why do people on forums hate jrpgs so much

[Ulieq]

A lot of them are just bad.
I like JRPGs but there are a ton that just aren't that good.

Just like all persona and smt games, horrible.

 

[GameWinner]

Just like all persona and smt games, horrible.

lol

 

[CompassNorth]

jrpgs as a ganre

Not a genre, it's a regional term.

 

[Foxi4]

Americans hate all RPGs.

Americans invented RPG, the thing with JRPG's is that they practically invariably do not follow the core principles of role-playing, hence the added "J" - to put a blind eye on the inconsistencies with the RPG genre because the games are "Japanese".

RPG's are about role-playing, JRPG's, often times, are about stats. The very idea behind role-playing games is to, of course, play the role of an imaginary character, usually a generated or created one, and guiding said character through an adventure, all the while making story-altering choices. This stands in contrast with JRPG's where more often than not the story is fixed and the only element of RPG that remains intact is the stats system.

There's a big difference between a "story" and an "adventure" in the sense that a story follows a usually pre-determined plot wheras an adventure is more of a sandbox of smaller stories that you may or may not encounter on your way to reaching your goal.

Not a genre, it's a regional term.

It can easily be treated as a separate genre due to the differences I mentioned above. JRPG's don't follow the blueprint of an actual RPG, they deviate from the original format, hence the distinction. That, and both evolved independently from one another, even if they have common roots.

 

[the_randomizer]

The same thread could be made of first person shooters and why people hate them, I could go all out on why I despise them, but for my own sanity, I refrain from making said thread and formulating an opinion on said genre. Some JRPGs are good, a majority of the recent ones have just sucked big time, the FF games being "ported" or "remade" to Android/IOS only make them suck that much more.

 

[grossaffe]

Leaving aside that Xenoblade is usually brought up by many around here as an example of a bad/boring one I have to say the bolded part is fighting words. Now they did get oh so very cookie cutter at some point in the PS2 era, it is where I burned out, but this last go around had some weird and freaky deviations, mostly by introducing active combat which probably masked a lot for me (my usual three being Magna Carta II, Resonance of Fate and Eternal Sonata).

Is Xenoblade really brought up by many as bad, or by one or two people who bring it up all the time?

 

[the_randomizer]

Is Xenoblade really brought up by many as bad, or by one or two people who bring it up all the time?

I personally find The Last Story to be a better game overall.

 

[Foxi4]

Is Xenoblade really brought up by many as bad, or by one or two people who bring it up all the time?

Our boat is small and only fits a couple of wisemen. We sail on the dangerous seas of circle jerk spunk, we are few, but we sail bravely.

 

[grossaffe]

I personally find The Last Story to be a better game overall.

Out of the Operation Rainfall games, I was most excited for TLS, but it wound up the least satisfying for me. I didn't much care for the main characters (the only party members I found interesting were Syrenne and Lowell, but they were after-thoughts), the romance felt incredibly forced, and in battle, I often felt as though the CPU had no need for me and that they could handle it by themselves (I always wanted to be able to use all party members in battle instead of switching out, but now I see why they're typically limited).
There was a lot to like in the game, but could have been executed so much better, in my opinion.

Our boat is small and only fits a couple of wisemen. We sail on the dangerous seas of circle jerk spunk, we are few, but we sail bravely.

You poor, delusional fools.

 

[Foxi4]

You poor, delusional fools.

I can't help it - the game is meh. It only stands out because it's not in a crowd. It's good for a Wii game, but that's where the praise ends. Frankly, I found it boring and with zero direction, then again, I only gave it a couple of hours. Perhaps I'll try it again sometime, but I feel no urgent need to do so.

 

[grossaffe]

I can't help it - the game is meh. It only stands out because it's not in a crowd. It's good for a Wii game, but that's where the praise ends. Frankly, I found it boring and with zero direction, then again, I only gave it a couple of hours. Perhaps I'll try it again sometime, but I feel no urgent need to do so.

We're all entitled to our opinions. I went in with rather low expectations and found them greatly exceeded. If it were just a matter of "good for a Wii game", though, then you'd see me singing The Last Story's praise, too.

I am rather curious about a couple things related to your opinion of the game. The first would be just how far you actually did get into the game (number of hours probably doesn't mean as much as perhaps landmarks you reached or story events that took place). The other thing I wonder about is how you feel about games that start slowly. I know there are a lot of people who lose interest if the game doesn't come out blazing. Watching my brother start Twilight Princess (GCN) in Ordon Village, he lost focus and was just itching to get to adventure and couldn't handle the slow beginning; he never bothered to play long enough to get into the main game, even though he loved Ocarina of Time back in the day, and later Skyward Sword.
For myself, I often enjoy a slower beginning to establish the characters in their natural environment before crisis strikes.

 

[Ulieq]

I personally find The Last Story to be a better game overall.

I personally found the last story to be dull and barely playable.

 

[eriols]

maybe because jrpgs are no longer a thing. but honestly, jrpgs were very popular in southeast region. at least in indonesia, I remember during the psx and ps2 era, most of the local indonesian magazines mostly reviewed jrpgs or translated japanese games.

I honestly still like jrpg, but I'm more selective these days because not all jrpgs are good, some of them are very bad and have terrible storytelling with a flat characterization.

 

[mightymuffy]

Lads, you can try to be as convoluted and technical as you want with your replies to the OP, but you all seemed to have missed the first 4 words of his post, which can lead us all to give a unanimous, concise reply:

The words?.....

i was on gamefaqs

The answer? ...."WTF were you doing on there?" , or better still, "WTF did you expect from there?"

 

[Veho]

Not a genre, it's a regional term.

We've been over this already. It's a genre.

 

[emigre]

A lot of them are just bad.
I like JRPGs but there are a ton that just aren't that good.

This to be honest. There are quite few really mediocre and bad stuff getting released. Mind 0 anyone?

 

[BORTZ]

I am a fan of jrpgs. But there doesnt seem to be a great deal of them worth my time anymore.

 

[codezer0]

My biggest gripe with jRPG's as of late is that its creators seem steadfast to ignore their audiences outside of Japan.

A lot of the mechanics seem to be changed for the sake of change, with a complete disconnect to the way the story is expected to work. Or lately, if they even bother explain it at all, it is usually in such an obtuse manner as to actually make it worse than if you'd never heard the explanation at all. Exhibit A in this would be Final Fantasy XIII. Comparatively, Final Fantasy V integrated its gameplay mechanics very well into the story, so that the job system and the crystal pieces made sense to collect.

Lately a lot of jRPG's seem to treat the story and gameplay elements as completely separate entities, and the disjoint in many instances is fiercely jarring. It's like going through the trouble of creating a fantastic wild west setting and then getting a prompt to pick up a laser gun from the general store and having no explanation for why such a thing exists in the world. That and their attempts at character development are at best misguided, or in the worst cases just make you hate the player character and party even more. And then when these characters come back in other games and we're just somehow expected to be supposed to like them is really insulting. The best parallel I can think of to this is how Hideo Kojima seems to just naturally expect everyone to absolutely love Raiden from MGS2 after how terrible and unlikeable he was in MGS2. Even the attempt to make him this cyborg badass in MGS4 that you cannot play as felt like a backhand insult. I've refused to touch MGS:R on principle as a result.

 

[CompassNorth]

We've been over this already. It's a genre.

Yes we have, but it's not a genre.
Action RPGs, Turn-based RPGs, Strategy RPGs, dungeon crawlers, roguelikes, roguelites, etc are all genres.
jRPGs and wRPGs are not, they're regional terms as I said.

 

[the_randomizer]

And this is why I stick to the older, more original JRPGs, you know, when they actually had at least some substance to them. Nostalgia glasses be damned.