After literal years of anticipation on the part of geeks across the world, Square-Enix will finally release Star Ocean 4: The Last Hope for the Xbox 360 on February 24th, 2009. It’s a momentous occasion for the genre. Star Ocean is the first A-list JRPG franchise to make the leap to HD consoles. You can argue that Tales of Vesperia earned the honor first, but Namco’s Tales franchise is more a brand/masthead than a bonafide franchise, one even more diluted than the Final Fantasy heading. I’ve never cared for the Star Ocean series’ battle system – Penny Arcade said it best when they described Star Ocean’s battles as “deciding which character gets molested by lizard men” – and its science-fiction narrative has always been more interesting in concept than in execution. I want to be excited about Star Ocean 4, but not because I feel like I’m missing out on a series that so many other gamers seem to love. I just want to be excited about an HD-JRPG.
JRPGs have been enjoying a renaissance on the DS, not unlike the one they had on the PS1 some twelve years back, but the genre has been woefully underserved on the 360 and PS3. Half-baked efforts like Enchanted Arms and Eternal Sonata, janky action-based experiments like Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant, lumbering traditionalist games like the aforementioned Vesperia, and the twin disappointments from Hironobu Sakaguchi, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon, are all we lovers of leveling and melodrama have had to sink our teeth into since the 360 launched in 2005. Why? Why is it that the best JRPGs to come out in 2008 were either re-releases or games made on decade-old hardware?
The most obvious answer is Japan. Not a little has been written about the decline and stagnation of the Japanese games industry, so it’s no wonder that their number-one genre has suffered alongside the console market in the transition to HD. The answer is slightly more complicated though. The disintegration of traditional genres has defined console gaming over the past few years. Look at Call of Duty 4, a game that transcends the traditional first-person shooter mold by making RPG-style character growth an essential component of its multi-player modes. Or take Little Big Planet, a game which is a platformer at its core, but whose real appeal is in molding the game into whatever you want it to be. Shooters are no longer just shooters, platformers aren’t just platformers. JRPGs have yet to successfully transcend the boundaries of design tradition, and attempts to grow the genre, like The Last Remnant, have been underfunded.
I hope that the 360 and PS3 get a JRPG as exciting and adventurous as Persona 3 and 4, and I hope that game gets made soon. But I’m starting to wonder if videogames finally have their genre equivalent of jazz: an art form that’s also an evolutionary dead end.
Related links:
Why, God, Why: More SaGa Games on the Way
Your JRPG Narrative is Bad and You Should Feel Bad
Fun Fact: Dylan Cuthbert - The Genre Masher
Pay-Per-Grind: Tales of Vesperia Let’s You Level With Cash
Whatcha Playing: Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World
Low-Rent RPGs: A Good Idea