While BioWare’s Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have had their thoughts on Japanaese role-playing games, Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami has his own. He’s apparently in the same boundaries as the Mass Effect developer.
According to Mikami-san, Japanese role-playing games were never at all popular in the west.
“I think it is because Japanese RPGs were really never all that popular in the west to begin with,” Mikami-san told CVG. “I think the best way of interpreting things is that they aren’t getting less popular; they weren’t very popular from the start.”
While there are a huge amount of people in the west who love JRPGs, there is a much larger fan base out there for genres such as FPS and action-adventure. Final Fantasy aside, most JRPGs don’t move that significant an amount of units in the west, either.
What are your thoughts on the subject?
Bullshit ! We love those RPGs in Europe, keep ‘em coming !!
It’s a thorny subject imo.
Truthfully, of course, I can only speak for myself when I say that I would take an RPG over an FPS etc any day. JRPG has always been one of my favourite genres and I am always more excited for them (even the underrated/unheard of ones) then I am for larger “AAA” releases.
That said, I feel sometimes some of the Western gaming press is, at least somewhat to blame for lack of market ackowledgment . To a casual or ad-hoc gamer who only buys due to reviews, a commercial, advertisment plastered “AAA” review is more likely to sway their purchase then an often smaller, concise review with an oblitagory 6/10 rating. Of course, I realise that these scores/reviews are to be taken as perspective/opinion and in no way a measure of quality – but not everyone feels this way.
Furthermore, it could just be that a number of Western gamers do not enjoy the Japanese/Asian imagery from the JRPG genre. This is of course nothing to complain about, it is their choice as much as it is mine. Of course, this is all a matter of taste and personal preference, and therefore not something a developer can easily remedy.
I find Bioware’s rants to be somewhat OTT at times; obvious pitches towards their own franchises and strangely inproper of such a good developer. That said, it’s interesting to see that Mikami-san shares a similar opinion.
All I know is that I will continue to love JRPGs and I hope that developers realise that, in order to create or balance a market – the products must be still released, even if it may mean small sales numbers.
Well i think that’s true, but by “west” he probably means the USA. jRPGs are very popular in Europe, can’t argue with that.
Personally I think the JRPG is a growing Genre in North America. I think too much stuff is being focused on the numbers. Yes JRPG’s don’t sell here like they do in Japan but I think everyone here that loves our JRPG’s will agree that it takes a certain mind set in order to play them. They are very different from most games that are made in N.A or Europe. I agree with the statement made before saying “I would play a JRPG before an FPS game any day!” and I really would. JRPG’s were the reason I even got into gaming besides some of the classics like Sonic and Mario. I think it is actually getting more popular. With people I meet I talk, I spread the words of addicting games such as the Final Fantasy franchise or the growing popularity of Kingdom Hearts. I think what is really hurting the JRPG’s though is their time between them. With Final Fantasy being the most popular of Japanese games and the most that make it to the US I think the time between the games on the next gen platforms are beginning to take too long. Final Fantasy VII to VIII to IX all took place within 3 years. Following the release of IX you got X which was released a little over a year later. Since then we have seen VII(DoC), X-2, XI(online), XII, and XIII as the games for the major platform(s) in the next 9 years. We do have Versus XIII which will hopefully be released in the next year and XIV supposed to be here by the end of 2010, providing 3 major Final Fantasy’s within a year of each other but it isn’t fixing the boredom that some players might get that aren’t heavily into the JRPG genre. I will wait years for the next Final Fantasy game, but I am only one person. I think to fix this they have been trying to release hand held platform games as a way to mass in development and kick out multiple titles with in a year. I think this is great but it lacks lots of interest. I would rather play a FF game on the ps3 than another ff for the DS. I am highly excited for KH: BBS but I am awaiting my chance to delve into the next KH to make its way home in the ps3. It would really help if they would focus on pushing games out on major platforms faster. Granted I do not know the massive amounts of time and effort it takes in their development. No matter the platform Square does their best to make each game they make fantastic to just look at, let alone to its game play and features.
(I am aware they are not attack Square enix directly. When I think of N.A and JRPG’s it is the most popular publisher for this subject.)
Obviously it has decreased but that is partly do to there not being enough great JRPGs to actually look forward to and that saturation of FPSs. The idea that they were never popular here is completely stupid. This guy needs to just shut up because his position has gone to his head.
FF series and KH are so popular in the west =/
I wish they’d quit there bitching to be honest, they both make games that are completely different and BioWare are just jealous of JRPG’s or should I say SquareEnix’s (seems to be who they are targeting) rising market in the west.
As some comments already state us Europeans love them! We’ve grown tired of the constant remakes of war FPS and have moved on, RPG’s in general require more skill than FPS or even third person shooters :P tactics aren’t needed in many FPS nowadays all they need are relatively good reflexes :( that’s just my opinion though lol
At least Square own a wide range of games with different genres, like just cause 2, tomb raider ect They are reaching out to the west while BioWare stay up their own ass not trying anything new!