Poll: Do you prefer western or japanese RPG's?

[yoz13]

most definatly jrpgs stories are epic

 

[CosmicCommander]

A western RPG involves role-playing. A Japanese RPG is a linear adventure game with numbers.

Thank you. Saved me around 10 seconds of my life.

No seriously, I absolutely hate JRPG's. I hate them almost as much as Yahtzee does.

I second this.

JRPGs are always the same, the characters are always some sort of stereotype, and the ones that aren't are slates of brick. There is no immersive-ness in the game, because ALL it is is merely number-crunching. The plot is always either paper-thin or ridiculous, and any attempts to deny this are futile. JRPGs are never fun or interesting, they are damn awful.

KotOR, now that is a good game, the story was beautiful, the characters were all intriguing and fun to know, the locations are nice and varied, and the combat was far more than it's point-and-click nature suggested.

In short, you should collectively have sex with the combined power of BioWare, for KotOR was awesome.

My guess is you never played more than 5 hours of a good JRPG title.

No, siree, I have not.

Why should the player, who invests in a product to enjoy themselves when they play it, have to wait several hours for the experience to be 'good'?

 

[acklumos]

I love both genres, and play them both equally.

 

[TK421]

I prefer western RPGs because they generally have a higher playtime:cutscene ratio.

 

[The Eggplant]

Western, and I'll direct all inquiries to the thread created by yours truly and currently floating around a page or two back that has basically devolved into a shitfest against the FF series.

 

[Indecipherable]

Western RPG. The characters are more relatable, and there's something consistent about JRPGs that make them act completely irrationally that bugs me. I do like the art style that JRPGs show but once again it isn't always consistent with the world around them and is hard to rationalise what and why this is going on.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

i think japanese RPG's have some sillyness in it that many can't take it seriously or get as much involved in the storyline. also many of japs RPGs mechanics are Overwhelming for starters.

 

[mrsketchy]

When it comes to preferences it's only from personal experience and taste aswell as your general opinion of the culture that the games originate from, sure jrpgs can be cliche but you don't see fable breaking any big barriers with "seeking vengance for your slaughtered family". Then again western rpgs and western games in general have little difference, western rpgs tend to be classified as such if the main character is prancing around in ye olde england brandashing a sword and farting out magic like theres no tomorrow. Thats pretty much the only difference, just slapping on the exp sticker on any other game automatically shoves it in the rpg closet for grinding as a gameplay lengthening scheme.

The sad thing is since most western games have designers, writers or merely employees from around the globe the name 'western' is incredibly inaccurate, I'm not meaning to be racist but even tv shows that are labeled as purely western like Simpsons and so on are just sent to korea to be created due to their large animation studios. How many of your items do you find that say "Made in china" for example. Despite all our quarrelling on trying to seperate ourselves from the east it's impossible to discern something as a pure-blood due to the cultural diversity of the gaming industry.

 

[Kyuubi Fanatic]

Grew up on JRPG's and generally I like them more (Western RPG's reek of Conan rehashed with Camelot and spliced with LotR time and again) but I've started to see them differently due to games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age (OK same Medieval drivel but damn if it didn't snare me and wouldn't let go) so I say we should love em both equally for what they have to offer.

Cuz just as shooters are vastly different than sports games, so are JRPG's and WRPG's two very different breeds.

 

[robmastaflex]

Grew up on JRPG's and generally I like them more (Western RPG's reek of Conan rehashed with Camelot and spliced with LotR time and again) but I've started to see them differently due to games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age (OK same Medieval drivel but damn if it didn't snare me and wouldn't let go) so I say we should love em both equally for what they have to offer.

Cuz just as shooters are vastly different than sports games, so are JRPG's and WRPG's two very different breeds.

That's quite similar to my opinion on the matter. I haven't played many WRPGs purely on the basis of being more of a console gamer where JRPGs seem to be more dominant.

Other reasons why I lean towards JRPGs include the fact that two of my favourite series are JRPGs; the Tales series and the Star Ocean series. I also prefer the art style of JRPGs more than that of WRPGs.

 

[Rayansaki]

A western RPG involves role-playing. A Japanese RPG is a linear adventure game with numbers.

Thank you. Saved me around 10 seconds of my life.

No seriously, I absolutely hate JRPG's. I hate them almost as much as Yahtzee does.

I second this.

JRPGs are always the same, the characters are always some sort of stereotype, and the ones that aren't are slates of brick. There is no immersive-ness in the game, because ALL it is is merely number-crunching. The plot is always either paper-thin or ridiculous, and any attempts to deny this are futile. JRPGs are never fun or interesting, they are damn awful.

KotOR, now that is a good game, the story was beautiful, the characters were all intriguing and fun to know, the locations are nice and varied, and the combat was far more than it's point-and-click nature suggested.

In short, you should collectively have sex with the combined power of BioWare, for KotOR was awesome.

My guess is you never played more than 5 hours of a good JRPG title.

No, siree, I have not.

Why should the player, who invests in a product to enjoy themselves when they play it, have to wait several hours for the experience to be 'good'?

Because some of those titles, after they pick up the story and pacing, are miles ahead of western RPG's in terms of quality. A good example is Resonance of Fate. Any new player will die horribly in the beggining, because it uses a new and complex battle system. However, after you get the hang of it, its the best RPG experience of this last generation of consoles (maybe just below Fallout 3)

And no, the story is not about emo teenager's with physics defying hairdo's trying to get a magic sword or avenge death of a friend or whatever crap you think JRPG's are about from watching ZP.

 

[Manji187]

I know someone's gonna barge in here and rant about how RPG's are RPG's and we shouldn't categorize them, but for me they are vastly different.

I like JRPG's because the stories always felt more personal to me, I feel sad when a character dies. In western RPG's I never get emotional when a character dies because there was no connection to begin with. However, I still prefer western RPGs, I guess when you grow up with something it's hard to shake off.

I am still waiting for a joint enterprise...a "WJ RPG"...or best of both worlds. Hard to imagine Square Enix working together with Bioware or Zenimax though. Makes me wonder...are the two types even compatible...or are they like water and oil? What do you think?

 

[CosmicCommander]

A good example is Resonance of Fate. Any new player will die horribly in the beggining, because it uses a new and complex battle system. However, after you get the hang of it, its the best RPG experience of this last generation of consoles (maybe just below Fallout 3)

To be honest, I care little for your pathetic little battle systems; I want to play and have a role in things, not dictate.

Because some of those titles, after they pick up the story and pacing, are miles ahead of western RPG's in terms of quality.

AHAHAAHHAHHHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA...

...Good one!

Wait... You're serious!

JRPGs are an inferior genre. All of them abide by the same structure, in both gameplay and narrative. True, not all of them are about...

...emo teenager's with physics defying hairdo's trying to get a magic sword or avenge death of a friend or whatever crap you think JRPG's are about from watching ZP.

... But they are all share the three pillars of JRPG-ness.

-Linearity
-Monotony
-Lack of Choice

I want to have fun with a game, not bore myself to death trying to play it, in the hope it will get good (Which it won't).

JRPGs are a remnant of another period of gaming- the time of novelty value. They have no outstanding features, they are inferior in all senses, and are only kept alive by the pretentiousness and zanyness of their fans and developers.

 

[Rayansaki]

I want to have fun with a game, not bore myself to death trying to play it, in the hope it will get good (Which it won't).

JRPGs are a remnant of another period of gaming- the time of novelty value. They have no outstanding features, they are inferior in all senses, and are only kept alive by the pretentiousness and zanyness of their fans and developers.

Saying things like they are facts and not your opinion is retarded. There are several ways in which JRPG's are superior to WRPG, just like there are the opposite. From reading this thread alone you can have an accurate guess that the majority of the people prefer JRPG stories and design.

As for boredom, it's also your opinion. I did enjoy Oblivion and Fallout a lot, and good old days rpg like Neverwinter Nights or Diablo, but recent RPG's like Dragon Age and Mass Effect set new boundaries of boredom for me that I never thought possible. Cliché'd and uninteresting characters and false sense of choice, and excessive realism on a fantasy world are the main reasons.

You might say a JRPG is boring on the start and most of the time all the way through, but from the recent generation, in my opinion, that's more true with WRPG than JRPG. And I'm not talking about nostalgic games here, I'm talking about games from the last 4-5 years.

You also care a lot more for character's in JRPG. I'm pretty sure half the people in this thread have cried from the death of a character in Final Fantasy, or felt betrayed by good character's gone rogue. When you finish Mass Effect 2 with Sheppard dead you go "Bummer, does this mean I can't use this save on ME3 or will they make bullshit up like in the beginning of ME2?"

 

[CosmicCommander]

I'm not going to arguing with you, I don't understand why you like JRPGs but I'll leave you be, however...

When you finish Mass Effect 2 with Sheppard dead you go "Bummer, does this mean I can't use this save on ME3 or will they make bullshit up like in the beginning of ME2?"/quote]

In your words:

Saying things like they are facts and not your opinion is retarded.

Good day.

How can you be so sure since you admittedly have never played more than 5 hours of any JRPG?

I have a friend who obsesses over JRPGs, many a night have I read a book while he plays his game. 3/4 of my time is spent looking at what he is doing; I do not play, but I observe.

I do not like it.

AT THIS POINT I TALK ABOUT CONTENT COMPREHENSION

I'm not even going to try to reply to that, for various reasons I cannot be bothered to bash out.

I'll just end with a concession that you can love your genre if you want, arguing with you that it is awful would be futile, so I'll let you be.

As a Frenchman once said:

Laissez faire, morbleu! Laissez faire!!

 

[Veldt Falsetto]

Japanese RPGs aren't evolving, they're doing the same stuff they've always done except with better graphics.

Although I will say the character modeling, texturing, and animation in FF13 made ME2 or DA:O look like The Simpson's a la 1989 drawn by Michael J. Fox....lol

But then again, I believe graphics aren't everything, someone please correct me on this if I'm wrong...lol

=P

But they are evolving albeit slowly and subtly so ya can't tell, Compare Final Fantasy I to Final Fantasy XIII and you'll know exactly what I mean, this works for every long running JRPG series actually, play each one in order and apart from the odd one or two jumps there isn't much difference but match up the oldest and most recent of a franchise and you'll not recognise it as the same game.

Western games tend to jump on the bandwagon more and won't change until the next big thing comes along while japanese games evolve subtly with every game in a genre or franchise keeping the same core gameplay with minor adjustments until 20 years later it's a completely different beast, this works for all games not just RPGs.

Note how as FPS has gotten more popular on consoles it's leaked into every western game, Metroid Prime was developed in Texas and became an FPS, Mirror's Edge and Portal (platformer and puzzle game) have both got strong FPS influences and Fallout was never as close to FPS as it is now.
Now look at Ninja Gaiden and how much that's changed since the SNES or Street Fighter (yes it's hard for a beat-em-up but if you compare the originals to now I'd bet the difference is loads

 

[Atmos Duality]

Strategy RPGs, both new and old. Those are my favorites.

As for the bad stuff...
I'll keep me mouth shut. Lets just say that both "genres" have failed in recent years.

 

[DarkHuntress]

I don't like JRPG's at all. I don't like the child like characters nor the story lines. Probably if I were under 14 I would enjoy them but they seem very childish to me.

Give me Western RPG's!

 

[request]

yep, western rpgs for sure. no offence to the Japanese fans but i just can't handle it