Why do JRPGs have so many characters?

[Lich]

Title. Playing JRPGs feels like being in some cramped space with too many people.

[A Chinese opium den]

[Val the Moofia Boss]

What JRPGs in particular do you have in mind? Most JRPGs have small casts of less than 10 playable party members. JRPGs with large party member rosters tend to be the exception. Suikoden, later Trails games, Chrono Cross, The Last Remnant, SRPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, Valkyria Chronicles, Aselia the Spirit of Eternity Sword, the gachas, and... I am struggling to think of more here.

Personally I very much prefer large party member rosters wish that they were more common, as that maximizes the chance that you will find enough favorite characters to be able to fill a full party of just your most favorites. A problem I have with your usual JRPG with a small cast of <10 party members is that I usually only really like one or maybe two of the characters, and then have to fill the rest of the spots with people I am so-so on, or only kinda like. Or worse, a situation like Trails to Zero where there is only one party member I vaguely like, and I don't care about the other three mandatory main party members.

[Atlantico]

What JRPGs in particular do you have in mind? Most JRPGs have small casts of less than 10 playable party members.

NPCs

He's talking about NPCs.

[Lich]

Yes, I didn't exclude NPCs. It's normal for JRPGs to have many one-dimensional characters that represent recurring archetypes with overwrought backgrounds. These characters crowd the player with sheer numbers and verbose, inane dialogue.

[Oyster Sauce]

Yes, I didn't exclude NPCs. It's normal for JRPGs to have many one-dimensional characters that represent recurring archetypes with overwrought backgrounds. These characters crowd the player with sheer numbers and verbose, inane dialogue.

Because they're good

[Tangerine]

Yes, I didn't exclude NPCs. It's normal for JRPGs to have many one-dimensional characters that represent recurring archetypes with overwrought backgrounds. These characters crowd the player with sheer numbers and verbose, inane dialogue.

That brings up another good question: why are JRPG characters so one-dimensional? Someone should make a thread about this.

[WhiteShark]

Don't cRPGs also usually have a large number of interactable NPCs? I don't think goofy, one-note side characters are exclusive to JRPGs. Did any game in particular inspire you to make this thread, @Lich?

[Tweed]

Every JRPG ever:

Hero. A mute kid with a bad hairdo who gets caught up in a quest to save the world
Girl. May or may not be a love interest who usually does magic and always doubts herself
Other Girl. Might also do magic or be technologically inclined, usually Hero's friend
Tough Guy. Meets up with the party later, rude, abrasive, might start out as an enemy.

Any old people encountered are wisebeards who always step out of the way for the younger generation or are villains pissing on the wheels of progress. The ancient evil is about to awaken again for the umpteenth bajillionth time and Hero, who's always some pathetic loser and the absolute last possible person you'd expect is also the last in a bloodline of knights/dragons/double-jointed acrobats who can stop the ancient evil somehow, but they have to go find the golden nyah-nyah of power and meet a cast of crazy 2d dimensional characters first who will all tell Hero to habeeb in himself or embrace the power of friendship or some other worthless platitude when the real answer is to boost his strength as high as possible so he can OHKO big bad in the final boss fight using an exploit. Also the ancient evil is always God, always.

[Trickster]

Title. Playing JRPGs feels like being in some cramped space with too many people.

That’s the whole JRPG philosophy. These games feel utterly bloated, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. They’re built to waste your time and fake a level of depth they don't actually have. This is achieved through a ton of repetitive random encounters, vapid anime dialogue with recycled lines, heaps of cookie-cutter loot, useless items, and a sea of lifeless NPCs. It’s quantity over quality. A pure Maximalism and lack of good taste in everything. It’s all calculated to give an insatiable Asian consumer with a taste for gaudy excess the feeling that they’ve gotten some "epic" bang for their money.

[methoxetamine]

Every JRPG ever:

Hero. A mute kid with a bad hairdo who gets caught up in a quest to save the world
Girl. May or may not be a love interest who usually does magic and always doubts herself
Other Girl. Might also do magic or be technologically inclined, usually Hero's friend
Tough Guy. Meets up with the party later, rude, abrasive, might start out as an enemy.

Any old people encountered are wisebeards who always step out of the way for the younger generation or are villains pissing on the wheels of progress. The ancient evil is about to awaken again for the umpteenth bajillionth time and Hero, who's always some pathetic loser and the absolute last possible person you'd expect is also the last in a bloodline of knights/dragons/double-jointed acrobats who can stop the ancient evil somehow, but they have to go find the golden nyah-nyah of power and meet a cast of crazy 2d dimensional characters first who will all tell Hero to habeeb in himself or embrace the power of friendship or some other worthless platitude when the real answer is to boost his strength as high as possible so he can OHKO big bad in the final boss fight using an exploit. Also the ancient evil is always God, always.

Whatever...

[Magick]

Title. Playing JRPGs feels like being in some cramped space with too many people.

That’s the whole JRPG philosophy. These games feel utterly bloated, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. They’re built to waste your time and fake a level of depth they don't actually have. This is achieved through a ton of repetitive random encounters, vapid anime dialogue with recycled lines, heaps of cookie-cutter loot, useless items, and a sea of lifeless NPCs. It’s quantity over quality. A pure Maximalism and lack of good taste in everything. It’s all calculated to give an insatiable Asian consumer with a taste for gaudy excess the feeling that they’ve gotten some "epic" bang for their money.

lol play Xenogears and tell me that **** isn't deep.

[Stack of Turtles]

Title. Playing JRPGs feels like being in some cramped space with too many people.

That’s the whole JRPG philosophy. These games feel utterly bloated, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. They’re built to waste your time and fake a level of depth they don't actually have. This is achieved through a ton of repetitive random encounters, vapid anime dialogue with recycled lines, heaps of cookie-cutter loot, useless items, and a sea of lifeless NPCs. It’s quantity over quality. A pure Maximalism and lack of good taste in everything. It’s all calculated to give an insatiable Asian consumer with a taste for gaudy excess the feeling that they’ve gotten some "epic" bang for their money.

lol play Xenogears and tell me that **** isn't deep.

It's not, it's insane schizognosticism that sounds deep because everything is so ******** your brain inherently assumes there must be layers underneath that make it make sense, but there aren't.

[Oyster Sauce]

That’s the whole JRPG philosophy. These games feel utterly bloated, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. They’re built to waste your time and fake a level of depth they don't actually have. This is achieved through a ton of repetitive random encounters, vapid anime dialogue with recycled lines, heaps of cookie-cutter loot, useless items, and a sea of lifeless NPCs. It’s quantity over quality. A pure Maximalism and lack of good taste in everything. It’s all calculated to give an insatiable Asian consumer with a taste for gaudy excess the feeling that they’ve gotten some "epic" bang for their money.

lol play Xenogears and tell me that **** isn't deep.

It's not, it's insane schizognosticism that sounds deep because everything is so ******** your brain inherently assumes there must be layers underneath that make it make sense, but there aren't.

there is I checked

[Tangerine]

Every JRPG ever:

Hero. A mute kid with a bad hairdo who gets caught up in a quest to save the world
Girl. May or may not be a love interest who usually does magic and always doubts herself
Other Girl. Might also do magic or be technologically inclined, usually Hero's friend
Tough Guy. Meets up with the party later, rude, abrasive, might start out as an enemy.

Any old people encountered are wisebeards who always step out of the way for the younger generation or are villains pissing on the wheels of progress. The ancient evil is about to awaken again for the umpteenth bajillionth time and Hero, who's always some pathetic loser and the absolute last possible person you'd expect is also the last in a bloodline of knights/dragons/double-jointed acrobats who can stop the ancient evil somehow, but they have to go find the golden nyah-nyah of power and meet a cast of crazy 2d dimensional characters first who will all tell Hero to habeeb in himself or embrace the power of friendship or some other worthless platitude when the real answer is to boost his strength as high as possible so he can OHKO big bad in the final boss fight using an exploit. Also the ancient evil is always God, always.

Whatever...

Cool it, Leonhart.

[Lich]

Don't cRPGs also usually have a large number of interactable NPCs? I don't think goofy, one-note side characters are exclusive to JRPGs. Did any game in particular inspire you to make this thread, @Lich?

The number of NPCs in total and the number of NPCs that the player must interact with to progress vary much more in Western RPGs. It's not unusual for Western RPGs to have small numbers of NPCs and no required NPC interactions. JRPGs usually have many NPCs with unavoidable interactions.

The last JRPG that made me think about this was Labyrinth of Touhou Tri. Nearly half of this boss fight is dialogue. There's dialogue when you enter the dungeon, when you explore the dungeon, and when you leave the dungeon. Almost all of this is a version of "Kuh... this is bad..." "This isn't even my final form!" "Y-you're a big dummy!" and other anime cliches.
Labyrinth of Touhou Tri: Eirin Lunatic Bossfight

[Vaako]

They just do things which worked already. And most japanese games only target kids anyway since they barely have any free time when they work 12hours+ a day as an adult. Guess that could also be a reason why most of their writing/dialogue is so boring for an adult that you can skip most of it. Look at pretty things and see numbers go up. Dont rock the boat with wrongthink or philosophy. But thats the end result if you educate every kid into dont stand out in society and work yourself to death like an ant.

[WhiteShark]

And most japanese games only target kids anyway since they barely have any free time when they work 12hours+ a day as an adult.

I think this meme is decades out of date. Every statistic I can find online says Japs these days work fewer hours per week on average than Americans. Furthermore, I sincerely doubt the team behind Labyrinth of Touhou is targeting children with their niche, high difficulty dungeon crawlers.

The number of NPCs in total and the number of NPCs that the player must interact with to progress vary much more in Western RPGs. It's not unusual for Western RPGs to have small numbers of NPCs and no required NPC interactions. JRPGs usually have many NPCs with unavoidable interactions.

The last JRPG that made me think about this was Labyrinth of Touhou Tri. Nearly half of this boss fight is dialogue. There's dialogue when you enter the dungeon, when you explore the dungeon, and when you leave the dungeon. Almost all of this is a version of "Kuh... this is bad..." "This isn't even my final form!" "Y-you're a big dummy!" and other anime cliches.

Ok, I get where you're coming from now. Yeah, Japs do like their intraparty interactions and character commentary. Touhou fangames are especially fertile ground for this because everyone already knows and likes the characters. The characters are really the primary reason to make a Touhou fangame instead of something original, so they want to play them up.

I've played games in which I really enjoyed those dialogues and felt they enhanced the characters, but it's a real drag when they aren't appealing, and they do tend to verbosity either way. I know you in particular highly value purity of game, so I understand why it rubbed you the wrong way. I think the Jap perspective is that they want those dialogues and interactions to flesh out the characters so they can emotionally connect with them.

[Vaako]

And most japanese games only target kids anyway since they barely have any free time when they work 12hours+ a day as an adult.

I think this meme is decades out of date. Every statistic I can find online says Japs these days work fewer hours per week on average than Americans. Furthermore, I sincerely doubt the team behind Labyrinth of Touhou is targeting children with their niche, high difficulty dungeon crawlers.

Seems like they did a reform in 2019 I guess. And grok said every 10th worker still works over 80hours overtime every month. Average overtime is 45 hours. Its still quite a lot compared to the EU. Where you have very few jobs with overtime at all and if you have you usually get free on another day.

And yes not all games are targeted towards kids below the age of 16. But quite a lot.

[Tangerine]

A lot of their overtime is them ******* off doing nothing until the boss leaves.

[Vaako]

A lot of their overtime is them ******* off doing nothing until the boss leaves.

Seems reasonable. If you dont want to die of overwork. But its also less quality time for the family.

[Norfleet]

Seems reasonable. If you dont want to die of overwork. But its also less quality time for the family.

The birthrate in Japan is is down to 1.14. They don't HAVE famblies.

[Vaako]

Seems reasonable. If you dont want to die of overwork. But its also less quality time for the family.

The birthrate in Japan is is down to 1.14. They don't HAVE famblies.

Yeah maybe thats one of the reasons...

[Stack of Turtles]

Seems reasonable. If you dont want to die of overwork. But its also less quality time for the family.

The birthrate in Japan is is down to 1.14. They don't HAVE famblies.

Hey, it's still better than China.

[Norfleet]

Yeah, Japan isn't even the poster child of awful birthrates anymore. Worst Korea has the most charismatic example, and China may have it even worse, but they've covered much of it up and it's unclear how bad it really is.