It seems to me that all of the JRPG's are just gone from the landscape, at this years E3 there was nothing I would consider a traditional japanese RPG on any of the console platforms and PC has always been weak when it comes to these types of games. Is it possible that JRPG's in the traditional sense aren't lucrative enough to get the AAA treatment any more and all we will be stuck with established IPs?
Well that's because The good majority that have been Released have been terrible. Plus most of them take almost forever to be released, Well the really good ones do anyways.
Perfect Example is Persona 5
i've been waiting almost 5 years to see a sequel to Persona 4 (2008) on the PS2. and its finally coming in 2015 for PS3
Which by the way I HIGHLY recommend Persona 4 and Persona 3 if you can get on a PS2 Emulator.
Persona 4 did get a re-release on the PSVITA which I DID buy just to play that game again with the extra 20 hours of gameplay. but a sequel is finally coming next year for PS3, (gonna buy a used one soon) however to answer your question. JRPGS are Scarce on PC cause ALL of them are for Consoles. that goes for Persona, Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Kingdom Hearts. JRPGs don't get support like they used to over here in the West (Assuming you are in America) and if You are in the UK may Lord Gaben Bless you cause JRPGS take even LONGER to come to the UK.
But overall there are a few coming.
Kingdom Hearts III
2 Final Fantasy Games
Persona 5
honestly you are just going to have to stick with a PS3 or PS4 if you want to Play JRPG's cause on PC they are Scarce.
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Man, I miss a good JRPG. I love the more open western RPGs, but sometimes I want a fun crazy scripted story to follow along like a good book.
I think there are a few things that killed the JRPG.
A big part of it has been the failure of big JRPG games like the Final Fantasy series of late (specifically 12 and 13) being contrasted with the success of mega western open-world RPGs like TES III, IV, and V. This has made it almost impossible to fund any large scale JRPG projects. Square soft has tried to compete with FF11 and 14... but those have not done that well either.
Another big issue has been the move to mobile. There are a ton of JRPGs being released... but it is almost exclusively on mobile platforms and geared towards younger audiences. These just don't translate well to the US, and are not on platforms that we appreciate.
But the biggest issue is that Japan has really been going through a sort of national identity crisis for the last few years. I love Anime, but man... is has been slim pickings the last few years. Where Anime use to be all about high fantasy and big imaginative stories, now it is all 'slice of life' stories trying to recapture the success of shows like Haruhi and K-ON (both of which were hilarious, and the knock-offs have been pretty boring). But the sci-fi and fantasy genera which really made Anime good have been pretty lacking of late. Every once in a while you see something like Attack on Titan... but those are so rare now where there use to be a few good shows to choose from in any given season. It is not an issue isolated by the JRPG, but it has infested the entirety of Japanese entertainment/culture.
I am not sure what is causing it though. Perhaps it is the heavy blow of a postmodern society that sees no value in big glorious stories any more. Maybe it is a reflection of their economic situation and a generation of content creators annoyed about the pressures in the real world and trying to escape into their own youthful experiences and trying to eternally live in that shallow care-free high school state of mind. Like I said, I am no expert, but I completely agree: Japan needs a new breed of story tellers to bring back JRPGs and Anime to what they brought to the table from the '80s through ~2003-5 when things started falling apart and slowing down!
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I feel your pain. I got pretty excited when Sega bought Atlus as I assumed that meant good things for us PC gamers. I mean Sega, historically speaking, has been pretty good about releasing almost all of their titles on Steam so I just figured they'd make Atlus's library available as well. Well I guess I was wrong. It's a shame too on more than one level. Steam doesn't only suffer from great JRPG neglect, but just Japanese game neglect in general. It tends to miss out on some great fighting games as well,(don't come to me sighting Injustice or Mortal Kombat, those are not high level fighting games), though Capcom and SNK Playmore are attempting to show more fighting game love to the PC. But there's still so many amazing fighting games that I would literally give my left testicle to have on PC. Killer Instinct,(not japanese I know but incredibly high level play there), is absolutely amazing, the latest BlazBlue is great as well, Persona 4 Arena is god like, and Marvel VS Capcom 3 is just......well it's just a lot of goddamn fun is what it is. Until we start seeing publishers embracing PC as a legitimate fighting game and JRPG platform my PS3 will always receive plenty of love.
Glad to know this wasn't something I was just inventing in my head, it seem to be a major issue and I hope they can get this turned around at some point. Also for the record I love the persona games and I agree that the failures of the last few Final Fantasy games don't bode well for the genre.
No, there just aren't as many of them. They just do not sell as well as they used to, but there are some in the indie market. It used to be they were where you got a story, now any game can have a good story so thats part of it, the other part is people just don't like them as much, turn based combat? Outside of pokemon I loath that crap, many other people are the same, since you can get a story without that now days its hurting jrpgs.
So basically you're saying JRPG's are DoA? I hope not but some genres have been pushed aside in the mainstream. I have played enough shooters to last me a lifetime (although I can't pass in the new CoD because that Xbox One is too pretty NOT to have). So I like to have a variety of experiences and I can put up with turn based combat so long as the story is compelling and the battle system is deep.
JRPG's aren't dead on arrival. it's just now-a-days there is a stigma that follows with JRPG's. and the Stigma is, is that they are bad. cause there hasn't been a groundbreaking JRPG in Years. The Last Ground Breaking (and By Groundbreaking I mean Holy Shit this is REALLY GOOD) JRPG was Persona 4 f i'm not mistaken or was it "Ni no Kuni". i don't remember those were the last two that really stood out to me and also you can count Persona 4 Golden in to the Mix cause did bring Sales of the VIta to the highest in its little tiny history. and also "Catherine - The Game" but that was a mix of JRPG and Puzzle. and that sold well on the PS3 more than Xbox. there are a few JRPGS on Steam but they are Visual Novels with Fan-Service or they have those Old-School Nintendo-isque Graphics. Like I mentioned before The JRPGs are popular on the handhelds and on Sonys PS3 and PS4.
Square Enix destroyed their line of JRPGs on the PC by making the newer FF subscription based MMO.
Also on steam you can get some of the older final fantasy games from ps1, If you haven't seen them already that is. but they need modding as the audio is midi not stereo.
The 3ds has been getting a decent jrpg treatment but most other systems the genre is neglected. Or at least it seems that way.
yeah, Bravely Default is a great JRPG for the 3ds and i played some other RPGs which are sort of JRPGish like Etrian Odyssey: Untold: The Millenium Girl
and a sequel/2nd game is revealed in the first game via entering the konami code on the title screen
It is sad to see such an amazing genre neglected in such a large medium such as the PC. But the reality is that these kind of games are considered as a niche market in the West, hence the treatment they receive. While I do agree that there are some splendid JRPG gems on the 3DS (Bravely Default, SMT IV, and hell I might even include Fire Emblem: Awakening) and moreover on the VITA (I mean the catalog of JRPGS--Starting with the perfectly crafted Persona 4), the Western market hasn't been a profitable ground for JRPGs on other mediums (AKA PC). The reason for the PC JRPG being such a niche market is unknown to me, but hell, I'd give a lot of my money for a good ol' JRPG being released on PC. I share your pain OP... a lot of us do.
The problem is the Japanese have been slowly moving away from consoles in the last few years so the genre is following them. There are a hell of a lot of JRPGs on the Vita. Not many good ones though!
I play a lot of JRPGs still. They are around, you just need to hunt. So in the last couple of months I've played:
-FFX HD remaster
-Bravely Default
-Y's Memories in Celceta
-Persona 4 Golden
-Tales of The Abyss
All great games on the Vita and 3DS.
Grab you emulators gentlemen
Apparently they're mostly on 3DS. Although they seem to be more along the "Tactics and static classes" variety, which IMO suck. But meh.
I've been playing a bunch of JRPGs from the PS2 era, Shadow Hearts, Star Ocean, FFX, Grandia 2, etc etc. A bunch of good JRPGs on the PS2.
I'm happy to spend the time I would sink in to long hours of gaming into reading novels...but every once in a while a long story driven JRPG that was focused on being good for the sake of the story instead of flashy cutesy anime nonsense could definitely fill that gap for me.
I think we'll see more interesting stuff come along in 5-10 years when subscription based online stuff either goes away or develops a significant counter genre of singleplayer-centric content.
Last good JRPG I would say would be Suikoden series. Or all those hex-grid turn based games on the Dreamcast. Fire Emblem and Golden Sun were pretty good.
Maybe try some older ones. Valkyrie profile, Star ocean series, Golden Sun, ext.. I am currently playing through fire emblem sword of seals. I've heard good things about Xenogears.
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I used to play many JRPG games, the ones I like are Monster Hunter and FFVII. Nowadays the good ones are usually VNs, which I don't really like and there is no english version.
I wish something as good as FFVII series and old Devil May Cry. It seems that the only good Jap devs we like are Platinum Games and Hideo Kojima
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