OFT preach!
Um, I don’t really care for DHEvil’s posts, and I think his idea of what constitutes good Mario games is slightly skewed, but at no point did he claim that games weren’t fun because they lack blood and/or sex.
I should probably qualify that while I feel Japanese game developers and storytellers are cranking out vast quantities of garbage (not just video games, either), when I like a Japanese game (or an anime), I tend to really, really like it.
And, yes, as mentioned by several people in the thread, you should play what you enjoy. BUT you should never be blind to its flaws, and you must always be willing to acknowledge when games you may not enjoy do things well. I don’t care, at all, for Grand Theft Auto games, but they are well-made and usually chock-full of shit to do for the people who enjoy them. I love, love, LOVE Granstream Saga and Azure Dreams, but both of those games are poorly-made and wholly deserving of the mediocre reviews they got.
I also do agree that more non-Japanese developers need to make JRPG-style games, only because you’ll see a greater quantity of those games that are actually well-made. Which isn’t me saying Japan can’t; it’s me saying Japan, for whatever social, economic, or political reasons, doesn’t often. That and Japanese storytelling is almost always trash: seriously, a vast majority of Japanese storytellers need to re-learn the basics of quality storytelling, especially the ones that call Square-Enix their employer.
Or they should just get other writers, the way Capcom is doing with Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and the way Square-Enix SHOULD have done with Kingdom Hearts instead of letting Tetsuyo Nomura, only a slightly better storyteller than Michael Bay, get anywhere near the plot.
EDIT - Popularity doesn’t equal merit. If it did, Michael Bay would be the world’s best filmmaker, McDonald’s would be the world’s best restaurant, World of Warcraft would be the world’s best game, and, given that there are more people on this planet believe in ghosts than there are people that (rightfully) don’t, ghosts would be real.
While I don’t care for either Final Fantasy 7 or Grand Theft Auto, if Rockstar and Square-Enix teamed up and made Grand Theft Auto: Midgar City, I would buy that shit in a heartbeat. Only a Dr. B platformer (the only good Kinect game) would get bought faster.
mass effect 2, jade empire, mass effect greater than any jrpg to come out in years. (besides TOV)
Even Japanese companies are trying to mimck western rpgs now.
I cant stand rpg’s (jrpg’s) anymore. I have tried to play some, games like FFX, FFX-2, FFXII, Blue Dragon, Tales of Vesperia and other such titles and I can only play them for a couple hours. The gameplay is boring imo, even if they make the battles realtime like they did with ffxii. The storys are laughable at best imo. They are just rehashes of some cliche riddled game from the days of yor. You know, some boy who needs to become a man who has a quest to save a kingdom/girl thrust upon him.
I dont care for most action rpg’s (wrpg’s) most of the time. I like Fallout3 but I cant stand Mass Effect. Mass Effect just seemed so boring to me and I never got why people were so in love with it. I played part one and two and I never finished either. Play those games I could only think of that movie The Net. Full of intrigue and deception and it could be interesting if I could just stay awake. I like older pc rpg’s though, shit like Baldur’s Gate and Fallout.
Here’s my take:
Fighters: Japan - I don’t think anyone will disagree with this one.
Sports: Western. Last good sports game developed by Japan was Tecmo Bowl. Seems like Japan’s only sports games developer is Nintendo, in their incarnations of the Wii Sports and Mario sports variety.
Shooters: Western.
Adventure: Kinda difficult to compare as the genre overlaps with many others. Some are shooters, some are beat em ups, etc. But I’ll give it to Western. Uncharted 2 blew me away and Batman Arkham Asylum was fun as well. Japan is up there though. Zelda and MGS are solid winners.
RPGs: I’m kinda torn. I love the world and environments of JRPGs, but the story is often cliche and childish. I also enjoy the game mechanics for JRPGs better. WRPGs give you the feel that you really are controlling your own character though. I’ll give to Japan for now, as I’m still not truly blown away by WRPGs, though they are making great strides and I’m sure something will come down the line.
Driving: Don’t really play this genre too much. Western for now, until Gran Turismo 5 comes out I’m guessing?
Puzzle: Can’t comment. Haven’t played a puzzle game since Tetris Attack.
Rhythm: Western.
ya i know thats not what he said, but people cant play anything fun or different from other games. People want to keep playing the same shit. Mario has changed so much over the years. You cant compare Mario 3 to Paper mario, or mario sunshine. And idiots who think nintendo is nothing but kid games are fucking idiots, and need to be shipped to a island and then get nuked off the face of the planet. Video games are made for entertainment, if you cant understand something that simple you shouldnt be playing video games.
Lost Odyssey restored my faith in JRPG’s.
. . . until Final Fantasy XIII shattered it again.
imo.
lol maybe people should play Dragon Quest 9
Mario games ARE kids games that just happen to be fun for everyone, nintendo even admitted they think of themselves as a toy company (can’t find the quote right now.)
Mario games ARE kids games that just happen to be fun for everyone, nintendo even admitted they think of themselves as a toy company (can’t find the quote right now.)
I am not even sure if I consider that an RPG.
haha
ZINGGGGGggggg
No thanks to the invitation of faith-shattering redux.
Using those standards, Square-Enix hasn’t made an RPG for 7 years.
imo.
What exactly in Mario blurts out kiddy?
Again, it seems like you’re arguing against statements that DHEvil hasn’t made. And Mario isn’t exactly faultless either: yeah, it’s given us gold, but it’s also given us crap.
They really haven’t. Which isn’t a bad thing in and of itself (Square’s got enough faults without worrying about how they or their fans genre-classify their games), but let’s be real: RPGs aren’t actually what they specialize in.
Dr. B can collect 120 green stars in 1 hour, and despite only taking an hour, he still thinks it’s a waste.
Both sides aren’t being that creative compare to SNES - PS2 ERA.
If you ignore the graphic improvement over the years, most games themselves aren’t that much improved.
Western side make good RPG, but everything is like from only one company, Bioware. Who else? CD projekt??
Japan got good company make decent RPG also, Tri-Ace, Cavia. (of course people only know SquareEnix…and the devs themselves need to play FF6/7, Sword of Mana AGAIN to remind themselves what a good jrpg was)
And there are games/genres the ‘other side’ won’t touch much even that are fun to play. For example: Horse racing game from Japan, and I doubt Batman Asylum is huge in Japan.
Western need to make less FPS and Japan need to make less generic JRPG and create something new imo. At the same time you can’t blame the devs, cause these games make them money and put food on their table, so to speak.
Seriously though Lost Odyssey was a really solid JRPG, I am replaying it right now. I wish more people would give it a chance. Yeah it has some cliche shit in it and some parts are not all that fun, but overall it is very solid.
Most modern JRPGs have turned into interactive movies that I wish I could walk out of. Instead, I am forced to do some arbitrary goal to continue watching the movie.
imo.
I can say that for Heavy Rain to, I am still mad I paid 60 bucks for that shit.