Talking to Edge today, FFXIII producer Yoshinori Kitase has claimed that the game isn’t a JRPG. It “straddles genres”, whatever that’s supposed to mean.
“There’s a trend these days to strictly categorize games as western RPGs or Japanese RPGs, but Final Fantasy is something that we don’t try to categorize as either/or,” the developer told the website. “For us, the game straddles genre.”
Call me cynical, but Kitase sounds like he’s suffering from denial. Final Fantasy XIII looks like a JRPG, has all the stereotypes of a JRPG, and plays very much like a JRPG.
How is it not a JRPG?
Do you have the answer, readers?
While we can’t say definitively what it is yet, it looks like a JRPG. Sounds to me though like SE puffing itself up as a next-gen-genre-fledging company. Which they really aren’t, but I don’t think people have a problem with that.
Just keep on working Kitase, FF doesn’t need hype.