A JRPG resurgence?

2015 has been a great year in JRPGs. The dying genre used to be the king. Remember in the days of the SNES, where Earthbound, Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger were all the rage? How when they jumped to the next generation on Playstation 1 and started to hit their stride? The technology, stories and gameplay would only get better during the next generation on PS2 and Gamecube, giving us great titles such as Final Fantasy X, Wild Arms 3-5 and of course, Persona 4. The seventh generation is where the genre was put on life support. There were no big series making the transition to the consoles. No new Breath of Fire, Shadow Hearts, Wild Arms, nothing. Xbox 360 soon took over as king of JRPGs, with releases of Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, Eternal Sonata and Star Ocean IV. Everyone was waiting for the heaviest of RPG hitter, Final Fantasy XIII. When it came, it was met with universal mixed acclaim. There were some many issues with how linear it was compared to the past titles and that for how long the wait was, it should have been a much better game. After that, the only real JRPG fix you could get on consoles were niche titles, like the Atelier and Hyperdimension games. Good games mind you but not without their heavy fan service moments. Tales continued to carry the banner for the generation as Square continued to release more and more FF13 games onto consoles, both sequels also met with mixed reactions. JRPGs were on life support. If you wanted a real fix of JRPGs, you had to do it on the go as the 3DS and PS Vita are homes to TON of great RPGS, including Etrian Odyssey, Shin Megami Tensei IV and the beloved Pokemon series and that's only on the 3DS. Console gamers though, are out in the dust and with another new slew of consoles here, it looked like the continued want for deep console JRPGs is a fantasy. The only real JRPG out right now is Omega Quintet, which is great but once again, has heavy fan service. Where are the JRPGs of yesterday? The ones with compelling stories, deep combat and all the side quests we can do? 2015 looks to be a year to change all of that as MANY titles for the hardcore JRPGer were announced. Final Fantasy XV, Dragon Quest XI, Persona 5, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Tales of Zestiria AND Berseria, Star Ocean V, the Final Fantasy VII remake, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth, The Legend of Heroes, and Yo-Kai Watch are ALL games that are either going to be released in America this year, were announced or made some type of an appearance this year alone. Let's talk about some of the major leaders!

If JRPGs were wrestlers, let's use this example then. John Cena is to Final Fantasy as Randy Orton is to SMT/Persona. Shin Megami Tensei is a dungeon crawling RPG that started on the NES way after big brothers Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy had alreayd started. SMT was for the hardcore crowd, featuring dangerously hard battles and deep dungeon crawling. In the US, the originals never came over until the 2010s, so our first taste of the series came in the form of Persona, which was met with horrible localization issues. Persona 2 fared better but released during the era where JRPGs were crowding the market and got lost in the shuffle. Final Fantasy has been the KING of RPGs in the West but a small little unknown series started to make it's arrival in the late PS2 era. Shin Megami Tensei started hot in 2004 with Nocturne and ended it's fantastic run with Devil Summoner 2 in 2009. There was no series hotter than SMT during those days. Final Fantasy only released FF 10-12 on the PS2 while SMT released Nocturne, Digital Devil Saga 1 AND 2, Persona 3 AND 4 and Devil Summoner 1 AND 2. A new king was coming but aside from portable games, there was nothing on Xbox 360 or PS3 for them while FF continued to roll. It wasn't until 2013 that Persona 5 was finally announced for PS3 and then eventually PS4. While I still believe that Final Fantasy XV is generally the most anticipated RPG of this generation, Persona 5 is the one I'm looking forward to most. Look at the series' resume, especially at the last addition. P4 was RPG perfection and if P5 can capture the charm of it, we'll have a really deep and amazing RPG on our hands. Atlus has confirmed that Persona 5 will release in the US IN 2015. It's August now so the wait is almost over. It will probably release somewhere in October. Persona 5 is a big series but releasing it in November with heavy hitters such as Call of Duty, Fallout, Tomb Raider and Star Wars would make it lost in the shuffle. October is already filled with some good JRPGs. The Dragon Quest/Dynasty Warriors crossover game releases a day after my birthday and Tales of Zestiria comes out the week after. December houses Xenoblade Chronicles X so maybe a late release in December is more likely. Persona 4 came out in December as well so maybe. Regardless, I'm highly excited to play this game and I'm hoping for a deep adventure with thought provoking topics and decisions. Though we got a confirmation that P5 was coming in 2015, it's looking more and more likely that this might not make the end of the year. With no real details about the game, if it does release this year, it would be a big shock to me. This, to me, is THE RPG to beat. Final Fantasy XV has to work to get to this point. Speaking of FF15...

A demo for Final Fantasy XV was included with Type 0 HD when it came out back in March. The demo showed a little bit of what we're in store for for the real game and I was thoroughly impressed. The battle system is different than most mainstream FF games. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as long as it plays better than the 13 series. It does. While more action oriented, it still feels like everything is automated so it mixes the old school and new school together in great harmony. With a series like this, I understand it has to be hard to keep making characters look different and distinct. Prompto looks just like Cloud, Gladiolus has a Snow/Zell look and Noctis is the stereotypical looking FF main character. That definitely doesn't take anything away from how the game will turn out gameplay wise and mechanically, but it's definitely a pet peeve. Speaking of Final Fantasy, the VII remake was one of the biggest announcements from this year's E3. No gameplay or anything was shown but just the fact that they announced it was enough for FF7 fanboys. There was a report going around that the gameplay is going to receive an upgrade, which it needs. The game came out in 1997. They can't just release it in 2016 or 2017 with the same old gameplay mechanics. It won't work. I just hope it's not all Lightening Returns style. We'll see whenever the game has some gameplay released for it. Regardless, Final Fantasy looks to win back some of the fans it lost with these new two entries in the fabled series.

Dragon Quest isn't as popular in America as it is in Japan. Dragon Quest is basically the poster boy for RPGs in Japan which couldn't be any more clear after they announced a zillion new titles in the franchise in 2015. It's gaining its share of fans though as slowly but surely, Square Enix released most of the main series in America. They even released the monster training games as well. It's deserved because Dragon Quest is a fantastic series. While Final Fantasy is more known, Dragon Quest does the same great things that FF does, just a bit harder. My first taste of the series came with DQ8, which included the demo for Final Fantasy XII with it. That was the main reason I got it in the first place. I got a pleasant surprise though as DQ8 turned out to be way better than FFXII in the long run. I briefly played DQIX on 3DS. It really didn't capture me like 8 did though. I say all of this because Dragon Quest XI was finally announced for PS4 and 3DS. Two different consoles isn't strange but it's the choice of consoles. Why not the PS4 and Xbox One or the 3DS and the Vita? It's very strange to split them up by systems with different graphical limitations. The decision aside, I'm still very happy with the announcement that the game is going back to its turn based roots and not the MMO that DQX, which we didn't even get, came to be. The only thing now is if Square Enix will localize the game. You have to believe they will for a number of reasons. One, the need for JRPGs this generation. The only JRPG currently for next gen consoles is Omega Quintet. It certainly doesn't have the mass appeal of an established series such as Dragon Quest. You release this game in this current drought of JRPGs and they would be very happy that they did. The second reason being they decided to localize Dragon Quest Heroes. DQH is a spin-off game (now series) developed by Omega Force, who has been on a roll lately with putting the tried and true gameplay of Dynasty Warriors with a different franchise. They did it with Zelda and it was well received. DQH must have done well in Japan as a sequel has been announced. They've also developed games based on hit animes, such as Fist of the North Star and One Piece. A game about the hit anime Attack of the Titan is in development. If they would choose this game of all DQ games to localize, one would just believe that they will release Dragon Quest XI. Now, if they did, the question would be if they would give us both versions. DQH is for both PS3 and PS4 in Japan but in the US, it's only coming to PS4. Smart move for people still holding onto their old hardware if you ask me. I'm very excited for a new main title Dragon Quest game. I hope it can capture the magic that 8 did 10 years ago.

Besides Shin Megami Tensei, Tales has been the only other JRPG series that I've put my most time in in the past 10 years. Once Vesperia was released, it basically became the series I always got on release day. Graces F, Xillia 1 and 2 and of course, the newest entry releasing in October, Zestiria. I was very concerned that I wouldn't be able to play this game. Back in March, GameStop had a trade in deal, offering $175 credit for my PS3 towards a NEW PS4. Bloodborne had just released and I definitely didn't want to pay $400 out of my pocket alone so I cashed in. I ran up to GameStop with my console and only used about $75 of my own money with the other games I traded in. At the time though, Tales of Zestiria was only coming out for PS3. There were rumors about a PS4 version, but nothing was ever definite. I decided to take a chance and believe the rumors. It was a risky move but Tales of Zestiria WILL be releasing on the PS4 a week after my birthday. I'm really looking forward to this as this is really the first new Tales games since the original Xillia. Xillia 2 was great but all it was was a simple rehash with different elements in it. This is a completely new game, new universe and new mechanics, like the Real Map Battles, where you see a monster and instead of going to a separate battlefield, you do battle with your foes right from where you met them. That sounds stupid to most but it's something new and exciting if you ever played a Tales game. They also already announced the next addition to the series called Tales of Beseria, which features a female protagonist that looks eerily like Milla Maxwell from Xillia. Is there more to that? We'll see but first, Zestiria will be releasing in the US on October 20th, a week after Dragon Quest Heroes releases on the 13th. Jam-packed October for the PS4.

With the lack of RPGs in the last generation, when a new Star Ocean was announced, I decided to hop right on it. I played 3 on PS2 but didn't get hooked to it like other PS2 RPGs. I also played 1 and 2 on PSP but still didn't get into it really. 4 had the opportunity to get my full attention, mainly because there weren't any other real contenders to deal with. Star Ocean IV was fantastic though. It didn't have a thought provoking story or deep characters, but the combat was way more than enough to hold me over, along with all the sidequests, arenas and post game content. It took awhile but Square announced that a new Star Ocean game would be coming to PS4 next year. Like I said, Star Ocean isn't my favorite series but it definitely will be fully welcomed with not a lot of RPGs around. Just like with Tales, the game is going with battles on the same map you run into the monsters. No more crazy transitions into a battlefield. They said it will play more like Infinite Undiscovery, which may be a good or bad thing in the long run. I wasn't too big a fan of that game but if they can combine the two series styles, I think we'll be in for a great adventure come 2016.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is really the only hardcore to look forward to for the Wii U. There's no Zelda this year, no Metroid game in sight and Mario Maker, come on! The only game that could rival a hardcore taste would be Devil's Third but who knows when that will be releasing. Anyway, XBX is the sequel to one of the best Wii games ever Xenoblade Chronicles. The sequel looks to improve on the original game's MMO-single player style gameplay. I don't know anything about the game as I like to go into most of the games I play blind. I'm just looking forward to the same things that made the original such a hit, a compelling story, great exploration and fun, deep and rewarding combat. I know that there are Mechs called Dolls that you can control in this game but I don't know if you can battle with them or not. If you can, that will definitely add another dimension to this already deep series. Xenoblade Chronicles X releases on December 4th and might be the last big release of the year outside of Hitman. Will it be the great game its predecessor was or is it a cheap cash in on the Xeno series name? We'll certainly find out.

Those are all the big names in JRPGs that are coming out in the near future. There are plenty of other great ones coming out as well, like Legend of Heroes in November and Yo-Kai Watch and Digimon next year. Personally, I'm really looking forward to Digimon. I loved the Digimon World series, particularly 2 and 3 so a new RPG Digimon experience sounds amazing to me, even as I'm much older than when I played the original releases. The next couple of years should be really telling for JRPGs. This year alone, we should be getting Tales of Zestiria, Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 (hopefully). Those are all heavy hitters in the industry, with Persona 5 having to be the most anticipated RPG since Final Fantasy XIII. Next year the world will be treated to Square Enix's trifecta of RPGs in Final Fantasy XV (maybe), Dragon Quest XI and Star Ocean V. The verdict is still out if we're getting DQ11 but I'm optimistic with DQH getting a release in the West. JRPGs are making a comeback. The genre's big stars are here and better than ever.

What JRPG are you looking forward to most? Sound off in the comments below!