JRPG don't need to be WRPG. *Read post, before posting*

[poiuppx]

Wow.

Y'know, when Gygax and company sat down to figure out what would happen if some of their little miniature guys went off and beat up evil seperate from the main army, and subsequently gave birth to the role-playing genre, he went on record at some point there-after as saying he hated the term role-playing, since it sounded too pop-psychology for his taste. He was a man all about the hacking, the slashing, the puzzle solving, the insanely overpowered WTF spells, and the even more insanely unfair dungeon crawls.

If that's all it took for the man who gave birth to the genre, methinks the lot of us are overthinking it a little.

 

[Fidelias]

JRPG's don't need to change their style, they just need to get their ass in gear and try to make something GOOD for a change. The only recent JRPG's that I've played that are actually any good are either re-released or remakes. WRPG's are on the rise right now because they've improved on everything in the last few years and are visibly(not sure if that's the word I'm going for but fuck it it's 12 o' clock) trying to improve themselves even more.

Edit: By the way, here are my thoughts on what it means for a game to be classified as a "Role-playing Game"

Any game that places emphasis on it's characters, story, and/or atmosphere as opposed to gameplay or cinematics. I don't believe that an RPG MUST allow you to make decisions or be non-linear (though I prefer these).

Well, I agree that the best JRPG's are the remakes. So what sets the remakes apart from modern JRPG's? It's the WRPG influence on modern JRPG's.

I must ask though, how have WRPG's improved. How is Dragon Age any improvement over KOTOR? How is Oblivion any improvement over Morrowind?

Just curious because I just don't see it.

Dragon Age ISN'T an improvement in my eyes, but Mass Effect was a HUGE improvement. Sure, nothing can beat Kotor's story, but that's just because it is known to have one of the best plots in gaming. But the story in Mass Effect isn't bad, and it's characters are AMAZING.
And I can't really talk about Oblivion, couldn't really get into it.
However, none of these were complete failures. Many enjoyed the games for what they were, and they were all considered good, if not great, games.

Now take a look at Final Fantasy 13. Sure, you have some people who love it, but you have just as many more calling it total shit. The major problem with this game is that the only innovations are the stuff it is critisized about. Mainly it's boring combat and extremely linear gameplay. Like I said before, I don't mind whether a game is linear or not, but it is something that just shouldn't be done in Final Fantasy.

You have Final Fantasy 14, which has been given horrible reviews everywhere I look.

You have Resonance of Fate, which did try something new, but neglected it's story and characters.

And in all of these recent JRPG's you have the same criticisms about overused types of characters (Lightning=Cloud Vanille=That_annoying_girl_I_can't_remember)

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE JRPG's.
Some of my favorite games are:
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 8
Persona 3
Fire Emblem

And I can't really quite put my finger on why I dislike the new ones. But here is my opinion.
Also, no offense intended. I realize that you and I have different opinions, and I was just sharing mine.