Youngest person you know into JRPGs?

As I get older, I increasingly think about how young kids grow up with a totally different set of "things that are cool" than I did. And it occurs to me that we're now well past the era of JRPGs being that new hotness, between them really coming into their own in the SNES era, then gaining cutscene craziness in the PS1 era, and then further refinement in the PS2 era.

The 360/PS3 era has seen a decline in JRPG notability in the West, as fewer of them made it to consoles, instead opting for development on the handheld consoles. So it occurs to me that people in, say, the 6-15 age range may not really have any memories of JRPGs at their height, and now that there are a bunch of Western devs making console and PC games, it makes me wonder whether JRPGs are even remotely on the radar for young people these days.

So feel free to answer the question in the thread title, and share any other opinion on the topic.

I'm not sure, i mainly talk games with college students so i find a lot of people in early 20s still have appreciation for JRPGs. That doesn't really answer your question though, perhaps some of our younger board members can shed some light on what people in that age range think of modern JRPGs and if they are even familiar with the classics we grew up with. I think this is an interesting topic, maybe one i can better participate in later when im not posting from a cell phone.

My brother played Persona 4 and Lost Odyssey when he was 11 and then P4: Golden a couple years later. He recently bought Eternal Sonata and has played a decent chuck of it. He has a real tough time finishing them though. He loses interest after about 10 to 15 hours invested in the game. It seems like he, along with most kids his age, tends to get distracted easily. He does claim to really like the genre though.

I don't personally know anyone under 40 that plays them.

Me at 25, but my kid will probably be into them as he grows older and I have him at least try the chrono triggers and smt games of the world. Won't try that until he's around 10 though.

most everyone I know playing JRPGs is in their 20s.

I guess Pokemon doesn't count?

My younger brother I suppose. He's like 14 or 15. He's not nearly as into them into them as I am though (I have stacks and stacks of JRPGs, but I don't think he's ever tried playing most of them), with the exception of Pokemon, which he's much more obsessed with then I am these days.

Plus I'm sure it's mostly due to my influence that he has any interest at all. I doubt he'd have ever heard of like 95%of the JRPGs I own on his own.

@video_game_king said:

Yeah, I feel like Pokemon transcends genres in a weird way, in that for a lot of people that's one of those games that is "never done" like Animal Crossing where you could always pick it up and grind out some other goal.

My 16 year old sister is really into the FF VII complilation, BoF III, Pokemon, etc, so her I guess.

I don't know anyone more than a year younger than I am that likes JRPGs. I'm 23.

I'm 19 and I can't name anyone younger than me who likes them.

Me. Maybe jrpgs are a dying breed...

Don't know anyone younger than my age range (mid 20's) that has much knowledge of them. Then again most kids my age don't play JRPG's anymore, but instead have fond memories of the really big ones from back in the day.

Well, lotsa kids play Pokemon, Final Fantasy and the likes even in this day and age. But I don't really know any kids or other young folk that play video games, so ...

I'm sure they're out there, but I don't know anyone personally who is younger and likes JRPGs.

My brother really liked Chrono Trigger and Persona 3, but hasn't really enjoyed any other JRPG. He's 17.

A clever little 13 year old. Loves some Zelda and Final Fantasy. Can't play them very well, but with help, he loves em.

My daughter (7) is interested in video games and will watch me play them.

I've played FF6, Ni No Kuni and Chrono Trigger with her, and she enjoys the story (I gotta explain it in a way 7 year olds would understand) and really likes the music. She is kinda like a sponge right now, so seeing me play games makes her interested in playing them. Once she's older (12 or 13) I might play Persona 4 with her, just to spend some time with her on a regular basis at the very least, but maybe she'll take something good from it.

I'll disown her if she gets in a relationship with Rise though...

Edit: Totally forgot Pokemon, she loves messing around on it with my 3DS.

I'm 16 and I've tried to play some of them like FFX and Mother, but I just can't deal with grinding. It's so monotonous and boring to me. The stories are usually great, but nothing makes me stop playing a game faster than grinding. I do like games like Paper Mario, FF7, and Pokemon though. I'm also planning on buying Chrono Trigger on the DS soon.

My 7 month old son. He doesn't know it yet, but I'll make sure of it.

I don't personally know anyone with more than a passing interest in JRPGs.

I'm 27 and I love and mainly play JRPGs. I started playing them when I was around 14. While we have seen less JRPGs on the last gen of consoles, there has been a great influx of JRPGs on Vita/PSP and 3DS/DS. It also seems that there has been quite a bit of releases on the PS3 in the last two years. People like to say that JRPGs are a dying breed or that they are stale and unimaginative but nothing could be further from the truth. Most JRPGs have very intricate and imaginative systems in place. It seems to me that most of people crying about the lack of innovation in JRPGs rarely or never play them but make accusations based on hearsay.

Pokemon is probably the only JRPG that gets much play with the youngins. Maybe Mario & Luigi.

I feel like games that are more story based attract an older crowd. The only thing that jrpgs had going for them was they were super long and kids with little money and alot of time played them, now with free to play stuff they lost that advantage.

My brother has been super into JRPG's since he was like 13

Don't know many people that are into JRPGS outside of like, pokémon, both young and old, IRL atleast. Maybe like... 1 person that share the my interest in the genre.

Pokemon absolutely does count, and it's generally the only one I've seen young people interested in. I was born in 93, so obviously it was huge in my youth, and by the time I made it to consoles myself (I missed the ps2 and was forced to game on a Linux desktop. You cannot fathom how barren that gaming landscape. PC, never again.) they were in decline. Now, JRPGs seem niche, but there are glimmers of hope. Ni No Kuni, Child of Light soon... The generation that grew up with JRPGs are beginning to have their old children now and the market is beginning to reflect that as well. Whether they will dominate now that the market is much broader and the technology much more capable is unlikely I think but hopefully the stigma will diminish (looking at you XIII trilogy).

I'm over 30 and the youngest I know is 25. Then again, I don't know of card to know any children,

That would be myself. 31 tomorrow.

I'd add that i'm into JRPGs from 1991 to 2006 and Ni no Kuni. Honestly almost everything i tried this last gen didn't do it like it used to. Granted i don't play on handhelds which is where most of them migrated after the PS2 era so i probably missed out on a lot of good ones.

I'm 19 and JRPG's are still my favourite genre. As for people younger than me, I don't have any younger siblings so I don't know many people younger than me (the rule of school basically limiting a lot of people to friends within a year or so of them holds true for me). The odd thing for me though is the number of people I know who don't play any games whatsoever. Of those I've met who do play games, a surprisingly significant number of them like JRPGs (or at least have fond memories of specific titles). But the majority of people I meet barely know what a game is. To a lot of them it seems to be something they do when they're bored on a phone or something.

That said, my older sister is a manga artist and so goes to a lot of art, anime/manga and gaming conventions (usually with her own stall there so she meets a lot of the people who go there). She finds that age ranges are very broad from around 10 to people in there 50's but the usual is earlier 20s. She has lots of friends who play JRPG's (she's just under two years older than me, 21) so the fact that I know so few might imply that those younger than me might be even less - or they are rare in general and my Sister just happens to spend a lot of her working time where they would go.

Nonetheless, the most asked for art-style for my Sister to draw portraits in (She does anything from Marvel-Comic drawing to manga to detailed real drawings) is pokemon style (including whoever their favourite pokemon is). So take that how you will.

My little brother played Persona 3 Portable with 9 years old and I think he finished it. That's pretty impressive, specially when english is not our native language (we're portuguese).

Before that, I finished Phantasy Star with 12 back in the day.

I guess I've never thought about this, but I think there is a nugget of truth here. I hesitate to think of JRPGs as a floundering genre (because they are my favorite genre), but the people I know that are into them are around my age (that being 26). If only I had more time for them; I seem to only get through around a handful every year. So far in 2014 in that genre I've only finished Dragon Fantasy Book II, Luminous Arc (more of an SRPG, but I'll count it), and Final Fantasy III. I'm currently chewing through Bravely Default and the FFX remake at the moment. (Dark Souls 2 has been a hell of a time sink...I blame that as well :P)

This made me laugh a lot.

JRPGs are trash for human garbage.

I'm pretty sure that when you move into a new neighborhood you have to go door to door and tell everyone you are into JRPGs.

Child of Light is made by Ubisoft and directed by the guy that directed Far Cry 3. It's influenced by older rpgs but it is not a JRPG.

My best friend as a kid was way into Final Fantasy VIII and IX via her older brother. This was prolly when I was 9 or 10 so she would have been 10 or 11. In addition to JRPG's, she liked playing Dynasty Warriors and loved Phantasy Star Online.

My niece plays the Pokémans. And she "accidentally" opened and took home my copy of Dragon Quest IX, but it doesn't appear that she played it. It's a start at least.

My friends and I in primary school at the ages of 10-12 were really into Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts and Dragon Quest VIII. Would discuss secrets and tactics during break, all that stuff, it was great. Kind of weird that my fondness of JRPGs has dropped since then though. Still think that those games are awesome though.

I am probably the youngest person I know playing jrpgs. I am 19.