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I don't think it can be emphasised just how negatively some people react to JRPG storytelling, or anything too "animey" in general. I think the reason why overtly Japanese franchises like Final Fantasy achieved the massive mainstream status they still hold today is because in the PS1 days they were the only game in town, with Western devs lagging far behind in terms of cinematic story-heavy console game development.
Now that the industry is dominated by titles developed both by and for Westerners, the average gamer has no reason to bother with games where cartoon teenagers with stupid names and even stupider hair yap about nonsense for hours when they can just play whatever CD Projekt Red or Bethesda game is out. This is not to say that Japanese games don't have a large fanbase in the West, they definitely do! They just don't have the same kind of broad appeal
This is because "JRPG storytelling" usually includes 9000 year old little girls in lingerie and a part where you get betrayed by a guy who looks like a Hot Topic mannequin that came to life who is named "Betrayicus" or something
Western RPGs are too cowardly to have a villain as fabulous as Kuja
Ah yes, the monosexuality slayer.
"Where is this Kuja guy they keep talking about? Is he behind the tall lady in the bikini?"
-Child me, playing FFIX
Kuja is 100% the reason I'm not straight today. 12 year old me did not stand a chance against such sheerly confident drip.
Ff9 is just peak ff. I still remember Zidane accidentally groped Dagger's butt and said "ooo soft" out of no where and that's just funny as heck.
You've managed to zero in on just about the only part of that game that this community would hate and criticise anyone for liking. That's an art.
9000 year old little girls in lingerie
Honestly like this meme is funny but in reality this has happened like one time and it was Fire Emblem which isnt even a JRPG just JRPG-coded.
ETA: The other thing is every JRPG though and its cool.
This exact comic came to my mind as well
I had a moral crisis deciding whether to marry off Nowi to one of the younger seeming men because she looks young or one of the older looking men because she's a howeverever old dragon lol. I just decided to say fuck it and go with whichever had the cutest supports like I was doing with everyone else, I ended up moving on before deciding I think.
Acktshully, Trails of Cold Steel 3 did it (a hundred-years old witch loli, but still), and it's a bona fide JRPG 🤓
in the PS1 days
Maybe it's just me, but I'm really averse to bad voice acting. I love the story of basically every single Final Fantasy that doesn't have voices, and I can't stand listening to the cutscenes in any of the ones that do in English.
If the VO is in Japanese, I can't tell if it's good or bad, which means it doesn't grate on me like nails on a chalkboard.
It might not even be the quality of the voice acting but just the content itself. JRPG writing is goofy and melodramatic but just text or Japanese VO makes it less obviously grating
OG Tenchu on PS1 had the best 'awful voice acting'. My partner and I still quote bit guards and mini bosses from that game all the time.
Honestly i yelled at you elsewhere but this is actually understandable, even if i think FFX's story is excellent in spite of the voice acting. Im bad voice acting tolerant thought (probably partially because FFX was formative for me).
he average gamer has no reason to bother with games where cartoon teenagers with stupid names and even stupider hair yap about nonsense for hours when
Skill issue on their part.
Just to clarify, the quoted part wasn't my own opinion, but me characterising how a large swathe of gamers sees these games
Yeah no I got that I was just making a joke because god I love JRPGs.