Are Japanese RPGs actually worse these days?

I was considering picking up Star Ocean 4 at one point. I told myself, "If the game gets good scores, I will probably get it." Well guess what? It got the same scores as every other fucking RPG released on a current generation console since 200fucking5.

It seems that every single JRPG since then for 360, PS3, and Wii, score somewhere in the mid to high 70s and sometimes low 80s. Sure enough, Star Ocean 4 is sharing in the mediocre glory. Are the games actually worse? Does Japan need to step up and release "great" games instead of just "ok" games? Yeah Final Fantasy 13 is coming, but I have this feeling it will only be the exception and everything will go back to being "ok". Yes, there have been a few (very few) exceptions. I thought of Valkyria Chronicles and how amazing that game was. Sure enough the game sits around with low to mid 80s on Gamerankings... sadly pretty high for the genre these days. The only recent standout has been Persona 4 at around 93%, but that is a PS2 game.

So I started to wonder...

Are these games really worse than they used to be?

Are review outlets just harsher on the genre now that consoles are dominated by AAA western developed games?

If the same people were reviewing JRPGs back in the 90s in the current video game climate, would all of those games be getting "high 70s" at best?

Chrono Trigger - 82%?
Secret of Mana - 78%?
Final Fantasy 6 - 84%?
Suikoden 2 - 72%?
Breath of Fire 2 - 77%?
Xenogears - 76%?
Vagrant Story - 79%
Parasite Eve - 68%?

Would these be the scores of these games if they received scores from 50-100 outlets by today's reviewers?


NO, those would NOT be the scores.

JRPGs ARE actually worse these days.

SQUARE ENIX: GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR FUCKING ASS AND START MAKING "GREAT" GAMES AGAIN!!!

Namco: Stop making Tales cash-ins.

Konami: Make Suikoden 6, and don't make it shovelshit for the Wii.

Capcom: How about not killing your biggest RPG franchise?

Atlus: How about making games for consoles released this century.

Sega: How about releasing and actually MARKETING Yakuza in this country for once. Believe it or not... a lot of people live here.

Intelligent Systems: Still doing SNES graphics? Really?

To the rest of you: Grow some balls and start making your JRPGs for something besides handhelds.

To all japanese developers: WRITE. A. DECENT. FUCKING. STORY.

AND TO ALL OF JAPAN: If you keep buying the shit, they will keep making shit. (READ: DYNASTY WARRIORS)


Brad