"JRPG"'s are a joke compared to what they used to be...

same thing with Anime OP, its boring today, cute girls doing cute things

HaloinventedFPS

There is still good Manga. I like Gantz:

Ehh, the entire series is a banable offense here.....

[QUOTE="HaloinventedFPS"]

same thing with Anime OP, its boring today, cute girls doing cute things

*SNIP TERRIFYING ANIME IMAGE*

drochnathair

I didn't want to quote it again due to paralyzing fear, but I'd just like to state that that image is everything that's horrible about anime in a nutshell.

Lol at anyone who thinks that Anime is all about that.

Is like saying that US games is filled with generic space marines and impossible woman bodies...oh crap

[QUOTE="HaloinventedFPS"]

same thing with Anime OP, its boring today, cute girls doing cute things

Filthybastrd

There is still good Manga. I like Gantz:

Ehh, the entire series is a banable offense here.....

Read some of Gantz and wasn't a fan, but I do agree there are still good manga coming out. Anime has become almost completely moe focused, manga at least has some variety.

[QUOTE="Filthybastrd"]

[QUOTE="HaloinventedFPS"]

same thing with Anime OP, its boring today, cute girls doing cute things

Yangire

There is still good Manga. I like Gantz:

Ehh, the entire series is a banable offense here.....

Read some of Gantz and wasn't a fan, but I do agree there are still good manga coming out. Anime has become almost completely moe focused, manga at least has some variety.

Gantz was amazing at first, second part started so so, but now, i'm not liking it that much, it has become really slow, but still a good Manga.

[QUOTE="Yangire"]

[QUOTE="Filthybastrd"]

There is still good Manga. I like Gantz:

Ehh, the entire series is a banable offense here.....

madsnakehhh

Read some of Gantz and wasn't a fan, but I do agree there are still good manga coming out. Anime has become almost completely moe focused, manga at least has some variety.

Gantz was amazing at first, second part started so so, but now, i'm not liking it that much, it has become really slow, but still a good Manga.

Gantz did'nt really pick for me til after the onion guy and the weird "old movie bird robot fellows" but I do find it an amazing piece of art. After those first two antagonists, it just gets crazier and crazier, depressing and beautifull. I still love it even if it's drawn out quite a bit. Berserk is even worse in that regard. Also, Deadman Wonderland is rather enjoyable to me.

Then again, I even find guilty pleasure in Bleach and Naruto although they're a bit too comical and not at all mature enough. I don't just mean mature in the sense of excessive violence and graphical sex, also the thematics of course ;)

According to Hiroya Oku, Gantz is built around his perception of humanity and I find myself not entirely alien to the message he's trying to convey, dystopic as it is ;)

[QUOTE="madsnakehhh"]

[QUOTE="Yangire"]

Read some of Gantz and wasn't a fan, but I do agree there are still good manga coming out. Anime has become almost completely moe focused, manga at least has some variety.

Filthybastrd

Gantz was amazing at first, second part started so so, but now, i'm not liking it that much, it has become really slow, but still a good Manga.

Gantz did'nt really pick for me til after the onion guy and the weird "old movie bird robot fellows" but I do find it an amazing piece of art. After those first two antagonists, it just gets crazier and crazier, depressing and beautifull. I still love it even if it's drawn out quite a bit. Berserk is even worse in that regard. Also, Deadman Wonderland is rather enjoyable to me.

Then again, I even find guilty pleasure in Bleach and Naruto although they're a bit too comical and not at all mature enough. I don't just mean mature in the sense of excessive violence and graphical sex, also the thematics of course ;)

According to Hiroya Oku, Gantz is built around his perception of humanity and I find myself not entirely alien to the message he's trying to convey, dystopic as it is ;)

Never could get into Berserker, but Gantz grabbed me almost inmediately, i've been hearing good things about Deadman Wonderland, so i'll check it out soon, first i want to try Puella Magi Madoka, which it looks like the average moe stuff much more deeper and violent from what i've read.

Yeah, Naruto and Bleach are a good read, i mean, is not like they take you more than 5 minutes to read the chapters, but for Shonen i take Fairy Tail and Soul Eater, in fact, i like Soul Eater a lot, it's probably my current favorite manga.

You guys should try out I Am a Hero

Oyasumi Punpun

Freesia

Nijigahara Holograph

Himizu

God's Children

Ultra Heaven

same thing with Anime OP, its boring today, cute girls doing cute things

HaloinventedFPS

Yea all anime is exacly like that now:roll:

I will see this thread again in 20 years from now.

"I miss the old JRPs, we had plenity of gems back int he PS2, PS3 era" :roll:

madsnakehhh

wouldint be shocked if that happend.

You guys should try out *snip*

Yangire

Oo, I don't know a single one of those. So, me being fascinated with the occult, the morbid and the supernatural, will I like soe of these?

Also, I enjoy Holyland eventhough it's meant for a slighty younger audience than me.

Ichi the Killer is real good too if you can stomach the excessiveness and I think Oldboy is worth a look seing as the movie adaption is amazing (actually, the Ichi movie is damn good too but I think I have a rather sick taste in that case).

Edit: Biomeat is'nt all that shabby either. Some day, I'll also force myself to read Fourteen (that horror manga about a piece cloned chicken breast meat that evolves into a genious humanoid) even if I hate the way it's drawn.

[QUOTE="Yangire"]

You guys should try out *snip*

Filthybastrd

Oo, I don't know a single one of those. So, me being fascinated with the occult, the morbid and the supernatural, will I like soe of these?

Also, I enjoy Holyland eventhough it's meant for a slighty younger audience than me.

Ichi the Killer is real good too if you can stomach the excessiveness and I think Oldboy is worth a look seing as the movie adaption is amazing (actually, the Ichi movie is damn good too but I think I have a rather sick taste in that case).

Pretty much all of these are dark and have psychological themes, but I'll explain past that anyways. Also I'm going to steal a description so you can get a better idea of what the story is like without spoilers:

I Am a Hero has supernatural/psychological themes to it.

"Hideo Suzuki is a thirty-five year old mangaka assistant struggling to be the hero in his own life by breaking back into the lime light with a new serial all the while juggling his relationship with his girlfriend and his own delusions.

However, as hard as Hideo may try, the world seems to have a different set of plans for him; sinister and dark machinations that completely overturn his reality as he knows it."

Oyasumi Punpun is a romance/psychological manga that is pretty light hearted at the start of the manga but later in the characters life it gets pretty dark. One of my favorite manga, the main character is drawn as a chicken like animal (take that as you wish).

"Witness the titular Punpun - who is depicted as a tiny, caricatured bird in an otherwise normal human setting - as he copes with his dysfunctional family and friends, his love interest, his oncoming adolescence and his hyperactive mind."

Freesia is a crime/psychological and I guess triller? It's extremely dark, has some nudity too if your against that or something.

"Freesia is set in an alternative Japanese society that is at war, and has passed a law legalizing retaliatory killings. If somebody kills your loved one, you are legally sanctioned to kill, or hire someone to kill, the victimizer. The manga is set around a character who works for a firm that specializes in these retaliatory killings."

Nijigahara Holograph is a really trippy manga, it also has pyschological and supernatural elements. The whole story is pretty complex and told in a way that multiple reads are needed to really understand it.

"Suzuki is a troubled boy. He's lived with uncaring foster parents for most of his life, alienated from the other kids at his school, owner of a cynical, unhappy mentality. Komatsuzaki is a violent, unpredictable bully whose head trauma causes him to act in mysterious, inexplicable ways. Arakawa is a no-nonsense, normal girl who pines after Komatsuzaki but can never have him. A teacher with just one working eye. A mother who committed suicide. A daughter in an endless coma. Attempted rapes, murders, extortion, sexual deviance, and a freakish explosion in the butterfly population. All of these elements are whirled together in a story spanning 10 years, a tale of blackness, pain, and apocalypse. And maybe just a bit of hope and redemption."

Himizu is somewhat similar to Punpun as it gets darker over time, the start of the manga has some really weird facial expressions (it loses that over time).

"Every day in Japan, 2500 people die due to any number of causes. Do you think you'll be one of the ones to die? No, of course not. Do you think you'll win the lottery? You'd like to think so, we all would. But Sumida is different. He wants the status quo to remain in every way; live a normal life, get a normal job, have normal kids, never to be anyone fortunate or unfortunate, content in normalcy. Anyone who doesn't agree is foolish, doomed to live their life scraping up a mountain that they can never conquer, fated to die in despair wishing things had been better.

When his mother kicks his father out of the house and onto the streets, he thinks he'll be fine. When his mother leaves him to live with her boyfriend, he makes the best of it. When he realizes that he's no longer average, he strives to make his life worthwhile the only way he knows how. When the demons in the back of his mind speak to him, he tries his best to ignore them."

God's **CHILD** (accidentally said children) is a psychological manga that follows a disturbed child on his path of becoming a cult leader/serial killer. Probably the darkest manga on the list, has homosexuality, rape, nudity, and gore.

Ultra Heaven is similar to Nijigahara Holograph with it taking multiple reads, I don't want to spoil anything about the story so just read it.

P.S. All of these are translated, just google search to find them.

jrpgs are some of my favorite games, and there are many of em from past gens that im looking forward to playing, also, the persona games may be on the ps2 but persona 3 and 4 are some extremly fine games, and theyve only been out for a few years

[QUOTE="Filthybastrd"]

[QUOTE="Yangire"]

You guys should try out *snip*

Yangire

Oo, I don't know a single one of those. So, me being fascinated with the occult, the morbid and the supernatural, will I like soe of these?

Also, I enjoy Holyland eventhough it's meant for a slighty younger audience than me.

Ichi the Killer is real good too if you can stomach the excessiveness and I think Oldboy is worth a look seing as the movie adaption is amazing (actually, the Ichi movie is damn good too but I think I have a rather sick taste in that case).

Pretty much all of these are dark and have psychological themes, but I'll explain past that anyways. Also I'm going to steal a description so you can get a better idea of what the story is like without spoilers:

I Am a Hero has supernatural/psychological themes to it.

"Hideo Suzuki is a thirty-five year old mangaka assistant struggling to be the hero in his own life by breaking back into the lime light with a new serial all the while juggling his relationship with his girlfriend and his own delusions.

However, as hard as Hideo may try, the world seems to have a different set of plans for him; sinister and dark machinations that completely overturn his reality as he knows it."

Oyasumi Punpun is a romance/psychological manga that is pretty light hearted at the start of the manga but later in the characters life it gets pretty dark. One of my favorite manga, the main character is drawn as a chicken like animal (take that as you wish).

"Witness the titular Punpun - who is depicted as a tiny, caricatured bird in an otherwise normal human setting - as he copes with his dysfunctional family and friends, his love interest, his oncoming adolescence and his hyperactive mind."

Freesia is a crime/psychological and I guess triller? It's extremely dark, has some nudity too if your against that or something.

"Freesia is set in an alternative Japanese society that is at war, and has passed a law legalizing retaliatory killings. If somebody kills your loved one, you are legally sanctioned to kill, or hire someone to kill, the victimizer. The manga is set around a character who works for a firm that specializes in these retaliatory killings."

Nijigahara Holograph is a really trippy manga, it also has pyschological and supernatural elements. The whole story is pretty complex and told in a way that multiple reads are needed to really understand it.

"Suzuki is a troubled boy. He's lived with uncaring foster parents for most of his life, alienated from the other kids at his school, owner of a cynical, unhappy mentality. Komatsuzaki is a violent, unpredictable bully whose head trauma causes him to act in mysterious, inexplicable ways. Arakawa is a no-nonsense, normal girl who pines after Komatsuzaki but can never have him. A teacher with just one working eye. A mother who committed suicide. A daughter in an endless coma. Attempted rapes, murders, extortion, sexual deviance, and a freakish explosion in the butterfly population. All of these elements are whirled together in a story spanning 10 years, a tale of blackness, pain, and apocalypse. And maybe just a bit of hope and redemption."

Himizu is somewhat similar to Punpun as it gets darker over time, the start of the manga has some really weird facial expressions (it loses that over time).

"Every day in Japan, 2500 people die due to any number of causes. Do you think you'll be one of the ones to die? No, of course not. Do you think you'll win the lottery? You'd like to think so, we all would. But Sumida is different. He wants the status quo to remain in every way; live a normal life, get a normal job, have normal kids, never to be anyone fortunate or unfortunate, content in normalcy. Anyone who doesn't agree is foolish, doomed to live their life scraping up a mountain that they can never conquer, fated to die in despair wishing things had been better.

When his mother kicks his father out of the house and onto the streets, he thinks he'll be fine. When his mother leaves him to live with her boyfriend, he makes the best of it. When he realizes that he's no longer average, he strives to make his life worthwhile the only way he knows how. When the demons in the back of his mind speak to him, he tries his best to ignore them."

God's **CHILD** (accidentally said children) is a psychological manga that follows a disturbed child on his path of becoming a cult leader/serial killer. Probably the darkest manga on the list, has homosexuality, rape, nudity, and gore.

Ultra Heaven is similar to Nijigahara Holograph with it taking multiple reads, I don't want to spoil anything about the story so just read it.

P.S. All of these are translated, just google search to find them.

Cheers mate :) I had to bookmark this.

same thing with Anime OP, its boring today, cute girls doing cute things

HaloinventedFPS

1: The anime industry has exploded since late 90s/ eairly2000s. With a ton more anime being released then before (both good and bad). Anime production values have skyrocketed also, both original studios and US dubbers.

2. Many of the great studios didn't even exist till after 2000 like studio Bones (FMA, FMABH,Eureka7, Wolf's Rain, Ouran, Soul Eater, Sword of the stranger, ect)

3. Alucard and Rail Tracer disagree with your statement

4.The Girl on the far right is Makoto from Kanon 2006

Which is one of the highest rated anime of all time. Even higher rated then the Akira Movie

Kanon2006

Akira

Compare the rating chart, Kanon 2006 blows it out of the water. Makoto's part is particularly touching

Anime Industry has grown up like the game industry. Now there is alot of shovel wear mixed in jems. Just use common sense in your filtering

We should almost partition to have this last page moved to an OT sticky called "Manga/Anime" reccomendations ;)

[QUOTE="Dibdibdobdobo"]

[QUOTE="sanim02"]

A joke? Surely that's a hyperbole right?:?

sanim02

Dont get what you mean with the Hyperbole comment?!

I don't understand the extra exclamation point, but that's alright!:P

There have been great JRPG's on consoles, surely not as many awesome ones as on handhelds (then again VC is top tier), however that just debunks the idea of them being a joke. Now if it didn't have any at all or really sub-par ones only, then I'd agree but there are very good JRPG's on the PS3/360 and hell the Wii got Last Story and soon Xenoblade!:) Probably not many, but it doesn't mean they are a joke!

Sorry, i wasnt being sarcastic.

I think the only JRPG which i wanted to play which havent got around too is Demon Souls which i cannot, The rest of Genre on consoles hasnt made me want to buy any or been stuck on the side not being played (pay day tomorrow so reccomend one on the 360 to try), I've even had quick browse on JRPG which have been reviewed but i suppose thats a bad thing to do. I've loved Monster Hunter Tri and spent 200+ hours upon it (going to play now).

I suppose you have more knowledge on the situation than I.

Those 2 JRPG's on Wii look good, I wonder if they will have Nintendos usual polish.

It is very strange why the absolute height of story in a RPG remains Planescape Torment, which is over a decade old.

Lucianu

What is the "absolute height of story in a RPG" supposed to mean? I've seen many gamers say the exact same thing about the likes of Xenogears / Xenosaga, FF VI / VII / X / Tactics, Suikoden II / III, Persona 3 / 4, etc.

Back in those good old JRPG days western RPG games were a joke on consoles, oh wait, consoles were too weak to play WRPG's back then. The one example that proves JRPG's have a future is Demon's Souls, which in my humble opinion, is the best RPG of this generation. (I liked Oblivion and Mass Effect series too)

zekere

Which era do you mean? If you mean the SNES era, then that's probably true. But if you mean the PS1 era, then it's the complete opposite, as PC RPGs were still mainly using 2D graphics many years after PS1 RPGs had moved on to 3D.

4.The Girl on the far right is Makoto from Kanon 2006

Which is one of the highest rated anime of all time. Even higher rated then the Akira Movie

Kanon2006

Akira

Compare the rating chart, Kanon 2006 blows it out of the water. Makoto's part is particularly touching

Anime Industry has grown up like the game industry. Now there is alot of shovel wear mixed in jems. Just use common sense in your filtering

dercoo

I figured the girl on the right was from Kanon, but what anime does that little girl (with the creepy-looking eyes) on the left side come from?

Kanon is a very good anime, but you can't really compare it to Akira since they're both completely different genres (i.e. apples and oranges). However, I do get where you're coming from (i.e. how often people judge a book by its cover). I was initially also put off by Kanon's "moe" cliches, but by the end of the day, what matters most is the narrative and characterization, which Kanon pulled off surprisingly well. And Clannad (based on a visual-novel game by the same creator) did an even better job of that, which is why Clannad After Story was the highest-ranking anime for quite some time.

Still no manga surpasses phoneix(Hi no tori) for... 40+ years..?

I can't say I'm as excited for them as I used to be, though I've still played a few good ones. There are some others I still need to check out for myself as welll.

[QUOTE="Captainqwark10"]

[QUOTE="theuncharted34"]

say what? valkyria chronicals was outstanding. one of the best games this generation.

besides that, we have pokemon black which is also outstanding. and I'm not a personal fan of demons souls, but I can acknowledge it as an outstanding game.

a new paper mario is coming out soon, which I'm sure will be incredible and be one of my favorite games ever :D

not to mention this gen we have criminally underrated games like NIER for example. the point is, we have had many great - outstanding jrpg's this gen. (although A LOT of them are on the ds)

theuncharted34

you haven't played pokemon white or black so you have no idea about the improvements to the formula, or how it has a much better soundtrack than the past 2 generations of the pokemon games. in general it's the best one since gold and silver.

[QUOTE="Yangire"]

You guys should try out *snip*

Filthybastrd

Oo, I don't know a single one of those. So, me being fascinated with the occult, the morbid and the supernatural, will I like soe of these?

Also, I enjoy Holyland eventhough it's meant for a slighty younger audience than me.

Ichi the Killer is real good too if you can stomach the excessiveness and I think Oldboy is worth a look seing as the movie adaption is amazing (actually, the Ichi movie is damn good too but I think I have a rather sick taste in that case).

Edit: Biomeat is'nt all that shabby either. Some day, I'll also force myself to read Fourteen (that horror manga about a piece cloned chicken breast meat that evolves into a genious humanoid) even if I hate the way it's drawn.

You should check Tokyo Red Hood, pretty disturbing stuff too, and it's short (4 volumes), but warning, extreme gore, nudity and other sick stuffs, but pretty good read.

The plott? just imagine Hellsing + Little Red Riding Hood

Most everything is a joke compared to what it used to be.

Compare MW2 to Quake III and tell me the FPS genre has gotten better.

Yeah there are quite a few JRPG's that don't come close in quality from previous games. But there is one upcoming game that looks amazing and Japan is lucky to have it already, Xenoblade. This game looks amazing. It has a very interesting gameplay and it has something every JRPG should have and it's that huge overworld. It's humongous and top it off with one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard from a JRPG. With lots of sidequest this game can easly last you 80-90 hours in one playthrough. Hopefully Ninty will finally announce the game for the states and I'm positive it's going to happen at E3.

Becoming? Western Devs have ALWAYS been the super power. Unless you are talking in terms of Rpgs then that would depend if you include PC.Captainqwark10

So basically your excuse is that it has a better soundtrack. You provided no reason in detail as to how Pokemon changed its formula. Why? Because it didn't/ Remove the fanboy glasses. It doesn't matter that it may be fun to play to you, the point is that Pokemon and other Handheld rpgs are the exact one everyone has been complaining about. On consoles it's an issue, on handhelds it's not. Hypocrisy.Captainqwark10

I've played Tales of Vesperia, the World Ends with You, Lost Oddesy and those games are jokes compared to Final Fantast 6, Chrono Trigger, Panzer Dragoon Saga.

Even Valkeria Chronicles was good but compared to the greats I just mentioned was barely noteworthy.

Back in the day Jrpgs weren't great because they had great characters, great story, great gameplay. Todays Jrpgs feel boring and shallow like a saturday morning Anime.

Pray_to_me

So are WRPGs. To be honest I would argue WRPGs are in a worse state than JRPGs. Up until this gen I have always prefered WRPGs over JRPGs. This gen I prefer JRPGs over WRPGs. Obsidian, Basilisk Games, Soldak, Pirahna Bytes, CD Projekt and Taleworlds are the only WRPG devs I like. While SEGA, Nintendo, Game Freak, Square (their handheld games that is), Level 5, EasyGameStation, From Software (if you consider Demon's Souls JRPG), Atlus and Mistwalker are the JRPG devs I still like.

I think a lot of people are just caught up in the "nostalgia" factor when it comes to JRPG's.

[QUOTE="Lucianu"]

It is very strange why the absolute height of story in a RPG remains Planescape Torment, which is over a decade old.

Jag85

What is the "absolute height of story in a RPG" supposed to mean? I've seen many gamers say the exact same thing about the likes of Xenogears / Xenosaga, FF VI / VII / X / Tactics, Suikoden II / III, Persona 3 / 4, etc.

It means the absolute height of story in a RPG, well, i'm talking about western oriented RPGs. Xenogears, another game i have in my top 5 games of all times, is the absolute height of story in japanese oriented games, and arguably the 2nd best story in a RPG of all times because of its mind boggling complexity and ridiculous amount of depth.

There are no story told in video games, either from the past or today, that can even begin to compare to both Planescape and Xenogears.. And i'll add Deus Ex. FF VII is nothing, i liked it, but it simply does not compare. and FFVI has such a predictable story. Point is, most of these stories, wether you love them or not, follow a specific pattern that people could digest easily. On the other hand, Planescape, Xenogears and Deus Ex do not follow such a pattern.. Planescape in particular, has a extraordinary original story, wile Xenogears obliterates the barrier of video game stories by having many psychological aspects that offers incredible depth, and Deus Ex offered a conspiracy story with many twists and turns seemingly blending into the gameplay, with its multitude of ways to progress trough it, unrivaled to this day.

Others could, and will have other views, most likely contradictory to mine anyway, but to me, it's curios why no game has touched these games yet. Afterall, i can have a clear view without nostalgia in my eyes, because i have played them all in 2008 - 2011, well after playing many games .I was late to gaming, so i catched up.

[QUOTE="Jag85"]

[QUOTE="Lucianu"]

It is very strange why the absolute height of story in a RPG remains Planescape Torment, which is over a decade old.

Lucianu

What is the "absolute height of story in a RPG" supposed to mean? I've seen many gamers say the exact same thing about the likes of Xenogears / Xenosaga, FF VI / VII / X / Tactics, Suikoden II / III, Persona 3 / 4, etc.

It means the absolute height of story in a RPG, well, i'm talking about western oriented RPGs. Xenogears, another game i have in my top 5 games of all times, is the absolute height of story in japanese oriented games, and arguably the 2nd best story in a RPG of all times because of its mind boggling complexity and ridiculous amount of depth.

There are no story told in video games, either from the past or today, that can even begin to compare to both Planescape and Xenogears.. And i'll add Deus Ex. FF VII is nothing, i liked it, but it simply does not compare. and FFVI has such a predictable story. Point is, most of these stories, wether you love them or not, follow a specific pattern that people could digest easily. On the other hand, Planescape, Xenogears and Deus Ex do not follow such a pattern.. Planescape in particular, has a extraordinary original story, wile Xenogears obliterates the barrier of video game stories by having many psychological aspects that offers incredible depth, and Deus Ex offered a conspiracy story with many twists and turns seemingly blending into the gameplay, with its multitude of ways to progress trough it, unrivaled to this day.

Others could, and will have other views, most likely contradictory to mine anyway, but to me, it's curios why no game has touched these games yet. Afterall, i can have a clear view without nostalgia in my eyes, because i have played them all in 2008 - 2011, well after playing many games .I was late to gaming, so i catched up.

I think a lot of people are just caught up in the "nostalgia" factor when it comes to JRPG's.

Bladebri

I think it also has a lot to do with how many JRPGs in general were released in the West compared to how much are released here today. Back in the day, Nintendo of America would carefully select only a handful of JRPGs that are most likely to appeal to Americans when they localized them for American audiences. While Nintendo of America often made a lot of good decisions (bringing over FFIV, FFVI, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, etc.), they also made a lot of bad ones (releasing FF Mystic Quest instead of FFV, releasing Secret of Evermore instead of Secret of Mana's true sequel Seiken Densetsu 3, and ignoring a lot of other gems they thought were 'too Japanese', like Fire Emblem, Shin Megami Tensei, Romancing SaGa, Glory of Heracles, Live-A-Live, Tales of Phantasia, Star Ocean, etc.). It was even worse for us Europeans, who had very little exposure to JRPGs in general until FFVII, besides rare exceptions like Secret of Mana or Mystic Quest Legend (the Euro name for FF Mystic Quest). Ever since the RPG explosion of the late 90s, largely due to FFVII's success, all kinds of JRPGs have been localized for Western release, including the gems, the trash (which almost always outnumber the gems in nearly all genres), and the games that are just 'too Japanese' (which has only been escalated with the advent of cut scenes and especially voice acting, where Japanese speech patterns often don't translate well into English).

It means the absolute height of story in a RPG, well, i'm talking about western oriented RPGs. Xenogears, another game i have in my top 5 games of all times, is the absolute height of story in japanese oriented games, and arguably the 2nd best story in a RPG of all times because of its mind boggling complexity and ridiculous amount of depth.

There are no story told in video games, either from the past or today, that can even begin to compare to both Planescape and Xenogears.. And i'll add Deus Ex. FF VII is nothing, i liked it, but it simply does not compare. and FFVI has such a predictable story. Point is, most of these stories, wether you love them or not, follow a specific pattern that people could digest easily. On the other hand, Planescape, Xenogears and Deus Ex do not follow such a pattern.. Planescape in particular, has a extraordinary original story, wile Xenogears obliterates the barrier of video game stories by having many psychological aspects that offers incredible depth, and Deus Ex offered a conspiracy story with many twists and turns seemingly blending into the gameplay, with its multitude of ways to progress trough it, unrivaled to this day.

Others could, and will have other views, most likely contradictory to mine anyway, but to me, it's curios why no game has touched these games yet. Afterall, i can have a clear view without nostalgia in my eyes, because i have played them all in 2008 - 2011, well after playing many games .I was late to gaming, so i catched up.

Lucianu

I think japan at this point has a hell of alot bigger problems at this point then there rpgs. Pray for them

I think japan at this point has a hell of alot bigger problems at this point then there rpgs. Pray for them

Advid-Gamer

While I don't necessarily agree about them being the "absolute height" of RPG storytelling (nor do I agree about them being "extraordinary original" or having the deepest plots in the genre), I do agree they are quite easily in the top tier of RPG storytelling. However, I'd have to disagree if you mean video games in general, because there are other genres out there that are far more story-oriented than RPGs, particularly adventure games (among Western games) and visual novels (among Japanese games). Unfortunately, adventure games and visual novels are somewhat niche genres, so they don't get the same kind of attention among gamers that RPGs often get, but they are usually more well-written and sophisticated than RPGs when it comes to storytelling.

Jag85

Yes, i should have worded it clearer, i only meant it to be for their genre in the video game realm, not in general for all genres. I always keep adventure games in mind, because usually praised adventure titles have a far superior story compared to other praised games in other genres, simply because they are closer to books and movies than any genre (books are the ultimate way to convey a story, wile movies are the second), afterall they are heavily focused on telling a story, rather then relying on gameplay elements.

A top 10 list of greatest stories ever told without one single adventure game, is a horribly wrong list, weather its opinion or not.