What would convince you to play JRPGs: Metacritic score >= 90, More than 1,000,000 copies sold, or when you see everyone talking about it positively?

[Azusa]

I will play JRPG only if it wont have any grind at all and constantly evolving gameplay. Most JRPG have boring grind (like in Neptunia games and that's an instant turn off. I don't have time to grind stage/map over and over again.
Usually reviews most of the time think that grind is a must element of JRPG and don't lower scores for excessive grind.

Also I dont understand JRPG that are more focused on story/characters than gameplay. Then you have cool characters, typical JRPG story and poor gameplay. Who plays that? Please include dialogue/cut scene skips in every game.

 

[Airbar]

My decision can not be operationalized that easily. Sure good reviews play a role, as does word-of-mouth in places like Era.
At the same time XB2 reviewed well, has great word of mouth, but all that objectification of women with comically large boobs puts me off the game forever and even makes me wary of any future games they put out.

 

[Deleted member 37151]

I guess I avoid anything that seems to anime. That's a deal breaker for me.

I'd want turn based combat, too.

The last RPG I bought was I am setsuma, though. And I didn't really enjoy it.

 

[Kass]

Just in case anyone's interested.
Persona 5 is on sale on PSN EU for 25 euros until tomorrow.

 

[Deleted member 26394]

None of the above, because:

- Metacritic score is greater than or equal to 90 points.
I don't buy any game based on whether someone else likes it or not.

- When the game has sold over 1,000,000 copies in your region of choice.
An even more insignificant metric.

- When people you know or on forums are talking positively about the game
See point number one.

- When you finally have that gut feeling of needing to try it out.
My gut tells me when to go poop, that's about it...

Which leaves, None of the above. I'll buy it whenever and why-ever I please. I've played plenty or JRPGs and I probably will again if Factorio ever lets go of me... (Must find new ore! Must smelt more! Must fire more rockets!)

 

[Bait02]

The lack of repetitive casual encounters
The lack of hours of grinding / character building
The lack of derivative Jrpg narrative

 

[coregroupnegative]

I'm much more likely to buy an RPG if it is published by Nintendo or developed by Atlus. Usually a good guide to whether it is good or not.

 

[thetrin]

if One of my good friends recommends it, I'll check it out. I already like JRPGs. There just aren't a ton of great ones these days.

 

[Elephant]

I'm a fan of JRPG's but not necessarily a fan of the direction they've taken, with most being "westernised" in an attempt to sell more to a Western audience instead of sticking to what they're good at. To a point that Final Fantasy has become a shadow of it's former self and will never be held in the same reverence that it once was for as long as it continues to double down with the direction they've taken since FFXII.

So now I'm rather selective with the JRPG's that I choose, because I prefer the traditional style. Persona 5 and DQXI were recent fantastic games that really took me back to my JRPG happy place.

Fan and critic praise is usually a good indicator that anything is worth checking out, but it can't always be reliable for my JRPG fix as I found out with the awful Kingdom Hearts III (Yeah I hated it, despite loving the previous 2 all those years ago).

To buy a JRPG these days, I need to fully research the game and make sure it's for me, because the genre has done everything in it's power to try and let me down since the mid 00's. My list of wonderful JRPG's since that time is rather small.


- I didn't vote in the poll. I'm sure it makes sense to you, but none apply here. Especially with the brackets dictating when I buy a game based on your assumption.

 

[TheZodiacAge]

If i am not sold on it through the Name alone i usually will watch > Streams <

Goes for any game that doesn't have a Beta or i didn't try out when there was one.
15-20 mins uncut Content seen on Twitch is usually enough for me to see if i want to play it.

So none of these options matter to me.
With J-RPGs its even likely there is a slight advantage for Japanese People with the Release Date which means you can watch it on Stream long before the usual Reviewers get to experience it anyway.
Metacritic is mostly a joke anway especially with a Genre like that.
Twitch these days is the most powerful way to decide if you need help to decide if you want to play a game.

 

[oni-link]

The idea that there are people who will only buy a game once it's sold an arbitrarily number of units is blowing my mind

What an utterly weird way of deciding what to play

It's weird enough people will skip a game because it 'only' has a meta of 85-89 even if the reviews make it sound like something they'll love

 

[Kill3r7]

When it comes to JRPGs, I just have to try the game(s) myself. I have liked so few of them over the last decade or so that I just can't rely on the opinion of others to decide.

 

[Dezzy]

I've liked games that bombed in sales and reviews, and I've disliked games that had huge sales, high review scores and GOTY awards.

When it comes to any type of RPG, I'm always looking into what's out there, and I know what I like, so I if something looks interesting I just give it a try myself. I love JRPGs so I always look into them.

 

[Ayato_Kanzaki]

Before I decide to buy a game, I will look at the metacritic review (the player reviews, not the score), as well as the screenshots and videos, and the history of the company (for example, I'd buy a Paradox game without worry, but stay away from anything Gameforge-related).
But if I'm going to be frank, the thing that make me started on the process of gathering information in the first place, is that there need to be an attractive girl on the cover. RPGs are all about building up your characters with sweat and more sweat, and I feel little interest in investing in characters whose design leave me indifferent.

 

[Last Jon Standing]

To me, it really narrows down to avoiding tired tropes in the genre, such as:

• Teenager/orphan/amnesiac protagonist
• Stories that start small and end up with you fighting an ancient deity or saving the world
• Stories that play it safe and are just an excuse for the player to kill monsters and enjoy a cool battle system
• Random battles and grind-based gameplay
• Ridiculous, fanservicey character design

I can even give one of these boring elements a pass, especially the boring teen protag, if the game has a good story or well-developed characters.

JRPGs I love: Chrono Trigger/Cross, Final Fantasy XII, Nier, Nier: Automata, Valkyrie Profile 1 and 2: Silmeria, Alundra, Kingdom Hearts, Suikoden 1 and 2, Rogue Galaxy, Radiant Historia, Shining Force, Phantasy Star IV, Vagrant Story, Grandia, Xenogears, Xenosaga, Xenoblade Chronicles, Ys VI: The Ark of Napishtim, Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, Final Fantasy Tactics.

Also, the older I get, the less tolerance I have for turn-based combat. Any post-2010 release with turn-based combat is an instant no for me.

 

[Nature's finest mango]

I'm wondering whether I've bought any such games since Blue Dragon. Which I only played for a couple hours before getting bored.

I probably will never buy another jrpg.

 

[TheBeardedOne]

So you played no JRPGS this gen?! :D

Click to shrink...

I haven't really, no. I played a couple last gen but didn't finish them. Quite a few on PS2.

 

[Goldenroad]

I just started Kingdom Hears 1(.5 Remix) this weekend, so I tend to come to these a little late. The last JRPG that I played at launch was Persona 5 and before that it was Final Fantasy XIII. I tend to not finish most of the ones I start, so I'll usually wait until a very steep discount happens and then if it is still widely considered a "classic" I'll take the plunge. Once I finish every Kingdom Hearts game (shouldn't take too long, right?), I really want to give Dragon Quest XI a shot. The only DQ game I've ever played is V, and I hear this one might be almost as good.