I love my PS3, really I do. I bought it because of the BlueRay drive and the prospect of playing GTA 4. I still love it for those reasons. However, I just can’t find any games I actually want to play on it. I’m really hankering after a good old fashioned style RPG, can’t find one.
I’ve bought Drake’s Fortune, while a fun game I can’t really get in to it, it’s rather repetitive.
Devil May Cry 4 is more of an action game. Still fun (and looks awesome) but not what I’m looking for.
I have Oblivion on the PC, so that’s out. That is the kind of game I would like though (though I can’t imagine how on earth I could snipe deer from an insane range with a console controller…).
I’m honestly rather surprised that there have been a distinct lack of RPGs for the PS3. Back when PS2, XBox, and Gamecube were the big things, PS2 dominated when it came to RPGs. I’ve spent some of my best hours gaming on the PS2 (Heck PS1 had frigging incredible RPGs). Now the 360 seems to be leading the league in that department (which is why I shelled out for a 360 before a PS3). Anyone know, or want to WAG, why that is?
Atlus is sloooooooowly getting to the PS3, so Persona/Shin Megami Tensei/Disgaea haven’t showed up yet. Square is throwing everything into FFXIII, Enix is having fun with DS and PSP remakes and Game Arts is sloooooooow.
It’s a PS3-exclusive action RPG where you travel through the Dreaming, meeting various Folks (mythical creatures) with whom you do battle and whose souls you eventually have the opportunity to steal, which involves holding a button and jerking upward on the PS3 controller. You can assign these captured folks to the four face buttons - their souls pop up and serve as your attacks as you progress toward bigger and badder monsters.
The story has a sortof fantasy-mystery bent to it and seems to take place in an early 20th century setting when it’s not in the Dreaming. It basically requires two playthroughs, as the perspective of each of the characters (an orphaned girl and a supernatural reporter) contributes to the whole of the narrative. The gameplay is not all that balanced, but it’s still worth a mention as one of the only PS3-exclusives worth looking at right now.
In addition to the games already mentioned, Square’s The Last Remnant is supposedly due this year, though they’ve been suspiciously quiet about it for the last several months. Valkyria Chronicles (aka Valkyrie of the Battlefield) is a strategy RPG with really cool Miyazaki-esque visuals that’s coming out in November. Also, Eternal Sonata is getting a PS3 port in Japan that may or may not end up coming to the US.
If you really want RPGs in high definition now, you need an Xbox 360. That’s where most of the RPGs are.
Atlus (the king of weird RPGs) has just a license to publish games on the 360 and it will get a couple of RPGs from them this year. Then there are a bunch already out (including the awesome Culdecept Saga) and the 360 has become the de facto home of RPGs this gen.
I’d say that RPG’s and high definition go together like nothing else on the PC. Get yourself a PC or upgrade your current one and enjoy a plethora of deep, interesting RPG’s.
I’d say the second best platform for RPG’s right now would indeed be the XBOX 360.
I think it comes down to this: Sony just sat back, assuming that since the PSX and PS2 dominated the JRPG scene, the PS3 would too; while Microsoft went out and actually courted companies like Mistwalker, Namco, and tri-Crescendo, making sure they were comfortable with the development tools and enticing them to the 360. The only companies Sony still has in their camp are Atlus, who still seem plenty comfortable with the PS2 and have begun to dip their toes into the 360 water, and Square, who are currently focusing on the DS and taking their sweet time to develop anything for the PS3.
That doesn’t mean that Microsoft will successfully steal the JRPG genre away from Sony. I think there is still the sense that no amount of Tales of Vesperias and Blue Dragons will add up to one Final Fantasy XIII. When that game hits, it could single-handedly restore Sony’s momentum.
The problem though is that the earliest Final Fantasy XIII will hit is next year. And then the question is, when in 2009. If FF13 is still 18 months away, I don’t think even the might Final Fantasy series could restore their momentum.
And while I wouldn’t bet money on it just yet, I have a feeling FF13 will come to the Xbox 360 in some form. Square-Enix’s recent money troubles almost make it a forgone conclusion.
It’s definitely up in the air at this point. VII and X made big enough impacts that they basically defined their respective Sony systems as the place to be for JRPGs. It’s not impossible that XIII could duplicate that feat a third time, but you’re right, it seemingly becomes less and less likely the further it’s delayed and the more aggressive Microsoft gets.
It’s an interesting crossroads for Square. FFXIII is either going to put them back on top, or cement their status as “just another” JRPG developer among many.
Evacuate? In our year of Disgaea 3?! I think you overestimate their chances.
I’ll grant that Lost Odyssey is easily this generation’s best RPG so far and probably the epitome of the turn-based genre, but the fight is far from over, especially if you consider MMO stuff like The Agency, which is Sony-developed and looking like quite an interesting experience. There are still plenty of developers, Atlus partners included, who consider PS3 the place to release RPGs. I’m looking forward to them.
It’s also only fair to mention, I think, that the lead producer behind Final Fantasies VII and X, Hironobu Sakaguchi, is the head of Mistwalker Studios, who’ve produced Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, both X360 exclusives so far.
