why dId Sony abandon all of their first party RPG ips?

Because there is no money in it. Go ahead and name the top selling exclusive RPGs from last gen and then look at their sales figures. You'll quickly realize that money can be better spent elsewhere, even if it is another FPS or adventure game.
 
SCEJ fuck up big time. All the games they put out last gen were small games(patapon.etc) or not appealing to the masses(puppeteer.etc) or in development hell(TLG). They thought by throwing money to third party devs would help them but it did nothing, Level 5 fucked up with white knight chronicles. Demons souls was fucking great but they made a dumb decision of not publishing to the west which resulted a lost chance to grow the demons souls IP.

Overall SCEJ is one big mess when it comes to JRPG and other stuff. Hopefully they will fix their JRPG lineup with the PS4, Bloodborne is looking to be a step in a right direction.
 
Because there is no money in it. Go ahead and name the top selling exclusive RPGs from last gen and then look at their sales figures. You'll quickly realize that money can be better spent elsewhere, even if it is another FPS or adventure game.

I think it's more of a problem with marketing. I can't remember the last exclusive RPG which had a proper marketing push.

Even P4G which had no marketing at all managed to sell close to a million on Vita and you have Ni No Kuni which sold a million on PS3 without marketing as well.
 
5 reasons:

1. PS3's awful launch and architecture.

2. Online gaming becoming super popular. (ie. COD).

3. Portables and ad-hoc multiplayer becoming super popular in Japan. (ie. Monster Hunter).

4. Mobile gaming becoming super popular worldwide.

5. HD graphics are expensive and time-consuming.

All in all the gaming landscape is not what is was back in the golden age of PS1 and PS2.

I think it's more of a problem with marketing. I can't remember the last exclusive RPG which had a proper marketing push.

Even P4G which had no marketing at all managed to sell close to a million on Vita and you have Ni No Kuni which sold a million on PS3 without marketing as well.

But weren't most PS1/PS2 JRPGs as niche then as they would be now?
 
I definitely have found it odd for the last few years, especially given the certain market for 1st party JRPGs on the PSP and Vita.

The really ironic thing is how Nintendo have increasingly focussed on RPGs, so much so that they were certainly the largest publisher of them for the 7th gen. They've moved on a long way from 'RPGs are for hikikomori' or whatever Yamauchi said.
 
TBF the JRPG genre itself kinda fell off too. In Quality and Sales. Of the "big" guns the only franchises still kicking are the Tales Of series and kinda sorta the Final Fantasy Series.
 
Because SCEJ spent the last 8 years making Locoroco and Patapon and tossing money and people down The Last Guardian pit.
Wasn't The Last Guardian's dev team really small and apart from maybe some key members, has probably been on hold a few times. It's not like Sony has had a 1000 man team working on Last Guardian for 8 years with nothing to show. Workforce from SCE Japan Studios has been used to develop other games (Gravity Rush, Knack, Puppeteer and such) while the Last Guardian team has been trying to solve whatever issues they've had with the game.
 
I am guessing the people that used to make those game (and produce them) are no longer with Sony?

We are talking about some old series here
 
A platform-exclusive JRPG is too expensive compared to its ROI these days. Simple as that. Doesn't help that home consoles are deader than Elvis in Japan.
 
5 reasons:

1. PS3's awful launch and architecture.

2. Online gaming becoming super popular. (ie. COD).

3. Portables becoming super popular in Japan. (ie. Monster Hunter).

4. Mobile gaming becoming super popular worldwide.

5. HD graphics are expensive and time-consuming.

All in all the gaming landscape is not what is was back in the golden age of PS1 and PS2.

Agreed.
For JRPG enthusiasts, mid-tier development would likely allow a lot more games to be made in shorter periods of time. However, mid-tier JRPGs would probably not attract enough worldwide attention to start another FFVII-style genre revolution.

If we are lucky FFXV will be huge and reinvigorate the genre- but it still doesn't solve the problem, IMO. Not many Japanese studios these days seem to have the same level of big-budget potential that S-E (still) has.
 
Costs,expectations,development,interests are different now.

Legend of Dragoon was a different time, where other standards were set...
You can't apply that to todays market.

Yeah, JRPGs don't do very well, but WRPGs do (or semi-WRPGs). I guess they have Horizon from Guerrilla Games, but they could have more devs working on the genre.
 
I feel like this is going to be the "secret PS3 game" of this gen. I highly doubt that Sony is working on such a project.

Yup same here. I highly doubt Sony is willing to invest a big budget to a JRPG ever again. WKC was the last one.
 
Bloodborne is a JRPG. Why are people forgetting its existence...

Because some people view JRPG as a genre definition and not a literal indicator of country of origin. Bloodborne is pretty obviously an Action/RPG that has more in common with Western RPGs like Ultima Underworld than your typical DQ/FF/Tales/SMT JRPG.
 
Wild Arms:
I played this for the first time last year on my Vita. It was solid, overall. I thought I heard rumours they were reviving the franchise for PS4?

Legend of Dragoon

This game was trash.
Very grindy if you didn't have the perfect timing for the interactive battle damage.
A poor man's final fantasy.

Dark Cloud:
Another grindy dumpster fire.
I wanted to like this so bad... but when I got to floor 17 or so and the "dungeons" all felt the same, I just stopped playing. I heard the sequel was better, but I never had any inclination to play it after dropping the original due to the repetitiveness and lack of variety.

Took the couple I've played and posted my impressions on them from back when I played them last.

There's more than enough JRPGs; enough that I've never felt a loss from having Sony 1st party focus on other genres. They've never made characters that I developed any sort of attachment for... so that probably explains it.
 
Well, you have to understand that some of those old-school Sony "first party" JRPGS weren't made in-house by Sony, and the ones that were have had their studios shuttered. For example:

Dark Cloud/Dark Cloud 2(Dark Chronicle)/White Knight Chronicles were made by Level 5.

Wild Arms was made by Media.Vision.

Legend of Legaia was made by Contrail, which doesn't exist anymore.

The fact of the matter is, either these companies are now working on games for other publishers, or Sony shut them down and the talent no longer remains at Sony.
 
Damn Verendus promised us so many Megatons...

Final Fantasy 7 Remake
Big Secret JRPG from Sony Japan
New Brawler for the Ps4
Sega/Sony Game Exclusive
Sega/Capcom Game Exclusive


if they all turn out to be true, he will be a Legend !

New brawler? Link? I've not heard that one.
 
Stop mentioning Wild ARMs in OPs...

My heart can't take the sudden flutter of excitement coupled with the dizzying fall of despair and disappointment.

God Sony plz....just one more Wild ARMs game.
 
Stop mentioning Wild ARMs in OPs...

My heart can't take the sudden flutter of excitement coupled with the dizzying fall of despair and disappointment.

God Sony plz....just one more Wild ARMs game.

At the very least we know they haven't forgotten the IP. It gets cameos in other games and mention by Sony employees and the creator fairly frequently. If any of these old JRPGs will come back, it's Wild ARMs.
 
I'm afraid I don't think very highly of any of the series in the OP, so I can't say they left a void in my life. I do wish Sony would throw some money around and let others make some though. I'm not too picky about whether or not it should be for Vita or PS4. Save Mistwalker from the Mobile slums or something.
 
Because SCEJ has been in a terrible shape for some time now. They have a lot of talents, great ideas, but I can't recall a single successful ambitious (as in "AAA") internally developed title for the whole PS3 generation.

Hopefully, they are getting it fixed. The rumors about them are wild in any cases :-)
 
stop bringing up LoD2........it saddens me year after year that we didn't get the sequel that was planned. It's already written out....all they need to do is develop it, the addition system is one of the greatest things to happen to a turned based RPG battle game. I loved everything about it.

I still Believe that this generation would be the generation to really pull out the stops and come back with the JRPG era. If FFXV can do really, really well.......I truly believe the PS4 can become the PSX in terms of JRPG quality.....just so many good games.
 
Alundra ? Grandia ? Rogue Galaxy ?

Grandia is owned by Game Arts.

Sadly, Takeshi Miyaji, the creator of Lunar 1/2, Grandia 1/2 died in 2011:
http://www.destructoid.com/grandia-creator-takeshi-miyaji-dies-aged-45-207622.phtml

Sooooo, I wouldn't count on Lunar or Grandia ever making a return.

I'm feeling confident in saying Matrix Software owns Alundra, though I don't have a definitive source on that. Edit: Originally I said Sony didn't touch Alundra 2 in terms of Publishing. Double checking shows Sony did publish it in Japan. So maybe they have partial ownership? I don't know


I'm not too sure about Rogue Galaxy. Wikipedia says it was a joint Level-5/SCEJ project and it was published by Sony. So it's likely Sony does own it.
 
Because some people view JRPG as a genre definition and not a literal indicator of country of origin. Bloodborne is pretty obviously an Action/RPG that has more in common with Western RPGs like Ultima Underworld than your typical DQ/FF/Tales/SMT JRPG.
Bleh, all the Souls games & Bloodborne are much more Japanese than they are western. Stuff like Berserk has obviously been a much, MUCH bigger influence than anything western. Even gameplay-wise it obviously takes more from the skill-based Japanese gaming than horribly designed shit melee combat western action RPGs often have.
 
sörine;134328656 said:
Nope, console Wonderflick was announced four months after that article. It's probably Wonderflick.

Ah shit you're right, for some reason I was seeing 2014 as the article date. Well my hopes of a new console RPG by Level 5 has just gone to the shitter :(.
 
Costs too much nowadays I guess. I'd love a return of all those RPGs though you listed. Please Sony, there is a niche for them :p
 
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