JRPGs Today: The Dissipating Health of Full Blown JRPGs in the Global Theatre

When was the last time you played a proper JRPG? No, I'm not talking about something on your phone, or a ported DS or Vita version of something, I'm referring to one which you can view on that flat screen of yours in all its glory. Such occurrences and getting fewer and fewer as many JRPG's that are localized are  either being ported to handhelds or simply not making their way to the States or the EU at all, forcing lovers of certain series to obtain translations or find non region locked handhelds in order to play the next installment  What happened? Is it simply a money issue that we aren't seeing such games? Was the 90's truly the end of a golden age for non Japanese RPGers?

When I talk about RPGs or Role Playing Games to those that are new to the genre, I'm typically talking about some grand epic that you have a party of characters setting out for in a turn based or RTS based setting. Such games usually get the most bang for your buck if you are speaking simply about content completion, having many games span over 40 hours and more if you intend to play any side quests that are frequently there to flush out the game or incorporate character development. One of the most important aspects of such JRPGs is the bonds that you create with your party. After developing your characters for hours living a story with them, you tend to grow attached to them. When a game can get you caring about a character by the experiences you've shared with them, I'd like to say that makes a great game.

A perfect example of some of the issues I'd like to bring up can be found with the Tales Series. Developed mainly by “Namco Bandai Games (formerly Namco), and primarily developed by its subsidiary, Namco Tales Studio” (wikipedia), It has had the issues of lack of localization, porting to less powerful systems, and overall, a general lack of advertising outside of Japan. While advertising has always been an issue for any non American game in the states, the ability to procure legitimate copies of games or games on their original formats is quite troubling. You can find a list of the games in the series here.

Tales of Symphonia was the first 3d Tales game and the first released on GC in the States. Tales of Phantasia here is the first game of the series and used a side scrolling battle system for their battle mechanics.

With the Tales series, if you had wanted to play Tales of Phantasia, the first game in the series in America, you had to wait til 2006 from 1995 to play it. A difference of 11 years is rather much. And while each game (with a few exceptions) is an independent installment of the next games, the fact that such things are so out of touch with outside markets where there are plenty of fans and potential customers seems to only harm the outlook of future games. In addition, Tales of Phantasia originally started out on the SNES. While in this instance being ported to GBA was an inprovement in systems, the difference of 11 years needs to be taken into account as Nintendo wasn't selling regular Game boys at that point. For Their newest released games which I am currently playing, Tales of Xillia released August 6^th of this month here in the states. In Japan, Tales of Xillia 2 is already out. The original Tales of Xillia being released there in 2011. While a difference of 2 years is much more understandable, especially in regards to laws and the task of translating, my interest is piqued as to why at this point in time if trends of popularity for games such as this have been proven, why not incorporate alternate subtitles upon release of the original game? Money and capital are usually the answer to this, but I would think that with a greater length of time to sell units would be a plus compared to waiting years to possibly release something on a global scale. Namco isn't a small company. 

The first Tales of Xillia

While most people new to RPGs would think of the Final Fantasy series being the first JRPG that they would think about, Square has had different issues to contend with. Unfortunately, while they have been great about porting their games within a understandable time frame and their rendering abilities have only increased, their content, use of rehashing older installments, and general lack of understanding the MMO world have dropped them from being the crown jewel of JRPGs. No I don't think they are dead, but they are floundering. I believe the upper echelon has become stagnated, and that they need to work on new IP. With the renaming of Final Fantasy XIII Versus to Final Fantasy XV after years in development limbo, I think they've lost their focus on trying to make a great game instead focusing on increased cup size and  of  boob jiggling Lightning, their Protagonist for the Fabula Nova Crystallis series.

 B to a C eh? Lemme just use some of my magic here and distract these Malboros from using bad breath. 

 The apparent trend to cater to fan service while leaving story and strong female leads to the wayside tells me that Square is falling prey to following rather than leading in the market. The originality of story line and mechanics were defining factors back in their hey day. Do I think they can rise again to their former greatness? Possibly, but they're going to have to act fast or fail if the next few games keep disappointing us with sub par gameplay. In addition, with there being much more female gamers within the demographics now, ostracizing and focusing on male geared fan service probably isn't the best tactic to use. While I love alternative outfits and JRPGs have always had a penchant for the impossible as far as keeping things in their proper place, it's getting rather ridiculous when the characters starts to lose their sense of self in lieu of some extra boob jiggle.

So while I hope to get as many games as I can legitimately, if I have to I will find a way to play Tales of Destiny here in America, I'd just rather pay Namco properly you know? Unless they really do want to keep such games just for Japanese, but I don't think that's just the case. In the mean time, I better go brush up on my Katakana or look for a translated script...