Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

The Japs do everything better

The Japanese control the RPG business

  • Yes

    Votes: 37 56.9%
  • Larian will save us

    Votes: 28 43.1%

  • Total voters
    65

Hell Swarm

Educated
Joined
Jun 16, 2023
Messages
656
SMT Nocturne.
Has the worst final dungeon of any game ever made. Who the FUCK thought that teleporter puzzle was acceptable? You're already burnt out and wanting to end it and they pull that shit.
 

H. P. Lovecraft's Cat

SumDrunkCat
Joined
Feb 7, 2024
Messages
1,284
JFC it was sort of a joke, calm down fuck the polls the japs would be winnin if you cunts didn't have 50 alts each. Git a life
 

Grampy_Bone

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2016
Messages
3,686
Location
Wandering the world randomly in search of maps
If people want to bring up one-off examples to shit on an entire genre, let me tell you about Thunderscape or Entomorph, Plague of the Darkfall.

JFC it was sort of a joke, calm down fuck the polls the japs would be winnin if you cunts didn't have 50 alts each. Git a life

This is an actual interesting topic to me, because I think the JRPG and western/CRPG markets are more linked than anyone likes to admit.

P. sure that Euros didn't get much in the way of JRPGs before the 2010s, so their exposure is limited only to the really big releases. I don't know how accurate it is but I've heard it was the Item Shop simulator Recettear (2010) that opened up the western PC market to JRPGs via Steam.

There's a separation between the subgenres in the mind of the typical gamer that never existed for developers. Interplay made many attempts to break into the console market, originally they were making a Planescape game based on King's Field. When FF7 came out it sold more copies of a game with level ups and experience points than anyone in the west thought was possible. Older PC gamers found the typical JRPG completely impenetrable, so they concluded "the grapes I can't reach are sour", made fun of the funny hair, and went on to play their repetitive loot clickers and MMOs. Then Bioware shifted to console with Kotor and Mass Effect and suddenly linear action games with simplistic systems were really cool and awesome as long as they let you pick illusory dialogue choices and the main characters weren't children (fair point, actually).

Meanwhile jap developers couldn't keep up with the Cinematic Game Arms Race as budgets ballooned, so they retreated to handhelds and focused on content instead. Then in 2011 a little game called Dark Souls comes out and it looks like level grinding is back on the menu, boys. Meanwhile the whole "Kickstarter Renaissance" games (Pillars and Wasteland) kind of fizzled out as they pulled a bait and switch (instead of deep combat simulators they tried to be interactive novels). Larian took their primary inspiration from Ultima (which Obsidian and InXile consider outdated) but Owlcat's big inspiration was Persona 3. Notice however that every western attempt to compete with Dark Souls/JRPGs ends up dumbing things down; CRPG devs just will not stop trying to streamline the RPG out of RPGs.

BG3 is the surprise victor of the Kickstarter generation, and notice how when it came out other CRPG devs started falling over themselves to declare it a meaningless fluke. The other classic CRPG devs flush with cash seem to be trying to go the cinematic route again (now wholly owned by action games), so they really can't be trusted with any kind of money. Meanwhile JRPGs have burst forth from their handheld cocoon, fucking Persona is a household name, Yakuza has turn-based combat, and the King's Field developer can shit on a stick and it will print money.

So in many ways, JRPGs are the cause of, and solution to, many of the west's problems.
 
Last edited:

Fedora Master

Arcane
Patron
Edgy
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
28,108
Just found this on reddit.

doh96xphtnf61.png
These Virgin/Chad edits have completely lost the intended meaning
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
15,025
I never understood this mentality. Do we say this about films, or TV, or books?

No, instead insecure stunted adults pretend that photorealistic violence equates to maturity, so OBVIOUSLY things like terminator, predator, rambo, star wars and 30 capeshit movies (don't even get me started on TV) are all very mature and monocled stories that are nothing like those children's shows where they come to grips with the ethics of killing people, being betrayed by or betraying one's family or nation, forgiveness, sacrifice, redemption, trust or duty... clearly those are childish things. Maturity is all about guns and blood.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
6,089
I never understood this mentality. Do we say this about films, or TV, or books?

No, instead insecure stunted adults pretend that photorealistic violence equates to maturity, so OBVIOUSLY things like terminator, predator, rambo, star wars and 30 capeshit movies

"I like more grounded stuff with less anime teenagers."

"Oh you must be some fucking edgelord manchild."

:hmmm: Wtf dudes.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
15,025
The fact that you're fixated on the appearance of the characters rather than their actual stories is rather telling.

What the fuck does 'grounded' mean in the context of scifi/fantasy games anyways? Is fallout 'grounded'? Forgotten Realms? Warcraft/Starcraft? Elder Scrolls? These are all ridiculous settings that are basically string and duct tape holding gameplay elements together. Games are inherently going to be fantastical and ridiculous if they have a main character that gets stronger over time because the entire concept of getting significantly stronger over time is absurd.
 

Tyranicon

A Memory of Eternity
Developer
Joined
Oct 7, 2019
Messages
6,089
The fact that you're fixated on the appearance of the characters rather than their actual stories is rather telling.

What the fuck does 'grounded' mean in the context of scifi/fantasy games anyways? Is fallout 'grounded'? Forgotten Realms? Warcraft/Starcraft? Elder Scrolls? These are all ridiculous settings that are basically string and duct tape holding gameplay elements together. Games are inherently going to be fantastical and ridiculous if they have a main character that gets stronger over time because the entire concept of getting significantly stronger over time is absurd.

Most games with anime teen protagonists are going to have plots and settings that appeal to people who like teen anime protagonists. That's just how it is. I'm sure there are plenty of these that range from good to even great, but a lot of people are also tired of it.

Stop looking at the AAA space to provide media that is quality. Using Warcraft and Elder Scrolls as an indicator of quality? Lol.

Two of the best "JRPG-style" games that came out recently imo are the Fear & Hunger games, which provide that gritty, more adult vibe that people like me are looking for. Yes, it's overly violent and graphic, but there's also substance behind those games. It's not just flash.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
15,025
You didn't say 'quality' you said 'grounded' which is some vague weasel word shit even more than 'quality'.

I haven't seen much of Fear and Hunger except part of a LP, seemed like your standard shock-horror schlock to me. Something like Delita's arc in FFT is what I consider to be a good story. Or Ryu/Rei/Garr in BoF 3. Glenn/Janus in Chrono Trigger. SaGa Frontier had some decent premises too. Cross Code as well. Stories that make you question assumptions about what is right or wrong. Give me something meaningful 'aimed at children' over some simplistic black and white story 'aimed at adults' any day. "Hey should we kill all the goblins because they're goblins and goblins are evil- OR ARE THEY?!?" is not a good story, and that seems to be about as thoughtful as western rpgs get.
 

Hell Swarm

Educated
Joined
Jun 16, 2023
Messages
656
P. sure that Euros didn't get much in the way of JRPGs before the 2010s, so their exposure is limited only to the really big releases. I don't know how accurate it is but I've heard it was the Item Shop simulator Recettear (2010) that opened up the western PC market to JRPGs via Steam.
JRPGs were niche in the 90s but we still got our fair share of them. Usually a year later than the US but we got a lot of them. PS1 was when the genre went mainstream which is 10 years before the 2010s. But remember JRPGs are all Wizardy knock offs and we had access to a lot of western RPGs Japan were copying and selling back to you with fetal alcohol syndrome character designs.
Older PC gamers found the typical JRPG completely impenetrable, so they concluded "the grapes I can't reach are sour", made fun of the funny hair, and went on to play their repetitive loot clickers and MMOs.
Making fun of Japanese designs was pretty common back then. Cloud does look stupid with his spiky hair and giant blocky sword. People who liked RPGs weren't having sour grapes over loot clickers and MMOs. They were usually the same damn crowd and even fans made fun of anime styles back then. Step back and objectively look at anime as an art style. It's bizarre and got rightfully laughed at. It's become normalized now and you don't see how weird those giant eyes are.
Meanwhile jap developers couldn't keep up with the Cinematic Game Arms Race as budgets ballooned, so they retreated to handhelds and focused on content instead. Then in 2011 a little game called Dark Souls comes out and it looks like level grinding is back on the menu, boys.
What planet are you on man? Jap devs started the arms race and almost bankrupt themselves making bad decisions because of it. Square Enix sold FF7 on it's graphics and Japan increasingly released multi disc games to fit 3d rendered movies onto them. Japan was leading the graphics arms race until the PS3 lost to the 360 (it sold more consoles over the long haul but early it it was the no games machine no one owned like the PS5 is now). Then Japan couldn't keep up with the Western devs using the 360 and PC (Japan was and still is very behind in PCs in the work place in general). This lead to so many massive failures and Japan hasn't found a way to recover.

Demon's souls was more important than Dark souls for RPGs. Dark soul's big impact was to reveal to Japan that Steam was a viable platform for them. They started to open their markets up more internationally and embrace Steam as a way to sell their games directly in a global market. Dark souls sold so well on PC internationally it shook up the entire Japanese market. It's gameplay isn't even grindy, at least not any more.
 

Saldrone

Novice
Joined
Feb 18, 2024
Messages
90
Location
Gran Colombia
like those children's shows where they come to grips with the ethics of killing people, being betrayed by or betraying one's family or nation, forgiveness, sacrifice, redemption, trust or duty... clearly those are childish things. Maturity is all about guns and blood.
Media aimed at adults don't really need to touch about those topics since, you know, they're aimed at adults theofore they should be concius enough about such things.
Media aimed at children on the other hand you have to be careful about the kind of content you're presenting, since obviously the characters can't violently kill people and/or presenting a story with a highly amoral take on it.
 

Hell Swarm

Educated
Joined
Jun 16, 2023
Messages
656
Media aimed at children on the other hand you have to be careful about the kind of content you're presenting, since obviously the characters can't violently kill people and/or presenting a story with a highly amoral take on it.
Western media used to regularly have topics like that aimed at children. Horror movies like Ghost busters, Gremlins and Poltergeist all had PG ratings.


Tell me that isn't about Gremlins violently killing humans with a completely amoral take on things.
 

Saldrone

Novice
Joined
Feb 18, 2024
Messages
90
Location
Gran Colombia

Bastardchops

Augur
Patron
Joined
Nov 4, 2015
Messages
1,967
I never understood this mentality. Do we say this about films, or TV, or books?

No, instead insecure stunted adults pretend that photorealistic violence equates to maturity, so OBVIOUSLY things like terminator, predator, rambo, star wars and 30 capeshit movies

"I like more grounded stuff with less anime teenagers."

"Oh you must be some fucking edgelord manchild."

:hmmm: Wtf dudes.
The way it works is. If you're a beta cuck, or had a single mother you end up liking JRPG's because you're in a perpetual fantasy mode of, "it'd be awesome if I were the cool kids in high school!"
 

Reinhardt

Arcane
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Messages
29,737
I never understood this mentality. Do we say this about films, or TV, or books?

No, instead insecure stunted adults pretend that photorealistic violence equates to maturity, so OBVIOUSLY things like terminator, predator, rambo, star wars and 30 capeshit movies

"I like more grounded stuff with less anime teenagers."

"Oh you must be some fucking edgelord manchild."

:hmmm: Wtf dudes.
The way it works is. If you're a beta cuck, or had a single mother you end up liking JRPG's because you're in a perpetual fantasy mode of, "it'd be awesome if I were the cool kids in high school!"
The way it works is. If you're a beta cuck, or had a single mother you end up liking CRPG's because you're in a perpetual fantasy mode of, "it'd be awesome if I were in high school WITH THE GUN!"
 

Nostaljaded

Savant
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
361
..."jrpg fans be like - 1000 hp!"
proceed to post monocled screenshot with hp in double digits.
Is triple digits in the 100s for end game OK? :M
As per your obligatory request.

S3e8OYW.png


Final dungeon HP stats (~Lv 60) encountering a normal enemy group in a 2015 doujin eroge.
Has Individual Turn Order, Enemy Skill Intent with intended Target(s) & Predicted Damage indicators while Player has the usual Skill Delay, Skill Cancel & Status Infliction Skills & Items to ward off such attacks.


...are there even examples of classic turn-based JRPGS that are not as described?
"With little inbetween "too easy" and "complete time-waste"." ?
Because if they exist, I'd like to play them.

I've previously name-dropped 2022 ENG-translated doujin eroges over here.

Out of those 6, you can try The Heart of Darkness.
If not into ero, just play vanilla, sans the adult patch.
Edit: [Just discovered] Without 'Adult Patch', some all-ages content might be cut too!
 
Last edited:

Nostaljaded

Savant
Joined
Jun 4, 2015
Messages
361
Oh, can you play a doujin eroge with such artstyle and game features?

X98Cl2q.png


- 'Open' world
- ATB battles
- All NPC can be murdered, all female NPC can also be raped and imprisoned
- Multiple endings
- 9 degrees of difficulty, changeable on the fly
- Display of ero content/events can be turned ON/OFF
- Depending on player's actions, heroines may die or even turn hostile

Again, I don't play doujins in ENG, so can't vouch for their translation quality.
 

Fedora Master

Arcane
Patron
Edgy
Joined
Jun 28, 2017
Messages
28,108
Can the gooks not be horny little shitbags who think rape is "funny"?
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom