-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
JRPG fans, do you miss anything about the games from the 90s and 00s?
- Thread starter Rosenkrantz
- Start date
Agree with all of this. The PS1/PS2 era of JRPGs had so much charm and a huge variety of unique settings.
The last great JRPG I played was Ni No Kuni and I have zero optimism that I will play a JRPG better than FF9 ever again.
Likewise. I think 4k pre-rendered backgrounds with 3-D character models could look amazing in the current/next-gen. Don't think any JRPG will take that risk though.
There was a beauty to the pixel art and chip music of the SNES / PS1 era that I haven't experienced for many years.
Pretty much everything from the snes era.
More focus on gamplay
Barely any cutscenes
Far less in game sexualisation, especially of underaged girls
While more subjective, the midi music generally felt more "imaginative".
Smaller budgets, so less time wasted on 4K images of food or scenes you see once
More turn based games
Etc
I'm a turn based fan and yeah, the majority of Jrpgs over the last decade and a bit just have been a downgrade to this era. Would have been excellent to see more focus on snes tier Jrpgs from the major devs
More focus on gamplay
Barely any cutscenes
Far less in game sexualisation, especially of underaged girls
While more subjective, the midi music generally felt more "imaginative".
Smaller budgets, so less time wasted on 4K images of food or scenes you see once
More turn based games
Etc
I'm a turn based fan and yeah, the majority of Jrpgs over the last decade and a bit just have been a downgrade to this era. Would have been excellent to see more focus on snes tier Jrpgs from the major devs
Play Cosmic Star Heroine if you haven't yet. It's cheap, and does a good job of capturing the SNES era JRPGs. It's short and sweet as well.
Im with you OP, i miss the the epic journey and character growth. The mystery of the world and what will come on your path. What i most miss is that feeling when you are on your journey and you find a building, cave of door you cant open or enter. That is the moment of mystery that you want to know what is that? How do i get in? What is it for? Like the old FF games where you sometimes find things out only post game and the content post game was abundent.
JRPG's have been slacking and i dont blame the developers. It is probaly costly to make, takes too much time and the return is low because it wont sell like a GTA or COD.
JRPG's have been slacking and i dont blame the developers. It is probaly costly to make, takes too much time and the return is low because it wont sell like a GTA or COD.
This is hard for me to think of anything. Maybe just quantity of releases. I do feel like there is something missing from the GC/360 era Tales games I loved, but that may just be nostalgia and I still haven't played Beseria yet.
I agree with this fully.
I agree with this fully.
I miss the unique, often experimental, spins on turn based battle systems — Hybrid Heaven, Legend of Dragoon, Legend of Legaia, Vagrant Story etc.
Also the aesthetics, art direction but I believe, for me personally, it has more to do with Devs working within the limitations of the hardware. There are definitely some great looking titles today.
Also the aesthetics, art direction but I believe, for me personally, it has more to do with Devs working within the limitations of the hardware. There are definitely some great looking titles today.
Lots of what I miss has been mentioned. One thing I really miss was the wide variety of RPGs that we got. Especially during the PS1 era where 3D was a new thing, we got a lot of experimental stuff. There was a lot of flawed, but good games out there. Most of the time nowadays, especially in the AAA space, lots of things feel very safe and because of it, stagnant.
I miss the Super Nintendo type of action JRPG like Terranigma or Illusion of time. Those were cool adventures, and not the teen drama of today's games.
I miss the variety
Like i feel in most jrpgs you do 2 things now only. Either talk to people or do combat.
Like id love more games to have the silly variety of an ff7 where theyd go ok heres a car chase minigame, heres an rts setion, here's a timed rhytm sequence, here's a chocobo race etc. Even if those section only last a couple of minutes it makes the sense of adventure so much greater and makes it feel like your not just going through the motion of clearing out dungeons or watching the story unfold.
Like i feel in most jrpgs you do 2 things now only. Either talk to people or do combat.
Like id love more games to have the silly variety of an ff7 where theyd go ok heres a car chase minigame, heres an rts setion, here's a timed rhytm sequence, here's a chocobo race etc. Even if those section only last a couple of minutes it makes the sense of adventure so much greater and makes it feel like your not just going through the motion of clearing out dungeons or watching the story unfold.
I also kind of want a lot of the SNES/PS1/PS2 JRPGs to get released to modern platforms, with some QoL updates
There are so many stone cold classics that are stuck on much older systems, or best assessable via emulation.
So more rereleases, and more translations for games only released in Japanese too
There are so many stone cold classics that are stuck on much older systems, or best assessable via emulation.
So more rereleases, and more translations for games only released in Japanese too
Just games that aren't full of jank and have meaningful extra content. After not playing many for the past 2 gens, i've been on a spam this last year and so many of them are just annoying. That's the best word I have, they never feel like truly enjoyable experiences because there are just stupid design and writing decisions as if they're trying to purposely sap all your enjoyment. Whether it be a frustratingly weird combat system, not fleshing out characters, mediocre stories, stories extended well beyond reasonable limits with filler content or "holdupaminnit" deviations that accomplish nothing, run back and forth for no reason ect.
There's just something about the JRPGs of that era that felt more grand, emotional, and impressive. For every JRPG trying something new with it's combat system, 9 fail for every success. You really just can't beat the smoothness and enjoyability of a turn-based combat system in most cases, or rather simple is what I should say.
But yeah it really is just jank, don't know how else to describe it other than the games feeling more like quantity over quality. Been playing some of the best rated ones in the last decade, with Xenoblade 1 + 2, Ni no Kuni, FF7R , Octopath, and others like Digimon Cyber Sleuth. And while I did enjoy most of these quite a lot, god every single one of them was just so damn annoying and a pain in my butt the entire time and every single one dragged like hell. Really made me appreciate something as streamlined and effortless to play as Undertale for example.
There's just something about the JRPGs of that era that felt more grand, emotional, and impressive. For every JRPG trying something new with it's combat system, 9 fail for every success. You really just can't beat the smoothness and enjoyability of a turn-based combat system in most cases, or rather simple is what I should say.
But yeah it really is just jank, don't know how else to describe it other than the games feeling more like quantity over quality. Been playing some of the best rated ones in the last decade, with Xenoblade 1 + 2, Ni no Kuni, FF7R , Octopath, and others like Digimon Cyber Sleuth. And while I did enjoy most of these quite a lot, god every single one of them was just so damn annoying and a pain in my butt the entire time and every single one dragged like hell. Really made me appreciate something as streamlined and effortless to play as Undertale for example.
Last edited:
One other thing I miss is how the 'static' background and the voiceless cutscenes makes me feel like reading a book or a manga, and it feels more... imaginative? Nowadays every big RPGs try to be 'cinematic' but the camera direction, dialogue, and voice acting are, most of the time, still not that good compared to your standard mainstream animated movie.
Yea, this. A little bit I can tolerate, but at some point it's straight up embarrassing.
Turn based combat and large parties.
Also I know it is entirely subjective and nostalgia, but somehow todays JRPG's don't feel as epic as they did. Graphics have taken over the storytelling and pampering to teenage boys fantasies is different than it was back in the olden days.
I guess I mostly miss the awe and grandeur. I don't get that with many JRPG's anymore.
Also I know it is entirely subjective and nostalgia, but somehow todays JRPG's don't feel as epic as they did. Graphics have taken over the storytelling and pampering to teenage boys fantasies is different than it was back in the olden days.
I guess I mostly miss the awe and grandeur. I don't get that with many JRPG's anymore.
Yeah, this. People go on and on about how we have too many ports and remasters, but honestly there are just so many great JRPGs that are stranded on old platforms and may always stay that way.
I also miss turn-based combat and battle strategy being more prevalent elements of the games. They really felt like tabletop RPGs automated within the framework of a video game, instead of just action games with xp, levels, and gear upgrades, like we have today. Today's JRPGs feel far inferior, which you can see in the way the older titles are almost universally still the most beloved.
Yeah, Fire Emblem has turned me off greatly with the avatar creation and wish fulfillment fantasies.
Being an attractive (wo)man who can have a romantic relationship with just about anyone of the opposite sex is such a baffling decision, since the development staff need to accomodate that. Instead of spending time and energy to build an interesting world with history, politics and power vacuums, I feel like they're more preoccupied with coming up with vapid reasons to marry and have children. "Oh, you like x, I like x too!" Three support conversations and a time skip later, here are a bunch of new characters you don't give a shit about to wage a new war.
And it's always comical how your avatar has a special ability only they have but they're suffering from memory loss and later on they get corrupted by some evil force. The writers probably think it's some great plot twist instead of predictable drivel.
The sexualized character design doesn't help either.
- Worldmaps
- Actual production value
- Dialogue that gets to the point instead of almost being a visual novel with lots and lots of fluff
- Better stories
- More distinctive art-styles
- Actual production value
- Dialogue that gets to the point instead of almost being a visual novel with lots and lots of fluff
- Better stories
- More distinctive art-styles
I recall the horny otaku teen me enjoying the fanservice stuff of Persona 4, but then with Persona 5 I had my "too old for this shit" moment.
People argue the old games were not necessarily writing masterpieces, but they were sure far better than having nothing but waifus who fall deeply in love with each other after spending a couple of turns together. And time traveling children.
I must say I haven't played Three Houses, and you can blame Fates for that :P
I have no idea what JRPGs you guys are playing that have all this fanservice that wasn't there before. I can only think of the Atelier games which sort of look like the kind to have fanservice. But otherwise i just don't know.
Anyway what i miss the most is having no VO.
Anyway what i miss the most is having no VO.
Nah, not really. You gotta move on at some point. I think Atlus is good as prime SquareEnix anyway.
OP
OP
I don't think Atlus is at a better place when they were in the 00s tbh, not as far as their output goes anyway. People love P5 and that's cool, but their new output consists of what, two SMTs, Wii U spin-off of Fire Emblem and a couple of DS ports? They had Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga, Persona, Devil Summoner and tons of smaller games in the mid 00s.
This is a weird one, and very specific to me but I miss not having voice acting in JRPGs.
I know it's not feasible in this day and age not to have voice acting in what is already a niche genre, but sometimes I miss the days when I wasn't completely taken out of a scene by terrible voice work. Most importantly for me is that my sister used to voice act every single character I would talk to in whatever game I was playing and it was always amazing. Her work in Xenogears is still her best to this day.
I know it's not feasible in this day and age not to have voice acting in what is already a niche genre, but sometimes I miss the days when I wasn't completely taken out of a scene by terrible voice work. Most importantly for me is that my sister used to voice act every single character I would talk to in whatever game I was playing and it was always amazing. Her work in Xenogears is still her best to this day.
[deleted wrong topic sorryyyy]
To be on topic : I miss how quick you can enter the game. No long monologue, no 10mn cutscenes. Just "Wake up silent protagonist!" and BAM! action ensues!
To be on topic : I miss how quick you can enter the game. No long monologue, no 10mn cutscenes. Just "Wake up silent protagonist!" and BAM! action ensues!
Yeah, that most of anything.
with a world map and a sense of adventure following.
I miss pretty much everything. FF6, Chrono Trigger and Xenogears have yet to be topped.
This too. The last JRPG I truly loved was the original Xenoblade, and even that had some very questionable designs / outfits. JRPGs have followed the same decaying arc as anime, drawing upon itself and becoming further and further tropeified.
This too. The last JRPG I truly loved was the original Xenoblade, and even that had some very questionable designs / outfits. JRPGs have followed the same decaying arc as anime, drawing upon itself and becoming further and further tropeified.
This. Basically a FF spin-off game that's in the style of FF7-9 but in HD without the random battle encounters though.
A lot of the answers here seem mostly based in nostalgia. I'm not seeing a lot of things people are missing that aren't in JRPGs today. JRPGs definitely felt more magical when we were younger and it was a new, sure. I guess I wish I could play newer JRPGs but as a kid- that would blow my mind.
OP
OP
I don't know, I've started to play Grandia for the first time yesterday and it feels distinctly different from the modern JRPGs. It just has more heart.
I miss out of place grinding. Like those few squares on the map in FF1 where you can fight enemies outside of your range (Peninsula of Power) to level up quickly, or cheesing the Shield Dragon in FF5 to level up quickly. So many old JRPGs had these cool unique grind spots and if you just spent an hour or two there you were OP the rest of the game.
Yeah. It's part of the reason why it's become more mainstream rather than a niche series. It would have been dead otherwise.
I don't really know what that means though. "Heart." That could mean anything, it could mean nothing. Maybe you like the classic aesthetic and design which is fine. Of course there are differences. I just never felt like modern JRPGs are lacking in comparison.
This might sound weird, but I miss the perceived "danger".
FF7 touching on real life class politics ("can't go anywhere the train tracks don't take you"). Xenogears (and later I'd discover SMT) taking Evangelion like shots across the bow of western religions. Fan service like the bromides in Lunar was hidden around the periphery of the game and felt like you discovered something that "shouldn't be there". Heck, even the anime of the time having a big fat parental advisory sticker on the boxes at Blockbuster, because they assumed the Final Fantasy Legend of the Crystals OVA must be Akira or something.
In the 90s Japanese RPGs felt like counter culture. Now everything feels like a known quantity, and so it's inherently less exciting.
FF7 touching on real life class politics ("can't go anywhere the train tracks don't take you"). Xenogears (and later I'd discover SMT) taking Evangelion like shots across the bow of western religions. Fan service like the bromides in Lunar was hidden around the periphery of the game and felt like you discovered something that "shouldn't be there". Heck, even the anime of the time having a big fat parental advisory sticker on the boxes at Blockbuster, because they assumed the Final Fantasy Legend of the Crystals OVA must be Akira or something.
In the 90s Japanese RPGs felt like counter culture. Now everything feels like a known quantity, and so it's inherently less exciting.