more jrpg stuff for the 360 announced tomorrow.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Needless

can you actually admit that the majority of them arent whiney 16yr olds though? honestly? haha

Let me take a quick look at my collection.

At least for PS2. yes-

[Urlithani]

Let me take a quick look at my collection.

At least for PS2. yes-

I think it probably has to do a lot with the perception of western culture. Take any of the qualities of a teenager, being whiny, and feminine manboy, and if it's in a JRPG, that protaganist will likely be labelled with all three.

Now, if a JRPG has a 28 year old grizzled and athletic soldier that is the main character, and he whines and bitches as much any JRPG main character in existence, he would probably get a pass because people would assume that he's bitter from being battle-hardened and having gone through a lot.

Also it's because the most popular of all the JRPG's (Final Fantasy, etc.) generally perpetuate that stereotype...so counting Disgaea and Persona is true, most people don't know what those games even are.

[Sean]

The majority of these are in fact not whiny, emo, feminine manboys. Let's see... I'd apply that to only a couple of these, one being a Final Fantasy game (fucking shocker there), and that's about it.

PS2:

Arc the Lad TWOTS:
Kharg (17m), Darc (17m)

Ar tonelico:
Lyner Barsett (18m)

Atelier Iris:
Klein Kiesling (17m)

Atelier Iris 2:
Felt Blanchimont (?m)

Atelier Iris 3:
Edge Vanhite (19m)

Breath of Fire Dragon Quarter:
Ryu (16m)

Dark Cloud:
Toan (?m)

Dark Cloud 2:
Maximillian (?m)

Dawn of Mana:
Keldric (?m)

Disgaea:
Laharl (1313m)

Disgaea 2:
Adell (17m)

.hack//original
Kite/unknown (14m)

.hack//G.U.
Haseo/Ryou Misaki (17m)

Dragon Quest VIII:
"Main Character" (?m)

Final Fantasy X:
Tidus (17m)

Final Fantasy X-2:
Yuna (19f)

Final Fantasy XII:
Vaan (17m)

Grandia 2:
Ryudo (17m)

Grandia 3:
Yuki (?m)

Grandia Xtreme:
Evann (18m)

GrimGrimoire:
Lillet Blan (?f)

Growlanser 2:
Wein Cruz (17m)

Growlanser 3:
Slayn Wilder (?m)

Growlanser 5:
Haschen (?m)

Kingdom Hearts 1/2:
Sora (14/15m)

LaPucelle Tactics:
Prier (16f)

Mana Khemia:
Vayne Aurelius (16m)

Megaman X Command Mission:
Megaman X (he's a fucking Robot)

Odin Sphere:
Gwendolyn (?f), Cornelius (?m), Mercedes (?f), Oswald (?m), Velvet (?f)

Phantom Brave:
Marona (13f)

Radiata Stories:
Jack the Asshole (16m)

Rogue Galaxy:
Jaster Rogue (17m)

Shadow Hearts 2:
Yuri (25m)

SMT Devil Summoner:
Raido Kuzunoha the 14th (17)

SMT Digital Devil Saga:
Serph (?m)

SMT Nocturne:
"Main Character" (?m)

SMT Persona 3:
"Main Character" (?m)

Soul Nomad:
"Main Character" (?m or f)/Gig (??? m god)

Steambot Chronicles:
Vanilla Bean (?m)

Star Ocean 3:
Fayt Leingod (19m)

Stella Deus:
Spero (16m)

Suikoden 3:
Geddoe (112m), Hugo (15m), and Chris (22f)

Suikoden 4:
Lazlo (19m)

Suikoden 5:
Freyjadour Falenas (16m)

Suikoden Tactics:
Kyril (?m)

Tales of Legendia:
Senel Coolidge (17m)

Tales of the Abyss:
Luke Fon Fabre (17m)

Unlimited Saga:
Laura (30f), Mythe (28m), Kurt (32m), Judy (10f), Armic (?m animal), Ventus (19m), Ruby (17f)

Valkyrie Profile 2:
Silmeria (21f), Alicia(18f)

Wild Arms Alter Code F:
Rudy Roughknight (15m)

Wild Arms 3:
Virginia Maxwell (18f)

Wild Arms 4:
Jude Maverick (13m)

Wild Arms 5:
Dean Stark (16m)

Xenosaga 1/2/3:
Shion Uzuki (23f)

Ys The Ark of Napishtim:
Adol Christin (?m)


X360:

Blue Dragon:
Shu (16m)

Culdcept Saga
"Main Character" (?m)

Enchanted Arms:
Atsuma (?m)

Eternal Sonata:
Frédéric François Chopin (39m), Allegretto (16m), Polka (14f)

Lost Odyssey:
Kaim Argonar (1000~m)


Wii:

Dragon Quest Swords:
"Main Character" (16m)

Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn:
Micaiah (?f), Elincia (?f), Ike (?m)


GameCube:

Fire Emblem Path of Radiance:
Ike (?m)

Skies of Arcadia Legends:
Vyse (17m)

Tales of Symphonia:
Lloyd Irving (17m)

[Szlia]

It's still 90% teenagers who are, by definition, immature. It is no accident since many of these stories are about reaching maturity. Note that while it's a theme that is prevalent in jrpg and other Japanese fictions targeted at teenagers, it can also be found in occidental games. Fable comes to mind.

Older characters also exist in Japanese video games, but in genres that are targeted at older players: There are very few teenagers in survival horror games and not that many in adventure games (I exclude dating sims from that category!).

[Zehn - Vhex]

Originally Posted by Sean

Disgaea:
Laharl (1313m)

Final Fantasy X:
Tidus (17m)

Final Fantasy X-2:
Yuna (19f)

Final Fantasy XII:
Vaan (17m)

Kingdom Hearts 1/2:
Sora (14/15m)

These being the only ones I played from your list. Laharl spent most of the game whining about being king and otherwise being a douche, Tidus spent the entire game checking himself out in a mirror and crying about his dad never loving him. Yuna was your typical, "oops, I'm sorry I didn't bleed enough when you raped my ass" stereotype, Vaan was pretty much Tidus 2.0 with a serious mancrush on the pirate dude (But who didn't so I'll give you a bye on this one) and Sora is to kingdom hearts as Michael is to Lost. "WAAAAAALT...I mean RIIIIKUUUU"

Whiny bitches all of them.

[Zehn - Vhex]

That isn't to say that JRPG's have a handful of kickass characters here and there. It's just that the protaganist is typically a whiny little bitch and since the more mainstream titles adhere to that stereotype it turns you off from playing the lesser known titles that may or may not feature someone who is in fact badass.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Zehn - Vhex

These being the only ones I played from your list. Laharl spent most of the game whining about being king and otherwise being a douche, Tidus spent the entire game checking himself out in a mirror and crying about his dad never loving him. Yuna was your typical, "oops, I'm sorry I didn't bleed enough when you raped my ass" stereotype, Vaan was pretty much Tidus 2.0 with a serious mancrush on the pirate dude (But who didn't so I'll give you a bye on this one) and Sora is to kingdom hearts as Michael is to Lost. "WAAAAAALT...I mean RIIIIKUUUU"

Whiny bitches all of them.

I fully agree with what Zehn just said. I didn't say how high above half for my collection!

[Needless]

Kinda funny how the majority of that list from sean is indeed ~17yr olds lol.

[Nakilos]

Not exactly backing up the argument here, even the specifically "unknowns" are in a similar age range (take Persona 3 or Nocturne, it's pretty evident both are in the 16-18 range, though both are silent protagonists). Serph in DDS, unsure on age, but again a silent protagonist, and you can assume he is, or was a 20 something when he was an actual person.

Szlia is right though. Go figure games which feature teenage protagonists aren't necessarily the most mature/interesting characters in existence.

[Vinen]

Originally Posted by Nakilos

Not exactly backing up the argument here, even the specifically "unknowns" are in a similar age range (take Persona 3 or Nocturne, it's pretty evident both are in the 16-18 range, though both are silent protagonists). Serph in DDS, unsure on age, but again a silent protagonist, and you can assume he is, or was a 20 something when he was an actual person.

Szlia is right though. Go figure games which feature teenage protagonists aren't necessarily the most mature/interesting characters in existence.

Serph is most likely in his mid to late 20's based on the TRUE Serph's position.

[Jubee]

Originally Posted by Needless

Kinda funny how the majority of that list from sean is indeed ~17yr olds lol.

Lets not forget that Laharl may be 1313 years old, but he also has a sprite and a voice of a 12 year old boy.

[Nakilos]

Serph is most likely in his mid to late 20's based on the TRUE Serph's position.

Well ya, that is why I said 20 something. If he is older than that, then he really wasn't designed to look like that.

That being said, the few scenes you get to see of Serph as an actual person I rather enjoyed the character. I actually enjoyed all the characters in that series. Arjilla could be annoying at times, but there was a good amount of depth with each of the characters.

[Kevincheese]

Originally Posted by Jubee

Lets not forget that Laharl may be 1313 years old, but he also has a sprite and a voice of a 12 year old boy.

Yet is still, at least until a certain ANGEL enters the story, completely badass and not-emo.

[Sean]

Really, it's the big name ones that stand out as whiny and emo and all that and you pretty much only pointed out the Square games. Go figure.

Though I've always said that painting Vaan as that is completely unfair - he's nothing but happy go lucky kid (a stupid kid) but he was never a whiny emo kid.

Quite a few of the others have a lot more character development than what Square shits out and most of them don't have an ounce of emo or whine in them.

Let's take Jack for example - Jack is 100% asshole. There is no way else to describe him. Plain and simple, Jack is the embodiment of the word asshole.

And let's not forget Ryudo - Ryudo is just plain fucking badass.

Vyse? Vyse is a fucking AIR PIRATE.

Haseo, Felt, Lyner, Wein, Slayn, and Luke are characters with great development.

Ect.

[Lost Ranger]

I think they are just using the word emo a little to loosely is all. Alot of these main characters are insanely immature but as its been pointed out the vast majority of them are teenagers. Also, alot of them may be 18-19 but the japs have a hard on for pretty boys who look like they are 12 so honestly age rarely seems to matter anyway.

I always found it funny that some of these games have supporting characters who seem to fit the bill of "main hero" better then the games real hero. Best example I can think of is the pirate from FF12. I can't for the life of me remember his name but I remember him being pretty cool overall.