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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343

u/CapCapital Apr 27 '25

OP fixing to get blasted for calling this game a JRPG

218

u/No_Sympathy_3970 Apr 27 '25

JRPG is really just a poorly named genre, not all RPGs from Japan are JRPGs and a non Japanese game can be a JRPG

53

u/tallwhiteninja Apr 27 '25

Japanese-style Role Playing Game. Fixed it.

47

u/Jubez187 Apr 27 '25

That’s essentially what JRPG means lol. It’s just that for many years Japanese style RPG was only made in Japan.

14

u/tallwhiteninja Apr 27 '25

There are too many obnoxious "purists" who disagree to not call it out, lol.

5

u/shadowwingnut Apr 27 '25

Massive problem with the genre in general... Looks at Final Fantasy turn based purists who argue in bad faith all the time.

0

u/Dude_McGuy0 Apr 27 '25 edited Apr 27 '25

There are three factions as I see it:

  1. To be a JRPG, the game only needs to be made by a mostly Japanese development team. (So Persona counts, Elden Ring counts, Expedition 33 doesn't count).
  2. The game needs to be both made by a Japanese development team AND have a Japanese or Japanese inspired art style to be considered a JRPG. (Persona counts, Elden ring doesn't count, Expedition 33 doesn't count,).
  3. If the game is designed using the same gameplay conventions as popular JRPGs of the SNES/PS1 era (Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Suikoden, etc.) then it's considered a JRPG regardless of the art style or developer. (Persona counts, Elden ring doesn't count, Expedition 33 counts).

5

u/daemin Apr 27 '25

As someone who grew up when the NES was brand new and the term "JRPG" was coined, we always used the term as case #3.

1

u/ThrowawayBlank2023 May 01 '25

Even in the scarce academic research done on game culture that discusses this topic I'm pretty sure #3 is always used. And it makes sense, since it's, well... the only use case that actually respects the timeline and culture surrounding the game genre.