Why end 80s/earlier 90s JRPG's so different than modern ones?

[Anonona]

Like I don't think FF dragoon armor is too much, even if it does have the blades all over thing going. It's a specialty armor, and most armor in FF, depending on the game, is not that ornate. If everything is over the top, than it's just visual noise and nothing is special. I've always believed that for fantasy to hit on deeper level, the most fantastical elements have to be treated like a strong spice. Like all the regular warriors wearing the Dark Souls armor but the demigod boss character looks like a Five Star Stories mech. If everything is Cthulu monster, than the Cthulu monster appearing isn't shocking.

I can agree. As Tigranes had pointed out, today over design is the norm, and I think it is used to cover poor designs. Knowing where to go over the top is essential and it requires having a good idea of what kind of setting you want to create.

 

[Cryomancer]

Look mom! I did it again! I cherry picked examples to make my point! Here, I'll do the same!

No, i din't cherry picked, i picked one of the most popular mainstream 90s shonen with one of the most popular mainstream modern shonen. What mainstream modern shonen protagonist is not a Asta style generi-kun? Deku from boku no hero? Yusuke was a delinquent, son of a alcoholic prostitute mother



Now look to Kirito, Asta, Deku... All of then has no flaws nor anything. The idea of someone wanting to be a hero without power could be amazing if Deku for eg, designed ways and used his intelligence to win the battles. Having to strugle to get money to make his "gadgets" work and ascending into a Iron Man like hero.

Or if he had a really wreid quirky and had to deal with it and use in a creative and inventive way to solve most of his problems. But no, the generi-kun who has no flaw and is incapable of having any anger and rage towards a guy who bullied him his entire life get the most generic superpower(superstrenght)

 

[MpuMngwana]

Now look to Kirito, Asta, Deku... All of then has no flaws nor anything. The idea of someone wanting to be a hero without power could be amazing if Deku for eg, designed ways and used his intelligence to win the battles. Having to strugle to get money to make his "gadgets" work and ascending into a Iron Man like hero.

Or if he had a really wreid quirky and had to deal with it and use in a creative and inventive way to solve most of his problems. But no, the generi-kun who has no flaw and is incapable of having any anger and rage towards a guy who bullied him his entire life get the most generic superpower(superstrenght)

How is "breaks every bone in his body in every fight, because he can't properly control his super strength, to the point where he had to adopt a kick-oriented fighting style since he fucked up his arms that badly" not a flaw you dumb fucking motherfucker? Not to mention the whole hero complex thing which leads to him jumping in to help people to a nearly suicidal extent, ending in all those broken bones. I mean it took Deku like three seasons to get halfway proficient at using 10% of his power, and he's still pretty low on the hero pecking order. And he very much is creative in using his admittedly generic power, since he's very analytic and observant.

Now let's compare him with all the oh-so-flawed old school shonen protagonists. Kenshiro? Blows up motherfuckers by gently tapping them since day one. Goku? Fights the best martial artist in the world nearly to a draw after a year of training, learns his ultimate technique by seeing it once, is completely pure of heart. Yusuke does have a fun personality, and if you're an edgy teenager you may find the whole "he's a deliquent, his mom is a prostitute" thing super cool, but his powerset is pretty much the same as Deku's (super strength plus shooting stuff from his fingers for a limited number of times) with less drawbacks (no broken fingers here), and late in the show he's revealed to have super duper awesome demon blood, which instantly turns him into one of the most powerful beings in the world. Jonathan Joestar? Pretty much the ideal hero, even if his story ends in tragedy; he picks up Hamon very quickly, he gets most generic superpower(superstrength), he has no flaw and is incapable of having any anger and rage towards a guy who bullied him his entire life and fucking murdered him, embracing his severed head as they both sink to the bottom of the ocean.

Now, preferring the old school shonen aesthetic is completely fine, in fact I too find it more appealing, but claiming that old shonen are that much deeper and more complex is plain false; but as usual you present a bunch of poorly informed cherry picked bullshit to try and present your opinion as objective fact and I'm getting fucking sick of it.

 

[flyingjohn]

Are you guys really having a baka no hero academia debate on the codex?

 

[MpuMngwana]

Discussing japanese children’s entertainment is my God given right and you will have to pry it from my cold dead hands

 

[Anonona]

No, i din't cherry picked

And I repeat, yes, you did. You picked an old decent shonen and compare it with a mediocre new one. If you want interesting and more unique modern shonen, you have Dr Stone, a story about two boys turned into stone that wake into the future, where humanity has reverted back to the Stone Age. They decide to kick start civilization through the power of science. Or the Promise Neverland, a mistery and science fiction shonen about a strange orphanage and the mysteries it hides, with Emma, its protagonist trying to investigate while avoid being discovered. Hell, if you really want Battle shonen, then you could add Demon Slayer, which is a decent anime that, while cliche, does add some interesting fights later down the line (manga only for now) and have a nice premise. They are decently popular too, but Yu Yu Hakusho wasn't even that popular unless you were from the Filipines.

You even picked a nice, cool picture of Yusuke, while comparing it with a humorous, silly scene of the Asta guy. You are being disingenuous and cherry picking examples to support your point.

Spoiler

And also, with like one or two exceptions shonen hasn't ever even been that good, for fuck sake.

 

[Thac0]

Louis_Cypher, thanks a LOT for you answer. I will re watch record of lodoss war and check some games that you mentioned.

Bastard was the first MANGA that i read. And i can't stand most of modern mangas. But modern HQ's are trash too. So yes, the decline is not "japanese only" exists everywhere in the world in different forms.

Western ARt decline : Marven Conan to New Marvel Heroes

western decline

Japanese decline.

Shonen protagonist now vs then

Anyone believe that Marvel New Heroes level of BS could exist 20+ years ago?

For those who doesn't know here is

I feel like Japan was hit a lot less by the decline than the west. Good Seinen (mature Manga targeted at young adults as opposed to Shonen targeted at boys) still exists, Berserk is still running, Vinland Saga and Kingdom are doing great and Dorohedoro is one of my favourite recent Seinen Manga, even tho it has many Shonen elements. The art in Dorohedoro specifically is amazing. Very inspired by Berserk.

Spoiler

I am less into Shonen, but I dont think it is particularily declining currently either. Hunter X Hunter was probably the best Shonen has ever been, and that was relatively recent. Demon Slayer (Kimetsu no Yaiba) is the big new player on the market, and I have seen that, it is pretty good. Black Clover is shit, but it is known to be shit. The Japanese arent exactly holding that up to be the peak of the genre, it is a guilty pleasure.

Also the author of Fire Punch of all things is gaining mainstream traction. I have no idea wether Chainsaw Man is Shonen or Seinen, but I am certain it is 100% amazing.

I feel the reason here is that Japan gives a lot less of a fuck about the global market than other countries do. They produce their anime, manga and JRPG for the domestic market first and foremost, if it bloes up overseas thats a lucrative benefit. This leads to a much more unique and culturally valuable product. The best example here is Final Fantasy, the series has been selling less and less in Japan since FF VI. Dragon Quest on the other hand has been going strong there and has not started to chase the big Dollar over the steady Yen. In my opinion Dragon Quest 11 is much more incline than anything Final Fantasy has done in a decade with the exception of their MMO maybe, and that Final Fantasy XV is trash is an undisputable fact.

 

[Machocruz]

The Japanese manga-ka don't seem ideologically possessed like western mainstream comics do, at least not along the same lines. That New Warriors looks very.... inclusive.

 

[Cryomancer]

not a flaw you dumb fucking motherfucker? Not to mention the whole hero complex thing which leads to him jumping in to help people to a nearly suicidal extent, ending in all those broken bone

His power is the most generic superpower ever. Period. The fact that he can't sustain his own power is not a flaw on the power itself. At the same way that if a 4 yo tries to fire a .454 Casull revolver single handed and hurts themselves, is not a flaw of the firearm.

That said, a story about superheroes CAN be interesting if is something new. Instead of "high school for super heroes", what if heroes was unionized and the organizations are corrupt, promotes things that creates villains and limits who can be a hero to manipulate supply and demand, is founded by publicity and tax payer money and the protagonist wanna be a hero but his super power is a taboo in that society, lets suppose that a villain in that fictional world almost destroyed the world with the power to manipulate blood and the MC now has the same power(in smaller scale since he is on the begining) and tries to conceal the nature of his power because if the origins of his power leaks, he will lose all sponsorships and will be viewed as a villain. If the MC also had more "human flaws" like for eg, having angry and resentment,

Goku? Fights the best martial artist in the world nearly to a draw after a year of training, learns his ultimate technique by seeing it once, is completely pure of heart. Yusuke does have a fun personality, and if you're an edgy teenager you may find the whole "he's a deliquent, his mom is a prostitute" thing super cool, but his powerset is pretty much the same as Deku's (super strength plus shooting stuff from his fingers for a limited number of times) with less drawbacks (no broken fingers here), and late in the show he's revealed to have super duper awesome demon blood, which instantly turns him into one of the most powerful beings in the world. Jonathan Joestar? Pretty much the ideal hero, even if his story ends in tragedy; he picks up Hamon very quickly, he gets most generic superpower(superstrength)(...)

Goku - Dragon Ball was much better before DBZ. Seriously. After DBZ, everything blows up galaxies.

Yusuke - Is not only just because he is a delinquent, is because he is funny and SMART, he shooted on the mirror to hit in a enemy from behind, used his shoes as gloves to fight a electricity based yokai and he had character growth. After his death, he realized that people around him likes him. See the video that i posted, he is not a bad protagonist. TBH Kurama and Hiei are FAR BETTER characters. And Mazokus are completely different than the christian conception of "demon" . The demon blood also influenced him. HE offered 3 humans to save his dad.

And no, he din't becomed one of the most powerful demons. Even after months of training with his father, he still lost to Yomi.

The unique problem of the series is the power creep near the end. Before sensui appeared, few humans with very circumstantial abilities managed to defeat the champions of the dark tournament. That was amazing. Luckily we got Hiatus VS Hiatus which is far more focused on abilities than on giantic flashes of light.

Jonathan Joestar, is the ideal gentleman.

And JoJo moved from Ripple towards the STANDS which are far better power system IMO.

------------------------------------

About magic, there are a lot of animes/mangas with AMAZING hard magic systems. Post stand JoJo and Hiatus X Hiatus are the two most notorious examples. Overlord since is extremely D&D inspired, i will not use as an example. Why with games, they rarely has decent magical systems? Magic on FF1 was OK. But nothing great

 

[MpuMngwana]

His power is the most generic superpower ever. Period.

Also happens to be the power of pretty much every shonen protagonist I listed

The fact that he can't sustain his own power is not a flaw on the power itself.

It is a flaw of the character, tho, and it's what usually makes his fights engaging. It also puts a neat twist on typical shonen power progression, since Deku isn't getting stronger but learning how to utilise his power better.

Goku - Dragon Ball was much better before DBZ. Seriously. After DBZ, everything blows up galaxies.

I agree. However, I was referring to the first tournament's Goku vs RoshiJackie Chun, so I don't know what you're trying to prove here.

Yusuke - Is not only just because he is a delinquent, is because he is funny and SMART, he shooted on the mirror to hit in a enemy from behind, used his shoes as gloves to fight a electricity based yokai and he had character growth. After his death, he realized that people around him likes him. See the video that i posted, he is not a bad protagonist.

He's fine, but he's not that complex really, and more modern characters certainly aren't any worse in that aspect.

And no, he din't becomed one of the most powerful demons. Even after months of training with his father, he still lost to Yomi.

I said "one of", not "the". He's, like, in top 10 at worst.

The unique problem of the series is the power creep near the end. Before sensui appeared, few humans with very circumstantial abilities managed to defeat the champions of the dark tournament. That was amazing. Luckily we got Hiatus VS Hiatus which is far more focused on abilities than on giantic flashes of light.

It's not really unique, it's kinda endemic to the genre. Like every other battle shonen has lost control of power creep at some point.

Jonathan Joestar, is the ideal gentleman.

He very much is. He can also be painted as a shit character, using the exact same words you used against Deku. That was the joke really.

About magic, there are a lot of animes/mangas with AMAZING hard magic systems. Post stand JoJo and Hiatus X Hiatus are the two most notorious examples.

Oh yes, an RPG which rips off the Nen system is pretty much my wet dream. I'll have to be nitpicky and say stands aren't really a hard magic system, the only real rules is that everyone gets one superpower and that regular people can't see stands, but both have been broken on occasion and the superpowers can really be whatever. It's not any harder than devil fruits or quirks or most other obviously JoJo-inspired "everyone has an unique superpower" systems, just IMO Araki is really good at making these powers and their interactions completely batshit insane, which leads to extremely entertaining fights.

Why with games, they rarely has decent magical systems? Magic on FF1 was OK. But nothing great

Unfortunately I don't think there is anything comparable to, say, Baldur's Gate 2 in terms of sheer variety of spells; at least nothing I've played. Later Final Fantasy games do get somewhere more interesting, peaking around 5 with its numerous distinct mage jobs, fun ways to obtain spells for Blue Mages and Summoners (getting hit by certain enemy attack and beating the summons in combat, respectively) and a nice variety of possible effects. Shin Megami Tensei also isn't that bad, but mostly because buffs, debuffs and weakness exploitation are crucial to survival, and instant death spells can actually be useful; otherwise it's pretty standard. If you count Pokemon moves as a magic system that has a lot of cool options too, but unfortunately you don't really have to experiment with it much over the course of the singleplayer campaign.

 

[Thac0]

Goku - Dragon Ball was much better before DBZ. Seriously. After DBZ, everything blows up galaxies.

Yusuke - Is not only just because he is a delinquent, is because he is funny and SMART, he shooted on the mirror to hit in a enemy from behind, used his shoes as gloves to fight a electricity based yokai and he had character growth. After his death, he realized that people around him likes him. See the video that i posted, he is not a bad protagonist. TBH Kurama and Hiei are FAR BETTER characters. And Mazokus are completely different than the christian conception of "demon" . The demon blood also influenced him. HE offered 3 humans to save his dad.

And no, he din't becomed one of the most powerful demons. Even after months of training with his father, he still lost to Yomi.

The unique problem of the series is the power creep near the end. Before sensui appeared, few humans with very circumstantial abilities managed to defeat the champions of the dark tournament. That was amazing. Luckily we got Hiatus VS Hiatus which is far more focused on abilities than on giantic flashes of light.

Jonathan Joestar, is the ideal gentleman.

And JoJo moved from Ripple towards the STANDS which are far better power system IMO.

I feel like you dont know that Hunter X Hunter was made by the same man as Yu Yu Hakusho, Yoshihiro Togashi, and its pretty much superior in every regard to his old work. And JOJO is still running and becoming more popular than ever currently.
Honestly the more I think about it, I dont see any examples of decline from the weebs. Their art style has gone down the gutter.

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1x1RicXFMk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75gNr8b2Ey8&t=141s

But the stories they tell have kept the quality they used to have if not developed further. If anything they have that recent Isekai craze as a threat to the current market.

About magic, there are a lot of animes/mangas with AMAZING hard magic systems. Post stand JoJo and Hiatus X Hiatus are the two most notorious examples. Overlord since is extremely D&D inspired, i will not use as an example. Why with games, they rarely has decent magical systems? Magic on FF1 was OK. But nothing great

Why did you pick the Final Fantasy with the least interesting magic system for that comparison?

I feel like you are debating here with a very limited understanding of 80s-90s Japanese media and the knowledge of one or two Literature Devil youtube videos. Especially since you praised Solo Leveling in a prior post, that is pure wish fulfillment shlock. The MC of that is one of the biggest Gary Stues I have seen in recent media. You shouldnt criticise the brat from My Hero Academia and praise Solo Leveling in one thread, since the green idiot that breaks his arms is an actual character while the necromancer assassin from SL is a masturbation fantasy gone wrong.

 

[samuraigaiden]

In the 80s and 90s, 25 hours of gameplay was enough for a AAA JRPG.

For example, Chrono Trigger can be easily completed in less than 25 hours and even doing all the extra stuff doesn't take more than 40 hours.

It's easier to make a game that is all killer and no filler if you don't have to make it 60+ hours long.

 

[Cryomancer]

Oh yes, an RPG which rips off the Nen system is pretty much my wet dream. I'll have to be nitpicky and say stands aren't really a hard magic system

Yep. You are right BUT Hard Magic system works far better on CRPG's than more flexible ones, like for eg, imagine trying to translate Mage the ascension to a CRPG. BG2 did a good job implementing a wish list to simulate wish spell with things that the PC frequently asks but even more linear spells are limited compared to P&P, i can use a fireball to ignite fire in a wood house or even a ship(BTW fire based spells are often banned from Spelljammer settings by obvious reasons).

Other thing that i really miss on most of JRPG's is good firearms, not necessarily like Fallout New Vegas. IMO FNV is a near perfect game, could have armored vehicles AND a option to craft your Securitron. Imagine playing New Vegas inside a homemade energy version of a Renault FT-17 TANK. That would be so cool.

Quest to upgrade the securitron

"The securitron Mk II can use all the built-in weapons: the 9mm submachine gun, the rapid-fire G-28 25mm grenade launcher, the M-235 missile launchers, and the X-25 Gatling laser system." https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Securitron

TBH Rangers on Dragon's Dogma was amazing. Sorcerer, i din't liked because the gameplay is press a button and wait while pray to not be interrupted. If there is a armored cyclops, hitting on armored parts can deal ZERO damage and hitting on unarmored parts can deal full damage. On less armored enemies, armor absorbs by a flat amount. That is how armor should works.

The MC of that is one of the biggest Gary Stues I have seen in recent media. You shouldnt criticise the brat from My Hero Academia and praise Solo Leveling in one thread, since the green idiot that breaks his arms is an actual character while the necromancer assassin from SL is a masturbation fantasy gone wrong.

They are completely different cases.

First, over 90% of main character super heroes has super-strength. Super strength is cliche, high school is cliche, nothing is original on that anime.

Solo Leveling propose is to be a power fantasy. And how many main characters necromancers you know in any manga series? Ainz from Overlord and Sung Jin Woo are the two unique guys which i can name. During the dungeon where he is imbued with the powers of the shadow monarch and the system to make him able to become stronger and hold his limitless power, he used his intelligence to solve the riddles and not die. I don't deny that the series is very lackluster in character building with few good moments, BUT the world building of the series is decent to good and as a power fantasy, the series is near perfect. My unique critique is that during the promotion "quest" when.

spoilers from solo leveling

HE got promoted directly to Shadow Monarch and by a lot of coincidences. If he failed initially on that dungeon and got only the necromancer and had to struggle more before he could bear the power of the shadow monarch, it would be far more interesting. He become powerful too quickly for my taste in that dungeon.

Other thing that i really miss is when they compare Hunters with the military. The series doesn't establish for eg, if a A rank hunter could be killed by a Jet and autocannons or not. If a hunter goes rogue, how much of the army would take to take him down and in this fictional world, the army would develop anti "hunter tactics".

 

[HydrakeLogistix]

Now look to Kirito, Asta, Deku... All of then has no flaws nor anything. The idea of someone wanting to be a hero without power could be amazing if Deku for eg, designed ways and used his intelligence to win the battles. Having to strugle to get money to make his "gadgets" work and ascending into a Iron Man like hero.

Look man Black Clover's sales are shit. MHA's sales also on a downward trend as well as the entire Sword Art Online franchise. Shonen Jump is pretty much all about One Piece and shitty romcoms. So its not like people are eating this shit up. In this decade we got Eren Yeager who is probably the most based protagonist we have seen since the 90s . Still can't believe Isayama almost went full 14/88 in this shit. Probably cost a lot of sponsor bucks for Shingeki No Kyojin. Yet its sales have been skyrocketing.

 

[Lutte]

Grown men debating the merits of various shonen.. I guess that's sort-of acceptable in a world which has grown men watching moeshit.
Still, very prosperous thread.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I always knew that normal people trying to write a character as a genius was troublesome because it's easy for a normal person to recognize the difference, but I never realized it's also troublesome because idiots can't tell the difference and think massive amounts of plot armour constitute being clever. Or, I guess that's a feature. Pander to your audience and all that.

Solo Levelling was some of the laziest edgelord shit I've ever read. Deku is probably one of the most flawed protagonists in a shounen series period, constantly needing to be bailed out by other people and suffering many failures. The story is crap in a lot of other respects but Deku himself is very well written. He's also one of very, very few examples of such a protagonist actually being a peasant instead of some kind of royalty or superior race (or both.) Like, I pretty much can't think of any other examples and kind of expect them to reveal his dad is actually someone amazing at some point just to fit the trend.

 

[Cat Dude]

But here is my point. On WRPG's, i can be anything. From a knight impaling enemies with my horse and spear to a lich. I don't see the same variety on "JRPGs"

Saying dumb shit like this continues to prove you never even bothered to look.

There are JPRGs where you can transform your characters in Liches (Tactics Ogre: Knight of Lodis). Moreover, JRPGs offer the craziest protagonists: a boy helping Lucifer defeat God, a life form evolving across history, a Valkyrie preparing for ragnarok, a squad of WW1 heroes, androids in a post-apoc world, a demon overlord defending his throne, sky pirates, dudes riding giant robots, school kids invading dreams, time travelers, the last magic user on earth, an alchemist enslaving demons, a cop in New York, several types of monster tamers, eco-terrorists a literal fucking dragon... FFS, you can even play as Mario, or help Mickey Mouse save the world.

All this for you to come here and complain that there are too many swords and no variety "like a knight and a lich". Stop posting about shit you clearly know nothing about, you are just embarrassing yourself.

At least there are a lot of jrpg in the market to choose from. I don't see that is the case with wrpg because almost every western developer is busy at work with their upcoming first person shooter. JRPG is to japanese game developers is what first person shooter is to western game developers.

 

[Reinhardt]

First, over 90% of main character super heroes has super-strength. Super strength is cliche

Why his awesome button is not awesome enough? Why he's not dragon necromancer?!
You really should just go full isekai shit - everyone there is super awesome necromancer assassin dragon sorcerer god.

 

[Cryomancer]

Why his awesome button is not awesome enough? Why he's not dragon necromancer?!

No, i never said that. At moment, all necromancers MC's are part of power fantasies. I really wanna read anything where the MC is a necromancer but not a OP one. His abilities has huge drawbacks, for eg, requiring hours to reanimate a corpse, his most powerful spells require expensive reagents. he is constant getting in trouble with the lawful good inquisition, there are a lot of other powerful magicians to worry about and so on. About dracoliches, they are far more interesting IMO as antagonists than as MC's.

Did you played NWN1 - hotu? Vix'trha was a epic battle.

You really should just go full isekai shit - everyone there is super awesome necromancer assassin dragon sorcerer god.

Wrong, completely wrong. Fast swinging blades are the press A for awesome buttons. Look to kirito.

• In a no magical beatable mmo(sic), he manages to defeated the creator because he can swing his blade faster than everyone else.
• In a high magical fairy setting, his fast swinging blades seems amazing to cut anything, iron golems, fire spells, and so on.
• In a FPS, he also solves everything with a fast swinging blade. He can cut all projectiles from a SMG's that can fire 1200 rounds per minute and a **** .50 BMG from a anti materiel rifle
• In alicization, a tree which a guy with an axe would take decades to cut down, he with a fast swinging blade solve the problem easily. He also solve all problems in that world with fast swinging blades.

And there are a lot of good isekais, Drifters for eg is the best Isekai IMO. The fact that people chosed historical characters to go to the new world instead of the useless teenager is so amazing... Oda Nobunaga in Drifters is amazing on design and personality.

I don't see that is the case with wrpg because almost every western developer is busy at work with their upcoming first person shooter

There are a lot of good FPS games. What i really miss is a game which mixes FPS and RPG, like Fallout New Vegas or even VtMB. VtMB firearms on the beginning are trash. But when you get the .44 magnum, firearms become viable and when you get the flamethrower...

Cyberpunk 2077 will probably gonna be epic.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Modern JRPGs changed because now they are targeted to western audience.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

One thing to note, though, is that in pretty much every single one of those games you're essentially forced to play in that role, which reduces roleplaying potential quite a bit, depending on how you look at it.

If you want to change role you change game.

 

[Thac0]

Modern JRPGs Final Fantasies changed because now they are targeted to western audience.

The brunt of the market isnt catering to the west, since they gain less from overseas sales due to translation costs, licensing agreements and taxes. Nippon Ichi and certain Square Enix departments are the only ones which heavily cater I know off.

 

[Cat Dude]

Modern JRPGs changed because now they are targeted to western audience.

If they are pandered to western audience then we would have seen more main characters resembling bald space marines than jpop androgynous celebrities.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Modern JRPGs changed because now they are targeted to western audience.

If they are pandered to western audience then we would have seen more main characters resembling bald space marines than jpop androgynous celebrities.

Western audience just wants waifus.

 

[Twizman]

Guilty Gear Strive character request feedback. All of the west has Baiken at no.1 despite her anti-fun nature to play against