RPGs are more labor-intensive than open-world games for the same duration of gameplay, by a fairly significant margin (that's why open-world games are so popular!), but there's a backlog a thousand games long of very good jRPGs.
Also very very hard to get traction. When it comes to small productions, there's a total glut of options. If maybe 20% of the people who hear about a new Final Fantasy actually wind up buying it, it's tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Even if 90% of the people who hear about a specific fun indie RPG buy it, it's maybe a hundred grand.
Palworld ate Pokemon's lunch for a fraction of production costs.
Is there an exceptional talent out there to eat Sqweenix's lunch with an epic, enjoyable fantasy RPG?
RPGs are more labor-intensive than open-world games for the same duration of gameplay, by a fairly significant margin (that's why open-world games are so popular!), but there's a backlog a thousand games long of very good jRPGs.
Also very very hard to get traction. When it comes to small productions, there's a total glut of options. If maybe 20% of the people who hear about a new Final Fantasy actually wind up buying it, it's tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars. Even if 90% of the people who hear about a specific fun indie RPG buy it, it's maybe a hundred grand.