Where have all the RPGs gone?

  I'm going to start this post off like I start lots of them, with a story.  Long ago, back in high school, me and a friend used to rent games to play every few days.  We'd grab anything that looked interesting.  If there was nothing new, we'd grab things that didn't look interesting.  That was how I first ran into this game.

Admittedly, this isn't a very exciting box.

    It didn't interest my friend very much, but I was interested.  I was the one who rented it, so I took it home and finished it over the weekend.  That was a lot of playing.  I had probably tried Dragon Quest or something for the NES before, but I had never really experienced anything like this.  My mind was blown.  The story and the drama, all the characters, a whole world to explore.  I didn't know that this was the 'easy' version of the game or that this was really Final Fantasy 4.  All I knew is that I had a new favorite game.

    Even though I had already finished it, I got someone in my family to get the game for me for my birthday and I played through it again.  I went looking for things I missed.  For secrets.  I leveled Rydia up high enough to learn Meteo on her own.  RPGs were now my favorite type of video game.  

    And what a time to be into RPGs it was.  To be clear, I'm talking about RPGs where you gather a team of heroes and travel the world while selecting from a menu things like 'Attack' and 'Magic.'  Oh sure, I do love adventure games with action elements, like Legend of Zelda or Secret of Mana.  But the standard ones were my favorite.  The Super Nintendo had a lot of great games to play.  Chrono Trigger, the Breath of Fire series, Final Fantasy 3 (which was really 6) and lesser known series like Lufia and Earthbound.  I hope I'm not going to get in trouble for calling Earthbound lesser known.  Of course, there were less good RPGs out there as well.

"Hey, we're good at football games, how hard can an RPG be?"

    I played the Sega CD games that working designs brought over for us, like Lunar and Vay.  I played Phantasy Star on the genesis.  Then the new generation came out.  The Playstation brought along a bunch more games, as well as continuing current series.  

    These days, however, I find myself not buying many games.  Part of this is due to the lack of RPGs.  When I say RPG, I tend to mean what is commonly referred to these days as a JRPG.  The sort of game where a young group of guys with oversized swords runs off to stab god.  There are the 'Western RPGs', which focus more heavily on action.  You have your Skyrims and your Mass Effect.  I have no problem with these games.  I can like them just fine while they don't remain my favorite.  Here is a list of games released for consoles in 2012 which would be considered 'JRPGs'.

    Final Fantasy 13-2, Tales of the Abyss (3DS remake), Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2, Tales of Graces f, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story, Pokemon Black 2 and White 2, and Paper Mario: Sticker Star.

    That's not a very big list.  I might have missed something, but that's most of it.  I still consider the 'Tales' series to be a JRPG, despite a more activate battle system, due to everything else in the game conforming.  Xenoblade and The Last Story are both a bit iffy.  Xenoblade plays more like an MMO and the Last Story is more action oriented, but I felt the need to include them as they only came to america due to a fan run petition that demanded more RPGs for the Wii.  Alright, lets take a look at all the RPGs released in america so far in 2013.

    Unchained Blades, Ni No Kuni, Etrian Odyssey 4, Atelier Ayesha, Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers, Class of Heroes 2 and Shin Megami Tensei IV.

    It's not looking like this year will be much better than last.  Of those games, four of them are on the 3DS.  I am currently looking forwards to Tales of Xillia and Pokemon XY.

At least Namco still loves us.

    Like someone trying to pad out an essay, I'm going to list the top 10 best selling games. worldwide, so far for the year.  In order with the best selling first: The Last of Us, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Xbox 360), Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (PS3), Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite, God of War: Ascension, Gears of War: Judgement, and Tomodoachi Collection.

    If you're wondering what the last one is, it's a game that only out in Japan.  So lets just look at the top nine, as most people reading this probably don't live in Japan.  Three of them are first person shooters (of the same game), three are third person shooters, one is a beat 'em up, and two are quirky 3DS games.  I suppose you can argue with me the story and extra mechanics of Bioshock Infinite or the Last of Us.  So whats the point of that?  I suppose the point is that RPGs don't make the big money.  

    Maybe it's because there's not many to choose from.  Maybe there's not many to choose from because they don't sell as well.  I'm not going to try and prove a point by making lists from the SNES era or anything, because this post already has enough lists.

    Maybe it is, in part, Square Enix's fault.  Why would I blame them?  Well, once upon a time, Final Fantasy was 'the' RPG series.  It was the most famous one.  Making a new Final Fantasy game was like printing money.  Lately, though, that's not the case.  I think this started with Final Fantasy 11.  Oh sure, people made fun of Final Fantasy 10, but I enjoyed that one when it came out.

"You enjoyed Final Fantasy X?  AH HA HA HA HA HA."

   Final Fantasy 11 was the first MMO.  As it was an MMO, I'm not going to talk about it too much.  I didn't do that well, though.  Then Final Fantasy 12 came out and, honestly, felt like a single player MMO.  This was the first game I saw a lot of people bashing.  It was also the first Final Fantasy game I got bored with and couldn't finish.  This was followed by Final Fantasy 13.  I believe this game got the most criticism.  It was the second Final Fantasy game I couldn't finish.

    Not being able to finish a game is my fault.  But it's more about the bottom line.  Final Fantasy 13 did make sales, but it was highly criticized.  Final Fantasy 13-2 had less sales.  Final Fantasy 14, another MMO, was so bad that the company apologized about it.  What does this have to do with things?  Well, perhaps game companies figure, if Final Fantasy is having trouble, what chance do they have?  If RPGs are not guaranteed any money if you make them and bring them to america, why take the risk?

    Also, it seems like times are changing.  Halo was released in 2001.  That was 12 years ago.  That means kids who grew up on Halo can now have they own jobs as they decide what games to buy.  There was a couple of articles about test playings of the Ducktales remake.

"I'm not paying a single dime for these improved graphics!"

    Kids just didn't get it.  They had to make videos of each level explaining the moves needed and dangers to watch out for.  There was much shaking of heads and people going 'kids these days.'  The thing is, kids these days are being raised on the game where someone over a radio will say 'You need to capture that building.'  Or text will pop up saying 'current objective:'  or usually.. both.  Kids these days are different.  The people who grew up on Halo are different from the people who grew up on Mario.  

    I do see some JRPGs coming out as indie games.  But they all seem to be tributes or loving parodies.  They are purposely being 'retro.'

I see what you did there.

Does that mean that JRPGs are just something from the past?  If people are trying to cash in on nostalgia, is nostalgia all there is?  My first video game system was the Atari 2600.  I hope that doesn't date me too badly.  I remember Pitfall being pretty awesome.  When I got an NES, however, I never looked back.  Super Mario Bros could do more for me than anything Pitfall could.  Are JRPGs just a thing I'm latching onto out of nostalgia?  Do they still have a place in the world, and they just don't sell well?  I'd be sad to see them fade away.  On the bright side, Tales of Xillia 2 has been confirmed to be coming to america before 1 is even released.

Told you Namco loved us.

    What do you guys think?