I love western RPG's, haven't loved a JRPG since FFX.

What games are considered the best JRPG's of this generation? Are there any that have the loot and open world nature of western RPG's, yet a party system and story of JRPG's?

*points here*

It's gonna be hard to find an open-world RPG that's as story and character driven as a typical JRPG.

EDIT: But to be less of a snark-monster I'll tell you the JRPG's that I've greatly enjoyed this generation that are decidedly NOT open-world.

Tales of Vesperia (it's why I bought a 360)

Valkyria Chronicles 1 & 2

Final Fantasy XIII & XIII-2

Nier is the only console RPG that I can think of at the moment that has (somewhat) open world gameplay. 

Haven't been a lot of them this generation. The Tales games remain pretty consistently good though.

It might not be from this generation (well 2006 kinda DOES count), but I've just started playing FF12, and that does a lot of shit differently. It's pretty interesting, but I'll see how it actually pans out.

I feel the same way,

and I'm going to say no to that question. I could be wrong.

Xenoblade Chronicles might interest you, it's probably the most forward-thinking game in the genre that I've played this generation. Its world is quite open, it has quick travel, it has a party system and some looting and it has a really great story to boot.

I don't NEED open world, it just would be interesting if a JRPG had that. What about Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon? Are those considered great games by JRPG peeps?

Don't expect any JRPG to have the open world of a Bethesda game. The best you'll get is an eventual opening up like the old FF games and some sidequests. If that's fine with you, go play Tales of Vesperia. If the last JRPG you loved was FFX then open world can't be too big a deal for you since it was linear as hell.

Final Fantasy 12 was the last Japanese RPG I liked, and I liked it for it's open world nature. The story and the characters were all typical final fantasy game (read: bad).

best JRPGs of the current console generation:

Tales of Vesperia is pretty good

Lost Odyssey as well, though I never completed it (battles take 4ever)

Resonance of Fate has the best combat system of any RPG ever made

Nier is technically a JRPG and it is also the best game ever made so try that if you want

Forget this generation, just play two of the best JRPGs of all time - Persona 3 and 4

Both have loot, both have a somewhat open world.

@Sooty said:

Forget this generation, just play two of the best JRPGs of all time - Persona 3 and 4

Both have loot, both have a somewhat open world.

nocturne is better than both of them

Tales of Graces f has a pretty flashy combat system but also cliche as fuck everything. It's a fun game, though

@MEATBALL said:

Xenoblade Chronicles might interest you, it's probably the most forward-thinking game in the genre that I've played this generation. Its world is quite open, it has quick travel, it has a party system and some looting and it has a really great story to boot.

I have to second this, they really went all out to emulate WRPG's with this game. It's open world-ish, there's still "zones" you have to transition to and from, but every area is huge and branching to some extent. And a fast-travel mechanic exactly like Oblivion and Skyrim. A fast-travel mechanic in a goddamned JRPG. I still can't believe it.

It's also oozing with sidequests, but most of it is kinda fetchy-killy quests, one of my only complaints about it. The game is covered with loot though, and armor actually changes the appearance of your character, for better and for worse.

It comes out to the US.. like next week I think? I played and completed my import last year and loved the heck out of it. Story isn't quite as good as Xenogears and Xenosaga, but it's better than everything else out this gen.

Tales games are also still good for your JRPG needs. Not the best, but they'll satisfy that itch. I still need to play my copy of Tales of Graces.

What you're asking for is hardly possible. When a game is story driven, is going to be more linear. When a game has an open world, it's story won't be as important, and characters won't be as developed. You have to choose one or the other.

@Louis0nFire said:

I don't NEED open world, it just would be interesting if a JRPG had that. What about Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon? Are those considered great games by JRPG peeps?

I played Lost Odyssey but only made it about 8 hours in before I gave up on trying to get into it. The battle system was really basic, the story was bland, and the characters were generally uninteresting. What I did like about the game were the occasional short-stories that were delivered in a weird animated text format, but not enough to suffer through the rest of it.

Some people seem to like it though.

Racist!

Resonance of Fate and Lost Odyssey are incredible.

I don't NEED open world, it just would be interesting if a JRPG had that. What about Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon? Are those considered great games by JRPG peeps?

Haven't been a lot of them this generation. The Tales games remain pretty consistently good though.

It might not be from this generation (well 2006 kinda DOES count), but I've just started playing FF12, and that does a lot of shit differently. It's pretty interesting, but I'll see how it actually pans out.

You and everyone else

Xenoblade is the best jrpg this generation. It is also a lot like a wrpg in certain ways. I think it is the game you are looking for.

I say look to last generation. Tales of Symphonia is fantastic.

I'll admit I've never given any effort in trying them out, but JRPGs just don't look appealing to me, like at all.  
Back when people were growing up playing final fantasy games, I was on PC playing space, mech and flight sims, that might have something to do with it. 

@AndrewB said:

I say look to last generation. Tales of Symphonia is fantastic.

Tales of Vesperia is superior to symphonia in pretty much every way

does symphonia have a dog as a party member?

If you enjoyed Final Fantasy X, then I'd recommend checking out Lost Odyssey. In terms of the gameplay, it feels pretty similar. I certainly had a lot of fun with it, and I went into it in a similar position to yours (i.e. having played a lot of Western RPGs, and not having connected with a JRPG in a while).

@Animasta said:

@AndrewB said:

I say look to last generation. Tales of Symphonia is fantastic.

Tales of Vesperia is superior to symphonia in pretty much every way

does symphonia have a dog as a party member?

That statement could not be more wrong.

Does Vesperia have Cam Clarke or Scott Menville?

@Animasta said:

@Sooty said:

Forget this generation, just play two of the best JRPGs of all time - Persona 3 and 4

Both have loot, both have a somewhat open world.

nocturne is better than both of them

Psh. I love Nocturne but Persona 3 and 4's characters put them way ahead of Nocturne for me. But yeah, just play those. Or Valkyria Chronicles. I might be ignoring your criteria, but Valkyria Chronicles is fantastic and one of the best looking games on the PS3.

Or, you know, this.

I also hear a lot of good things about Radiant Historia. I'm not sure if it's from a lot of people or Video_Game_King over and over again though. Either way I ordered it, and Atlus published it so it's probably good.

@AndrewB said:

@Animasta said:

@AndrewB said:

I say look to last generation. Tales of Symphonia is fantastic.

Tales of Vesperia is superior to symphonia in pretty much every way

does symphonia have a dog as a party member?

That statement could not be more wrong.

Does Vesperia have Cam Clarke or Scott Menville?

scott menville is terrible though! Only thing I liked him in was resonance of fate because the character was a super whiny teenager too. Vesperia also has Troy Baker

@AndrewB said:

@Animasta said:

@AndrewB said:

I say look to last generation. Tales of Symphonia is fantastic.

Tales of Vesperia is superior to symphonia in pretty much every way

does symphonia have a dog as a party member?

That statement could not be more wrong.

Does Vesperia have Cam Clarke or Scott Menville?

Yes.

http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Kratos_Aurion#Tales_of_Vesperia

@Ducksworth said:

Yes.

http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/Kratos_Aurion#Tales_of_Vesperia

That doesn't count... :/

@Animasta said:

scott menville is terrible though! Only thing I liked him in was resonance of fate because the character was a super whiny teenager too. Vesperia also has Troy Baker

Even if Scott Menville is terrible (which he isn't) Cam Clarke as Kratos makes up for it. He even makes up for Zelos *shudder*. Troy Baker as Yuri Lowell is the only good thing about Vesperia, besides the character of Flynn.

@AndrewB said:

@Animasta said:

scott menville is terrible though! Only thing I liked him in was resonance of fate because the character was a super whiny teenager too. Vesperia also has Troy Baker

Even if Scott Menville is terrible (which he isn't) Cam Clarke as Kratos makes up for it. He even makes up for Zelos *shudder*. Troy Baker as Yuri Lowell is the only good thing about Vesperia, besides the character of Flynn.

Zelos is like one of the only decent characters from Symphonia, you crazy

@Animasta said:

Zelos is like one of the only decent characters from Symphonia, you crazy

Oh my god... this conversation is over *indignantly walks out*

best JRPGs of the current console generation:

Tales of Vesperia is pretty good

Lost Odyssey as well, though I never completed it (battles take 4ever)

Resonance of Fate has the best combat system of any RPG ever made

Nier is technically a JRPG and it is also the best game ever made so try that if you want

oh yes all those great characters like robot child and prisoner dude and colette. Zelos wasn't a good person but he was at least realistic in a sense. Vesperia has some terrible characters too (Karol especially) but Vesperia had way better character development.

@Shun_Akiyama: obviously just my personal opinion, but I honestly spent like 10 hours in the bonus dungeon just destroying helicopters and shit and it was mad fun (this was after I beat the secret boss)

I love Symphonia to this day but I don't think it aged very well at all for those who would play it now. I'll admit that Vesperia is probably one of this generation's better jrpgs, but even though I liked it well enough I didn't like it enough to finish it. I stopped playing and turned it back it once I reached the latter half of the game and don't regret doing so that much.

Also FXII has a nice large world feel to it that I really enjoyed, but as someone else pointed out the story and the characters, especially the characters, are not that great. I'm not sure if I would count it as one of the greatest jrpgs of the last generation, either.

@Shun_Akiyama said:

@Animasta: did you get good enough to the point where boss monsters don't take hours to beat?

totally! the longest boss battle took maybe 20-25 minutes (that yeti in the freezer area)

Lost Odyssey.

Without a doubt the best classic JRPG this gen, and as far as i'm concerned classic JRPG is what a JRPG should be.

If you loved old Final Fantasy up to X, you'll love it, it's the true Final Fantasy of this generation, and sadly, it was final...

Forget Final Fantasy XIII, Lost Odyssey is everything you want in a final Fantasy game, heck, if the man with the stash was still at SE, it would be called Final Fantasy.

If you consider yourself a Final Fantasy fan, you owe to yourself to play Lost Odyssey.

Radiant Historia was good. Slightly wonky balance but combat system is fun, characters aren't stupid and the story is pretty good. About the closest thing to the SNES golden age this side of Persona.

I don't know much about it, but Dragon's Dogma seems to be going for the open world, loot thing. Although I think it's more action game than RPG. Maybe check that out?

@Sooty said:

Forget this generation, just play two of the best JRPGs of all time - Persona 3 and 4

Both have loot, both have a somewhat open world.

Came in here specifically to suggest the Persona games. I personally don't care for Persona 3 all that much; I think its combat is ruthless at times, I think its writing is often kind of shoddy (Mitsuru somehow gets stuck with more bad lines than Naoto,) and I think its pacing has some serious problems, but the best parts of Persona 3 are pretty amazing.

But you really, really, really ought to play Persona 4, and if you want more when you're done, go play Persona 3.

Also, I'm shocked nobody's suggested Demon's Souls/Dark Souls/Monster Hunter yet. Those are all Japanese RPGs in many ways inspired by WRPGs. Although the Souls games do take more cues from the original Legend of Zelda (AND DEFINITELY NOT OCARINA.)

Does Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII count as "this generation"...? If you liked FFVII -- and maybe even if you didn't -- I'd suggest it. It's not open-world, in fact the gameplay is mainly mission-based, but you can wander around a few locations sometimes (ShinRa Headquarters, Midgar) that had me nostalgic for FFVII. Not to mention the cutscenes were awesome.

For recent JRPGs: I had fun playing Hexyz Force lately. It's a little cutesy-ish, and not anything amazing, but it was fun and had a decent story. Got more wandering around than Riviera: The Promised Land, which was also entertaining and anime-ish. Other than that, the new RPGs I've been playing on the PSP are mainly tactical RPGs.

Lost Odyssey looks really good, but I don't have an Xbox 360. I'll put it down for a possible future purchase if I get one, though, so thanks for the recommendations in this thread.

The DS and PSP have actually probably had a lot of, if not a majority of, the best JRPGs of this generation of consoles.
 
Also Dark Souls if it counts, spoilers it does. It does count.

Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon are pretty good.

Is there a bit of overraction? I mean it isn't that "JRPGs are dying" but that "All RPGs are dying" where it would be like seeing Two Worlds and saying "Western RPGs are in trouble".

i don't have the numbers in front of me but I bet on the whole Japan still does more RPGs than the west. It is they are not on highly visible, very expensive platforms any more. The whole genre has migrated off to portables where the small scope and budget seem to fit the style better.

@StarvingGamer said:

It's gonna be hard to find an open-world RPG that's as story and character driven as a typical JRPG.

EDIT: But to be less of a snark-monster I'll tell you the JRPG's that I've greatly enjoyed this generation that are decidedly NOT open-world.

Tales of Vesperia (it's why I bought a 360)

Valkyria Chronicles 1 & 2

Final Fantasy XIII & XIII-2

I think you are forgetting Lost Odyssey.

Yeah, DS is where most of this generations great JRPGs wound up. TWEWY, Dragon Quest IX, and SRT:OG Saga Endless Frontier are all completely awesome.