I remember fondly the days of playing Heroes of Might and Magic II, never played HOMM3 or anything after, but as I looked at the latest and most “recent” heroes games… they’re all rated/reviewed SO harshly. Apparently, they never gained steam like the earlier titles. RTS seems to have the same issue, tapering off. Starcraft is basically dried up and dead, and we never got another Warcraft unfortunately. Even WC3 Reforged was a total flop/disaster, people were hoping one day to get Warcraft 4. Would’ve been nice, honestly… But it never happened. as of today, I can’t find a single RTS or RPG I actually enjoy that isn’t some old ‘classic’.
What happened to these genres?
While it definitely felt to me like turn-based RPGs were looked down on for a time, particularly when Final Fantasy abandoned its roots, I’d say the pendulum has been swinging back in the other direction for quite some time now.
Persona 5 was a smash hit, Fire Emblem is doing quite well, Dragon Quest is still going. Bravely Default and Octopath Traveler were solid mid-budget titles carrying on FF’s roots where actual FF won’t. Mario & Luigi is getting a revival. Over in the indie space, Sea of Stars and Chained Echoes have done well. And then you have tons and tons and tons of classics that have been getting remasters or even full remakes lately.
Oh yeah, and then there’s a li’l game called Undertale that seems to have been fairly well received.
I started replaying the original ffVii on my steam deck, now. Using several 7th Heaven mods that really make the game look and sound like it didn’t come from the PS1 Era. It’s a slow start, but so far it’s still shaping up to be the great game I remember playing 25+ years ago.
Plus, unlike the remake, it’s all one game instead of 3+ take your money releases across two or three console generations.