Recommend me some JRPGs for PS3

[Guts]

As a genre the JRPG is almost dead now anyway. If you pick up a PS1 era JRPG and compare to a PS3 one, all that's changed are the visuals are a little better. Do the same with any other genre and the differences are far more marked.

It's a shame, I used to love them, but they're not doing anything new really. And on the rare occasion when they do (FF12 for example) the people of Japan kick up so much fuss they sweep it under the carpet and pretend they never did it.

I don't think the problem is that they aren't trying anything new. FFXIII tried to do plenty of new, but unfortunately it was almost all for the worse.

I just wish I could get a game like Suikoden 1/2, FFVI, Chrono Trigger or maybe Xenogears again, but that just seems too much to hope for.

Edit: Oh yeah, like Phar said, Yakuza games could probably be described as "JRPGs". Yakuza 4 is better than 3, but they're quite story-heavy so playing both is recommended. Fighting is like in action games, but otherwise it has exploration, side-missions, leveling up etc. like in any JRPG.

[Phar]

I just wish I could get a game like Suikoden 1/2, FFVI, Chrono Trigger or maybe Xenogears again, but that just seems too much to hope for.

Think the closest I played to any of those type of games this gen was probably Radiant Historia, really enjoyed that one, it felt like it was made during the 16/32-bit era.

[Flabio]

I am finding I much prefer the strategy ones like Valkyria and Tactics Ogre an awful lot more than the normal jrpg fare.

I think all the Oblivion, Fallout3 and Mass Effect I've been playing has changed my idea of what I like playing anyway though.

[EvilBoris]

I'd say that unlike the FPS or the Western RPG have both evolved and changed and been further defined over the last 10 years inparticular, the JRPG has stayed very stagnant.

I don't believe there has been any significant genre changing innovation or major overhaul that JRPGS have had.

[toythatkills]

There's been loads! Most notably, how about the huge shift away from random battles?

[Flabio]

They started moving away from random battles in games on the PS1. Ten years ago.

Lets pick some recent titles:

Star Ocean: The Last Hope: plays indentically to Star Ocean 2 on the PS1, even uses most of the same music.
Eternal Sonata: One of the most ludicrous plots ever comitted to DVD, and one of the worst offenders for 'hey, new area means new monsters, but rather than make new ones lets just palette swap the ones from the previous zone'
FF13: People hate all that tedious stuff between the dungeons, so lets just have 100% linear dungeons for the first 20 hours.
Last Remnant: spoiler!

->Open Spoiler<-

lets kill the cool female lead, but then introduce her daughter using EXACTLY THE SAME CHARACTER MODEL

And then compare Skyrim, or Mass Effect 3.

To use the footy vernacular: "they don't know what they're doing".

[Brad]

Agree totally with the above. I don't know how they can innovate now though. The whole jrpg concept is so old fashioned.

[Sane]

When done right it can still be great though, for instance Lost Odyssey is one of my favourite games of this generation and that's about as traditional as it gets. I also really enjoyed Resonance of Fate because of the challenging and innovative battle system.

On the whole though the genre doesn't seem to have much future if they just keep making the same games over and over. It's a real shame too as the JRPG used to be something magical for me .

[Guts]

They started moving away from random battles in games on the PS1. Ten years ago.

Chrono Trigger did this 16 years ago on the SNES.

['Press Start']

I got into RPGs during the SNES:-
Terranigma
Secret of Mana
Chrono Trigger
FF6/3
Illusion of Gaia
Earth Bound


Then PS1:
Chrono Cross
Valkyrie Profile
FF7
Suikoden 1 & 2
Vagrant Story
Xenogears
Tale of Destiny 1 & 2
Grandia
Lunar series
Wild Arms
Alundra

I would argue the golden age of the JRPG format lies in the above (PS2 had some good ones too). Of course there can still be a few gems but for me personally I could never play a JRPG again and be happy with memories of the above.

Not a helpful post. sorry.

edit: Was moving away from random battles this gen a real comment or a joke? I nearly coked when I read it. Games above in bold do not have random battles (From memory)

[Guts]

Off topic, but I love your avatar, 'Press Start To Begin'.

[ETC]

Thanks for all the recommendations. I have played White Knight Chronicles 1 and thought it was very meh, but did pick up II last week on release. Just haven't got around to it yet.

I do have a lot of DS and PSP RPG's, just would be nice to play a full screen HD one. Already have Tales of Graces, Tales of Xillia, FFXIII-2, and FF Versus pre-ordered so I am looking forward to those.

I have credit at Gamestation so I may try out Atelier (if I can find a copy).

What about Ar Tonelica Qoga and Hyperdimension Neptunia?

qoga is ok but very generic and meh

neptunia might as well be a reskinned trinity universe

both ok but not aaa

my missus loves the jrpgs and nis seems to be the only way left on non handhelds to get her fix

[Flabio]

Trigger and Cross do *kind* of have random battles in them sometimes. Plenty of places where the enemies do jump out of nowhere in an unavoidable fashion.

[Guts]

Trigger and Cross do *kind* of have random battles in them sometimes. Plenty of places where the enemies do jump out of nowhere in an unavoidable fashion.

True, some fights are unavoidable, but they're not actually "random" in the typical JRPG sense, as they always happen in the same spots. It's no different from games like Mass Effect, Witcher or Fallout 3.

[toythatkills]

edit: Was moving away from random battles this gen a real comment or a joke? I nearly coked when I read it. Games above in bold do not have random battles (From memory)

Nah, it was a genuine comment. Sure there have always been games that didn't have them, but they were always a minority. Now a game is seriously frowned upon if it should dare to include them and they're very rare. Even Dragon Quest ditched them for its latest entry, and Dragon Quest is as traditional as they come.

The fact is that anyone that claims there's been no change in JRPGs over the years doesn't play JRPGs. I'd love to know what all this innovation and change in FPS games over the last ten years is meant to be because every time I try and play one I just think "oh, it's Doom again with slightly bigger enemies."