VGFacts

Has anyone noticed just how many JRPG's are coming to this system? This month, we got Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight, a while back it was Devil Survivor 2, but Atlus has at least two more RPG's coming for the system this year in Stella Glow and Legacy of Legend. Then you have games like the two versions of Fire Emblem: Fates, Bravely Second: End Layer coming next year, the biggest Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, the possibility of Dragon Quest's 7 and 8 remakes making it to the west, Yo-kai watch is coming this holiday which probably means we have four of those coming our way, the list goes on. Personally, I think it's amazing and I can't wait for most of these to come out, but I wonder what everyone thinks of all this. I mean seriously, Atlus is putting out four games for the system this year alone.

For anyone who doesn't know, here's some stuff about the upcoming games (Warning for possible spoilers ahead): 

Stella Glow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4MSLfQNZ4

Legend of Legacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3HYPEH2Nvg

Yo-kai Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjPd-pVdL1k

Mario and Luigi: Paper Jam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JziVhTVwuI

Bravely Second: End Layer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng8Q3wBfX2c

Fire Emblem Fates: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NybBZaVRtAU

Final Fantasy Explorers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdKbLFNTuzw

Sorry for throwing literally hours of stuff your way, but I thought it was needed. So, any thoughts on all this? At the rate we're going, the 3DS is going to surpass the PS2 in number of RPG's. Anyone excited for these?

I forgot about Project X Zone 2 and Monster Hunter X as well. Two more games that will likely add at least 100 more hours of game time spent on the 3DS.

Since the Vita died there needs to be a new weeb handheld for JRPG's.

Not that I'm complaining, JRPG's are pretty gud.

I still need to get Bravely Default.

You gotta a point there. The Vita is mostly down to ports and indie's with a rare few exceptions here and there, not to mention it's hard to get a JRPG off the ground if it isn't at least as popular as the tales series. There is a lot of reason to make games for the 3DS when all that is considered.

JRPGs are why I got into the DS line in the first place. Handhelds have been a bastion for them for a while.

True, but at the time the DS line started doing this, there were still several JRPG's coming out for main consoles, a lot of which were more popular or sold better than their handheld competition. It's interesting to me that somehow the handheld market has kept RPG's in their line up with no problem while the rest have struggled so much.

RPGS are good for those times when you have nothing else to do. Especially when you are in transit. Only problem with handhelds is that their battery power don't last forever.

Battery power can be an issue for sure, although I've been playing Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 for about 15 hours thus far and have only had to charge to it twice. Granted, that's about 7 hours of battery or so which isn't great but it's a lot better than it's been in the past. I just wish the portable chargers/car chargers or something of the like would come out for handheld's. imagine if you could carry a reliable charger in your pocket and use it to while on a long plane ride or something like that. It'd be nice.

Another big factor is simply that the market just isn't as big as it was when the DS came out. Think about it, they started selling the Nintendo DS in 2004. It will have been 11 years since the first DC was made retail in 3 months. The PS2 had only been around for 4 years. The last single player Final Fantasy game to come out on the ps2 was in 2006.
This was before the advent and popularization of multiplayer console games, where first person shooters existed but were eclipsed by fighting games, racing games, rpgs, platformers, and music games.

Handheld games are just a lot cheaper to make because a lot of marketing relies on visuals, so graphical limitations actually serve to incentivize the system. That's partly why the Vita did so poorly.

(08-11-2015, 04:04 PM)Psychospacecow Wrote: [ -> ]Another big factor is simply that the market just isn't as big as it was when the DS came out. Think about it, they started selling the Nintendo DS in 2004. It will have been 11 years since the first DC was made retail in 3 months. The PS2 had only been around for 4 years. The last single player Final Fantasy game to come out on the ps2 was in 2006.
This was before the advent and popularization of multiplayer console games, where first person shooters existed but were eclipsed by fighting games, racing games, rpgs, platformers, and music games.

Handheld games are just a lot cheaper to make because a lot of marketing relies on visuals, so graphical limitations actually serve to incentivize the system. That's partly why the Vita did so poorly.

All very true. I still find it interesting though, because that means for me, since RPG's are my favorite genre, that handhelds are currently my favorite systems. I guess that shows how much things have changed though since the PS2 used to be my favorite system for that same reason.