Sadly that's practically most Japanese companies. The ones that can have bigger budgets don't really make rpgs these days.
PS3 HD gen really did many devs in and pivoting to portable (DS/PSP) wasn't a sustainable strategy.
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Who has been Square's biggest rival in the RPG game throughout the years?
- Thread starter Squarehard
- Start date
Sadly that's practically most Japanese companies. The ones that can have bigger budgets don't really make rpgs these days.
PS3 HD gen really did many devs in and pivoting to portable (DS/PSP) wasn't a sustainable strategy.
It was for a very brief period of time, but I'd say that Game Arts did Square's whole epic, big budget JRPG thing exceptionally well. Lunar: Eternal Blue is arguably the best 16-bit JRPG ever and has a lot of tech that SE wasn't doing (anime cutscenes, voice acting, CD music) and Grandia 1 is arguably the best JRPG of its generation and its use of 2.5D graphics is better than SE's Xenogears, especially if you look at the Saturn version.
I have always considered Megaman Legends and Legends 2 to be RPGs. It may be char action in gameplay but there's upgrades, a linear plot, sidequests and so on.
Used to be Enix, but I don't think they really have one now at least with the same production values. Nintendo with Xenoblade maybe I guess.
DS/PSP was completely sustainable which was a good almost 10 years, after that a combination of politics and the WW market being mixed on handhelds threatened that until the switch managed to save it once again
Well, not on Era.
Nintendo franchises are well ranked very often. :) (deserved)
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Like Atlus, they are not on the same level right now but they could be more dangerous in the next few years as they keep selling well and having excellent reception among fans.
Destiny of an Emperor, Sweet Home, Onimusha Tactics, Mega Man Battle Nework / Star Force / X: Command Mission.
Idea Factory/Compile Heart... :P j/k
Honestly, I think Square's biggest rival is themselves. So many strange and absent-minded decisions, especially in the 360/PS3 era. Thankfully they seem to have a bit of their mojo back recently (Octopath, DQ11, DQ Builders, and Nier Automata were some of my recent favorites, and I'm loving how they've been showing SaGa a lot of tlc lately).
I was trying to think of western RPG devs, but out of the ones that come to mind, we have Bioware (remember in the 360/PS3 era people were calling them "the new Square"? lmao) which totally floundered, and both Bethesda/CD Projekt whose release schedules aren't nearly as stacked as SE, have only one or two big RPGs, and don't really have the 'legacy' IPs to pad their release schedule. (though I'd still love a Witcher 1 remake)
So I guess that really leaves Nintendo. They're the only other company that puts out a variety of big, successful RPGs on a regular basis - Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, the Mario RPGs... and even some strange one-offs like Tomato Adventure. It's a stretch but you could even consider Ring Fit and Astral Chain RPGs. Kinda funny how this was the company whose former and longest-serving president once claimed it was a genre for depressed gamers in dark rooms.
There are some smaller RPG devs that have big franchises and a steady release schedule - Falcom and Gust for example - and even though their games are praised they're still a bit "niche" compared to Square and Nintendo.
Honestly, I think Square's biggest rival is themselves. So many strange and absent-minded decisions, especially in the 360/PS3 era. Thankfully they seem to have a bit of their mojo back recently (Octopath, DQ11, DQ Builders, and Nier Automata were some of my recent favorites, and I'm loving how they've been showing SaGa a lot of tlc lately).
I was trying to think of western RPG devs, but out of the ones that come to mind, we have Bioware (remember in the 360/PS3 era people were calling them "the new Square"? lmao) which totally floundered, and both Bethesda/CD Projekt whose release schedules aren't nearly as stacked as SE, have only one or two big RPGs, and don't really have the 'legacy' IPs to pad their release schedule. (though I'd still love a Witcher 1 remake)
So I guess that really leaves Nintendo. They're the only other company that puts out a variety of big, successful RPGs on a regular basis - Pokemon, Fire Emblem, Xenoblade, the Mario RPGs... and even some strange one-offs like Tomato Adventure. It's a stretch but you could even consider Ring Fit and Astral Chain RPGs. Kinda funny how this was the company whose former and longest-serving president once claimed it was a genre for depressed gamers in dark rooms.
There are some smaller RPG devs that have big franchises and a steady release schedule - Falcom and Gust for example - and even though their games are praised they're still a bit "niche" compared to Square and Nintendo.