Good, I hope this means we get even more turn-based RPGs again. I’m 100% fine with people enjoying the new action-oriented RPGs like Final Fantasy has become, but I love turn based so much more. I didn’t like that it felt like there couldn’t be both on the market. There is just something way more enjoyable to me about turn-based as opposed to mashing buttons and twitchy moves like I’m playing God of War.
Yeah it’s far more relaxing to play a jrpg with good music, nice looking environments when I can actually listen to the music and look at the world instead of focusing on the enemies tells and dodgeroll at the exact perfect moment. Nothing wrong with perfect dodgerolls. But I don’t want them in all my games.
Have you already played Chained Echoes? It’s another masterpiece in the world of 2D turn-based RPGs.
I agree, I’m glad games like this (and baldur’s gate!) are enjoying so much success and attention right now. It’s better for everyone if we have a variety of polished experiences in different genres.
That being said I don’t often find myself enjoying turn based games lol. Even going back to the super nintendo, I massively preferred Secret of Mana (with it’s real time combat system) to Final Fantasy. There’s just something extremely satisfying to me about a well done action-oriented RPG, where you feel like your skills are improving alongside your character’s.
“Well done” is not to be overlooked, of course. I was quite disappointed with final fantasy 16, as it truly did just feel like mashing buttons
Final Fantasy moving away from turn-based because it’s “outdated” is peak Square silliness. Have they ever heard of chess, card games, board games, DnD, Civilization, Persona, Dragon Quest, XCOM, Pokemon, Darkest Dungeon? If anything, DMC-style character action games are far more niche.
I’m really worried about the new dragon quest. It’s possibly my favorite series and I’m concerned that 12 is going to be action and not turn based.
Funny enough Yoshi P was the one that said turn-based was outdated and he’s worked on DQ before but only the MMO, arcade games, Minecraft clone and a Wii FPS thing. I think it’s pretty obvious he just doesn’t like the genre. DQ11 was the breakthrough hit in the West and he had nothing to do with it.
It turned me off the FFVII remake, which is a shame as I really wanted to experience the original but in a modern style. I guess I may actually boot the original up instead; I wonder if there are mods to make it more playable.
I’ve got the benefit of nostalgia I guess, but I played through the original a few months ago for probably the fifth time in my life and still enjoyed myself. The main things that has aged is the ugly character models, this mod can improve those. Might want to look as some of these as well. You want to play through the original+crisis core first before the remake for… reasons.
I seem to remember them being surprised by the success of Bravely Default, not expecting a deliberately old-school RPG to appeal to modern audiences.
The cynical part of me believes this is performative on their part - they know a game like that will be popular, but it won’t be the most popular thing ever and they won’t make all the money. So, they try to push bigger games that are more easily monetized in hopes that people will just forget their own preferences.
Could also just be their own tastes evolving. I used to love turn-based combat RPGs and the RTS genre but I’m kinda over both of them now. If game makers lose passion for those kinds of games, then the “it won’t appeal” might even be more of a “I’m not into it, so if I do make it, it won’t be very appealing” than a “no one wants this kind of game”.
I never really liked turn-based RPGs until I became an adult with a full time job because they’re perfect for when I’m burnt and wanna play video games but I’m also too burnt to play most games.
I imagine there’s a lot of millennials/early gen-Z that feel the same way. A whole market that is just starting to be tapped
I know that stupid rich CEOs and shareholders don’t understand this, but… “heart”. You make a game with heart, and it’s immediately apparent to the audience. You can try to break down what it is that gives it away, but that’s unnecessary.
If a work of art has heart, it will probably sell well. As long as people can clearly see what it is, and as long as it doesn’t do anything alienating.
I love this sentiment, and it can be true, but it also creates this idea that ‘heart’ alone has a high bearing on whether or not a product of any kind (book, film, statue, game) will be successful in its market ambitions.
It doesn’t always correlate. I would argue if often doesn’t correlate. Any indie film or game fest is chock full of projects with a ton of heart. Few of them graduate to success in the market place.
I’m not saying heart is a bad thing. It’s a damn great thing. But strong business fundamentals are a good thing too. And sometimes, you also just need that extra bit of luck or uncontrollable virality too. To find success, you stack the deck with as many good plays as you can, and heart is one of them.
Success is not a recipe, and if it was, everybody would be doing it…
I agree with you completely. I just wasn’t about to write an essay on potential contributing factors that can help one succeed, plus luck. I just wanted to say that these days, there are a lot of indie smash hits out there that succeed in part because people saw a whole lot of love in them, when a lot of the more cynical corporate creators would never have made such things in such ways. Hell, it’s not just indies. It’s why many Nintendo games are so beloved, even “forgotten” ones like Earthbound. ^^
I realized pretty early on as a developer that my projects motivated because I wanted the thing I was making were far better than projects motivated because I wanted a project to work on.
A lot of the large companies are now run by business majors who are primarily there to make money rather than make video games.
Though you do need the skills and dedication in addition to the vision, because I’ve also got a bunch of projects that started as something I was very interested in but then stalled because I didn’t have the skills or focus to stick with it.
For context, just 100k is historically a good showing for a JRPG, especially one with this production size. Atelier Ryza hitting 500k back in 2020 was a big surprise. This is well on its way to that mark.
I think there’s an argument to be made that JRPGs haven’t been this mainstream since 1997, and even then it was just Final Fantasy in the west. The genre is much more diverse today. Amazing times.
I don’t know about them never being this mainstream this century.
Golden Sun sold over a million globally in the early 2000s, and the Fire Emblem series had their best selling games in the millions in the 2010s.
Granted, these are rookie numbers compared to the juggernaut that is Final Fantasy, but still respectable.
Sure, Fire Emblem had its breakout in the west with Awakening, but there were real discussions being had about the viability of the genre back in 2013. It was at the tail end of a really bad time (arguably the nadir) for JRPGs on consoles.
Persona 5, NieR: Automata, Dragon Quest XI, and Three Houses all being multi-million sellers is what sparked off the current, unprecedented era for the genre.
Sure, let’s just say Final Fantasy was the only popular JRPG around 1997 and we can forget about Pokemon, Earthbound/Mother, Super Mario RPG, Zelda, Dragon Quest…
I didn’t say popular, I said mainstream. Zelda isn’t often claimed by the genre, and Pokémon was literally the only other multi-million seller in the genre in the west.
Earthbound is the very definition of a cult classic, and Dragon Quest wasn’t even getting localized at that time.
This is beautiful!!!
Is the game good?
It’s shockingly become one of my favourite RPGs and that’s saying a lot. The story is quite original with a few really good twists but the characters are also all excellent.
Soundtrack is most excellent.
I really liked the first 10 hours,but then it became really repetitive. I couldn’t bring myself to finish it. Maybe it’s just me though
If you like the genre, it is very good. I’d go as far as saying it’s really special. For me, it’s very comforting and just plain good vibes. Fantastic pixelart and tasteful, sensible improvements on the format.
