Andrea made a comment this week that got me thinking.... There are a lot of franchises or genres that I turn a complete blind eye towards. I would assume that most gamers have a similar sort of list.... games, franchises, or developers that fail to achieve even the slightest level of interest for them.

Later on in the show, I again thought of this issue while Garnett and Jeff were having their "localization" debate. I very much agreed with Garnett's side of the argument, but I was thrown a little bit when Jeff started asking "Why do you assume this game will only have a niche audience". This got me thinking....

Jeff C, Jeff M, and Garnett had nothing but great things to say about the game in question. And yet I have absolutely no interest in playing it. The moment I hear "JRPG" I just assume I will hate it. (This isn't a completely blind assumption. I've tried to play several beloved JRPGs over the years and hated every moment).

Now I think most people have this reaction to something. There are people who hate shooters, or puzzle games, or sports games, etc. But I feel like JRPG's fall into a special category. Maybe I'm just imagining it, but I feel like there is a greater gap between people who like JRPGs and those who don't, compared to most other genres.

I don't as a rule like fighting games, but I'll still pick one up every few years and have some fun with it. I don't as a rule like racing games, but I've purchased Forza 3 and 4 and loved them both. Over the course of my life, I've become friends with many gamers, all of who have a similar tendancy to occasionally dabble into genres that they don't usually preffer..... except for JRPGs. On the flip side, I know people who LOVE JRPG's, and they are often reluctant to try ANYTHING else.

I wonder: Have JRPGs become their own little island in the world of videogames?