damn line of dialogue, unusual and really fucking damn creepy stories.
The genre seems to have been slipping further and further into the ugly side of things as time has passed, so yes, I'd call my connotation pretty negative.
The Good:
Turn based, tactical or systems based combat, interesting levelling systems, unusual stories.
The Bad:
Random battles, heavily menu driven combat, poor UI, endless cutscenes, unusual and slightly creepy stories.
The Ugly:
Endless cutscenes where you have to button mash through every damn line of dialogue, unusual and really fucking damn creepy stories.
The genre seems to have been slipping further and further into the ugly side of things as time has passed, so yes, I'd call my connotation pretty negative.
For someone who's favourite genre is what would be classed as JRPG's, and someone who owns a Vita, I agree with this. Nothing is worse than looking forward to new RPG's and getting lewd trash
I don't mind it every once in a while, but I do find it disappointing how it's used as the default on the system, with Shin Megami Tensei IV being one of the extremely rare games that doesn't adhere to that (and even then, the blend of 3D models and SMT I/II-inspired sprites makes for something of a mixed bag).Well, I don't see a problem with chibi characters.
Gonna have to elaborate on what you mean by creepy.
Maybe in your opinion it's trash.
It's capable of them, but the devs likely wouldn't have gone with that style if the game was on another platform. Not port begging or anything since I own a 3DS and the game, I just didn't like the game's aesthetics.
Vital Tundra
Member
I agree with you. Most voice acting is trash or mediocre when coming from Japan. Its gotten better over the years, but there are still issues with directing localization.
The Baron Count
Member
Depends.
As someone that watches Anime and plays Japanese games on a fairly regular basis, I personally think that a whole lot of media that comes out of Japan in general is souless and derivative, reusing the same tired plot points over and over to varying degrees of quality. This could be said of anything from anywhere but it seems to me that I could throw a dart and have a 90 percent chance of hitting an archetype when it comes to games and Anime from Japan.
I think most JRPGs suffer from absolutely awful writing which gets even more awful when there is any "romance" plots involved, I can count on one hand the amount of JRPGs that I have felt had good plots and decent writing. And the voice acting in most of them...Jesus. If only more of them had paid attention to how FFXII handled voice acting, it seems even Square has forgotten.
I also feel there is absolutely no excuse for the pervy fanservice shit that many seem to find acceptable. Arguments are often made for it just being "culture" differences but I'm not going to use different moral standards for different places, Those sentiments simply hold no water to me, that kind of objectification isn't okay no matter what as far as I am concerned.
That being said I do still love a lot of things about actual Japanese game design. I still adore turn based combat, and their particular flavor of action game. As derivative as their writing can be, I think their games play just as differently most of the time game to game. You simply will not find anything out there that plays like pretty much every game from Japan, and I personally think most of the best game designers working today are Japanese. The kind of elegance and polish that they display on a fairly regular basis isn't something western games often replicate in my opinion.
More than anything, the term JRPG just symbolizes a game that is going to be too large for me to have time to play now unfortunately. I'm too busy most days. I don't know how some of you dudes do it.
As someone that watches Anime and plays Japanese games on a fairly regular basis, I personally think that a whole lot of media that comes out of Japan in general is souless and derivative, reusing the same tired plot points over and over to varying degrees of quality. This could be said of anything from anywhere but it seems to me that I could throw a dart and have a 90 percent chance of hitting an archetype when it comes to games and Anime from Japan.
I think most JRPGs suffer from absolutely awful writing which gets even more awful when there is any "romance" plots involved, I can count on one hand the amount of JRPGs that I have felt had good plots and decent writing. And the voice acting in most of them...Jesus. If only more of them had paid attention to how FFXII handled voice acting, it seems even Square has forgotten.
I also feel there is absolutely no excuse for the pervy fanservice shit that many seem to find acceptable. Arguments are often made for it just being "culture" differences but I'm not going to use different moral standards for different places, Those sentiments simply hold no water to me, that kind of objectification isn't okay no matter what as far as I am concerned.
That being said I do still love a lot of things about actual Japanese game design. I still adore turn based combat, and their particular flavor of action game. As derivative as their writing can be, I think their games play just as differently most of the time game to game. You simply will not find anything out there that plays like pretty much every game from Japan, and I personally think most of the best game designers working today are Japanese. The kind of elegance and polish that they display on a fairly regular basis isn't something western games often replicate in my opinion.
More than anything, the term JRPG just symbolizes a game that is going to be too large for me to have time to play now unfortunately. I'm too busy most days. I don't know how some of you dudes do it.
whiteninja
Member
Only to people who are ignorant.
Probably wouldn't have. However it started, developers do often think that just because something's released on 3DS, it needs to go for a cutesy look.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
I actually quite like chibi characters of the FF remake or BD style. It's abstracted in a way I can appreciate and I like how it makes them feel more "sprite-like"