Do you still play JRPGs?

[Monkeyfinger]

Just something I'm vaguely curious about, as the interest in character dueling wanes to almost nothing.

(I realize that a lot of the old regulars in the last 2 categories probably don't come here anymore, but oh well)

[Monkeyfinger]

I don't feel like I've outgrown JRPGs or anything. I still like the genre a decent amount in its own right, but with more on my plate IRL than before combined with other genres of game (FPS, RTS) doing a better job of grabbing my attention than they used to, my JRPG playership has gone down. It's still high enough for me to vote for option #2.

[Cmdr_King]

Voted 2.  I like RPGs as much as ever, but I'm less into gaming itself to a degree.  More than that though, there's just not enough RPGs coming out that I think a claim of "play them all the time" is really accurate.

To the implied question, I find that the games themselves are still good, though diminished from the PS2 era just for lack of high-budget titles.  On the other hand, other genres aside from the resurgent Adventure still don't have a lot of appeal to me.

[Monkeyfinger]

To the implied question, I find that the games themselves are still good, though diminished from the PS2 era just for lack of high-budget titles.  On the other hand, other genres aside from the resurgent Adventure still don't have a lot of appeal to me.

It's not an implied question so much as an elephant in the room that I knew people wouldn't be able to resist talking about. Really, the main thing I'm interested in is just the answers to the poll, minus the baggage attached.

I mean the baggage is interesting kind of but I see it as a secondary thing.

[Cmdr_King]

Implication, elephant, same thing really.  But noted.

[Captain K.]

I picked still love them.  I've put in (checks) 456 hours into Dragon Quest 9 in the last year, plus a few other DS RPGs like Radiant Historia.  I've also gone through 4? Xbox RPGs since December.

[NotMiki]

I still play 'em, mostly PS2 ones, but time is an issue.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I go through phases of playing a lot and playing very little depending on my mood.

[Dark Holy Elf]

The RPGDL kinda took what was already probably my favourite genre and turned it into "why even play other games? This is what all my friends are talking about". To give you an idea, I didn't play a single PS2 non-RPG to completion until 2009 (the count is now up to 5, at least!).

Eventually, for whatever reason, this anomaly finally wore off. I think RPGs are probably still my favourite genre (it's fair to say I wouldn't have tracked down a new-IP, relatively-budget title like Radiant Historia in any other genre) but now, just as in the pre-DL days, there's competition from other genres. This can probably mainly be laid at the feet of my increased Megaman fandom (kindled, of all things, by MMXCM in 2007), and discovering that Phoenix Wright, Devil May Cry (and its successors), Nintendo platformers (okay I already knew this) are pretty awesome! But yeah. Though not exclusively, I still like RPGs a lot. I'm not sure if this falls into #1 or #2; voted #2 mostly because it -does- feel like a notably different mindset from 5 years ago for me.

Time is of course an issue but I make no secret about preferring RPGs that don't overstay their welcome as a result of this!

[AAA]

There just hasn't been a JRPG that has interested me enough to give it a try recently. This is also partly because so many of them are being made for the handheld consoles, which I don't own.

[superaielman]

Option 2.

I played JRPG's almost exclusively from the SNES era to 2009. It's not that I don't love them, I just get bored in a hurry putting 20-40 hours into a game solo. It's much more fun to multiplayer games, RPG or otherwise. L4D was perfect in this regard, because you just grabbed four players and played for an hour or two.   I still get hooked on JRPG's from time to time (See FM5 or even ToV/FE10 last year), but it requires a game to be pretty damn good.  Replaying games takes up a fair bit of my time now- I got out of that habit due to the DL.

Re: Cmdr's comment about new JRPG's. I'm less interested in gaming in general now than ten years ago when I first got online/found the RPGP, but that's entirely just me getting older and having broader interests and less time.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Picked option 1. I've always had a fondness for RPGs, and the DL just kinda sharpened it. And living in Japan has actually -increased- my interest in RPGs, since it's actually a respected genre here. Also, living in the middle of nowhere gave me more time during the week to play them again.

More recently, the thing that has eaten up most of my RPG-playing time has been RPG-hacking, which has given me a completely different outlook on the genre as a whole. I've gone back and played a bunch of SNES RPGs recently, too, and discovered that I like them more than most of the newer games coming out these days. As I get exposed to more and more new games within the genre, I find myself refining my tastes within it more and more. It's a fun process and it's fun to talk about them with you guys.

[Grefter]

I buy a decent number of them, but only play a few.  It has just been a stronger five or six years for other genres I like.

[Shale]

I still play a decent amount, but less than I used to (coincidentally, I also play way fewer games than I used to) and almost exclusively on portables.

[Lord Ephraim]

I chose Option 2.  I would more play JRPGs a lot if they bother with making some.  In fact, I play less games now mostly because the stuff released now is terrible.  It's nothing but fighting games and First person shooters. Capcom gave up on BoF and those fun Zelda handhelds in favor of releasing Street Fighter 4 six times and Marvel vs. Capcom three times.  Altus' big release this year is a block puzzle game. Square-Enix is about as confused as I am about what they want.  Namco is the most retarded publisher ever, I don't even need to talk about.

WRPGs though I'm completely done. They haven't gotten much better as they slowly deevolve into hack'in slashes and first person shooters.  After playing Dragon Age II, I'm 100% sure EA has fucked over Bioware forever.  Not sold on Mass Effect 3 and Skyrim will be an unplayable mess until 6 months of patches/mods fix the game.

My interest in DL dueling died 4/5 years ago.  Not enough Suikodogs > Cinna, and too many shitty characters like Arnaud and Tengaar winning all the time.  I'm pretty much here for the Laggy romhacks and TranceHime fanfiction.

[Sierra]

Option 2 because I spend less time on videogames lately, and also most JRPGs are now on handheld consoles and I lack such. That part will probably change eventually though. Still, replays of JRPGs tend to occur more frequently than I play something new from another genre, so works.

[Xeroma]

Still play them a lot, though they do compete with other genres. Then again, for me they always did, so nothing new there.

[Talaysen]

I chose number 1 of course.

[Fenrir]

Option 1, could have picked 2 or 4. I still like them, but:
- I have no interest in JRPG stories anymore.
- I play other genres a lot more (Because you can find the appeal of JRPG-ike character progression in a lot of games nowadays, and because I feel non JRPGs have just become a lot better recently)

[Meeplelard]

I picked Option 2.  For a while, like others, I only played jRPGs after a point barring the occasional Fighting Game with my friends, for the most part.

In the past few years, starting with when I picked up Megaman Anniversary Collection at DLC2, I started getting back into other genres.  Now adays, I tend to play more diverse games overall, so my interest in jRPGs has gone down due to mostly me having other genres I actually care about.    I'm no longer just looking for "What's the next big RPG!?"  but stuff like "oooh, Capcom's making another Devil May Cry!" and stuff like that.

[Scar]

I picked option 1.

I have never owned a new generation system so all my games were PS2 RPGs and most anything before that time.

When I borrowed my friend's PS3 I had Black Ops, but stopped playing that after my GF bought me Valkyrie Chronicles. That game held my interest more then any other game could, and at the time it was...what like one year old or more?

Then I gave up the PS3 and it just so happened that the PSP started coming out with handhled JRPGs to my delight. TO and FF4:TAY kept me occupied for a long time too!

Now my GF has given me her 360, and while I have games like Assassin's Creed 1 and 2 and Mass eeffect 1 and 2...I am currently enthralled in ToV.

No other genre can hold my attention more then RPGs and the most I play are usually JRPGs. I haven't touched Dragon Sge, but WRPGs like Mass Effect are a nice change from some of the stereotypical crap I get tired of seeing in some of these newer RPGs.

There is always my PS2 also! I have some JRPGs that I haven't played or beaten, so I am never bored when I am at home. I always have some sort of RPG to play.

Thing is, I am never home. The days of me spending 20 hours locked in my room plowing through RPGs are long gone, but I still find some time to play them.

Wait. What was the question again?

[Yoshiken]

I picked still love them.  I've put in (checks) 456 hours into Dragon Quest 9 in the last year, plus a few other DS RPGs like Radiant Historia.  I've also gone through 4? Xbox RPGs since December.

Yeah, that pretty much sums me up. I don't own a new gen console (well, Wii, but that doesn't count) but 650+ hours on Pokemon Heart Gold and about 150 on Black, as well as getting into older games (Shadow Hearts, Mana Khemia (oh god the hours on that), Persona), definitely had to go with the first one.
I mean, I play less games on the whole, I guess, but I still play a decent amount, and it's almost entirely replays of old Adventure games or a multitude of jRPGs.

[Ranmilia]

Voted 3, I hardly play them anymore due to a large combination of factors.

Probably the largest one is that I was always sort of lukewarm on their gameplay to begin with (except for a certain few like FFT that were and remain outliers in the field) and it feels like since the early PS2 era the genre has kept evolving in ways that are more miss than hit to me.  Item crafting systems, powergrinding, character reincarnation mechanics, MMO-style tank and spank gambits, I can't get into any of em. 

I also don't own any portables or consoles newer than PS2/Gamecube, so playing newer games requires a time/energy investment of "go over to Hal's a lot" (or DS emulation, I guess, but that's cumbersome too).  That makes me not inclined to go to the trouble unless a game seems REALLY good. 

On top of that, as I've gotten older, played more games, gotten tastes of what the game industry is like on the inside, etc, my tastes have changed and my brain's qualifications for an RPG that "seems REALLY good" have risen quite a bit beyond what they were several years ago.  For example, past me enjoyed, say, Lufia 2, SD3 and Star Ocean 2 back when I first played them, but present me would probably go "meh" and drop them after a few hours. 

All that aside, though, there are still a few that can hook me.  In particular I think there's a huge amount of potential in RPGs that are more seriously character and storytelling-focused, like the modern Personas or to some extent the Ar Tonelico series.  P4 was able to send me into a 40 hour weekend-long nonstop binge, so... there's that!

[metroid composite]

I kind of feel I don't have enough time, but mostly inertia has moved my gaming primarily to PC these days.  I wasn't playing a lot of console games before due to setup considerations, mostly DS and PSP, and I now live in a city with almost no public transportation, so those are sitting idle too.