JRPG fans, do you miss anything about the games from the 90s and 00s?

[Rosenkrantz]

Personally, I miss the sense of adventure that was so prevalent in the genre in the 90s and 00s. Almost every notable game in the genre felt like a journey, from Final Fantasy to Grandia to Shadow Hearts. JRPGs of today are feeling more like going through motions. Even acclaimed stuff like Persona 5 is about a boring (because of its restrictiveness) daily routine and waiting for a new dungeon to appear.

Of course there are notable exceptions like Xenoblade or Tales of series (which is, for all its faults, still pretty good in that regard) or games from Nihon Falcom . But, the majority of games moved from these simple adventure stories and instead focus on different aspects. I wonder if it would've been different if more franchises from the past were still around?

So folks, do you miss anything about the JRPGs of the past?

 

[SammyJ9]

Similar to yours (sense of adventure) but mainly I miss world maps and airships. World maps really help convey a sense of scale and travel, and NOTHING beat the moment when you first were able to explore the whole map after getting an airship.

That said, Xenoblade nails it pretty well, for sure. And I love Persona 5, but that's so much of a different game in a lot of ways; sometimes structure and restrictiveness can really help enhance the feel of a game.

 

[ara]

I miss the days when most JRPGs weren't filled to the brim with otaku pandering fanservice

 

[Rosenkrantz]

I miss the days when most JRPGs weren't filled to the brim with otaku pandering fanservice

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That's true as well. But I guess it can't be helped, Japanese nerd culture just moved in that direction and entertainment industries (both anime and video games) reflect it. Thankfully, we have a great stuff like TWEWY born from this shift too.

 

[the magical kitsune]

I miss having a bunch of turn-based games instead of action ones. I miss when most games didn't have weird sexual pandering and anime fanservice (most likely a result of graphical limitations, but still good to not have it). I miss the time when most big publishers had their own flagship jrpg series. I miss the category of the middle-tier (budget wise) jrpg that seems to have vanished in the '00s. I miss a lot of things.

(I think I'm talking more about 90s than 00s based on my experiences)

 

[Pyro]

I miss watching my older brother play them, especially since he hardly plays anymore beyond mobile games. Its why I get Twitch even though it's not for me funnily enough. Oh and the boot up sounds of the PS1 scaring the shit out of little me.

 

[Software Update]

I miss the days when most JRPGs weren't filled to the brim with otaku pandering fanservice

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I was going to say "nothing", but I'll go with this instead.

 

[Tomo815]

To be honest here, I dont think there has been a combat system as good as FF12 ever since, and maybe there will never be.

I know many will disagree with me, but personally, I think FF12 is a work of genius.

 

[Catshade]

Mindblowingly beautiful FMV as a 'reward' after a hard boss battle.

Another thing: Hidden party members. Nowadays making a character (fully fleshed with animation and dialogue) is expensive enough it makes no financial sense to just hide it from your players.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

Turn-based combat. Being able to control a full party of characters. Meaningful side content. Days when games weren't just transparent fronts for weird otaku fetish bullshit.

Basically JRPGs are just categorically worse in the current era. Aside from graphics they don't do anything better.

 

[CosmicGP]

I was just about missing the little extra content put into older Final Fantasy games like 7,8 and 9, but 7 Remake made some effort towards bringing it back (things like the pull up competition, cross dressing quest, etc). Well, they were just copying them over from FF7, but I hope they don't forget how important they are. Really makes the game a lot more charming and fun imo.

Hope they don't forget about them in FF16.

 

[Hogendaz85]

Yeah I am tired of the 3-5 cinematics in every dungeon thing they have now plus being fully voiced slows the momentum down

 

[Oliver James]

They felt more magical and felt more of a real journey than the new ones. Also better music too, and no, it's just not the nostalgia kicking in.

 

[FinFunnels]

Honestly, probably new IPs. We still get a lot of great JRPGs, but they're all part of long running franchises.

Also, bring back SRPGs.

 

[bushmonkey]

Turn-based combat. Being able to control a full party of characters. Meaningful side content. Days when games weren't just transparent fronts for weird otaku fetish bullshit.

Basically JRPGs are just categorically worse in the current era. Aside from graphics they don't do anything better.

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All of this. They used to be my favourite genre but now I can't stomach anything outside of Final Fantasy / Dragon Quest / Persona

 

[RatskyWatsky]

Pre rendered backgrounds

 

[A Strong Latte]

Turn-based combat. Being able to control a full party of characters. Meaningful side content. Days when games weren't just transparent fronts for weird otaku fetish bullshit.

Basically JRPGs are just categorically worse in the current era. Aside from graphics they don't do anything better.

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try playing SMT?

 

[Rosenkrantz]

Turn-based combat. Being able to control a full party of characters. Meaningful side content. Days when games weren't just transparent fronts for weird otaku fetish bullshit.

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I think experimentations with combat systems are one of the better things happening with the genre. I know, old turn-based combat has a lot of fans, but the vast majority of games tended to get repetitive fairly quickly because there was a lot of encounters and not much depth to combat.

 

[PlanetSmasher]

try playing SMT?

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The 3DS SMT games aren't very good. I really don't enjoy the first person dungeon crawling and the character writing feels markedly less entertaining than Nocturne's was.

I think experimentations with combat systems are one of the better things happening with the genre. I know, old turn-based combat has a lot of fans, but the vast majority of games tended to get repetitive fairly quickly because there was a lot of encounters and not much depth to combat.

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I really don't enjoy hack and slash JRPG combat. Every enemy takes too many hits to kill and it's always an exercise in enemies with infinite poise whle you can get knocked around like a ragdoll by a stray fart.

 

[Protoman200X]

What I miss the most is the variety of different settings and character types, such as how Breath of Fire IV was set in a fantasy version of feudal China/East Asia, or that the cast of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment consists of adult Persona users, ranging from early 20's to late 30's (and 23 year old Maya herself is the only adult protagonist to date for that series).

This is quite different from how the modern Persona games treat adults as useless dimwits, and until the introduction of Persona 5: The Scramble's Zenkichi Hasegawa, the cast of EP are the sole party who have regular 9-5 jobs as opposed to High School (and younger, such as elementary school-aged Ken from Persona 3).

Spoiler

.. And said adults are the ones who defeat the main antagonist, Eldritch abomination Nyarlathotep, in the end.

 

[Xenosaga]

What I miss the most is the amount of high quality JRPGs coming out fast paced.

The release gaps between big JRPGs were much shorter, and there were more of them.
These days the big AAA JRPGs takes long time to come out, and there aren't as many as they used to back in the days.

 

[SkyOdin]

I miss the fast pace. Modern RPGs tend to get slowed down by a ton of cutscenes and long stretches of dialogue. In comparison, a lot of classic RPGs tend to move really quickly. A couple hours into some of them and you are already into the second or third town of the game.

Speaking of, I also really miss the larger scope that came with the abstraction of a world map. Older RPGs simply had more towns and dungeons than later ones. So while there was less dialogue, there were more places and storylines that the game would cover than most modern RPGs.

 

[Lentic]

I miss having more variety in art style. I can't stand the modern sterile looking "waifu" light novel aesthetic.
Look at this cool shit:

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[oni-link]

I like JRPGs with an anime art style, but also wish we had more games with different/unique art styles

I suppose I just wish we had more high quality releases, and better budget releases

The Trails of games, Persona games, and the recent Digimon games, are all great though, so there is still good stuff coming out

 

[OdjnRyu]

More than anything I'm just bummed that so many 90s and 00s-era JRPGs are stuck on their platforms and haven't been ported or remastered on anything recent.

 

[oofouchugh]

Turn based combat

 

[Dark_Castle]

Save point before boss. You know shit's about to go down.

 

[Indy_Rex]

Skies of Arcadia.

That's it. That's the post.

 

[Cornyzuka]

I miss pre-rendered backgrounds.

 

[Morrigan]

urn-based combat. Being able to control a full party of characters. Meaningful side content. Days when games weren't just transparent fronts for weird otaku fetish bullshit.

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All of this.

Also it feels like they honestly had better stories and/or more charming characters. No modern JRPG came close to FFTactics, Panzer Dragoon Saga or Suikoden 2, tbh

 

[NioA]

I think we had a great gen for jrpgs, but I too would rather not having every jrpg with at least a child character/sexualized women/teen protagonist and shit like that.

 

[Rotobit]

Towns are the big thing for me. I get why it's more challenging to pull off nowadays, but it really ruins the sense of adventure not being able to go into buildings or having settlements that are a straight line.

Experimental combat systems. Turn based systems haven't really gone anywhere (I'd honestly argue they outnumber action JRPGs still), but I feel like we could get more creative takes on combat. Games like Parasite Eve, Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy XII etc. all had unique mechanics. FFVII Remake with its active pausing is basically the most creative I've seen in years.

Side content. Again, it's become more common, but it's still a far cry off from entire characters being optional. I get why that isn't the case (you ain't gonna spend millions on mocap and voicing for a character some players might not even meet) but with smaller scale JRPGs they should bring it back.

 

[Kida]

Turn-based combat. Persona and Trails are the only series I play left (I know that many Gust games still use it but I don't like their structure) and Trails seems to be going real-time combat for it's next game.

 

[Worldshaker]

I miss the days when most JRPGs weren't filled to the brim with otaku pandering fanservice

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This.

Thankfully this cuts down the amount of new games that I've been picking up. My backlog is starting to go down!

 

[Redcrayon]

I also used to love the sense of adventure, fantasy and escapism, wondering what would come next in RPGs that blended in comedy, sci-fi and myth cycles from all over the place rather than retread Tolkein. Also, the lack of prominence of otaku pandering rooted in endless shitty tropes and fetishes in the genre.

Also, party members where their very existence and design gave some background to the world, added questions, major sidequests and some conflict in the party. And when party relationships were written well rather than simplistic 'social sim' elements that take up hours of time for a few conversations around the main character being everyone's life mentor, even for the adults in the group. Rendering everyone's core worries down to a few multiple choice questions in order to ape a power fantasy social life where everyone's driving dilemma now revolve around a quick chat with the teenager they met last week. I mean, sure this also describes a lot of RPGs where the party rolls into town and solves a centuries-old dilemma related to a party member through the medium of pointy bits of metal. But the party social stuff always just feels like character development taking second place to specifically stroking the player's ego to me in the way it revolves around specifically telling the player avatar how cool, important and lifechanging they are just for initiating a conversation, rather than a focus on party achievements in major sidequests. Especially combined with the lead visual elements including the female character designs continually circling the drain of which templated shitty outfits and cliches the party is built around this time in order to sell merchandise to otaku, it all just feels a bit weird when combined with the harem/social crap.

Don't get me wrong, I still like the fantasy stories and turn-based combat. I'm just tired of skipping through bloated games as the same tired tropes play out again and again for the same audience. Pretty much abandoned Trails of Cold Steel 3 due to this. Looking forward to SMTV next year, and to be fair I was pleasantly surprised by the improvements made in FE Three Houses, so fingers crossed for what comes next.

 

[Geeklat]

I miss them being pure Fantasy worlds instead of everything being anime techno-fantasy or sci-fi fantasy.

 

[Chie Satonaka]

I had to think about this for a minute.

I'm a Persona fan and a Trails fan, so I'm okay with storytelling for the most part.

I love turn based combat the most, so I'll always want more of that.

I guess the thing I miss the most about the 90s in terms of JRPGs is the quantity. I just want more of them. There's still stuff from then I haven't played even now, and it'd be great to get back to having more major releases outside of the big ones, of which I don't even count Final Fantasy anymore. That series has changed for the complete worse for me.

Outside of that, no, I don't particularly think that modern games do anything better or worse than 90s and early 2000s games did.

Edit:

I did just think of something else, more customization options for party members. Class/job systems! I'm really hoping DQ12 returns vocations! And remains turn based!

 

[HBK]

I think what I miss the most is the tone.

It had a kind of naiveté back in the day which was pretty nice.

Nowadays it's all pretty grim stories with ton of otaku pandering "fanservice" on top 🤷‍♀️

I miss turn-based too of course, but not as much as the tone I think, plus there are still turn-based SRPGs out there.

A few games still manage to instill that "feeling of adventure" and stuff, but they're few and far between and are arguably rarer than they were 20 years ago.

 

[Potato Mage]

I wish i could still enjoy that style of rpg, i keep trying but can't find one that interest me enough to see it through.

 

[A Strong Latte]

The 3DS SMT games aren't very good. I really don't enjoy the first person dungeon crawling and the character writing feels markedly less entertaining than Nocturne's was.

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The dungeon crawling in SMT4 and 4A (the 3ds smt games) isn't first person, so whatever man.

Also really weird to single out "character writing" as Nocturne's strong point.

Don't think you played them if you described them that way. It's of course easy to paint the genre as shit if you DQ the good games with pithy complaints. Like the mangled translations of PSX/2 games had "entertaining" character writing way above smt4/a

 

[Valkerion]

Turned based combat and reading. It's kinda hypnotic and relaxing to just be taken in by the soundtrack and text. Also variety in the genre. Tales, FF, and a few other franchises are nice, but we got fantasy, horror, modern day, modern horror, future, future fantasy, mechs, and more back in the day. I wish we still had them taking chances but I get that the genres audience numbers plateaued and the industry widened more than most can keep up with or are willing to risk.

 

[fourfourfun]

I miss the days when most JRPGs weren't filled to the brim with otaku pandering fanservice

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I have to say this one. Thematically and visually, so much stuff seems to be run through the same template.

 

[Watershed]

I miss the old school D&D style setting and aesthetics which seem to only exist in DQ, indies, and SE's lower budget nostalgia plays these days. Give me knights and mages in castle towns and dungeons all day.

Somewhat related, although some JRPGs still manage to pull of this feeling these days, I do miss the sense of excitement that came with journeying to and discovering the next town or major hub. The last modern JRPG I played that managed to capture this sense of discovery was probably Xenoblade Chronicles 2, where the towns felt large enough and varied enough to be believable and instill a sense of discovery.

 

[jetsetrez]

I just miss looking at 2D spritework and filling in the details with my imagination. Now days all of the detail is just there, so you just take in exactly what you're given rather than interpreting the artist's work.

 

[rochellepaws]

I miss world maps, non-linear towns to explore and the general range of secret, optional stuff rpgs used to be full of that were hard to find.

Also as is a problem with many genres I don't like how many games frontload their features into the first few hours and turn repetitive and grindy towards the end. RPGs used to be great for starting at a steady pace, gradually introducing the player to systems and features before really peaking at around 2/3rds through when everything has opened up and is available. It feels like too many games try to cram everything into the first 5 hours now.

 

[Rosenkrantz]

Turned based combat and reading. It's kinda hypnotic and relaxing to just be taken in by the soundtrack and text. Also variety in the genre. Tales, FF, and a few other franchises are nice, but we got fantasy, horror, modern day, modern horror, future, future fantasy, mechs, and more back in the day. I wish we still had them taking chances but I get that the genres audience numbers plateaued and the industry widened more than most can keep up with or are willing to risk.

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I think you might enjoy Visual Novel hybrids like Utawarerumono and Tears to Tiara, they're SRPGs tho.

 

[RM8]

SRPGs without dating sim elements. And with a more grounded tone. Crazy to see there's no market for something like the original FFT or Tactics Ogre. Or Fire Emblem.

 

[King Kingo]

I miss the days when most JRPGs weren't filled to the brim with otaku pandering fanservice

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I think this is telling of how little faith Japanese publishers have with JRPG's nowadays. The transition to HD must have really burned them because SD JRPG's never really resorted to pandering.

 

[Acidote]

World maps with lots of hidden places, bosses, etc.
Turn based combat.

 

[Rosenkrantz]

Crazy to see there's no market for something like the original FFT or Tactics Ogre.

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I mean, Xcom is probably the best selling tactical game out there and it has about zero romance in it (not surprising because it's a gameplay first type of game to the point of barely having any story). The market is there, but I guess the modern audience have certain expectations from Japanese made RPGs and "waifus" are among them. Blame anime/manga/LN industry.