Giant Bomb needs a JRPG guy

@GorillaMoPena said:

So you say they need someone for a genre because they don't respect it then just immediately insult sports games as a genre?

His name is Alex Navarro.

@rebgav said:

Are JRPGs in such a poor state that Giant Bomb needs to make an Affirmative Action hire? When good japanese games come out they tend to get covered, regardless of genre.

Don't see anything wrong with covering niche stuff.

PS: Gaming IMHO could use a bit more variety. Everything is a fucking shooter or a shooter-with-icing (e.g. Mass Effect, The Darkening II, Elder Scrolls). I swear FPSs (and their close cousin 3rdPSs) are the platformers of this era of gaming. No interesting gameplay idea for your game? Just make it shooter.

@rebgav said:

@NaCl said:

@rebgav said:

Are JRPGs in such a poor state that Giant Bomb needs to make an Affirmative Action hire? When good japanese games come out they tend to get covered, regardless of genre.

Don't see anything wrong with covering niche stuff.

The problem; Niche games are best covered by sites which specialize in that niche. I doubt that a lot of GB visitors are interested in mediocre or bad JRPGs, so expanding coverage beyond the "good" ones doesn't seem worthwhile. Assuming that the site has finite resources, they should use those resources to cover interesting releases regardless of genre rather than dedicating an entire human being to one (rather uninteresting) niche.

Are the GB guys really in such dire economical straits that they can't hire one more guy?

And he doesn't necessary have to review ONLY JRPGs. It's just that he will be the go-to-guy for JRPGs since he is well verse in the genre. Since his taste differs from the rest of the GB cast, he might also be able to provide a different perspective for the non-JRPG games he previews or reviews.

PS: Also those specialized niche site can make money from covering niche stuff why can't GB?

PPS: It might also help broaden the interests of GB readership. As I said, gaming need more variety. I rather GB help broaden the horizons of gaming by helping bring to attention niche stuff than be nothing but an echo chamber for the popular stuff.

@rebgav: But they don't even cover all the good RPGs. Tactics Ogre, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, and Radiant Historia all had zero coverage on the site. Tales of the Abyss came out this week on the 3DS and Tales of Graces F comes out next month and I expect very little to zero coverage of both.

For the record, I don't think GB needs to hire anybody else. I've accepted the fact that they don't cover the games that I'm most interested in.

....Is it over? (No good ever comes from a thread going on for 200ish responses.)

@rebgav said:

Do they really need to hire a dude to hold your hand and tell you that JRPGs are still a relevant and interesting genre? Maybe they could hire an RTS guy and an Adventure Game guy and Flight Sim guy as well so that no-one feels left out?

I'm going to guess that people who are really interested in Japanese RPGs know which upcoming games have their interest and whether or not they intend to buy them, no hand-holding necessary.

Strawman much.

As I said, I don't see a downside in them expanding and having more even coverage. What's wrong with having people on board with "competence" in other genres?

Also it beats having Quick Looks where the previewers have no interest in and have no idea what the fuck they are talking about.

@Subject2Change said:

Kessler was who they pawned it off on. Thank god for interns.

Yes JRPGS are games too but Giantbomb is a more focused market on what they like and what they want to review. Also how can you say they don't care about JPRGs when 2 ERs were focused on them. As for reviewing them, it's hard as they are quite the time sinks. There are plenty of sources for reviews and information, you don't need to get it all from one source.

This is what I was going to say - it's not like they don't focus on JRPG's - between two Endurance Runs, a few reviews and plenty of Quick Looks (including the most recent FF13-2), it's not like they've completely ignored the genre. As someone else said - when a good one comes up, they spend time looking at it.

Adding a genre-specific reviewer would be weird because there's probably plenty of other genres and sub-genres I'm sure we all wish they would cover more extensively. And like any good genre, you can probably find a bunch of sites that cater exclusively to covering those types of games - whether it's JRPG's, Sports, Indie Games or cat lady Dating Sims.

So yeah...
Edit: I read your comments and my opinion is now clearer I guess... So here's my point: when or if they hire a new GB employee in the future, if that person is into JRPG as well as other genres (FPS, TPS, action games, WRPGs, and JRPGs for example) it would be great.

I'm not looking for an JRPG focused dude or even more JRPG reviews. I'm looking for a counter point to all the ''Japan, you so crazy and out of touch'' that goes on in the office.

I know the GB community has been picking up the slack for a long time and I know I can find information elsewhere. The thing is, I don't need information, I need entertainment and insightful commentary and no one provide those 2 better than Giant Bomb. So when the crew is dismissive about genuinely good games and no one is there to bring a counter argument I feel let down.

Finally, if you need an example to illustrate my point of view here's one: when Brad said he'd stop playing FF13-2 because the main characters weren't interesting(yes there pretty bad in the first half of the game) and the gameplay was largely lifted from FF13, it's as if Ryan said the same thing about the first few hours of AC:Brotherhood(I guess you'll agree only if you played both to complition). It woulden't have been fair to the game or the fans with AC:B, why is for FF13-2? It is fair only in the sens that the staff does care about open world action game and not about JRPGs.

In the end, I'm just looking for someone who's going to respond to the question: Whatcha been playing? with: well Ryan I played FF13-2 over the week-end, it was pretty great. or with: Eternal Sonata... that game is not good...

The Giant Bomb JRPG guy is just a guest role, they just need a guy to come on for one Bombcast and go "yeah JRPGs, man late 90's PSX games were the best, the best, the golden era of JRPGs". And then he can leave.

@rebgav: Those three games are just what I thought were some of the best RPGs of last year that they didn't cover. There are plenty of great console RPGs over the last couple of years that also got zero coverage. Hell, three of my favorite games of last year had zero coverage on this site and it wasn't any of those that I listed.

I don't necessarily want the coverage for myself, I'm sure there are plenty of people that would be interested in these games if they were exposed to them. There are many games that I've bought from genres I don't like or introduced to new genres after watching the quick look or hearing them talk about it on the bombcast.

@rebgav said:

Dude, they could hire a specialist for every genre and every sub-set of those genres and try to cover every release in the world - but who would actually benefit from that? GB doesn't cover a lot of handheld games because the interest isn't really there on either side of the equation, niche genres are an even smaller market with even more specific needs/desires. It would be great if GB could cover everything with the same sort of depth that they devote to the games that they are personally interested in but that isn't ever going to be possible, regardless of how many people they have on staff. They could certainly expand their coverage of games beyond their current abilities but I think it's realistic to expect them to expand their coverage of popular games and genres before attempting to cover genres which have less consumer interest and less use for criticism.

Who would benefit? We would. Of course, covering everything would be impossible. But I don't see why they shouldn't (competently) cover as much ground as they can and why some of you guys are so opposed to it.

It's kind of chicken and egg. No coverage -> no interest generated -> no coverage -> ... Obscure genre remains obscure. Echo chamber here we come.

PS: It also could be argued as to how reviewing popular games that everyone and their mother is already reviewing is "more useful".

Considering Giant Bomb already has 5(+) dudes on its roster, I think Whiskey's priority for new hires will be (rightfully) given to other sites, like Screened.

Anyway, nothing wrong with a larger variety of coverage. JRPGs are easily the biggest omission, and it'd be nice for the good ones to receive due attention as they are easily and often overlooked. That said, I don't look to any of the Bomb Squad to be experts or specialists in any particular field. I like them for how individually entertaining they are, and how well they play off of one another. Already they're providing me laughter on a practically daily basis. It would be amazing if they could add a 'sixth wheel' to the bus that satisfies all these parameters, but I think it's running great as it is. Don't fix what ain't broke. Or... don't put another totem on the pole? Never bet against black? What?

Dear Giant Bomb,

It has come to my attention that you are desperately in need of a [hentai game] guy. Given that youse duders are too out of touch to handle the complex and highly specialized task of covering my favorite type of video game, I feel that you should bring in some new blood - preferably someone who shares my preference for thong underwear. While I am aware that you currently cover games which actual people are actually interested in I do believe that you will find that covering [hentai] games, while not bringing additional visitors to the site nor providing valuable information and entertainment for your current userbase, will be very satisfying for me personally and therefore it is worthy of your efforts and investment as far as I am concerned.

Also, I have many good ideas for future Endurance Runs, such as [Do You Like Horny Bunnies?] and [Do You Like Horny Bunnies 2]. Please contact me immediately for the full list, I have it ranked in order of interest and also chronological order of release so please remember to indicate your preference.

Sincerely,

[President Barackbar]

@President_Barackbar said:

@rebgav said:

Dear Giant Bomb,

It has come to my attention that you are desperately in need of a [hentai game] guy. Given that youse duders are too out of touch to handle the complex and highly specialized task of covering my favorite type of video game, I feel that you should bring in some new blood - preferably someone who shares my preference for thong underwear. While I am aware that you currently cover games which actual people are actually interested in I do believe that you will find that covering [hentai] games, while not bringing additional visitors to the site nor providing valuable information and entertainment for your current userbase, will be very satisfying for me personally and therefore it is worthy of your efforts and investment as far as I am concerned.

Also, I have many good ideas for future Endurance Runs, such as [Do You Like Horny Bunnies?] and [Do You Like Horny Bunnies 2]. Please contact me immediately for the full list, I have it ranked in order of interest and also chronological order of release so please remember to indicate your preference.

Sincerely,

[President Barackbar]

Did I do it right?

You guys are brilliant. Thank you for being sane.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@SuperWristBands said:

I don't know. I don't mind how it is right now. I mainly play Japanese games but I still don't care too much that they don't talk much about Final Fantasy games or at all about Monster Hunter games.

I'm with you. Even though Giant Bomb don't have interest in some of the games I care about It does not bother me. It could be nice though. I find having Patrick around is a refreshing new viewpoint.

In all seriousness, one of my favorite genres is turn based wargames like Panzer Corps and Unity of Command. But it's a niche genre, so I don't expect GB to cover them. That's what sites like wargamer are for. It's a similar case with JRPGs now. They're fairly niche. And that's okay. I just don't expect detailed coverage of them here. Same with iOS games, indies, etc etc. If you look at it objectively, these games just aren't as mass market as they used to be and therefore won't get the coverage.

I think the Giant Bomb crew is fairly and equitably reviewing and providing modern 'criticism writing’ for JRPG games today with the current staff. Hey if they could hire more people and lighten the load on other to provide even better content that would be fine...but my guess is that anyone suffiently talent and sufficiently knowledgeable about games - specifically JRPG games - would also give middling marks to the current FF games.

The thing about Giant Bomb is they are VERY self-aware about what they can do, want to do better, and what they no longer wish to do. If they as a group thought they were not reviewing games at a high level of quality they would do something about that -- within the budget constraints they have. If anything I think Giant Bomb is looking at the marketplace of games and thinking, "Wow, things are changing so much that running GB and other Whisky sites like we would have five years ago would be pointless & bad business."

The only thing they need to do is to kidnap Greg Kasavin from Supergiant!

@shulinchung said:

The only thing they need to do is to kidnap Greg Kasavin from Supergiant!

This.

@NaCl said:

@Galiant said:

@pyrodactyl: They really, really, don't need a "JRPG guy". Just like they don't need a "sports guy". They'll keep doing what they've been doing, which is why the site is so popular.

If you want to listen to people talk about JRPG's specifically, that go beyond the interests and knowledge of the Giant Bomb crew, there are a number of sites out there where you can find it.

I don't really understand this view.

What's wrong with adding people, with interests (like JRPG or sports) which are different from theirs, so they are a little more well rounded with their coverage? It's not like they are going to stop covering what they are covering now.

No, that's true, there's nothing wrong with that. But I don't feel that it's needed. My main concern is the Bombcast. Would they get along well with the current crew? How many people would they add? One for JRPG's, one for sports? Where does that end? I don't like the sound of that. I like my Bombcast the way it is, and adding too many people to it would change it too much...I don't feel that Giant Bomb needs to cover everything. They cover the big titles, and things they find interesting. That's enough for me.

Now do you understand my point of view? =P

Giant Bomb doesn't need any genre or platform specific guy. I think it's better having a staff of people who will play all games. Someone who only sticks to one thing wouldn't have much to contribute to anything outside of that one thing.

I feel the GB staff give the jrpg genre the exact amount of attention it deserves.

I will repeat this from an earlier discussion I had on here. If you are looking for JRPG coverage of any rapport in the U.S. go to 1Up.com. Jeremy Parish, as much of a sarcastic, dry witted rapscallion as he is, has and will continue to be one of the foremost experts in the field at playing these games. I also recommend listening to the 8-4 Podcast cats as they live in Japan and translate some of the few JRPGs that make it to our side of the globe.

The JRPG continues to diminish in significance due partly to outside interest and smaller budgets on the part of publishers. That's not say that JRPGs are dead, they are merely harder to justify for localization. Passion is a rare commodity these days but there are still a few pockets if you know the right place to look.

No they don't. If they want to cover a JRPG they'll do it, if they want to cover a sports game they'll do it. It's their website and they cover what they think is relevant for their audience. I'm confident the majority of Giant Bomb's current and potential audience don't care enough about JRPGs for them to hire one dude who exclusively covers them. Also most JRPGs are dumb.

@Zenaxzd said:

@WinterSnowblind said:

when was the last good JRPG?

FF13-2.

Oh man opinions.

You're allowed an opinion, but at best I'd say XIII-2 is nothing special. Why does it need specialised staff to cover it? Will they for some reason give it a better review? That just sounds even more biased.

I highlighted Xenoblade Chronicles because I think it's a really good game, and the staff will probably praise it a lot when it eventually gets released in the US. It doesn't mater that it's a JRPG, it's just a plain really awesome game.. Even if you happen to enjoy Final Fantasy XIII or the recent Tales games.. would you really give them that much praise? If so, I'd highly recommend playing more games.

I think they like Jrpgs, just not in the way you want. They like certain games like persona 4 and dark souls, but as far as going ape shit over alot of jrpgs its not happening like you want

@Zenaxzd said:

@WinterSnowblind said:

when was the last good JRPG?

FF13-2.

Oh man opinions.

You're allowed an opinion, but at best I'd say XIII-2 is nothing special. Why does it need specialised staff to cover it? Will they for some reason give it a better review? That just sounds even more biased.

I highlighted Xenoblade Chronicles because I think it's a really good game, and the staff will probably praise it a lot when it eventually gets released in the US. It doesn't mater that it's a JRPG, it's just a plain really awesome game.. Even if you happen to enjoy Final Fantasy XIII or the recent Tales games.. would you really give them that much praise? If so, I'd highly recommend playing more games.

@Galiant said:

@NaCl said:

@Galiant said:

@pyrodactyl: They really, really, don't need a "JRPG guy". Just like they don't need a "sports guy". They'll keep doing what they've been doing, which is why the site is so popular.

If you want to listen to people talk about JRPG's specifically, that go beyond the interests and knowledge of the Giant Bomb crew, there are a number of sites out there where you can find it.

I don't really understand this view.

What's wrong with adding people, with interests (like JRPG or sports) which are different from theirs, so they are a little more well rounded with their coverage? It's not like they are going to stop covering what they are covering now.

No, that's true, there's nothing wrong with that. But I don't feel that it's needed. My main concern is the Bombcast. Would they get along well with the current crew? How many people would they add? One for JRPG's, one for sports? Where does that end? I don't like the sound of that. I like my Bombcast the way it is, and adding too many people to it would change it too much...I don't feel that Giant Bomb needs to cover everything. They cover the big titles, and things they find interesting. That's enough for me.

Now do you understand my point of view? =P

You worry too much. The guys at GB are professionals. I'm sure they can handle their own personnel management.

I will be honest with you, I don't listen to the bombcast. If the newcomers are unsuited for it, they can just don't do it.

Where does it end? When they run out of money. Basically as many as GB can afford. And note, these guys aren't just going to ONLY review JRPGs/sports, it's just that if there is a JRPG/sports that needs reviewing they will be the go-to-guy for it - better than forcing someone who has no interest in said genre at all ramble cluelessly through a review/Quick Look.

Personally I want GB to cover as much as possible. They are a general site, not a specialist one, after all. In doing so they can broaden the gaming horizons of their readership, introduce new genres to them. By covering only the big titles, that other sites are already covering anyway, GB will be nothing more than an "echo chamber" that re-enforces the popularity of already popular titles - while "obscure but good" games remain stuck in obscurity. IMO gaming needs more variety - something that has been declining in the recent decades; I swear 90% of all AAA games now are fucking shooters or shooters-with-icing (e.g. Mass Effect, Skyrim, The Darkness 2).

@blackbird415: That's not what he is asking, he asking for some kind of insightful comments on the genre, instead of feigning interests and just joking and waving off the games.

Yeah, it's not so much the JRPG sub-genre, it's the RPG genre as a whole. But I don't mind. They shouldn't cover, or talk about, things they aren't interested in. I'm not here to get 100% coverage of everything. And a dedicated RPG editor/reviewer is probably not the way to go - as someone said, he'll be alone in conversation anyway, it wouldn't do much good. RPGs are extremely time-consuming, and hard to cover good anyway, so they probably don't even bother, even IF they find something somewhat interesting. Sure it can be slightly annoying when they do decide to talk about it and show their ignorance, but hey, Dave comes in and talks about a game, or does a quick look, once in a while. That's enough. I don't get mad, I just laugh, and that's why I'm here all the time - to have a good time.

@Hailinel: I think FFXIII and XIII-2 are god awful games.

If you think they're good, that's cool. But does anyone consider them amazing? I can't see how that would be possible without having been trapped under a rock for the past decade.

@pyrodactyl: I think they are very aware of Japanese game development and style. Some of these guys have been doing this for almost 20 years. So is your point more that you want someone who is a FAN of JRPGs or Japanese centric games?

I'll do it.

@WinterSnowblind: I would say they're amazing. I haven't finished XIII-2 yet but I'm enjoying it just as much as XIII. I would definitely put XIII in my top three games of all time.

@RenMcKormack said:

@pyrodactyl: I think they are very aware of Japanese game development and style. Some of these guys have been doing this for almost 20 years. So is your point more that you want someone who is a FAN of JRPGs or Japanese centric games?

More like someone who choses to play these games in his or her spare time.

I know that the current staff dosen't do such a thing because it's time consuming and they don't have the time to dedicate to a genre they're not interested in.

Exept the games are worth it. But for now the cycle repeats: Nobody in the office plays JRPGs-> we don't play them exept the ones we have to review-> some part of our users assumes the games are shit -> we don't care about JRPGs...

@ShadowConqueror said:

Sure, when JRPGs stop being terrible again.

This was pretty well my thought.

More along the lines of: 'a reviewer specific to a dead genre?'

@aceofspudz said:

Besides, we are talking about a group of people that played Persona 4 and Chrono Trigger in front of us. It ain't like they hate the genre, they just don't cover it exhaustively.

Agreed. But I do hope they get someone to explore Xenoblade when it comes out stateside on the Wii. I need to know what the hype is all about.

I can't really be arsed to read 12 pages but if nobody has pointed the waste of employing someone - even freelance - to cover such a niche genre, when Screened has to limp on with only Rorie full time - let me be the one to rectify that.

A large staff that can cover every game and has specialised knowledge of all genres is a luxury sites cannot afford these days - unless they are owned by a TV network or an evil media conglomerate.

@WinterSnowblind said:

@Hailinel: I think FFXIII and XIII-2 are god awful games.

If you think they're good, that's cool. But does anyone consider them amazing? I can't see how that would be possible without having been trapped under a rock for the past decade.

I would not classify either game among the best in the genre, but they're of both good quality, particularly in their execution of combat, and Final Fantasy XIII-2 contains much of what FFXIII lacks. From my perspective, they're far from the atrocities that you claim they are. If someone else likes them more, or considers them all-time favorites (perhaps a premature designation in the case of FFXIII-2, but I digress), that's really not my problem and not something I should feel indignant over.

@byterunner: feigning interst is tens of hours being invested into a game? They may joke alot for entertainment sake as they do with alot of topics, but to say when vinny putting in a good 30 hours into dark sould is a feigning interest. Or the crazy amount of endurance run videos for persona then idk how much time you have on you but thats a pretty big fuck load of time to me. I think to call that feigning is fucking obsurd

@Hailinel: I think FFXIII and XIII-2 are god awful games.

If you think they're good, that's cool. But does anyone consider them amazing? I can't see how that would be possible without having been trapped under a rock for the past decade.

I find it amazing that when someone talks smack about FFXIII-2 the same people come in to defend it. Why not just enjoy the game and ignore the people who try pissing on your parade? I find it hard to justify something being good to someone who has no interest or is jaded by the design of JRPGs in general.

Sure, people say it's a piece of shit, but more than likely they never played the game or have their own reasons on disliking it. There is really no reason to argue with them.

Anyway, about the OP. Sometimes I feel like they need to pay some attention to JRPGs, but at the same time I feel like there are better outlets to find a reliable opinion (sounds weird).

Here's the thing; almost every JRPG released in the last 15 years has been boring, generic and uninspired. Clearly they don't have a problem with the genre, as they DID just do an endurance run of one of the most well received games of the genre ever, as well as having written at least one review on one of the Pokemon games. I think it's just that nowadays the only differences between JRPG games are locales, names/skins and mascot characters. The stories are written like a Mad Lib; boring and recyclable.

I think I found your man.

Oh, it would be a terrible idea, but I'd love to see it happen.

I mean, for the record, he actually likes video games, which Jeff has proven repeatedly that he does not :P Plus, someone needs to say something nice about Sony products around here every now and then, and I think Sam could do that. Christ, he actually liked Final Fantasy 13 and Sakura Wars.

Are there a lot of bad JRPGs? Yeah, that is totally fair to say, but there are a lot of terrible games from other regions, too. I think because there are so few of them, the ratio might be a little skewed... but yes, by and large the problem is of the inability to grow as a sub-genre. But there are still plenty of great journalists out there (keeping in mind the economic climate still being rather harsh to the industry) that like Japanese games, even Japanese RPGs. There are a lot of more high-profile entries out there that get most of the flack, but NIS has been publishing a lot of really good ones over the past two years (as much as I can remember).

@beeftothetaco said:

Here's the thing; almost every JRPG released in the last 15 years has been boring, generic and uninspired.

You fail to cite in what way. Based on your comments, you sound like one of those people that played Final Fantasy VII, maybe one Final Fantasy VII clone in the year or two after, and then considered the genre dead.

I find it amazing that when someone talks smack about FFXIII-2 the same people come in to defend it. Why not just enjoy the game and ignore the people who try pissing on your parade? I find it hard to justify something being good to someone who has no interest or is jaded by the design of JRPGs in general.

@Legendary said:

Sure, people say it's a piece of shit, but more than likely they never played the game or have their own reasons on disliking it. There is really no reason to argue with them.

Meant to say, if I go into any game thread and shit on it without playing it, people should be annoyed with me. That's just a dumb thing to do.

Oh my God, the comments in the first page made me laugh so much....   
 
 
And no, I dont think they do because I dont think I could care less of their ignorance.  Let them do what they want.

they just did an endurance run of chrono trigger

AND MODERN JRPGS ARE FUCKING HORRIBLE, HAVE YOU SEEN THE TV COMMERCIALS FOR FFXIII 2 IT IS FUCKING EMBARASSING

@Zenaxzd: I don't want to derail the thread with this discussion, but last thing I want to say: it's bothersome sure, but people will be ignorant wherever, especially on the Internet. Don't let it get to you lol. You said it yourself; you don't give a shit what any random person thinks. Try not to argue with them if you really don't care ;)