What Are You Playing?

[Tsukoblue]

I'm pretty sure that S-E really needs to turn Final Fantasy around with XV, or it is basically end of the road for the series as well. It took the better part of a decade and a half for the masses to finally recognize how far the franchise had fallen since the PS1.

Honestly, I'm not even sure that there is much of a place left for the big budget Japanese RPG anymore. A lot of console gamers will try to deny it, but the consoles of recent year haven't exactly been too kind to the Japanese RPG. Good games do exist, but they are radically different than just about everything from the PS2 era and before it.

not only Final Fantasy, Square is completely ignoring requests from fans for more of their current Japanese exclusive games, hell Dragon Quest VII is getting a greatest hits reprint (3DS)
Saga 2 and 3 got DS remakes and neither made it over, Saga Frontier nor Saga Frontier 2 were put on the NA PSN store even though BOTH are already translated officially
Radiata Stories should get a sequel
A Front Mission anthology would be great, dunno how it would work out though seeing how FM1, 3 and 4 were the only ones to make it over from Japan, I read somewhere that Front Mission 2 was extremely glitchy and suffered from long load times similar to the PS1 version of the first Persona, I dunno about Front Mission 5 even though it looked like the best of the five games
Xenogears should get a remake, Parasite Eve as well, never played Parasite Eve 2 so can't say anything there
Third Birthday or Parasite Eve 3 was AWFUL

Final Fantasy I/II, V and VI (the GBA versions) need to be added to the Wii U virtual console
Didn't include IV because of the superior PSP version of the game which is Vita compatible so a larger audience has access to it
Valkyrie Profile PS1 or PSP need to be added to PSN
I'm almost tempted to get another PSP just to play the UMD version

[daylightdies]

I'm pretty sure that S-E really needs to turn Final Fantasy around with XV, or it is basically end of the road for the series as well. It took the better part of a decade and a half for the masses to finally recognize how far the franchise had fallen since the PS1.

Honestly, I'm not even sure that there is much of a place left for the big budget Japanese RPG anymore. A lot of console gamers will try to deny it, but the consoles of recent year haven't exactly been too kind to the Japanese RPG. Good games do exist, but they are radically different than just about everything from the PS2 era and before it.

I disagree about FF. I think as a name it will still sell a ton of copies, and casual fans will slip into the mix as well because of the big name. By the same token, if they keep alienating their core fanbase, they will sell less copies and have a harder time. I think Resident Evil is a GREAT example of this. Fans want survival horror, Capcom is giving us shooters with zombies. The name still sells, but the core fans aren't happy. But I think Final Fantasy, as a series, will last as long as I do- and I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon!

There is a lot of truth in your second statement. There haven't been any great, timeless games since PS2 era. Some might make an argument for Xenoblade, and I get that. Others might make an argument for Ni No Kuni. I'd dispute that one much more. We've gotten a nice little stream of good games, but nothing truly "classic" on consoles in a long, long time.

[KrownKlown]

I disagree because Rpgs at least Jrpgs don't need to be big budget. Just look at Disgaea. Even Suikoden, as awesome of a game as it was, never really felt over spec ed. Same thing with tactic ogre, hell even FF prior to 7. Look at FF 3 on the snes or chrono trigger, and then look at some of the more visually impressive games.

I think it would be hard for an jrpg if it had to sell millions, but Tales is going strong and from what I know even Vesperia was barely pushing a couple of 100k, and I think Symphonia is the only tales game to break a million in sales. Most other jrpggs also shot for the 100 k mark, when games like Tomb Raider for example had been called failures with sales of 3 million.

Ultimately it will be what has always made jrpgs great, story and characters that can rule the day. I mean just thinking of the last handful of good to great jrpgs, most of them were either story or character driven ie Lost Odyssey, Xenoblade, even Vesperia owes a lot of its popularity to basically Yuri.

[Gypsy]

I'm pretty sure that S-E really needs to turn Final Fantasy around with XV, or it is basically end of the road for the series as well. It took the better part of a decade and a half for the masses to finally recognize how far the franchise had fallen since the PS1.

Honestly, I'm not even sure that there is much of a place left for the big budget Japanese RPG anymore. A lot of console gamers will try to deny it, but the consoles of recent year haven't exactly been too kind to the Japanese RPG. Good games do exist, but they are radically different than just about everything from the PS2 era and before it.

It doesn't help that they've wasted years "developing" it. So they have a ton of money in it and even with really good sales they may not make all of it back.

Agree about jrpgs being different now. Feels like we are now past a golden age.

not only Final Fantasy, Square is completely ignoring requests from fans for more of their current Japanese exclusive games, hell Dragon Quest VII is getting a greatest hits reprint (3DS)
Saga 2 and 3 got DS remakes and neither made it over, Saga Frontier nor Saga Frontier 2 were put on the NA PSN store even though BOTH are already translated officially
Radiata Stories should get a sequel
A Front Mission anthology would be great, dunno how it would work out though seeing how FM1, 3 and 4 were the only ones to make it over from Japan, I read somewhere that Front Mission 2 was extremely glitchy and suffered from long load times similar to the PS1 version of the first Persona, I dunno about Front Mission 5 even though it looked like the best of the five games
Xenogears should get a remake, Parasite Eve as well, never played Parasite Eve 2 so can't say anything there
Third Birthday or Parasite Eve 3 was AWFUL

Final Fantasy I/II, V and VI (the GBA versions) need to be added to the Wii U virtual console
Didn't include IV because of the superior PSP version of the game which is Vita compatible so a larger audience has access to it
Valkyrie Profile PS1 or PSP need to be added to PSN
I'm almost tempted to get another PSP just to play the UMD version

No one cares about Saga.

Why should Radiata Stories get a sequel? It's an old game at this point.

Remakes for PS1 games are not happening. If FFVII can't happen nothing will.

Everything possible should be added to PSN and Wii U VC.

[banditwolf]

Everything possible should be added to PSN and Wii U VC.

I agree.
I still don't get why so few games are added to any of the stores. So many people want older games they should be putting out a lot every week. It's basically easy money.

[Tsukoblue]

No one cares about Saga.

Why should Radiata Stories get a sequel? It's an old game at this point.

Remakes for PS1 games are not happening. If FFVII can't happen nothing will.

Everything possible should be added to PSN and Wii U VC.

More people should care about Saga, it's a great series
As for FFVII not getting a remake, Square Enix is just too lazy to put forth the effort, same with other PS1 or older titles
Radiata Stories is tri-Ace, so Square would have no say whatsoever regarding it
Yea, everything possible should be added to PSN and Wii U / 3DS VC

[storino03]

Star Ocean 5 is what i'm awaiting.

[Gypsy]

I agree.
I still don't get why so few games are added to any of the stores. So many people want older games they should be putting out a lot every week. It's basically easy money.

I see my earlier post didn't go through...internet having major issues today.

I presume it's mostly red tape. "Retro" gaming is definitely hot right now, so it would make sense to get as many games up as possible now. For as much as people can emulate for free there are plenty of people that want to pay.

[storino03]

So I played a little more of Akira's Trip on PS3. It has charm. Not entirely open world as, say...Yakuza, GTA, or Sleeping Dogs. You can't run onto the streets, it's a narrow path of what areas you can go on and the map sections are split into loading zones, so at the end of one block would be a loading section for the next, etc.

The thought of having to undress the enemies I felt was stupid at first, but the jist is, the enemies you fight are all vampire demons so you have to expose their bodies to sunlight to kill them. Music is pretty good too. Since it's snowing so much in the Midwest, I'll have to give it more dedicated screentime the next few days, since I probably won't be able to get my car out for work tomorrow!

[Gypsy]

I was playing DQ8 quite a bit today waiting for the superbowl.