Elements Of An Superb J-RPG Experience

Some may call them a "dated formula" others would say "its too much reading", but if you make an Japanese style rpg with the correct set of elements, you have a great chance of turning skeptics into believers. Up until now the genre has been slowly making a comeback with a great variety of games (especially on the PS3 and PSVITA), but we still don't have that insane masterpiece that becomes a legendary game to remember. This is why today we are going to see which are the small details that would help create such a j-rpg experience. Of course a game doesn't necessarily needs to have every single one of the things you will see today, but at least some of them would do the trick.

You could find all sorts of stuff on the Star Ocean 2 world map like characters and
new towns that were not part of the main plot.

Scaled world maps that feel alive
Examples: Old Final Fantasy games, Star Ocean 2, Wild Arms series,"Tales of" series.

Nowadays this kind of approach to a world map has been reduced to menus or stretched to open world settings, but neither of those modern styles have been able to capture what an j-rpg world map used to be. For one thing, a scaled map is faster to navigate, but keeps a good balance between going between places and possible side events. This kind of style also makes it simpler for the developer to put extra stuff in there, just so it doesn't become a monotonous walk from town to town. This is the kind of world map where everything goes, be it extra dungeons, towns and places that are not part of the story, strange happenings while on the road, meeting new characters, following side stories. It is a rich part of the j-rpg genre that has been oversimplified in favor of shorter development cycles.

General Spiriel from Shinning Force 3 is still a fan favorite of the whole series.

Generals, admired warriors, mysterious but cool characters
Examples: General Spiriel (Shinning Force 3), Raven (Tales of Vesperia), Dias Flac (Star Ocean 2).

This is a staple of the whole genre and one of the reasons because of which j-rpg games became famous in the first place. It is obvious that some villains are considered the coolest characters in the genre, but that kind of thing is quite predictable. Where the cool character aspect really shines is when the player has somebody to admire, both because of his actions and might in battle. It is the kind of character that creates an atmosphere of confidence without looking too benevolent and it can be even better when games treat the topic of war and two great generals face each other in battle. This is what separates an rpg where "a couple kids save the world" from something more serious, engaging and overall more exciting.

Most people I know hate this at the beginning only to love it on the long run.

Fun inventory/equipment/skill systems
Examples: Materia system (Final Fantasy), Weapon modification (Parasite Eve), Dragon enhancements (Panzer Dragoon Saga)

This is one aspect of j-rpg games that not everybody loves, but if there is something that we have to accept, it is that once you learn to use one of this systems and figure out a way to use it to your advantage, it becomes natural and fun. These kinds of things do have a learning curve, so the very first moments will be kind of confusing until you get the hang of it. So after the initial annoying process there is a great chance that you will end up feeling empowered as you play with all sorts of items, equipment, skills and game rules. Here is where you get creative and start to make a strategy that doesn't always involve grinding and leveling.

You help this guy with his rock concert and he may join you.

Side Stories
Examples: Fort Condor (Final Fantasy VII), Getting Bowman (Star Ocean 2), Branching Paths (Vanguard Bandits). Getting various characters to join you (Chrono Cross), Finding characters before their time of death (Valkyrie Profile).

This aspect has been tried over and over again in the American Rpg genre, but they haven't gotten to a point where it doesn't feel generic in nature. Most people think that this can only be done in completely open environments, but Japanese Rpg games in the past managed to pull this off while keeping their story oriented focus. For example Star Ocean 2 had extra characters that you had to go out of your way to meet them, help them with their problems and get them to join (not to mention that the game had more than 50  different endings). Other games like Chrono Cross had really good side stories that you had to play in order to get secret characters to join you and Final Fantasy 7 had several activities that developed while following their very enjoyable side plots. So now that we know that, we can see why this was one of the things that made the genre to be so popular in the 90's.

This scene evoked really strong feelings of nostalgia, friendship and our hopes and dreams vs real life.

Good usage of mood and atmosphere 
Examples: Chrono Cross, Final Fantasy, Koudelka, Vagrant Story, Wild Arms, Baten Kaitos

This one is really important because it is the thing that keeps us glued to an rpg game in the first place. If the game is capable to cater and activate your own feelings and emotions while you play, then it has succeeded in instantly making you a fan.This is the kind of feeling we got from scenes like Cloud and Tifa talking about their "broken promises" and childhood memories, the relaxing "mystical" atmosphere that Chrono Cross had in all of their places, the kind of surreal mood that Baten Kaitos had with its mix of magic and technology and even the wild west vibe that Wild Arms is known for. All of these games had an extremely good mix of visuals, music, plot and characters that became something more than just reading dialogues, it became something that catered to our sensibilities and made us care about what was happening in the game.

With all things discussed, the bottom line is that Japanese Rpg games need to look back into the little details that made them big in the past and capitalize on them on our modern era. We can have the best graphics ever and the most detailed environments, but if they don't hit us where it counts we will lose interest. This is not your classic argument about turn based battles or any of that game aspects that many old school rpg gamers talk about. This is more about keeping the art in rpg games and move it up a notch with our current technology instead of relying on limitations and half baked ideas.

5 JRPG Franchises We May Never See on Consoles Again

Although it is a niche market, role playing videogames (rpg) have always captivated the minds of many gamers around the world. Be it, because of their epic stories, likable characters, secrets to unlock or a deep sense of strategy, this genre is one that may never die. Still, not everything is peachy as Japanese rpg games are still having problems getting into the home console market. This side of the genre has not experienced any type of console boom since the beginning of the previous generation when Microsoft got a lot of j-rpg exclusives for the Xbox 360. Nowadays big scale console j-rpg games can be counted with one hand mostly because most of the fan favorite franchises that rpg gamers would love to see in the current generation have been abandoned, changed completely or downsized to a handheld or casual mobile game. These are 5 of those sagas that we may never see again unless some kind of miracle happens.

Note: This list focuses on the games that are very unlikely to make it to a home console. I know that some handheld titles are superb, but the focus here will be big scale console experiences like Nino Kuni, Tales of Xillia or the Persona series. 

Some will say that turn based battles are slow, but I think that the ATB system makes them fun.

1) Final Fantasy Games (Turn based - Classic Style)

Final Fantasy can basically be called the banner flag of the entire genre. The problem is that the franchise has changed in such a drastic way that many fans won't even recognize it as the saga they knew and loved. Evidence of this change came with the creation of Final Fantasy XIII. That was a time when the creators themselves admitted that they had been influenced by games like Call of Duty a, thing that is still daunting to many players out there. Another thing been that infamous moment in 2008 when the president of Square Enix gave a warning to all employees about the company focusing on mainstream experiences or "facing the consequences". All of this became a wave of change that basically washed off an entire saga away. Up to this day even though Square Enix has pledged to go back to their roots, it is very unlikely to see a full scale turn based FF game ever again on consoles as we did on previous generations.

The Koudelka/Shadow Hearts franchise sort of gave a new face to the genre at the time.

2) Shadow Hearts

Shadow Hearts is an j-rpg series that started with Koudelka which was an horror styled rpg (PS1) then, the game got its name changed to Shadow Hearts and spawned 3 games (keeping the dark undertones that identified it) and making it a series. This is another one of those j-rpg franchises that died off with the PS2 and basically disappeared. Reasons why don't see it nowadays are that its main publisher Midway, went bankrupt and was bought by Warner Bros. Also to put a little more salt in the wound, Shadow Hearts developer, a company called Sacnoth (later known as Nautilus) doesn't exist anymore as it was dissolved by its owner Azure (a pachinko machine company).

Grandia 2 was one of the games that helped the Dreamcast have the initial success it did.

3) Grandia

Grandia was one of those j-rpg games with great visuals, an intuitive and fun battle system and stylish game play. The first Grandia game was made in order to compete to the rpg giant Final Fantasy VII (appearing on both the Sega Saturn and the PS1) and later on, it became one of the most cherished franchises on the genre. The first two Grandia games are considered classics, but many fans believe that from that point on the series went into a downward spiral that killed the franchise popularity as gamers felt that Game Arts was stepping away from the original formula that made the game so popular. Another heavy blow was that the series original creator died in 2011 so the basic essence of the game may had died with him. Up until now there have been no announcements or even comments regarding the revival of this great series. It is important to mention that even though the first 2 Grandia games were the ones that people see as classics, the third one was not bad and it was just a casualty of the decrease in popularity that the series was suffering.

This was one of those with tightly packed towns where you had to play with the camera at all times.

4) Breath of Fire

Breath of Fire was Capcom's contender to the crown back in the j-rpg days, having its own best titles through the 16 to 32 bit eras. It had good anime styled graphics, an excellent story and well developed characters that made us feel like they had a very deep sense of purpose, all in an environment that had a kind of Celtic mystical mood. The series took a dive in Breath of Fire V: Dragon Quarter (which was praised in Japan, but shunned in America because it went too far from the original formula) and after that, gamers never heard of a new classic Breath of Fire game again. Capcom announced that they would be releasing Breath of Fire 6 in 2014, but the game looks nothing like the original and many fans fear that it will just be a casual mobile game with the Breath of Fire name on it. Right now, as half of Capcom is at sale, there is a slight possibility that an rpg-focused studio could get the rights to the game and make it right again, but it is still a very long shot.

A game that looked beautiful back in the days where pre-rendered backgrounds were still the rage.

5) Legend of the Dragoon

Legend of the Dragoon was one of the most acclaimed j-rpg games on the PS One. It had very advanced visuals for its time (exploiting the pre-rendered background trend), a long and interesting storyline and quality aspects that rivaled those of the Final Fantasy games of the time. The game was supposed to turn into a series and get a sequel, but for undisclosed reasons, Sony broke up the group and just cancelled the project in order to relocate resources. Now at our present day and after almost 15 years since it was first released, Sony hasn't shown any interest in reviving the franchise other than a PSN re-hash of the original game. Even Shuhei Yoshida has expressed that the game is one of his best memories in the time he has been working at Sony as he was part of the original team, but not even Yoshida seems to be able to bring this great j-rpg back from the grave.

My hat is of to Namco, because they have never given up on their Tales saga.

Wrapping it up:

Even though this list looks very pessimistic, I have to tell you people that this list was much larger. This article began with 10 j-rpg games that we may never see on consoles, but was later on reduced to 5 because half of them got at least mentioned or referenced meaning they could still come back, like Wild Arms for example. The j-rpg side of the genre is slowly gaining its strength back and it may be just a matter of time before we see it blooming again. Let's just make sure that we put our money where our mouths are and support the games when they come out.