Are Japanese RPGs a Dying Genre in the US?

More or less a reaction based on the sales of Star Ocean 4 and a few other recent JRPGs (both good and bad). I know there are some JRPG fans here, especially of the classics, so I think it would be interesting to discuss why these games are no longer selling as well as they used to.

Granted, anything with Final Fantasy attached to it will probably still sell well. But in the past, a lot of JRPGs not named Final Fantasy still sold relatively well. Skimming a few Wiki pages, it seemed like Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Star Ocean, Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Suikoden (mostly II and III?), Vagrant Story, Breath of Fire (III?) and probably a few others I'm forgetting all sold decently (definitely MUCH more than what some recent JRPGs are selling). I think some might have even sold more in the US than in Japan (I think SO3 did?). Given the sales of some RPGs like Oblivion, Fallout, Mass Effect, Fable, etc., it doesn't seem like US gamers no longer love the basic RPG formula (in fact, they may like it more than ever). So why aren't JRPGs selling better?

The obvious answer is that these games just aren't very good, which is probably a big factor. IIRC, I think the best JRPG released recently is Valkyria Chronicles (which isn't even really a JRPG IMO), and it has a lower Metacritic average than any of the previously mentioned western RPGs I mentioned, if I'm not mistaken. Poor localization and/or little concern for Western audiences might also have something to do with it. For example:
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That video would probably deter anyone from picking up SO4.

Thoughts? Preferably from those of you that actually like(d) JRPGs. If you hated JRPGs in 1992, then you'll probably still hate them. Of course, feel free to comment on some of the mistakes JRPG developers are making when it comes to appealing to US gamers (e.g., too quirky or whatever).

BTW, it is probably pretty obvious by now, but I'm limiting this to console JRPGs...and more specifically, those on the 360/PS3 (Wii hasn't even had much JRPG support...which might even be part of the problem).

 

True...in fact, I left out the Wii due to a lack of JRPGs, but the PS3 doesn't really have many more JRPGs. Some of the ones it does have are more hybrids anyway (Folklore, Disgaea 3, Valkyria Chronicles...the only PS3 JRPGs I've played). Don't know what popular opinion is about them, but I really enjoyed them for the most part (of course, D3 would be niche whether it is 2009 or 1999).

That said, even if the PS3 did have more JRPGs (such as the ones on the 360), I'm not so sure sales would be that much better (at least in the US).

I do think we do get some JRPGs with some interesting ideas (e.g., Valkyria Chronicles), but for whatever reason (poor marketing, poor localization, flaws in the game, etc.), they don't seem to do well.

Then again, it might be tough to compare even those games to some of the great stuff that was coming out on the SNES and PS1.

 

Same here. In fact, it still amazes me how some of these other JRPGs have horrible localization and voice acting, yet Atlus (a relatively small publisher) did a great job in this department, at least for the last two Persona games (I think Nippon Ichi did pretty good with the Disgaea games too).

Of course, Persona 4 still fails when it comes to sales. Never got any specific numbers, but I don't think it was in the top 10 PS2 games in December...of course, being December, probably a lot of parents buying games for their kids. But I would be pleasantly surprised if Persona 4 sold 100K+, which would be pretty good for a game few people even heard of (games like SO4 would get TV ads at least).

There's not really any one chart I can post, but I did some quick research prior to making this thread. Basically, IIRC most JRPGs for the 360/PS3 seem to sell <100K for the most part. Lost Odyssey may have been the one exception, selling about 200K-250K IIRC (of course, it was "from the creator of Final Fantasy").

By comparison, I think most of the games I listed in the OP sold at least 200K (most around 300K-400K IIRC). Games like SO3 sold 600K+. I can post more specific data if you want. Keep in mind that I can't find information for every game...basically just going to Wikipedia and seeing if they have any data.

Hmm...not quite sure I agree with that. For a time, we'd have a new FF every year or two, selling 1M-2M copies IIRC. Then a slew of other games selling 300K-400K, maybe more (a few up to 1M+). That seems like a relatively popular genre to me...arguably the most popular genre during its time (back when shooters weren't big on consoles and platformers started fading a bit).

While this is a valid point that applies to many people that grew up on PS1 JRPGs, I do wonder why Western RPGs are so successful? It isn't like those could be finished within 5 hours or anything. Some have just as much gameplay, if not more, than most JRPGs. Lots of cutscenes, grinding, dungeon crawling, etc., as well. Of course, there are a LOT of differences as well, otherwise they wouldn't be so successful.

I wouldn't either, but I'm lumping all Japanese-developed RPG-esque games together. If anything, maybe traditional RPG games should be abandoned for other RPG-esque genres.