r/JRPG • u/Marinebiologist_0 • Apr 27 '25

News Clair Obscur has achieved the highest concurrent player rate ever for a JRPG on Steam.

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Incredible numbers, this doesn't even include the Xbox Gamepass player count. The last time I remember a JRPG getting this level of attention was Persona 5 and NieR Automata in 2017. It'll be interesting to see how massive Persona 6 will be, if it launches day 1 on all major platforms.

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u/snakeitachi12 Apr 27 '25

This comment section is hilarious. There's no clear overall consensus on what a JRPG is on a JRPG subreddit..

Anyway, Clair Obscur is most definitely a JRPG.

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u/repocin Apr 27 '25

Reminds me of the eternal roguelike/roguelite debate.

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u/Gharvar Apr 28 '25

How is it eternal ? Roguelikes can have unlocks but not real meta progression while roguelites have progression via power ups.

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u/Myurside Apr 28 '25

And... You gave the wrong definition.

Roguelikes are the traditional rogue-like games. ADOM, NETHACK, CSS etc. Games with grid movement, non-modal combat (you don't enter another screen for combat like in a JRPG), turn based, with an emphasis on replayability through procedural content.

Roguelite take some elements from Roguelikes but spin them out into their own genre. Isaac, for example, is closer to a Zelda game with randomized dungeon and items than the original Rogue - it's a roguelite. Card games with randomized element? Honestly those are just modern arcade games at this point - I mean, Roguelights. RoR, Hades, Returnal, DeadCells, Noira are all Roguelite.

If you're not faniliar with Roguelikes, as the games I've mentioned above are quite niche, you might've still probably played or seen the Mystery Dungeon series, with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon or Shiren The Wanderer. C:DDA, Dwarf Fortress, Elona/Elin, UnReal World, Caves Of Qud, are other somewhat less niche Roguelikes which actually diverge very much from traditional Roguelikes, while also being considered Roguelikes still because they still play like Rogue.

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u/Gharvar Apr 28 '25

That's cool and all but go search by the roguelike tag on Steam and you will find specifically that the tag is used for games like Binding of Isaac that are random levels with random power ups but don't really have progression except some unlocks. Then you literally just add progression between runs and you have roguelites, most of them have the progression.

As you said the other roguelikes are mostly niche and if anything Binding of Isaac was the revival of the genre. The way the terms are used have changed and classical roguelikes are pretty niche overall, the term has been overtaken it seems.

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u/GregNotGregtech Apr 28 '25

because there is far more differentiating roguelikes and roguelites than just meta progression