foolm0ron posted...
From: metroid composite | #036
The problem with a JRPG revival right now is partially just Japan
Exactly. But recently Japan has started climbing out of its rut, but the most successful ones do it by using western techniques and influences to improve their worn-out Japanese styles, as opposed to refining their genres and coming up with brand new stuff. Games like Xenoblade, Skyward Sword, new Ace Combat, Demon's Souls, and such are distinctly Japanese, but you can see loads of western influence in them. Eidos basically carrying SE right now, too.
This is a good thing, of course, since it's like a best of both worlds, but it means that Japan is just playing catchup right now. And since the JRPG is really the one genre that is made only in Japan (and maybe fighting too but that's completely different), it is the one that has fallen behind the most in the last decade, and will require legitimate geniuses in game design to revive. They can't just copy the west, because no one in the west makes JRPGs.
Yeah, this sounds fairly accurate.
Part of the issue is just the number of Japanese developers who have been making Wii and DS games because that's what was popular in the home market, so...now they need to catch up with current technology and techniques.
I also suspect, however, that a big part of the problem is just how little Japanese developers have participated in GDC and similar conferences. Western developers happily spill all their secrets, and instruct each other on this new technique they found. Japanese developers keep secrets, which I'm sure helps in the short-term, but hurts in the long term.
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