Hero of the Sun

Hard to say. There are definitely still some good, modern games, and back then there were plenty of bad ones too.

I think it's just that back then, there wasn't a group that felt "entitled" about better graphics or whatnot, plus up through the early 90s, gaming was still stereotypically nerdy and not something "normal" kids did. Obviously, you could still wow through graphics - who'd want to play NES Mario when you could play SNES Mario, and who'd want to play SNES Mario when you could have a REAL 3D MARIO on your N64 - but actually getting harder and harder to wow with graphics is a good thing, since it means that gameplay will take center stage again. Furthermore, some games are massive successes precisely because of their "retro" look - see McPixel and Minecraft, for example.

That said, it was before the era where EA could just churn out a yearly roster update and charge full price for it. But I don't think we have too much to worry about. Gamers are getting hip to the fact that a game needs good graphics AND good gameplay. What's so new in installment one isn't going to be looked on so kindly in installment 3.

but really how can you change a shooter aside from more realism?

Spec Ops: The Line

Originally Posted by LeopardBear

Spec Ops: The Line

Lol, you have a point XD and now that I think about TF2 too

Originally Posted by Dark Pulse

Hard to say. There are definitely still some good, modern games, and back then there were plenty of bad ones too.

I think it's just that back then, there wasn't a group that felt "entitled" about better graphics or whatnot, plus up through the early 90s, gaming was still stereotypically nerdy and not something "normal" kids did. Obviously, you could still wow through graphics - who'd want to play NES Mario when you could play SNES Mario, and who'd want to play SNES Mario when you could have a REAL 3D MARIO on your N64 - but actually getting harder and harder to wow with graphics is a good thing, since it means that gameplay will take center stage again. Furthermore, some games are massive successes precisely because of their "retro" look - see McPixel and Minecraft, for example.

That said, it was before the era where EA could just churn out a yearly roster update and charge full price for it. But I don't think we have too much to worry about. Gamers are getting hip to the fact that a game needs good graphics AND good gameplay. What's so new in installment one isn't going to be looked on so kindly in installment 3.

Yeah as consoles get more and more powerful and games starting to look more or less uniform graphics, while important, might become secondary soon enough but it is true back in the day (man I feel old for saying that) people are less likely to gripe about the graphics as compared to if the freaking thing won't jump when you tell it to XD

As for installments, hm...there is a story in there I think :3

I worry about a lot of J-Games trying to become more Western. Ninja Gaiden 3, Resident Evil 6, and Ace Combat: Assault Horizon are all examples of great Japanese series that have fallen flat this latest iteration because they were trying to make the games 'more western.' I understand that is where the money is to a degree... but I really think they're shooting themselves in the foot.

Aside from some of the RPGs you listed, it's getting damned hard to find a good J-Game these days like we used to be able to. Platnium Games and Grasshopper are some of my last bastions of hope these days, really.

Originally Posted by RoadBuster

I worry about a lot of J-Games trying to become more Western. Ninja Gaiden 3, Resident Evil 6, and Ace Combat: Assault Horizon are all examples of great Japanese series that have fallen flat this latest iteration because they were trying to make the games 'more western.' I understand that is where the money is to a degree... but I really think they're shooting themselves in the foot.

Aside from some of the RPGs you listed, it's getting damned hard to find a good J-Game these days like we used to be able to. Platnium Games and Grasshopper are some of my last bastions of hope these days, really.

Ah that is true, I noticed this usually happens to a series that has been around for a while. FF is another one to add to the list, with the lack of free exploration and a bunch of other stuff in FF-XIII and the absurd ease of FFXII (push analog stick forward to win game with gambits) these are normally associated with lazy Western style gameplay of movie games not the normally meticulous J-RPGs we have to know though FF-XIII-2 is actually pretty good haven't played it yet though.

But like I said even back in the heyday of the PS1 and PS2 the amount of quality games has not decreased but rather buried in more muck. We can no longer rely on just names the producers we have known for so long, we have to do our own part as well. Perhaps it was our patronizing known titles and producers, ignoring the obscure may have resulted in the current cookie cutter scenarios we have nowadays. Gamer narrowmindedness is not exactly new after all. My gaming expierience has not been tattered by the lack of material simply because I was willing to try to obscure and the unknown

I recommend Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon. It might not be your cup of tea but I enjoyed it.

I enjoyed Fragile quite a bit, yeah. Something else that hinders this a bit is that we're getting LESS J-games nowadays, too. Valkyria 3, Monhun 3, Last Ranker, and hell, even Xillia until recently... Not to mention the Project Rainfall games. I would think that if they don't want to commit to a full disc release, then at least digital ones could be possible.

Ah that is true and this is majorly due several factors. The US and Japanese economy, the gaming industry in Japan itself which undergoing serious issues (I am looking a you Capcom) and the majority of current gamers in the US are "graphics oriented" and do not like games that require much thinking or in depth lore (cough like FPS) with few communities in between. Then there is the whole licensing issues like what happened with Xenoblade till fans caught wind of it as sometimes western branches of J-companies are at odds with their Japanese counterparts. Why? It could range from politics, to money or to personal matters. We don't really know but we have to suffer for it though.

Though there are some Western games that pick-up the slack like Arhkam City. Once the economic market picks up and less 10-year olds play CoD we might get the J-games back too. The rest has to settle on either learning Japanese or simply waiting and hoping someone will make a patch or ported

Western markets are not really all to open to JRPGs with the exception of RPG community. Often J-titles have a hard time enticing new gamers (like CoD playing 10 year olds) thus falls to the old community which is not perfect as a good chunk of them are busy wearing nostalgia glasses to appreciate much newer games.

Though Tales has been like that for long while now so I am not really all too surprised XD

My suggestion to you is to try Western games even though they might not be your preference. Granted, I dislike majority of their themes like gang wars and such but there are few of them that can pick up the lack like Arkham City, American McGee's Alice in Wonderland and its sequel Alice Madness Returns and the Overlord series

Oh, I didn't mean to put down western games in the slightest. In fact, I find that most the games I've been enjoying lately have BEEN Western games and that has me a bit worried for the Eastern market. The Mass Effect and Uncharted series have been some of my real favorites. Assassin's Creed, Bioshock, Dead Space, there's a number of great Western series out now.

Ah could this stem from the famous words of Inafune? Yes there is truth to his words, unfortunately and it is not from the lack of creativity mind you but from the lack of leadership for most if not all gaming companies. Most have gotten too comfortable in their little niches that innovations are often put down and ignore (this is atypical of Japanese culture: the nail that sticks out gets hammered down as it were) plus the decline of the the Japanese populace’s falling interest in global trends. Makes for pretty bleak future for games from Japan...saddens me really. With this decline the western branches rather not port any or much J-games unless you are willing to play mobile games for smartphones is which stupid really. Those are phones for crying out loud. Most if not all J-developers nowadays are making smartphone games hoping to make the next Angry Birds. Great there goes my RPGs...

But there has been some hope like TWEWY and Bravely Default but overall yeah I can see the decline. If you truly still wish to play J-games then consoles might not be the one should buy unfortunately. If you noticed, most if not all of the games from Japan that are good nowadays are either on Nintendo or on handhelds