JRPGs have been around almost as long as console gaming. Titles like the original Final Fantasy and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dragon Quest laid the groundwork , but it was mostly a niche until the PS1 came along in the 1995. After Sony's debut console, mammoth titles like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Final Fantasy 7 broke the JRPG into the mainstream.
Since then, the genre has never truly gone away and remained a constant force in popular gaming. Like all things, it has changed and morphed over time to keep up with mod🅘ern conventions and competition. However, some things about the genre never change, and come to be ✃defining aspects of it.
10 ♏ Changed: Saving 🍌
In old JRPGs - and old games in general - one had to take time out of their gameplay session to manually save at predesignated points. Now, even JRPGs make sure to save ofꦫten automatically to ensure as little progress as possible is lost if the game crashes. However, like an old person who does not trust banks keeping their savings inside a mattress, so do many gamers make a habit of manually saving as much as possible even when autosaving takes care of it.
9 ܫ Stayed The Same: Popularity
When looking at the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:best selling games of the PS1, Final Fantasy 7 comes in at number two168澳洲幸运5开奖网: behind Gran Turismo with around ten million copies sold. Final Fantasy 15, released in 2016, managed to do almost as well, and 🎃the recently released Final Fantasy 7 Remake shipped five million copies, not too shabby for a spin-off. While the numbers may not be exactly the same, they are certainly are no reason to fear the genre is waning in popularity.
8 ꦯ Changed: More Side Quests ꧂
In the '90s, JRPGs were mostly linear stories. At most, the world and activities opened up only d💙uring the endgame of a particular title, allowing one to earn the characters' strongest weapons.
Most likely due to 🍨the increasing popularity of western RPGs like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, many recent games of the genre have started adopting side quests to beef up gameplay time.
7 Stayed The Same: Turn-Based Combat 💙
This one is admittedly a little iffy, but 99% of JRPGs today still include a variation of168澳洲幸运5开奖网: turn-based combat to some degree. Some are more traditional examples, while others play ꦍaround with the formula. Final Fantasy 7 Remake, for example, allows players to attack in real time, but on3 still must wait for a ba💟r to fill up before performing techniques, using items, or utilizing magic spells.
6 Changed: MMOs ꧅
In '90s MMOs were a niche only avid gamers even though about indulging in. Only in 2003 did an MMO JRPG come into being with Final Fantasy 11. Now, Final Fantasy 14 i♌s one of the most popular MM꧂Os on the market, hailed botܫh for its gameplay and story. Not every JRPG is an MMO, obviously, bu🌃t JRPGs have become a force to be reckoned within the space.
5 Stayed The Same: Character Designs ♎
While artists and programmers have more powerful hardware to work with when creating the worlds in which these games take place, the basic de꧃signs remain similar. The JRPG protagonist is a certain archetype defined by certain physical features, and this carries true from the '90s until today. Spiky hair sometimes oddly-colored and a loathsome look are just a couple♌ of signature marks of a hero in this style of game.
4 Changed: Graphics 🐎
This is probably the most obvious of them all. As time moves on in gaming, so do graphics improve dramatically.😼 JRPGs underwent a particularly drastic change in terms of graphical fidelity.
The sprites of the SNES and the blocky 3D character models against 2D backdrops lo꧃oked immediately quaint when the PlayStation 2 arrived and titles like Final Fantasy 10 dropped jaws everywhere with its fully 3D, realistic world.
3 🅠 Stayed The Same: Re-releases
JRPGs are far from the only games to do this. In the '90s and into the aughts, many titles would receive international versions or differently titled re-releases with extra features. Even in the age of DLC modern JRPGs are no stranger to updated titles. The most recent example is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Person 5 Royal, which adds up to twenty hours of content to an already ꦡimmeasurably large game.
2 Changed: DLC 🏅 𓆉
DLC for console games was impossible to do on the original PS1 since the console lacked a hard drive or Internet access. Once the PS3 and Xbox 360 launched, the idea of post-launch expansions became more common, and many JRPGs jumped on the bandwagon. Square Enix arguably went a little overboard with certain games' DLC,168澳洲幸运5开奖网: particularly Final Fantasy 15 and♛ Final Fantasy 13-2. Online connectivity can also be a blessing in disguise, since Final Fantasy 15 in part😼icular went through numerous updates improving the game from its original release.
1 🌄 Stayed The Same: Thirst 🌸
If the Internet and memes were as ubiquitous as they were in the '90s and early aughts as they are today, people would be making the same memes about how thirsty all the characters in JRPGs are. After all, Final Fantasy 7 Remake's characters are relative𒆙ly similar to how they are in the original PS1 classic. It is understandable; people stay on the road together long enough and they are bound to start feeling attraction towards each other. To be fair, games like Final Fantasy 8 and 10 are more traditional love stories.