Are RPGs passé?

[Spooniest]

Final Fantasy looks less and less like a computerized game of Dungeons and Dragons, and more and more like a teenage self-exploration stimulant these days.

I dont imagine it'll be much longer before it becomes hardcore porn and we all wonder how it happened so gradually that we didnt notice.

Generally speaking, RPG fandoms tend to be populated by a few different groups in my experience: people obsessed with the knowing of all the trivial knowledge, people obsessed with a particular game's characters (particularly shipping said characters), music lovers, and people who are just getting into it and will likely eventually join one of the first two groups. Those who simply enjoy that RPGs tend toward having good music (and other artistic concerns) tend to be weirded out by the first two groups, and vice versa.

They all argue and fight and spit at each other until everyone is disgusted and abandons the community. I've watched it happen over and over in countless online communities.

So tell me, what happened between 1987 and now? Do you think the traditional DQ-inspired turn based RPG will ever come back into vogue? Do you disagree, and think there has been no change? Do you think my face is stupid? (It totally is tho)

Speak, and let thy opinion be known, weary traveler. I judge not.

[Rowan]

Final Fantasy looks less and less like a computerized game of Dungeons and Dragons, and more and more like a teenage self-exploration stimulant these days.

I dont imagine it'll be much longer before it becomes hardcore porn.

I await this day.

[loaf]

Turn Based isn't dead lol.

[Spooniest]

Rowan's chocobo hentai collection is growing daily

[Andromeda]

I fall outside the listed groups, I play JRPGs because I like that general game design and presentation. I play as many JRPGs as is humanly viable for having a full time job and a life outside of being a JRPG fan. So I tend to like all JRPGs so long as they entertain me in some fashion. I'm generally pretty easy to please.

Turn based RPGs are still a thing, just not as popular as they once were. Square's doing what they can to revive those Golden Era days of JRPGs with the RPG Factory studio, I am Setsuna and Lost Sphere. And World of Final Fantasy I think did as well and is surprisingly good and enjoyable. But RPGs have fall to the side because of the chasing the AAA dream of games. Most RPGs can't hit that goal or even reach it and with so many more people games these days than in past, interest is swinging more strongly with the masses, which don't have an interest in RPGs. They can only really exist now in this more budget level state, where they can't afford to be blockbusters and the degree of separation between that is now so big.

[Spooniest]

So, you feel that the groundswell of popularity that FF7 generated for turn-based rpg games in 1997 has finally, 20 years later, subsided?

For two decades, RPGs were popular, after toiling mostly in obscurity for a decade. Now that's an interesting little line graph to look at, I guess if I really wanted to, I could go and track down every turn-based rpg release from Dragon Quest right up to whatever's most recent ("Lost Sphere" I think is still not out, right?)...

It is fairly interesting to me, as this curve would coincide with my time being a preteen right up to now, where I am directly into middle age. I'm sure these bits of information are not unique to me, either. Lots of 6-8 year olds probably were into FF back at the time it came out, and have now become middle aged people. Some have been more successful at life than others, but all have watched as the genre rose and fell.

One thing's for sure, they don't feel strongly enough about the genre to post on forums anymore, and it's been a long long time since I saw anything interesting written about it.

[Andromeda]

The popularity of turn-based RPGs ended at the end of the PS2 era and was already starting to slow down by the time the PS2 era began. So I wouldn't say the popularity attributed to FFVII release was 20 years. I'd say it was roughly 10 years and it's been pretty down hill for the last ten years. The JRPG genre fell off really hard after the PSone and definitely the PS2. The shift from standard definition to high definition visuals was one of the bigger and easier lines you can draw, but the shift from sprites to 3D was the other line. It was easier to make them on the cheap and not need them to be massive sellers in the PSone and PS2 era. Success was in the 100k or sub million range. Now it's much harder to have a success on so little sales without also having a really low budget that then lowers the quality or quantity in a game. Player interest and their shift away to other genres definitely impacted it as well.

[Pete]

I think one of the biggest factors is that with the classic jrpg style, you're really just driving a car to a destination, and keeping said car on the tracks. You basically follow a somewhat fairly linear story until the end, and learn more ss you progress. It's a great system and worked wonders with the earlier systems. To get the most out of battle, and to add some strategy to the mix, it was on a turn based system. Once again, this was beneficial because you could really drag out some epic fights without putting too much strain on the hardware or software.

Today, and going further, it's harder to justify a turn based system in newer games, especially when people crave a real time feel and thrill of a fight in a game. There's a little more excitement to hoping you can dodge a fatal attack by moving your character, then hitting the enemy with your own counter, as opposed to hoping you can get your mage to cure all before the enemies next turn.

That being said, I'm also a traditional guy, and still enjoy games with ATB. I just think that if I were to pick up a new one, it'd have to be amazing and literally blow me away.

That being said, I can't wait for the new South Park game. The first one was incredibly solid, with ATB