In what appeared to me as an almost overnight affair JRPG's simply vanished. Now I am in no way shape or form a JRPG enthusiast. I enjoy JRPG's on a more than casual basis but have in recent years found myself becoming more and more aware of the virtual disappearance of the JRPG.
Is it wrong to say that I feel completely abandoned by Square-Enix with their recent installment of Final Fantasy? They took one of the most established franchises in gaming and butchered it, turning it into a game that took most of the control out of the players hands. I mean not only did they completely change a tried and true formula but they replaced it with a menu system that has an option for combat if you so chose. Now I will not get on Square-Enix to much I mean they have been the leader in the JRPG genre for as long as I can remember but for them to abandon the traditional JRPG in order to attempt to get more "modern" is a slap in the face to their loyal fans; myself included. I mean who knows FF13 may be a great game and they may completely overhaul the combat system again and it may end up better than any traditional turn based RPG. But as the old adage goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it.
I mean who decided that we were tired of turn based RPG's and wanted something different? I certainly didn't. I can still remember instances where I sat their staring at the TV hoping it was going to give me the answers; I was in a no win situation and no matter what I did my party was going to die. Those instances are some of my fondest game memories. Staring at the TV trying to figure out how I am going to be able to beat the boss when I am so close yet so far away; with one dead party member, one party member in the yellow and infected with poison and one party member without the ability to caste full life. Sadly those moments are gone; and apparently they are not going to come again anytime soon.
If I could impart some advice it would be to cherish the classic JRPG's you own. It would seem that JRPG's are not long for this world with few company's still investing in the formula. Although I am not the biggest fan of Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, JRPG fans are almost forced to embrace them because in reality they are almost all we have left. How ironic is it that the only console still strongly embracing the JRPG market is the only one not made in Japan.
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I am the smae as you
i wanna buy Square Enix just for the reason to make them the best and make them make games turn based and whta not
Squaresoft was good but when they merged they wen erghh. KH2 was crap KH1 was good it was made by Square
We can't really complain about them trying something new...If it wasn't for that, gaming as we know it wouldn't go anywhere. They have to bring something new to the table once in a while.
Well were Final Fantasy has fallen Dragon Quest will remain. True many RPG's these days are towards the action-orientated state there will still be a few turn based and grid based titles. Sad to say though it looks like Final Fantasy is now an action rpg. I don't like it as it makes the game somewhat easier you can run from battles when wanted or avoid them all together. Random battles however will always give you a 'will I make it or not' feeling. Even hardcore gamers are becoming a bit casual with their favorite genres :(
...is staying innovative. If you go the tried and true way of doing things, you are going to be really familiarizing your franchise, but pretty soon, you'll become a bore because everyone will know what to expect, and you won't be able to keep people interested by adding some new elements to a familiar formula. You have to sometimes take a chance at something if something is going that route.
Though at the same time, you don't want to go TOO out of the way of what has made the series the series. If you change TOO much, then you lose the magic of the series and lose your loyal fans.
I think what has made the FF series what it has become is not the turn based stuff, but rather the innovations that it has given the RPG world. The ATB system, the many magic and ability systems it has given us and has tried with each game, and the different strategies that you must use in order to win in a battle, what decisions you make, and how quick you need to make them before you get your head handed to you. That is essentially what Final Fantasy has given us along with the stories (lately even some replayability has surfaced in FF games). Turn based RPGs are everywhere, so we don't have to worry too much about that. But they always try to look for ways to improve on the battle system so it's not the same thing.
I think you made a good point that I agree with. It's just the game you chose as an example wasn't a good one since it is not that it had the turn based system in play in FF that made that game, but rather how they changed it, and that was what they kept in play all this time.