Do you like the move towards futuristic sci fi aesthetic in contemporary JRPGs?

[Val the Moofia Boss]

In Trails, Xeno series, FF14 starting with ShB, HSR and Wuthering Waves, etc. Even Atelier is in on it now. People wearing modern clothing, running around with mass produced swords that look like they were stamped out of a factory with screws in them, people using machineguns, people using smartphones, people flying around in futuristic looking mechs as opposed to steampunk or magical mechs, etc. Seems it wasn't too long ago that people were upset with FF13's and FF15's aesthetic, but I haven't seen as many complaints like that nowadays. It seems that JRPGs with traditional medieval fantasy aesthetics are few and far between now (ie Utawarerumono or Eiyuden Chronicle being the only new ones off the top of my head).

[Valter]

Not particularly in love with sci-fi, but I prefer it to fantasy settings. And get used to smartphones 'cause it seems texting your companions is becoming more and more in vogue. Persona 5, Star Rail... some others I don't recall right now.

The main draw of a fantasy setting for me is magic, but that can be done in sci-fi as well, so not much is lost to me. If we're talking aesthetics alone, I do like a nice verdant forest or a snowy mountainpeak, but then again, in sci-fi you can make it so you visit planets that have these characteristics, so problem solved. Same solution can be applied to magical creatures.

A big loss here, as you mentioned, would be equipment. The old broadsword with a few nicks to its history, the shiny silver axe with a family crest... Yeah I see very little reason to go back to those if you've got mass-produced super techno weapons...

[J1M]

I would enjoy more settings similar to Mass Effect.

I don't enjoy the kitchen-sink approach where one country is 10,000 years more advanced than another.

[Tangerine]

Japs tend to be really bad about consistency in a sci-fi setting. You have a lot more leeway in fantasy.

[J1M]

It is an eastern mentality thing. In the Occident an effect needs a cause. In the Orient the fact that it happened asserts there was a legitimate cause, and if it appears otherwise it is a failure of the viewer not the writer.

[UltraFan123]

I would like it, but I believe it could be much interesting if these settings explored how a world that started of as medieval fantasy would eventually develop into a sci-fi world without removing the "magic" or "mana that can be used as an energy source for fantastic effects" from it.

Like for example, smartphones and TVs created with the same magical crystals that in medieval times where quite large and only used by kings to communicate with fellow kings from far away lands. As technological development progressed, these crystals went from being so big and expensive that only the royalty could afford them, to being able to function as small as a person's palm and being accessible to most people.

Another example would be how the same arcane science used to create large and burly metal golems could be refined throughout the centuries to the point that it could create motor engines, using a form of liquified mana as fuel.

Particular monsters like cockatrices and behemoths that in medieval times were scary eventually got domesticated and bred for their eggs and meat.

Little background things like that which functionally and mechanically aren't really that different from a regular sci-fi setting, but it would help to add into the fluff and genuinely feel like what I think is true science-fantasy or "aetherpunk".

[maidenhaver]

In the Occident an effect needs a cause.

Its neo-platonism. Everyone else is correct.

[A Chinese opium den]

Its gauche and uninteresting, but no one is complaining about it because the remaining player base for these games are tasteless *******.

[Norfleet]

The old broadsword with a few nicks to its history, the shiny silver axe with a family crest... Yeah I see very little reason to go back to those if you've got mass-produced super techno weapons...

Well, that's why you have a more elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

[Vergil]

I'm always happy when a piece of Jap media doesn't take place in ******* high school tbh

[Tangerine]

It's a sci-fi high school.

[Vergil]

It's a sci-fi high school.

Fate/Extra takes place in a computer simulation being hosted on the moon and still somehow revolves around ******* highschool

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'm always happy when a piece of Jap media doesn't take place in ******* high school tbh

I was homeschooled, so Jap media set in Japanese styled highschool does not bother me like it seems to bother so many other people (Westerners talking on an English forum) who probably went to those awful Western prisons schools where they had to sit still in class like a submissive girl or get diagnosed as being ADHD and their brains fried by drugs, do the song and dance of repeating the right mantras, surrounded by strangers and bullied rather than being surrounded by loving and kind family and friendgroups that share the same values as you, being sent home to do unpaid overtime homework because the schools suck at teaching people while they are there, etc. The romanticized anime high school like in Trails of Cold Steel 1 where it glosses over the tediousness, and the protagonist makes true and lasting friendships with people of good nature sounds appealing. And, ofcourse, anime highschools don't have ugly litter or graffiti.

[Vergil]

I don't really have anything against high school because of some weird Freudian reasons it's just very overplayed, not particularly relatable, and I don't want to play as teenagers as my flesh form continues to age.

[Cipher]

Fantasy is still significantly more popular and common place as the "default" setting both in anime and JRPGs so sure, let's do magitech, let's do cyberpunk, let's do sci-fi. And as you mentioned, FF has been doing since FFVII (arguably) and specially since VIII. Square has been doing it as well since the PS1 era with stuff like Xenogears and Star Ocean and the "space magic/sci fantasy" has been around since the Phantasy Star days all the way back in 1987.

I don't think is anything new, just less common because copying Tolkien's homework is considerably easier and proven to be more popular. Sometimes, JRPGs go overboard on the "anime wardrobe" and exagerate the character's design but more toned down like the Trails series, Star Ocean, Xenogears or Phantasy Star would be absolutely fine with me. In fact, I would like a straight up Sci Fi JRPG, I don't remember the last time I played one of those... no magic, just pure sci-fi and maybe mechas and even perhaps some psionics thrown into the mix.

I guess 13 Sentinels technically applies...

[Tangerine]

I'm always happy when a piece of Jap media doesn't take place in ******* high school tbh

I was homeschooled, so Jap media set in Japanese styled highschool does not bother me like it seems to bother so many other people (Westerners talking on an English forum) who probably went to those awful Western prisons schools where they had to sit still in class like a submissive girl or get diagnosed as being ADHD and their brains fried by drugs, do the song and dance of repeating the right mantras, surrounded by strangers and bullied rather than being surrounded by loving and kind family and friendgroups that share the same values as you, being sent home to do unpaid overtime homework because the schools suck at teaching people while they are there, etc. The romanticized anime high school like in Trails of Cold Steel 1 where it glosses over the tediousness, and the protagonist makes true and lasting friendships with people of good nature sounds appealing. And, ofcourse, anime highschools don't have ugly litter or graffiti.

That's a lot of words to defend a trope the Japs ran into the ground 30 years ago.

[UltraFan123]

FF has been doing since FFVII (arguably)

I would go a step further back and suggest that FF was "testing the magi-tech waters" with Final Fantasy VI which was released in the West as Final Fantasy III, for reasons.

To this day I still wonder to myself just how confused where the gamers at the time when they heard that "FF3 was getting a sequel" and the title of the new game said FF7.

[Cipher]

FF has been doing since FFVII (arguably)

I would go a step further back and suggest that FF was "testing the magi-tech waters" with Final Fantasy VI which was released in the West as Final Fantasy III, for reasons.

To this day I still wonder to myself just how confused where the gamers at the time when they heard that "FF3 was getting a sequel" and the title of the new game said FF7.

It was confusing but the game looked so different, in terms of graphics and aesthetic and only 3 party members, that might as well have been a new series altogether.

1 was basically a D&D japanese game with an excuse of a plot and 2 (IV) was basically a more involved fantasy story with actual characters and melodrama. The airships kinda had that "more than fantasy" feel to it but it is mostly standard D&D fare for the most part. The came 3 (VI) and that was a huge, huuuuuuge jump. New graphics that blew the previous one out of the water, the plot was now very intricate, with a lot of characters and a lot of shifting on who you control. So, while the name VII was confusing, the heavy investment Square made on marketing made it so it didn't really matter, specially because the previous 3 were not connected storywise.

And yes, under further scrutiny, there are a lot of similarities with VI and VII but VII has the submarines and soldiers with machineguns so it has more of that "contemporary/sci-fi" aesthetic instead of fantasy. Whereas VI has a ninja, a knight that has knightly armor but uses katanas, two female magic warriors so the folks in towns and the main characters are closer to fantasy but now not D&D but fantasy anime style.

By VIII the more modern/sci-fi aesthetic was in full swing, which is one of the reasons why IX got a lot of flak, as it went back into pure fantasy with a more "chibi/SD" style of character design instead of the Resident Evil proper human proportions of the characters in VIII and since many many people, specially outside of Japan, first impression of the series as VII, in their mind "Final Fantasy" meant more of that "magitech/cyberpunk/sci-fi" aesthetic instead of the anime fantasy one.

But yeah, FF was doing it years before XIII and in fact I would argue XIII going that route for the aesthetics was specifically to appeal to the VII diehard fans that wanted more FFVII and more Cloud Strife. The main character is designed to essentially be a female Cloud Strife in all but name, after all. So, I disagree that the aesthetic was a reason for the flak XIII got on release, in fact, the presentation is one of the very few things the game has going for it, which includes the aesthetics.

[Norfleet]

The romanticized anime high school like in Trails of Cold Steel 1 where it glosses over the tediousness, and the protagonist makes true and lasting friendships with people of good nature sounds appealing. And, ofcourse, anime highschools don't have ugly litter or graffiti.

The anime highschool is just the excuse for combining the two favored perversions of the Japanese: Pedophilia and squid.

[Faceless_Sentinel]

Unfortunately japanese devs gonna make sci-fi analogue of gaint sword of ff7. It still would be infinitely far from science and closer to stupid, over-the-top fiction.