Why did it take so long for RPG's to become popular in the west?

[Nytegard]

Ultima begs to differ. Reading for days, and an actual challenge in terms of puzzles and what not. You would think ADHD need not apply, yet ADHD loved it because it was usually one of the few things they could focus on.

And no, most gaming back then was not on consoles. In the 80's, which is the start of the computer RPG, most gaming was on Commodore 64, Apple II, and PC, and other home computers. They were actually more households with those kinds of computers by far than with consoles, and every one of them was a gaming capable system back in the day.

This actually depends where you live. In Europe, the NES/Famicom wasn't nearly as popular as personal computers, but in the USA, the NES surpassed the computer in the late 1980s. You have to take into consideration also that the NES didn't even come out in the USA until late 1985, and only in New York City at Toys R Us. It wasn't for about another year that it was finally released elsewhere in the country. Of course computers would be more popular than the dead console market (from the 1983 crash), because there was no serious competition for half the decade. But it wasn't until 2000 when half of households in the USA even had a computer. When the SNES came out in 1991, only about 20% of households had a computer.

https://www.census.gov/prod/2013pubs/p20-569.pdf

 

[MrAgmoore]

I dunno but it reminded me that I bought a rare, Japanese import of Arcus Odyssey ( I think that the game rated 95% and the music was 94% or vice versa ). After I finished the game, I remember trading it to David Hall in secondary school. I think that he wanted to pay 10 pounds sterling less than I paid for it ( maybe about $20 USD ). I told him that Arcus was such a great game, that I didn't know if I wanted to part with it... ( I mean... there were 4 different characters that you could finish the game with... a veritable lifetime of joy. ) I told him that he could come over to my house ( he lived practically next door ) and take a look at the game. I think that David jizzed in his pants so hard, that he ended up trading two, used UK cartridges for it:

I remember getting so mad that I kept dying during the water level ( 9 minutes in ):



Arcus Odyssey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I remember shitting my pants to the ( then ) awesome music in Arcus Odyssey.

I couldn't find the review from Computer + Video Games but I found a review from Sega Pro:

Out-of-Print Archive • Mega Drive/Genesis reviews • Arcus Odyssey

"The American version of the game is much easier than the Japanese version. They increased the number of health points that each character has, and the whip user has been beefed up a bit. If you want to play the game how it was meant to be played, then I would recommend the Japanese version. Good luck finding a cart of it... ":

Arcus Odyssey Review for Genesis: A game that was way ahead of its time... - GameFAQs



Sword of Vermilion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


As an adult, JRPGs don't interest me. Dungeons & Dragons all the way baby.

Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[lcpiper]

You mean like Zork, The Elder Scrolls, Might and Magic series, Baldurs Gate(s), Neverwinter Nights, Pool of Radiance (and the other Gold Box SSI fames), The Bards Tale, Ultima series, Wizardry series, Heroes Quest series, Dark Forces series, Jedi Knight series, Knights if the Old Republic plus probably a hundred more I cannot name of the top of my head?

Unless of course you are only referring to JPRGs.

Yes yes, I was wondering how far this would go before someone who has this experience spoke up. There were others as wel, many of them, but the point is well made.

And I have never played any Final Fantasy titles, not a one.

 

[gamerk2]

Particularly, America. True it always had a following, but it wasn't until FFVII that it really gained more mass appeal. I give Nintendo props for releasing so many of the DQ games on NES despite the real lack of popularity but still we got stuck with crap like Final Fantasy Mystic Quest because Japanese thought we were too dumb to accept anything real complex.

I think it's a real shame considering we wouldn't get translations of FF I and II, as well as FF V and a few others till quite a bit later.

JRPGs fell out of favor for a few reasons. The NES actually was pretty solid as far as ports went; even Falcom had several of it's titles ported over. But as JRPGs grew, the time/cost of translation increased to the point where only a handful were brought over, even in the SNES days. For every Chrono Trigger that got ported, I can give you five Rudra no Hihou, or more historically, Seiken Densetsu 3 [or Secret of Mana 2 if you prefer]. Enix basically stopped porting it's titles after the Dragon Quest V fiasco, and even Square vanished aside from Final Fantasy. The Genesis never had a good JRPG library either, which certainly didn't help matters, and the rise of the XBOX basically killed JRPGs in the states. Closer to the present time, you can hold up the extended translation period of Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC as a modern day example of the time and effort it takes to port titles over that, simply put, won't sell a lot.

Consumers won't purchase lots of JRPGs, which in turn leads to fewer and fewer getting ported over, leading to fewer people caring about them.