PS3 or Xbox 360?

[King Sean]

The age old battle of consoles has reached the shore of my mind.

Anyway, I play mostly RPGs, JRPGs to be exact. Which console should I get? I really need some insight.

P.S: Action, Fighting, and Racing games are some of my favs as well, although RPG reins supreme.

 

[Steve-O]

if you mostly play JRPG's don't go near a xbox, tales of vesperia and maybe star ocean are the only 2 jrpg's going for it, i heard blue dragon is good too, but i never played it

if you want to play JRPG's, defo go for playstation.... cuz 1 they get way more jrpg's and 2.... NI NO KUNI

 

[Stopga]

I would go for the PS3. There are a LOT of RPGs on the system, turn-based ones, non-turn-based ones, and ones that are RPGs only by definition, e.g. Borderlands. For action, fighting, and racing, go Xbox. Anything casual-like, Wii.

 

[Raiiyokuu]

There's a few good RPGS for the 360,

• Infinite Undiscovery
• Tales of Vesperia
• Blue Dragon
• Fable Games
• Lost Odyssey
• The Last Remnant?
• Magna Carta 2

But I would go with the PS3

Lots more JRPGs to play, especially Ni No Kuni.

 

[Sir Kenneth]

Have you thought about going for a PC instead? There really is a lot of fun to be had there RPG-wise, and especially a lot of indie developers are doing some really off beat and innovative things with the genre. If you have your heart set on a console though, I would play the waiting game if I were you. New consoles from Sony and Microsoft are likely less than a year away, so throwing money at a PS3 or Xbox 360 right now, might not be the greatest long term investment in the world.

 

[Linnaete]

Have you thought about going for a PC instead? There really is a lot of fun to be had there RPG-wise, and especially a lot of indie developers are doing some really off beat and innovative things with the genre.

OP does mention JRPGs, and well, the PC isn't exactly the go-to place for them, unless you're willing to go down the emulator route. Well, that's what I would emphasise, but since there's barely any decent JRPG this generation...

But otherwise, I do agree that the PC is great for RPGs due to the CRPGs and interesting new Kickstarter developments around the block like Project Eternity, Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns~

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And yeah, I'll just add that you should watch out for certain PS3 ports. The PS3 hasn't exactly been very lucky with its versions of multiplatform games with Bayonetta and Skyrim being rather egregious examples.

And it depends on which console has the better library of exclusives in your opinion. And the online environment you prefer if you do online. For instance, you willing to pay to use Xbox Live Gold? Or is the range of PS1 games on the PSN store a big draw for you?

 

[Sir Kenneth]

OP does mention JRPGs, and well, the PC isn't exactly the go-to place for them, unless you're willing to go down the emulator route. Well, that's what I would emphasise, but since there's barely any decent JRPG this generation...

But otherwise, I do agree that the PC is great for RPGs due to the CRPGs and interesting new Kickstarter developments around the block like Project Eternity, Wasteland 2 and Shadowrun Returns~

-----------

And yeah, I'll just add that you should watch out for certain PS3 ports. The PS3 hasn't exactly been very lucky with its versions of multiplatform games with Bayonetta and Skyrim being rather egregious examples.

And it depends on which console has the better library of exclusives in your opinion. And the online environment you prefer if you do online. For instance, you willing to pay to use Xbox Live Gold? Or is the range of PS1 games on the PSN store a big draw for you?

I actually think there is a lot of good stuff on the PC that JRPG fans might like. Stuff like "To the Moon" and "Cthulu Saves The World" and "Bastion". Neither are actual JRPG's, but I think all of them come a lot closer to what I really liked about JRPGs in the first place than any of the triple A games that has come out of Japan in recent years

 

[Linnaete]

I have yet to try Cthulhu. It's the tongue and cheek one, isn't it? It's kind of a mystery why I have yet to get it.

And I'm glad you mentioned To The Moon. I know some people took an umbrage with an element of its overall storyline, but I found it one of, if not, the most gripping and touching example of storytelling in a game (well, game in a very loose sense of the word). Japanese storytellers wish they can write something like this if plenty of them weren't you know, regurgitating anime tropes with new names and scenarios.

Incidentally, the sort of stuff mentioned don't need a powerful machine to run - which is pretty good. Anyone can easily have both a console at hand, and the PC they're using to run them with no problems. That's what I've been doing, though for PC, I only have a £600 Sony notebook. But it does have its own dedicated graphics chip set that managed to run the Mass Effect games on PC decently.

But still, if one does really clamour for their Star Ocean 4s (please don't...), Atelier games, FFXIII and its sequels games, Folklores, Resonance of Fates, Tales of games, etc. it would have to be a PS3 then. The 360 has a handful of JRPG exclusives like Blue Dragon (general consensus: meh), Lost Odyssey (general consensus: it's alright, nice and traditional) and Tales of Vesperia (general consensus: story for a Tales game doesn't quite make us want to gut ourselves with loathing as much).