Hmm. To an extent I think the "traditional" part is redundant with the "J" part. Because what's a non-traditional JRPG? The Last Story, maybe? I haven't played it, I don't know. Japanese roguelikes like Shiren the Wanderer and Baroque? Survival Kids/Lost in Blue...? That gets into edge cases and arguments.
In most cases traditional JRPGs are just JRPGs.
I asked because Rainbow specifically made a distinction between traditional jrpgs and the rest of em.
Eh, I should have just said turn-based and been done.
The whole Xenoblade thing really bugs me. People were boasting how it was the most amazing JRPG in years and then I bought it and felt like it isn't a JRPG at all. It's a single player MMORPG with an anime paint job. Aside from the whole online thing, all the major MMORPG elements are there - monster aggro & tanking, large open environments with hundreds of time-wasting quests, abilities on cooldown timers, menu-based combat where you can only control one character and can run around in combat, heavy emphasis on crafting & gathering resources, and so on and so on. Mind you, it's still a good game at what it is so I don't regret buying it but it was still highly disappointing to have been expecting one genre of game and have gotten something completely different.
I am curious, although it's not quite as MMORPGized as Xenoblade seems to be, what did you think of Final Fantasy XII? I can't see you being a huge fan of that, because it really moved away from the ATB or turn based combat of the previous FF games. Would you regard FFXII as a JRPG?
Yeah, I really disliked FFXII. It's a sign of just how good Xenoblade is that I like what I've played of it so far despite hating FFXII.
AegeriTiny wee bacteriumsPlateau of LengRegistered Userregular
I couldn't really get into the semi-MMORPG combat, given how much I absolutely detest the combat of MMORPGs immensely. I really wanted to play Old Republic for example, but the combat system is so banal and boring that I couldn't manage to want to do it. I really don't see the point of using MMORPG style combat in a single player game, when you can have excellent combat systems like Witcher 2, Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma, Dragon Quest VIII and such forth instead.
I would think it would be cool if, when WoW ends, they make it where you can play it offline as a single player game. It seems doable, just make some bots.
I like your optimism.[/laughtrack]
But I also like your idea. ;_;
I never did understand why MMO games were so protective of people being able to play them single player. I actually really enjoyed my time questing by myself in WoW, but with no interest in endgame or PVP, I called it quits at level 45. Same goes for Tabula Rasa. As an MMO, it was pretty good. But if it had been opened up a bit more as a squad-based co-op game with LAN or server-side play, imagine how many full-priced copies they could have sold. $40-$50 a head, instead of trying to sell the game itself for pennies on the dollar and then making it up with the silly $15 monthly that was driving people away.
In fairness to DA2 as although I really dislike it, the game was actually intended to be a spinoff originally that ended up getting made as a sequel. Definitely not a great decision, but that's the breaks. Personally from the tweets and such I've seen of developers of DA3, it looks like more of a return to the BG2 feeling that DA1 tried to capture. So I wouldn't be losing faith in that series just yet!
To be safe, Mass Effect 3 sort-of spoiler/reference:
I figure that Dragon Age 3 will be amazing, until we get to the end and are faced with the choice of killing off all of the Elves along with all the Darkspawn, or becoming the new ruler of the Darkspawn, or turning everyone in the world into Darkspawn.
Anyone who hasn't been corrupted by the Taint will wave goodbye to the Elves.
I think we're reaching the point where people complaining about the ending is getting more annoying then the ending.
Actually, I think we hit that when people were willing to donate to charity because of a games ending instead of out of the goodness of their hearts.
In fairness to DA2 as although I really dislike it, the game was actually intended to be a spinoff originally that ended up getting made as a sequel. Definitely not a great decision, but that's the breaks. Personally from the tweets and such I've seen of developers of DA3, it looks like more of a return to the BG2 feeling that DA1 tried to capture. So I wouldn't be losing faith in that series just yet!
To be safe, Mass Effect 3 sort-of spoiler/reference:
I figure that Dragon Age 3 will be amazing, until we get to the end and are faced with the choice of killing off all of the Elves along with all the Darkspawn, or becoming the new ruler of the Darkspawn, or turning everyone in the world into Darkspawn.
Anyone who hasn't been corrupted by the Taint will wave goodbye to the Elves.
I think we're reaching the point where people complaining about the ending is getting more annoying then the ending.
Actually, I think we hit that when people were willing to donate to charity because of a games ending instead of out of the goodness of their hearts.
Nah, as long as its tongue-in-cheek (which that clearly is), the gripes about ME3's ending will be pretty much always be okay. It was one helluva trainwreck of an ending, easily worthy of being remembered for years and years as an example of the exact kind of bullshit to not cap off an otherwise-great series with.
On the topic of Xenoblade, yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat as Rainbow; I heard all this great stuff and then it just turns out to be a singleplayer MMO with loads of grinding and obnoxious crap. Clearly, my definition of "best JRPG in years" isn't even the same species of opinion as those who loved the game. It's not a wreck by any means, but the game has loads of features I just do not give a crap about. Definitely reminded me of FFXII in the combat department, but at least in XII I could set up the combat system to basically auto-win fights and never have bother with the boring combat.
Though as a caveat, half of the reason I enjoy FF8 as much as I do simply because you can skip 95% of the combat in the game once you get the Encounter None ability. There's something to be said for removing all the combat which is neither fun or pertitent to the story; reminds me of a quote from some old-school author who basically said "everything sentence in a book should tell the reader something". Granted, removing all the grindy combat from all RPGs isn't universally a good idea, but having to murder a hundred nameless mooks to go up a level or learn a skill isn't great design either.
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Yeah, I really disliked FFXII. It's a sign of just how good Xenoblade is that I like what I've played of it so far despite hating FFXII.
Steam ID : rwb36, Twitter : Werezompire,
I like your optimism.[/laughtrack]
But I also like your idea. ;_;
I never did understand why MMO games were so protective of people being able to play them single player. I actually really enjoyed my time questing by myself in WoW, but with no interest in endgame or PVP, I called it quits at level 45. Same goes for Tabula Rasa. As an MMO, it was pretty good. But if it had been opened up a bit more as a squad-based co-op game with LAN or server-side play, imagine how many full-priced copies they could have sold. $40-$50 a head, instead of trying to sell the game itself for pennies on the dollar and then making it up with the silly $15 monthly that was driving people away.
Ka-Chung!
Ka-Chung!
I think we're reaching the point where people complaining about the ending is getting more annoying then the ending.
Actually, I think we hit that when people were willing to donate to charity because of a games ending instead of out of the goodness of their hearts.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Nah, as long as its tongue-in-cheek (which that clearly is), the gripes about ME3's ending will be pretty much always be okay. It was one helluva trainwreck of an ending, easily worthy of being remembered for years and years as an example of the exact kind of bullshit to not cap off an otherwise-great series with.
On the topic of Xenoblade, yeah, I'm kind of in the same boat as Rainbow; I heard all this great stuff and then it just turns out to be a singleplayer MMO with loads of grinding and obnoxious crap. Clearly, my definition of "best JRPG in years" isn't even the same species of opinion as those who loved the game. It's not a wreck by any means, but the game has loads of features I just do not give a crap about. Definitely reminded me of FFXII in the combat department, but at least in XII I could set up the combat system to basically auto-win fights and never have bother with the boring combat.
Though as a caveat, half of the reason I enjoy FF8 as much as I do simply because you can skip 95% of the combat in the game once you get the Encounter None ability. There's something to be said for removing all the combat which is neither fun or pertitent to the story; reminds me of a quote from some old-school author who basically said "everything sentence in a book should tell the reader something". Granted, removing all the grindy combat from all RPGs isn't universally a good idea, but having to murder a hundred nameless mooks to go up a level or learn a skill isn't great design either.