Operation Darkness, an SRPG with an M rating in Japan

The author was just referring to past RPGs on the X360, but yes - Oblivion is another one worth mentioning among the RPG list.

I had to laugh for a moment at the game's artwork... and the chick with the ghetto booty. Kinda reminds me of HTK's stuff from Magna Carta & War of GenesisIII.

Dude, that's way too small to be ghetto booty. More like waif booty.

He says XBOX 360 is the best current-gen console of choice for JRPG's.

It's like you're trying to convince Kenny that a Pear is the best vegetable.

No I think it's like arguing tomato is a vegetable... Except it's legal precedent in US tariff laws that it falls under vegetables and not fruits.

Yes, my eyes naturally shifted to the same spot in the image, but 'procarious'? Perhaps if it were a more alliterative misspelling, her procarious protrusion, for instance.

Anyhow, one thing I don't mind in my JRPG's is callipygian females. Or in my life in general.

I'm bad at pronunciations...
How does one pronounce the word callipygian?

http://m-w.com/dictionary/callipygian

Click the sound icon.

Gratsi.

Agreed

360 owners only like to shoot things and drive cars. Which is 95% of the games on that console.

The height of ignorance. I like ALL types of games. There are different types of games for the 360 and if you can't see that (or in your case choose not to see it) then you're ignorant.

There are over 11 million 360 owners. NOT all of them are hardcore FPS fanatics. I bought my 360 because there are fighting games, adventure games, RPG's, and other games that I'm interested in buying.

So really its your loss.

I plan on buying my 360 for RPGs. If it weren't for Blue Dragon and Mass Effect, I might've considered the PS3 (not anymore), but once the spiritual successors of Chrono Trigger and KOTOR were announced, well, as the kids these days say, fuck that. Those are two games I literally HAVE to buy, no questiosn asked, everything else being announced and released is just icing on the cake.

As J.Goodwin stated, the Xbox 360 actually has far more RPGs than the PS3. And more coming. I did a basic rundown the other day, and this is what I came up with (keeping in mind that I didn't factor in strategy-RPGs, and some of the projects are still tentative):

~~~~~
RPG -
~~~~~
Absolute: Blazing Infinity

The Last Remnant

Eternal Sonata

Blue Dragon

Lost Odyssey

Diario: Rebirth Moon Legend

Enchanted Arms

Far East of Eden Ziria: Tales from Distant Jipang

Infinite Undiscovery

Naruto: Rise of the Ninja

Phantasy Star Universe

Precursors

Rise of the Argonauts

Spectral Force 3: Innocent Rage

Two Worlds

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Action-RPG -
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fable 2

Cry On

Elveon

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom

Too Human

Mass Effect

~~~~~~~~
MMORPG -
~~~~~~~~
Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures

Final Fantasy XI

Marvel Universe Online

~~~~~~~~~~~
Tentative -
~~~~~~~~~~~
Alien RPG (working title)

Project Offset (Working title)

Mistwalker MMORPG (Working title)

Blue Dragon 2

The Lord of the Rings: The White Council

And yes, many of those are JRPGs.

Well, thanks.

The way I see it, one of the likely top 15 RPGs of the current generation (Wii, 360, PS3) is already out on both 360 and PS3 (Oblivion), you probably have three more of them coming out on 360 this year (Lost Odyssey, Blue Dragon, Mass Effect). Another three the likely top 15 are coming probably by next Christmas or Spring 2009 (Fallout, Cry On, and Fable 2).

Wii has Twilight Princess, which I'm not sure whether to classify as an RPG or an adventure game, but since I included Fable 2, we'll just say it's an RPG (even though unlike Fable, it doesn't have level progression).

Then you have Square, who are probably going to produce many of the rest of the top 15, barring sequels to Blue Dragon, Mass Effect, or Oblivion this generation. FF13, Versus 13 appear to be PS3 exclusives. Their other big project (Last Remnant) is already confirmed multi-platform. White Knight is a PS3 exclusive.

Many of the smaller (if you can also call Namco and SEGA smaller) RPG developers in Japan have already committed to exclusive or cross platform RPG titles on 360, including Hudson, SEGA, Namco, Idea Factory, Banpresto, and Success.

Then you have the pipeline of weird Euro RPGs like Two Worlds, The Witcher etc.

The Xbox was not an RPG platform, even though it had three of the best (and best selling) RPGs of last generation on it (Morrowind and KOTOR, and I'd say that Fable was well worth playing even if it wasn't what was "promised"). The 360 is not the Xbox.

I couldn't agree with you more, J.Goodwin. As we all know there's this negative stigma towards the Xbox 360 due to the shortcomings of the original Xbox. People think it's this "hardcore" machine, that's only for FPS and racing fanatics. But while that may have been somewhat true for the original (and even then, people were over-simplifying it)... the 360 is a different beast entirely.

More and more Japanese developers are starting to see it less as "that American hardcore machine", and more as a viable opportunity to sell more games on multiple systems.

You see, I've been following Microsoft's progress to some degree and they've been making great strides. Blue Dragon was a MAJOR hit for a new brand in Japan, especially one on a Microsoft console. With it they started breaking down the Japanese preconceptions of what the Xbox is. With that and other JRPGs, not to mention other Japanese games in general (Devil May Cry 4, Beautiful Katamari, Resident Evil 5, etc) people are starting to see that regional-make doesn't really matter.

And beyond that they've also been making strides in reaching different demographics. Viva Pinata, the upcoming Banjo-Kazooie 3, those are designed to show people that the 360 ISN'T just some machine for adult FPS fans only. Kids, teens, adults... it's for everyone. But the clever marketing doesn't stop there; oh no, it most certainly does not. They've created the Blue Dragon anime and the Viva Pinata cartoon series, both of which lure in a that younger demographic.

All of these things, they're all small progressions. But collectively, they're making a real difference. One Japanese gamer buys Blue Dragon, tells his friends the system isn't what they thought it was, then they tell a friend, who happens to be watching the anime series, who finds out the only way to get his favorite new product is to buy a 360. It's ingenious, really.

And back to the topic at hand, yes, there are certainly many JRPGs and hits in general on the Xbox 360. Many of which are not, and will not be available on any other console (Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Fable 2, Eternal Sonata, and so on); those are all heavy hitters.

So while I suspect eventually the PS3 will have as many or more RPG games, I'd have to agree with many of the people here that say the 360 is the NEXT-GEN console of choice for RPGs. White Knight Story is made by Sony themselves, and while unlikely the Final Fantasy brand could go multi-platform (Last Remnant may be S-E testing the water for future 360 products).

Oh, and J, Zelda is typically described as an Action/adventure-RPG, but it's a disputed claim. While I personally consider it an ARPG, many other do not.

Zelda and it's clones (Neutopia in particular) are sticky wickets because they don't have the same experience and ability mechanics as most other RPGs. Fable and Zelda are very similar in terms of their presentation, but Fable retains experience levels and character ability increases. Oblivion is kind of the same way, it's basically an Action RPG.

Somewhere in between are games like Dungeon Explorer, where you mostly level up at bosses, but you're choosing which abilities to pump up when you do, instead of just increasing your health limit.

Whatever it is, it's a good series.

I'm not sure I agree that 360 is making the advances you claim in Japan though. I think that the introduction of the core model helped spike sales along with Blue Dragon. But, in a lot of ways, the Japanese games are as key to winning over US fans as they are to winning in Japan.

Microsoft screwed the pooch last gen in Japan, bigtime. They made attempts to cultivate RPGs but ended up with things that weren't quite what Japan was looking for (Kingdom Under Fire), that weren't developed in Japan (KuF was out of Korea). I don't know how long Sakaguchi will keep his studio so 360-centric (and DS, but he's not the ONLY guy supporting 360 in the console game and DS in the portable game) though. It's definitely fortunate for that he decided to get back into development when he did, because I think that Square took a few steps back when he was forced out. Someone had to pay for his stupid mistakes, but I don't really think Square has learned from it. What they do now is essentially the same path that he set out in terms of the high reliance on CGI and the theatrical releases. The influx of smart guys from Game Arts doesn't seem to have helped either :/

Nonetheless, the next few Final Fantasy titles (I believe they are all planned to be part of XIII for the next several years, right?) are all going to be huge sellers in Japan and the world over. I'm not debating that at all. Many people have and will buy PS3 just for those games, even though they are still probably two years away.

In the meantime, 360 is going to continue cranking out a respectable catalog of very good RPGs that you should be playing.

Also, I think Eternal Sonata/Trusty Bell is multiplatform. It's a defacto timed exclusive, but I do believe it's coming to PS3.

Well, when I say huge strides, I mean huge strides for Microsoft. Which is to say, are significantly smaller stride-wise than a Japanese brand. What I mean is that their progress will always be hindered in comparison to the other brands, because the Japanese hate foreign products, but that they're still making progress in their own way.

As for Mistwalker, I'm not 100% on this, but I believe they have no choice but to stay exclusive to Microsoft console-wise (handhelds are a different story, as even Microsoft's in-house studios like Rare are allowed to develop for the DS). But anywho, I believe they have no choice but to stay with Microsoft due to the fact that MS funded their studio. It was a joint venture.

As for Eternal Sonata, I personally believe that it will turn out multi-platform, but as of now the only real proof is that the ESRB listed it for the 360 and PS3, and then removed it from the list entirely just as quickly.

Back on the strides for a moment. What I was really talking about wasn't a lot of huge advances, but rather many little ones that are slowly (it's a gradual process) changing the opinion of the Japanese market. Taking the Blue Dragon, the game and anime, for example again... the J-gamers see that it's buy Sakaguchi, Toriyama, and Nobuo Uematsu... they see it for Xbox 360 only and think that perhaps it's not such a terrible product after all.

Perhaps it's not all FPS games. Then maybe one kid tells another that he got a 360 and the other kid reacts with "What!? That stupid foreign gaming system!?" and the first kids explains that it actually does have good games, and the 2nd kid's opinion changes.

It's a small difference, but if one consumer changes the opinion of another, and so on, then eventually the stigma will disappear. I don't think it will ever fully disappear in this generation though. It is my personal belief that the Xbox brand won't be fully accepted until their 3rd console. Again, it's a very gradual process.

No one will ever expect the Spanish Inquisition!
SRPG means Strategy Role-Playing Game. Look at Command & Conquer, Final Fantasy Tactics, FFXII Revenant Wings, etc.

While a Spanish Role Playing Game sounds like a pretty badass idea, it actually stands for Strategy Role Playing Game, such as Final Fantasy Tactics, Disgaea, Fire Emblem, etc.

Appreciate it!

Lol...look at how offbase I was. Tells you how much I know about the genre of RPG.

Well said, Michael. I have a PS2, ,Wii and Xbox (soon to be a 360) because they each offer something unique that you can't get on the other. Brandism is just awful, judging products just because they're published by a certain company... that's not what being a gamer is about. It's about the games, not the brand.

I don't blame Jenny. If Jenny wants to not buy a 360, fine. I don't buy Sony consoles, and it doesn't look like I'll be buying a Nintendo console again anytime soon.

I went from the SMS to the TG16 to the Saturn to the Dreamcast to the Xbox (with every Nintendo console except the NES about a generation after it debuted, except the GameCube, which I bought when it came out and felt utterly cheated by).

I like my RPGs, and I recognize that the PS and PS2 have a larger library of RPGs. Every console has some though, and when you add in PC RPGs, and a smorgasbord of other genres, suddenly your time is full and buying yet another console in order to have a bigger stack of unplayed game is just silly.

If you want to stick with Sony and advocate for them, that's entirely within your rights, and you're not less of a gamer for it, because the PS and PS2 offer a large variety of titles at extremely affordable prices in all sorts of genres.

The PS3 does not. The 360 is doing a much better job of that than the PS3 at this moment, and was doing a better job even in the first 9 months of it's release.

For an RPG gamer that hasn't yet chosen a next-gen platform, they should take a careful look at the 360, because when we look back at this generation, 90% of the best RPG titles will have been on the 360.

That's the stupidest thing i've ever heard. So just because there's a console that doesn't have anything that interest me, then that automatically makes me a fanboy?

So what your saying is that, i'm suppose to buy a 360 even though it doesn't have anything i want to play.

Fuck you!