What Games Are You Playing: 2008

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Rob: That chart was nice and all... but I'm not sure I understand. Especially with the 'version' thing vs. region.

Also, were there any RPGs even listed?

-Djinn

Yes, but most of them didn't have any cross-region testing done, and the list hasn't been updated for a few weeks, so no ToV or IU.

I should also note that if you're going to buy any modern-generation console for RPGs, you are probably out of luck, as the entire jRPG genre is probably going to go the way of the puzzle game. Only so many things you can do with it.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Pfft. There's even less you can do with RPGs that lock themselves into using D&D-based battle systems, but that doesn't seem to stop people from trying, and even making good ones now and then.

Judging by the legions of fans FF and KH and DQ still attract, I'd say that jRPGs are doing just fine.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Going the way of the puzzle game? Meaning... cheaper and comes in bundles?

Japan doesn't look like it's going to slow down on releasing RPGs anytime soon... so forgive me if I'm skeptical of this statement...

-Djinn

[Cmdr_King]

Maybe he means that they'll make just as many as ever, which fans of given series or types will follow eagerly, noting with approval the subtle changes from one iteration to the next, while non-fans of the genre look on and wonder why the hell they aren't playing Madden.
So, exactly like RPGs have always been as a genre.

[Meeplelard]

FFX: At Guadosalam.

I am finding myself spending too much money, often on Armors I will probably not use...don't you just hate that kind of feeling <_<?

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Maybe he means that they'll make just as many as ever, which fans of given series or types will follow eagerly, noting with approval the subtle changes from one iteration to the next, while non-fans of the genre look on and wonder why the hell they are playing Madden.
So, exactly like RPGs have always been as a genre.

Fixed.

That's actually what I was insinuating. RPGs peaked in popularity during the fifth generation and have been on a downslide ever since. With the rising cost of development the marginally popular game franchises are getting pushed out of the market (see: Shadow Hearts for a recent example), which in turn leads to less innovative games, because you can no longer afford to gamble on a weird idea... unless you're tri-Ace, apparently.

In the end you'll have FF '11 and DQ '11 and they will basically be the same game and a few people will eat it up and nobody will make much of anything else.

[Niu]

Zeonsilt, eh? The given name for the main in GL5a is "Haschen". What's the katakana spelling of the main's name, Niu?

ゼオンシルト (zeonshiruto)


ToV- Finally started a second cycle after 130 hours of first cycle. Time to complete all the missing side quests!!!

[DjinnAndTonic]

Eh, that's not really such a problem in Japan, where the graphic-whore problem is slightly less prevalent. From what I can tell, if someone has a weird idea, they'll just release it in a sprite game first. Once that proves wildly successful, its sequal will probably see a vast improvement in graphics. There are plenty of companies still playing with 2D or low-quality 3D graphics to cut costs and gamble on weird ideas. Maybe not as many on 360 and PS3... but the DS and Wii look promising for this.

From what I can tell anyway.

Though there is definitely some truth to the 'stagnancy' issue you bring up.

-Djinn

[Dark Holy Elf]

That's actually what I was insinuating. RPGs peaked in popularity during the fifth generation and have been on a downslide ever since. With the rising cost of development the marginally popular game franchises are getting pushed out of the market (see: Shadow Hearts for a recent example), which in turn leads to less innovative games, because you can no longer afford to gamble on a weird idea... unless you're tri-Ace, apparently.

Yes, SH died, but that certainly wasn't for financial reasons; sounded more like a falling out between the design team that made the series and the publisher that holds it copyright. Last I checked most of the other niche series (Suikoden, Wild Arms, Arc the Lad (sadly), Valkyrie Profile...) are still chugging along well enough.

I don't think fifth generation was the peak, either. (assuming you are referring to the PSX gen). I mean, look what happened in the sixth gen...

-Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest continue to make huge sales. Shock, awe. Actually, DQ finally breaks into North America with 8...
-Kingdom Hearts! Hello, massive million-seller.
-Star Ocean goes from a niche series to the bigtime.
-Series like SH, Xenosaga, and N1 establish themsleves (even if only N1 made is still alive, they were notable and pure Gen-6). FE comes to North America.
-SMT becomes less completely irrelevant.
-Suikoden records its biggest-selling game.

Now yes, you can point at Breath of Fire dying (not that Capcom ever seemed to care...) and WA becoming more of a niche series. And yes, no one RPG from this era was as popular as FF7. But aside from that I don't see any sign that jRPGs have been declining.

That leaves this generation, but the general clusterfuck that is the PS3 has caused some confusion for the genre's designers, and it's too early to judge how this will affect it long term.

[Fudozukushi]

Zeonsilt, eh? The given name for the main in GL5a is "Haschen". What's the katakana spelling of the main's name, Niu?

ゼオンシルト (zeonshiruto)


ToV- Finally started a second cycle after 130 hours of first cycle. Time to complete all the missing side quests!!!

Damn and I thought my 77 hours was impressive.

Speaking of 77 hours...

ToV: Finished my first cycle. Now I can go and complete all the sidequests I missed.  Like CLAY!

[Anthony Edward Stark]

Kingdom Hearts hardly counts as an RPG, and it's success hinges on them putting character from other shit in to it for its success. I call bullshit.

I call bullshit on N1 being established. It's a niche game for people with more free time than should be possible in Euclidian space.

Suikoden has its best-selling game and then totally backpedals on that. Didn't S5 sell like a quarter of what S3 sold?

I've still never seen a SMT game in what's not a dedicated game store.

So that leaves... DQ8.

[Grefter]

Wait what?  You guys needed clarification on what it meant to go way of the puzzle game?  Have you not seen the INFINITE ENDLESS HORDES of Bejeweled clones (an unoriginal game to begin with).

*Insert token RPGs turning into Puzzle Quest being a good thing joke here*

[hinode]

In terms of JP sales, there's been a definate slide for RPGs pretty much across the board compared to PS1 era.  Things definately topped out there, RPGs just don't make 600K-800K as easily as they used to.

In the US, sales on the high end have almost completely devolved into Square-Enix and to a lesser extent Nintendo; BoF died and Suikoden/Wild Arms waned and there's no real equivalent to Legend of Dragoon I can think of that sells well with no real existing brand name from a company not normally known for RPGs.  On the other hand, the niche RPG was established as a genuinely profitable venture, rather than Working Designs occasionally releasing something after a five year delay.  Atlus and NIS are pretty well established now and we get a LOT of stuff ported over that would've never sniffed daylight back then.

In terms of ongoing development DS and to a lesser extent PSP are where most of the lower budget stuff have shifted over to.  Next gen systems are too expensive, so we get quirkier stuff like Etrian Odyssey and The World Ends With You and Jeanne D'Arc and that upcoming Wizard of Oz RPG on handhelds instead.

[metroid composite]

Subterranean Animism

Hmm...well if my guess is right about the Extra boss' stars in the upper left hand corner being the number of spell cards left, I guess I've gotten to the final spell card on...two or three occasions (at least once each with ReimuA and MarissaA).  MarissaA hasn't exactly been delivering--she's fine once it comes to the boss, if not all that different from ReimuA, but getting her up to 8 power and the regions before the boss are actually really scarry.

Decided to go back and get MarissaC on a hunch that maybe the boss won't be super-immune to her bombs due to how weirdly they operate.  Failed my first attempt at 1ccing Normal (her bombs really weird me out that much) then proceeded to complete with 6 lives (almost 7, but had an embarrassing death in the last 10 seconds).  Interesting thing about these Normal runs: I think the level that's killing me the most is level 3.  The level I keep hearing hyped up (level 5) I had no deaths on this run, and capped every one of Orran's spell cards (missed capping a couple of the starters, granted).  This lines up with my memories of other normal runs, too (well, not quite as much capping, and frequently a death on the blue ball starter).  Maybe she's only difficult on Hard/Lunatic?

[Ranmilia]

The stars on bosses are their number of lifebars left, yes.  Orin is only exceptionally difficult until you learn her tricks, then she's not so bad.  The real killer factor on her is that if you do start bombing and dying and ever get below 2 power, it's almost impossible to come back without dying a few more times.

Marisa C is probably the best character for Extra.  You don't get enough power to spam her bombs on every single attack, but if you have confidence in capturing a few things the insurance is wonderful.

[Captain K.]

-Star Ocean goes from a niche series to the bigtime.

Star Ocean was a bigtime series as of SO2.  SO2 had huge sales, more than 3 if I'm not mistaken.

[hinode]

PSX STAR OCEAN:SECND STRY 214,179

PS2 STAR OCEAN: TILL END 629,769

[Captain K.]

I stand corrected on 3's numbers.  But yes, >200,000 is great for an RPG.

[Dark Holy Elf]

It's about what, say, XS1 and S3 had. Solid, for sure, but I wouldn't describe it as a big hit.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

DQ8 - *Fights Empy-chu.*

...

Holy fuck she can one-turn my entire party and her defense makes my offense fail. ;_;

[DjinnAndTonic]

Made it to disc four of LoD - got to see the shocktastic *spoilers* of the game. What a surprise! The lead female character is *special* and the main bad guy is the main character's *spoiler!*

Personally, I'm amused by the fact that Dart was more shocked at Rose's identity than the fact that his papa is 11000 years old...

The non-Rose/Dart/Lloyd characters don't exist anymore... even though it doesn't seem like -any- of them has gotten resolution to their individual stories... Too bad, I like Haschel.

Tal: finding a copy of the GL5 guide is proving more difficult than I expected, I'll be driving into a larger city today to search a game store.

-Djinn

[hinode]

XS1 sold over 500K, for the record.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Oh, my bad, I was probably thinking of 2's or 3's sales.

[Clear Tranquil]

Djinn - All of them get resolutions to their stories. It just comes in parts and is dribbled out in between the main plot.

Have you been through the desert yet? There is an amusing Meru/Haschel scene there. I liked the banter between those two~

There is also character interaction in the next town.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Djinn - All of them get resolutions to their stories. It just comes in parts and is dribbled out in between the main plot.

Have you been through the desert yet? There is an amusing Meru/Haschel scene there. I liked the banter between those two~

There is also character interaction in the next town.

Oh yes, Meru/Haschel banter is quite possibly the best-written part of the game outside of Rose. That's not really saying much in terms of quality, but I'm enjoying the story well enough. The fact that I like the timed-hits battle system is probably coloring my opinion of the story however.

In the game's favor, there was one or two little neat details that they added into the story that I liked. One in particular was the 'Spirit Tree' and how each of it's 108 fruits developed into the species of the world, with dragons, humans and winglies being numbers 105, 106 and 107. It makes me wonder if I counted up all the monster types in the game if I would end up with 108 living species? This kind of natural environment would immediately fail without some kind of 'it's magic' plot device to blanket any problems, but it was still an interesting addition in terms of story.

Finding one nice thing doesn't make the plot -good-, per se, but it helps me enjoy it.

-Djinn