Quote Originally Posted by Iceglow View Post
The thing of note in this topic is not what platform is dominating in JRPGs these days because frankly thats the DS or the PSP it'd be a tough call it's merely why aren't JRPGs as popular as they were on the PS1/2 era. I think it's just the release of so many good console western rpgs nailing their eastern counterparts in many ways. Western RPGs tend to be real time based, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, Oblivion for 3 examples of this, you can attack, run and everything in real time, JRPGs especially those manufactured by SE lately are trying to emulate this setup and the setup of MMORPGs such as WoW a lot and frankly it's not working well for them. Those who like JRPGs come to expect and love the turn based combat systems ect found in them they don't want to be running through with their party trying just keep awake as the AI does the work for them. If JRPGs went back to their roots and took up things like ATB, Turn based, Random Battles ect again perhaps we could see a revival of interest in them however until the time they stop trying to release games in the same vein as Mass Effect a game designed to play like a movie they'll constantly lag behind their western counterparts who often have people who have worked in the hollywood industry to help write, direct and coordinate their efforts. Ironic isn't it that in the handhelds where JRPGs have maintained their roots they do a lot better than on the main consoles where they've become westernized?
I think every generation, you get one or a few genres that dominate due to the popular way of utilizing technology. Right now it's the First-Person-Shooter, even successful "western" RPG's this gen like Mass Effect and Fallout 3 have been branded as part shooter. In the SNES/Sega days it was platformers and beat 'em ups.

And in the PSOne era it was the RPG. The disc based format just worked really well with storing the art files necessary to bring those kinds of games to life, not to mention the pre-rendered cutscene taking the place of limited animation cutscenes from the 16-bit era.

You also have to factor in that Japan hasn't really moved on to this generation yet. The FF guys have spent the last 4 years of their lives figuring out how to do it, while Square itself largely failed with their one attempt (Last Remnant). Tri-Ace has released bombs nearly every time, and Hironobu Sakaguchi signed an arbitrary agreement to try to become relevant again which has also produced mostly mediocre titles.

None of this has managed to get the gaming population at large excited about the genre again.

I think once one studio does a really slam-dunk job we'll see, but until then it'll take Final fantasy XIII to make a bajillion dollars and fool short-sighted businessmen to getting on the money train for us to see a bigger push on current-gen consoles.