Japanese-RPGs
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Parasite Eve and the RPG road less traveled
In his weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. As a lifelong follower of Square Enix – through both good times and bad – Parasite Eve stands as the first of its US-released games that left me feeling pangs of disappointment. Parasite Eve deviates wildly from the prescribed JRPG format, and even though its battle system introduced elements the developer would expand upon in the future, Square's take on Resident Evil features one playable character involved in a story that barely squeaks past the 10-hour mark. To some, Parasite Eve's focus on streamlining Square's expected RPG design can't be seen as anything but sacrilege, and you can count me in with those who initially felt burned after blowing through the game over the course of a weekend. But it should be noted that Square created this new brand of "cinematic RPG" (as they would call it) to draw in an audience larger than the hardcore JRPG stalwarts who had supported them up to that point. Final Fantasy VII might have sold based on its impressive CGI-laden advertisements, but it did so at the cost of alienating players unprepared for menu-driven gameplay.
The spoils of Atlus RPGs
In his weekly column, writer Bob Mackey will alternate between two of his passions: the Japanese RPG genre and classic games. In recent years, Atlus' string of portable-bound RPG remakes has done an excellent job of showing off the developer's history with video games before the breakout success of Persona. Yes, if you're the type of person inclined to read a column dedicated to Japanese RPGs, you might be thinking, "Breakout success? But I've loved Atlus for years!" If that's true, then you probably remember an ugly past, making mandatory reservations thanks to the tiny quantities of Atlus games that once trickled into your local Gamestop – if they did at all – and the wallet-destroying eBay markups greeting those who didn't go to Herculean lengths just to buy a retail product. As a result of the developer's growing fame, we're now seeing the release of games we only dreamed about playing in the 90s, and Atlus has tried their best to replicate the experiences we would have had back then – for better or worse.%Gallery-185385%
Remembering my favorite RPG: Valkyrie Profile
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. Around here, we have a bit of a tradition: If the resident JRPG columnist opts to move on, they finish their tenure by writing about their favorite role-playing game. Since this will be my last column with Joystiq, it's time to discuss how much I love Valkyrie Profile. Valkyrie Profile has pretty much everything I'm looking for in an RPG. It has solid customization; visual flair; a strong story; great music; and a large cast. But what really takes it above and beyond for me is that little added twist; that certain je ne sais quoi that really makes it something special.
At long last, Fire Emblem and Etrian Odyssey can be recommended to the mainstream
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. The average first-time experience with an Etrian Odyssey game goes something like this: You spend some time constructing a team; you venture into the forest for the first time, and you die. Then, unless you're a particular breed of RPG fan, you probably quit forever. Until now, anyway.After three games worth of trial and error, Etrian Odyssey IV seems to have hit the 'Goldilocks Zone' of RPG difficulty. In other words, it's still pretty tough, but it's not impossible. And for that reason, it's finally reached the point where I can reasonably recommend it to someone other than a hardcore dungeon crawler fanatic.The crux of EOIV's new accessibility is its casual mode, which makes it to the second high-profile 3DS RPG this year to feature such an option (Fire Emblem: Awakening was the first). The effects are relatively simple: when you die, you'll be whisked back to town, rather than having to start over. In addition, you will be blessed with an item that lets you leave a dungeon at any time.This would seem to have the effect of making EOIV a tad too easy; but in reality, it makes it compulsive. Rather than getting frustrated by every cheap death and accidental counter with an F.O.E. – minibosses that roam the labyrinth – I've found myself simply rolling up my sleeves and trying again. The result has been much more rapid progress than I've ever experienced before, and a whole lot less in the way of cursing and throwing my 3DS.
Why the PlayStation 4 reveal doesn't mean much for JRPG fans yet
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. As we look ahead to the next generation of games, a lot of Japanese role-playing game fans figure to be looking somewhere other than the new PlayStation for whatever the future holds for the genre.Seven years ago, that would have been inconceivable, but times have obviously changed. It's fair to assume that Japanese developers will stick with the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo 3DS for the time being, only occasionally venturing over to the next generation.A lot of it has to do with the fact that Japan simply doesn't digest their games in the same way they did back in 2006. Mobile platforms have come to dominate what is a centralized culture that spends a lot of its time on trains, with home consoles increasingly relegated to a nerdy niche. The Nintendo 3DS, for instance, has reached 8 million units sold in Japan, and has already surpassed the lifetime sales of the PS3 on that side of the ocean. It's only natural that developers go where the customers are going, and that isn't likely to be the new PlayStation – at least in Japan.
In search of a more eloquent solution to a second playthrough
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. As soon as I finished Persona 4 Golden I thought hard about starting a new game. Saying goodbye to Persona 4's delightful cast after 60 hours was bittersweet to be sure, but I was also thinking about the social links I hadn't been able to complete. I felt like I could make a serious go at getting 100 percent, maybe even fuse a Persona like Thanatos. Of course, that would have required another 70 to 80 hours of my life; and sadly, I just didn't have that kind of time to spare.So I'm packing away Persona 4 Golden for a while, even though there's plenty more to see and do. It makes me wonder: Is it a good idea to load up an RPG with a lot of content that can't easily be accessed in one playthrough? Especially when that RPG is more than 50 hours long?My gut reaction is to say, "No, it's not necessarily a good idea." Not that I don't like extra content, or even replaying a really good RPG. It's the time commitment involved. And there are better alternatives than, say, forcing someone to keep multiple save files just so they can see every possible branching point without starting over.
Three interesting trends found in 2012's JRPGs
This is a column by Kat Bailey dedicated to the analysis of the once beloved Japanese RPG sub-genre. Tune in every Wednesday for thoughts on white-haired villains, giant robots, Infinity+1 swords, and everything else the wonderful world of JRPGs has to offer. As both a columnist and a fan, I've felt relatively lucky this a year with plenty of JRPGs to play and enjoy in 2012, including Persona 4 Golden, Xenoblade Chronicles, and The Last Story.I'm not exactly drowning in RPGs or anything, but this is probably the happiest I've been since 2008 or so, which was the year I discovered Valkyria Chronicles. I don't want to say that there was something for everyone, because it's a lousy cliché, and not really true either. But for those who were willing to look, it was a good year.Is this the beginning of a return to form for Japanese developers? Well, maybe not. The accelerated growth of mobile gaming, an aging population back home, and outsized budgets are all substantial obstacles for Japanese studios. But a few interesting trends are taking hold that could have a substantial impact on the industry in the near future:
