Would JRPGs appeal more to Western audiences if they had older protagonists?

[dwightyo39]

I admit that the popularity of the Elin and Pokémon races on Tera were about half the reason I quit playing the game.

[Danner]

Not to knock on P5! I loved those characters! Ryuji Sakamoto was a riot! But I have to ask would a JRPG sell better in the West in the protagonists were militaristic and had real time combat like Kingdom Hearts and was M rated?

But then that would probably be Mass Effect or Dragon Age in anime garb wouldn’t it?

Should a Japanese company make something like that?

For me, the JRPG appeal isn't in the characters per se. It's in the stories. I think this is universal - humans crave good stories. It's why books, theater, movies exist. In my eyes, characters are just vessels for conveying a story. Their age doesn't matter; variation does. There is only so much you can do with Generic MC-kun and Princess Heroine without giving them actual personalities to build upon. When that happens, I'm generally hooked. When that doesn't happen... yawn - seen it already.

When I grew up, my friends were playing first person shooters. Sure, that's fun and all, but it's hardly a genre hailed for its rich, narrative story is it? I was way more into the RPG genre, because those games told stories. I wanted stories. I played Baldur's Gate. I played Planescape Torment. I played Betrayal at Krondor. I played Hero Quest. All great games. I didn't enjoy them because of XP grinding. I enjoyed them because of the stories those games told.

I also ran out of such games to play. The strong story-driven game is long apart. So I was introduced to the JRPGs by a friend. It was a whole new world. Not only did those games have full stories - there was also the character aspect to consider. In the western RPGs I had played, there was no character interaction. The most character drama I found was Iolo calling me out for thievery in Ultima 7. (I'm exaggerating a bit here, but I think it's a fair point).

JRPGs took upon the topic of love. Characters were attracted to each other. The player immediately gets into shipping mode. Name one western RPG where that is a thing? And no, I'm not counting the systems in Dragon Age or similar where you can woo a character given enough items; that's you attracted to one of the characters. And as artificial as it gets. Everyone can appreciate Fei and Elly's relationship in Xenogears. Where can Lydia and the main character in Skyrim really compare to that?

The most common story in the world of RPGs is the hero's journey. Whereupon the main character leaves his sheltered origins, go out in the world and evolve, to return later with new perspectives. You need an impressionable character to fill that role of the hero in this tale, as their purpose is to evolve. That generally means young - but it certainly doesn't have to be. The tale of Ebeneizer Scrooge is a great example of otherwise.

For me, JRPGs have always been about the stories. I also think that the western games have "caught up". Mass Effect had both the story and the character interaction, though I'm not too convinced about the attraction yet. But consider Life is Strange. It's a brilliant piece of storytelling. On the flipside, I feel the main JRPG series have devolved. FF13 was soul balsam to behold and listen to, but the story was as poorly depicted as its characters had depth. A hero's journey need the characters evolving - and FF13 failed that department hard. That doesn't mean all JPRGs have - I played at least 3 really awesome ones last year. [ Persona 5, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Trails of Cold Steel ], and several quite decent. The JRPGs are still a thing.

[Allenseiei]

I avoid RPGs in general because I only play games with multiplayer aspects. However, in my opinion, most people avoid asian style games because of their art more than anything. I dont think the age of the main character has much of an impact, the art and the story of the game is more important.

[mvaliz]

Artistic style aside...I seriously had to strain a bit to find any sort of age difference between the art pieces you posted.

Here's an idea - how about a guy with a beard? Or an older wiseman? Or a guy with some actual muscles? Or a woman who's not some perfect-skinned waifu or some weird adult domanatrix character?

Or how about a character that's NOT HUMAN to the point where they don't look human!? Like Red XIII from FF7 kind of character?

THOSE are differences! Those add variety!

Seriously, it seems like ever since Final fantasy 8 and 10 - the JRPG art designers collapsed into staying between the tween, teen and 21 year old range, keeping men as androgenous emo people and women into waifu fanservice stereotypes of either "Little schoolgirl with massive weapon", "Low-Self-esteem young female 'lead' whom is attracted to main character", "Sexy Ninjagirl", or "Dominatrix".

EDIT: Also, using Persona is kinda disingenuous as it's cast has always been with teenagers, ever since the very first game on PS1.

[StrawberryZebra]

For me, the JRPG appeal isn't in the characters per se. It's in the stories. I think this is universal - humans crave good stories. It's why books, theater, movies exist. In my eyes, characters are just vessels for conveying a story. Their age doesn't matter; variation does. There is only so much you can do with Generic MC-kun and Princess Heroine without giving them actual personalities to build upon. When that happens, I'm generally hooked. When that doesn't happen... yawn - seen it already.

This overlooks the fundamental truth at the heart of video games. They're driven by their mechanics, not their characters. The story in most games exists independently of the gameplay, its why ludonarative dissonance was coined as a term. You can tell character driven stories in other mediums, where as gameplay mechanics are unique to video games.

It's by no means a new phenomenon. Pokemon, the single best selling JRPG series, has an extremely limited story in all its itterations. Tetris, Minecraft and Mario all have very limited or even no story at all and are amongst the best selling video games of all time.

Modern JRPG's put too much emphasis on graphical fidelity (Luminous Engine, anyone?) and their story. Even to the point of Atlus threatening legal action if people streamed Persona 5 beyond a certain point in order to protect their games major selling points. In amongst all that they've forgotten to include a satisfying game and that is the real reason they're a niche genre. They're closer to what I like to call interactive experiences - think Telltale games and "games" like The Beginners Guide or The Stanley Parable - than what I think of as "Games".

That's not a bad thing, but it leaves them in a strange place where they need to decide what they want to be. Drop the game play entirely and focus on telling interactive stories, or beef up the gameplay and remain video games.

[PACOX]

I play the occasional JRPG but they have tropes that turn me off. Most are turned based, not a problem except a lot use the exact same system. Many of them have a point where you need to grind...aint nobody got time for that in 2018.

Stories tend to be generic, x king in x kingdom has been taken over/threatened. The prince or x street rat must partake on quest. Some flameboyant antagonist emerges, in the final act you learn of the "real" big bad who has been pulling the strings all along.

Its cool to hate the modern FF games but they make an attempt to switch up the dynamic.

Western and Eastern storytelling is just very different and place emphasis on different elements.