Blaugust Post #21
Grandia 2 came out on PC this week. The publisher is GungHo, better known for Puzzle & Dragons (I have no idea how they got the license). From all reports the quality of the port is passable, but I’m really kind of excited by what this represents. It’s the most recent example of a Japanese publisher digging out of their back catalog and putting games on the PC. I’m not sure which company started this (although I suspect Square’s desire to get all versions of Final Fantasy on everything helped), but it’s becoming a lot more common, and it’s a chance for people like myself to check out classics that were missed.
I was always told that PC games aren’t big in japan, except for Visual Novels. Consoles have traditionally been the place for JRPGs especially, except for the brief experiment Square tried with FF7 and FF8. The next example I can find is Square again, as they released The Last Remnant on Steam in 2009. This was the first game I encountered that fought very hard against being controlled with a mouse and keyboard, and so I didn’t play much of it (I still haven’t finished it). With a controller, I know people who prefer that version over the original (which was released for the XBox 360, a console I did not own until years later). Capcom noticed the PC Market a year later; Namco got in on the game in 2012. The Carpe Fulgur games (Recettear, Chantelise) opened up the doors for Japanese indies to see western release.
The funny part about that is that visual novels are starting to come over too. Our Game of the Month for Aggrochat is Hatoful Boyfriend, and there are lots of others on Steam at the moment. The world is flat indeed.
If only Western devs would make a JRPG, then the genre might be a little less cliched and stale. It amazes me that we haven’t seen any real Western contenders, especially considering the genre’s popularity for so long. I’d think by now a few non-indies might want to take a stab at making their own JRPG!
I can actually think of a few Western examples. Costume Quest, Cthulu Saves the World, and the excellent South Park: The Stick of Truth are all fairly successful attempts at the genre.
Those aren’t bad examples, but it’d be nice to have one traditional fantasy setting, no? Cthulu and Breath of Death are neat, but they always seemed more derivative/homage-like than anything else.
Not to be too picky though. These are all solid examples.