I have nothing against JRPGs, but I think I might be growing out of that kind of storytelling and characterization. I can read manga for that, and I can do it in short bursts and at my leisure. Plus Western games have come up in a really big way in the past half-decade or so, and to me it's still a new and exciting kind of game. So WRPGs.
i like stories in my games once in a while, and western RPGs or western games in general rarely have a story that i care about, so i like JRPGs cuz they're unique in that sense
Japanese RPGs for the win. I have enjoyed them a lot more than western RPGs. That's not to say that I don't enjoy games like Mass Effect or Fallout 3, but they aren't my favorite RPGs.
I know they are bound to be compared due to them both being RPG's. But I feel as if they are so far apart in terms of almost everything that it's a little unfair to pit them against one another.
I have no preference. I love WRPG's and I love JRPG's. Each appeal to me in completely different ways.
Wrpgs. I'm not saying Wrpgs are mature, but every Jrpg I've played has felt too... kiddy. It felt like a young adult novel or a fanfiction. I don't care for their stories at all.
6 years ago I would say JRPG easily but lately I've been having more fun playing Western RPG's. Japanese role playing games have gotten fairly tiresome lately. I was hoping FF XIII will buck this trend but I have been hearing not so good things.
" JRPGs are a thing of the past, its time to move on. "
NEVER! "
It is, plus if there's one thing that wrpgs have proven is that jrpgs are not role playing games. You don't role play in those games, you play a fixed character with very, very limited customisation or no customisations at all and you cannot take any decisions for that character because the story is linear and those japanese story tellers are control freaks. Its THEIR story and they wont you, unworthy player, come in and fuck around in their glorious plan of story telling that involves a young brash hero with a funny haircut to assemble a gruop of young morons to take on an evil corporation eeeeevery single time.
Face it, that was the way to do jrpgs back in the nes and snes days because that was the only way to make an rpg on those systems. But not anymore. Now we live in a era where games should provide you with real role play, real decisions and real conscequences. For christ sake, GTA4 had more roleplay elements than any jrpg that came out in the last 5 years.
I feel like the WRPG genre encompasses a broader range of play-styles than does the JRPG, so that's what I go with. I still love me some JRPGs, but the incessant repetition and derivativeness that proliferates the genre is becoming unbearable.
Western RPG - I like some actual gameplay in my RPGs! I consider games like GTA IV to be WRPGs too. Most openworld games have the exact same structure as WRPGs. Only with a lot tighter, deeper and more visceral gameplay. Red Dead : Redemption will actually be an ACTUAL western WESTERN RPG! See what I did there?
Turnbased stuff just ain't cuttin' it no more. RPGs are Cross/Genre. Most western produced games have traits from RPGs. Depending on marketing, they are recognized as RPGs, while others are not. Even games like Modern Warfare 2's online multiplayer modes can be considered as an online multiplayer militaristic FPS Cross/Genre RPG. The progression and persistence of the player's profile is totally RPG style. So yeah - I'm a Cross/Genre RPG fan. Looking at the Modern Warfare 2's sales and the general trend of introducing a deep and persistent progression system to any game/genre - most western market consumers are RPG fans.
There are very few Cross/Genre RPGs coming out of Japan - such as Yakuza 3 or Demon's Souls, which are great games. But most JRPGs are standard fare - there are some exception, especially when it comes to story or presentation - such as the Persona series, but overall - after 20 years of the same old stuff, it's mostly just pure 'MEH!' or 'BLECH' for me. Sleep or vomit enducing crap that can't match classics from yesteryear like Chronotrigger, Final Fantasy VI or Secret of Mana.
Also - the ultimate RPGs are simulations like Gran Tourismo, ArmA II and Flight Simulator. Only that they aren't fun, if you don't want to play a Racecar driver, Pilot or Soldier. Since they adapt a lot of the tedium too - for greater realism. Seeing games without any pre-conception about what a 'Role Playing Game' is, most games are RPGs - many games considered RPG wouldn't be considered RPGs, since, especially JRPG are mostly story driven and the character you're playing and the story that's happening is pre-defined by the game, not by your roleplaying. It's more of a passive role experience than an active one. Without the freedom to act as you please and the game reflecting directly the consequences of your action - it logically couldn't be an RPG... unless the majority of people says it's so - which is the case, sadly.
In that way a game like Forza 3 or Modern Warfare 2 is a lot more of an RPG than any 'declared' RPG can ever be, since the outcome of the game is completely determinded by how the players act and not pre-determined by the gamedesigners.
Western RPGs. I like the stories and gameplay in JRPGs but I prefer WRPGs, overall, for a few reasons.
I like branching storylines and character customization which I haven't seen in JRPGs (maybe I'm just playing the wrong ones). Though, having them vs not is mostly just different; not necessarily better.
I got tired of children saving the world about the time I graduated High School. Not that all JRPGs have kids in the party, but it's fairly common.
I have never played a JRPG with a proper (side) quest system. The best you get is a section in your inventory labeled Special, or Treasures, or Valuables or something, which hosts quest related items, along with other important stuff that you shouldn't sell.
The JRPG's I played in high school almost always had save-point based save systems, rather than save anywhere save-systems, and quite often the save-points could be an hour or more apart. I played Lost Odyssey recently, and it was an awesome game, but it still have several spots where there was an hour and half between save points. Though, this is one of only two JRPG's I played recently (the other was Infinite Undiscovery, which was boring and I quit after 7 hours), so maybe this isn't common anymore.
I like branching storylines and character customization which I haven't seen in JRPGs (maybe I'm just playing the wrong ones). Though, having them vs not is mostly just different; not necessarily better.
"
This is the biggest flaw with these discussions anyway, there are plenty of JRPGs with that open ended feel to them and plenty of WRPGs that are 100% linear. The whole major mainstream fracture in these two supposed genres is pretty silly and something I didn't even like when the terms started to become super popular online, though I fell into the loop with everyone else, so meh whatever.
" JRPGs. I'd play more WRPGs, but from what I've played, the modern ones have shit character customization features. "
Agreed. If a game is going to have customization, it better be good otherwise I'd rather just play a character designed specifically for the game, be they an angsty teenage boy with spiked blond hair or not. With a lot of western RPGs, character customization feels so tacked on -- Dragon Age, for example. The player character looks so rigid and uninteresting that they don't feel like they are even part of the game and have as much personality as Gordon Freeman (but with dialogue options!).
Also, what the hell is with the lack of long hair options in games that let you customize your character? I'm so sick of only getting to pick from 5 short hair styles, a bun, or a lame ponytail. Grr! And don't give me some lame excuse about clipping or games can't do long hair right. Bayonetta did a fantastic job (eg. When she gets serious versus bosses and lets her hair down) and that game didn't have revolutionary graphics by any means.
I could rant about a bunch of other things that disinterest me with the western RPG genre but I think I've gone off on enough of a random tangent as it is.
JRPG's are very dependent on Anime and as someone who doesn't like Anime at all, I find no intrinsic interest in JRPG's.
So by default I go WRPG's. Although I really do wish there was some JRPG's that are not Anime related. Probably are but I can't think of any right now.
I go with Western. I only see the Western RPGs evolving and innovating while the JRPGs keep recycling the same cliches. I will be getting Final Fantasy XIII on day one though.
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