Poll: Which do you prefer JRPGs or WRPGs?

[MightyRabbit]

I am a fan of both, but sometimes WRPGs get a bit too open in their choices for me. Sprawling talent trees, constant stat-checking of equipment and overall ability to lose momentum with the game's story can turn me off. More streamlined games like Mass Effect or Fallout are preferable to ones like Baldur's Gate and Oblivion to me.

With JRPGs I appreciate how the characters come predefined, allowing me to just focus on using the tools at hand rather than inventing my own. Plus, I feel more involved in the battles in JRPGs than most WRPGs.

These days however, I'm finding that aside from Kingdom Hearts there aren't any new JRPGs that're matching up to the recent offerings from Bioware & whichever studio's making the latest Fallout game.

 

[lovest harding]

If we're generalizing, then:

JRPG when I want a story.
WRPG when I want to role play.

My two favorite things in gaming. ^^

 

[KefkaCultist]

I love JRPGs. I can't stand WRPGs.

^ Theres my answer.

WRPGs always end up boring the life out of me before I ever finish it. I've never finished Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, TES Oblivion, or any of the Mass Effects and Dragon Ages.

My problem with WRPGs is that they're [usually] non-linear and I always get lost doing side missions and I get bored before I even get started with the main quest. In JRPGs the games are [usually] linear to some extent. Toss a few optional side missions here and there, but for the most part you do the main story and nothing else and that keeps my attention focused a whole lot more.

(Also, one of my capatcha words is "Materia". I just find that kinda funny since this is a topic about JRPGs and thats the magic system in FF7)

 

[Goldshadow]

I prefer JRPGs, especially Tales, to WRPGs, but both have good points to them.
JRPGs usually has a stronger focus on story and cutscenes, but have a little less "game", so to speak.
WRPGs, however, seem to focus on action and moral choices systems/conversation trees. Nothing wrong with it, but I, for some unknown reason, I prefer having an already drawn out character to one I make myself, because I learn better by being in a perspective that isn't based on what I'd do.
Just my own $.02.

 

[Raso719]

I prefer JRPGs for a few reasons.

-At 60 bucks for a game I'd prefer more than half the color wheel to be present in the game. I can't stand the brown on grey so many western games use.
-I prefer the more light hearted nature of JRPGs.
-I can't stand the overly macho, dark and gritty people in many WRPGs. Large yellow hair also doesn't seem to piss me off nearly as much as it does other people.
-The stories in JRPGs are usually more fantastic and less rooted in reality and I like that. I hate reality why do western games keep trying to remind me of it?
-Chocobos and mechs. Not enough western games have mech combat and I'd never expect a western game to EVER put anything cute into their games.
-Pink hair and pleated skirts. Don't judge me.
-Awesome enemies and boss fights. A WRPG would never let you kill God.

Though I prefer JRPGs, I absolutely LOVE the Elder Scrolls series, the Ultima Series, Heroes of Might and Magic, table top RPGs like D&D and prefer western developed MMORPGs over Japanese and Korean MMORPGs.

It's not that I blindly hate WRPGs and blindly love JPRGs, it just so happens that there are a lot of WRPGs I can't stand and few JRPGs I can't stand.

 

[Anachronism]

But giving the player a role offers for more nonlinearity, and every other aspect of the story usually suffers from it. I find it easier to become immersed in a game when the storytelling is top notch, rather than having a choice of X scenarios all with lower quality.

I think we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one. We clearly like very different kinds of RPGs. Bottom line for me is, if I'm playing a role, I want to have a say in what happens, rather than just watch it happen.

Well, now we're talking about what role-playing games are now, and I'm not going to open that can of worms just yet.

Probably a good idea. If you haven't already, take a look at this article [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/7785-Experienced-Points-Arr-Pee-Gee]. It's a very interesting discussion about how nebulous and confused the term "RPG" has become. As pointed out by Shamus, and as our discussion suggests, there are loads of different genres all called RPG; it's a very confusing situation.

 

[Kurenaino]

Some of my favorite games of all times are JRPGs and WRPGs. Dragon Age? Check. The Tales series? Check.

I think people just need to stop limiting themselves to a genre and just try and enjoy the game. Generalizing games into groups and dismissing them based on the genre they supposedly fall into will just make you miss some awesome games.

 

[mireko]

I prefer JRPGs, to be honest. As much as I love Mass Effect, I love MegaTen so much more.

Overall there are more JRPG devs that appeal to me as well. In the West there's Obsidian and BioWare, whereas in the East there's Atlus, NIS, tri-Ace, Falcom, Vanillaware, Namco Bandai (the Tales team), Sega (the Valkyria Chronicles team), Mistwalker, Square-Enix (can't argue with Tactics Ogre) and some more.

Kind of futile to distinguish between JRPGs and WRPGs anyway. The subgenres aren't defined by gameplay, storytelling or design, just by the geographical location of the developers. SMT has choice and multiple endings, Mass Effect is linear[footnote]The main storyline, that is.[/footnote]. The Witcher has an annoying pre-defined character, Demon's Souls has a creator with sliders.

There's no argument for considering them separate genres when the most obvious examples are exceptions.

[sub]Except Final Fantasy. But people need to stop assuming "JRPG = FINAL FANTASY". That was lazy in the past and it's even lazier now.[/sub]

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

Let's completely drive over the op's question and say:

I like GOOD rpg's.

I don't automatically give a pass to a bad game, nor do I thumb my nose at a good game, simply because of where it's from.

I've enjoyed games from both JRPG and WRPG camps, that were good. And I'll probably continue to do so.

This. If it entertains me, I don't care where it is from. If I had to choose one, I've played more JRPGs.
EDIT: JRPGs tend to be more varied in terms of characters and settings too.
EDIT 2: Also, Erikson can shut the fuck up and FF games aren't the only JRPGs in existence.

 

[Luthir Fontaine]

WRPG

I like gritty
I dont like waiting my turn to fight
I like people that i can relate to
I dont like the quiet loner bs
I like armor that looks like it can protect you
I dont like armor that covers my females bodys less then one sheet of paper
I like playing the game
I dont like watching the game
I like good voice acting
I dont like bad translations
I like choices
I hate one straight path
I like making my own hero
I dont like bein forced to play a whinny git
I like blood and volience
I dont like "defeating" someone
I like evil for a reason
I dont like "muahahah im evil cause im evil"
I like music to be in the back round
I dont like music drowning everything else out
I like fantasy and sci-fi
I dont like a blend of both
I like heroes that are adults
I dont like heroes that have not gone through high school yet
I like the gods to be uncaring bastards and
I dont like the gods to be some earth spirt gaia bull shit
....list goes on

Sorry for being long just wanted to get that off my chest

P.S. not saying all east rpg are bad just if i was locked under the stairs and had to play one or the other forever im goin west

 

[Black Phoenix]

Generally I prefer JRPGs, although I will admit that I've only really played two WRPGs that I can think of off the top of my head, those being Oblivion and The Witcher. I didn't like Oblivion because I hated the skills/levelling system it had. maybe I'm just too thick to utilise it properly, but when I found myself spending more time sneaking around just to level up rather than playing the game, I decided it was best if I gave up on it. The Witcher I preferred, although I never really got on with the combat system or the third person viewpoint. I never got very far in either.

To my understanding, WRPGs lean more towards giving you the whole list of skills within the game, and letting you develop your character as you see fit. While I see why this would appeal to some people, it doesn't appeal to me (and incidentally is one of the things I hold against FFXII when it tried something similar with the Licence Board). That, and I play games primarily for the story anyway.

 

[mrhateful]

WRPG

I like gritty
I dont like waiting my turn to fight
I like people that i can relate to
I dont like the quiet loner bs
I like armor t......

Your list pretty much sums it up.

WRPG > JRPG(lol)

 

[Luthir Fontaine]

WRPG

I like gritty
I dont like waiting my turn to fight
I like people that i can relate to
I dont like the quiet loner bs
I like armor t......

Your list pretty much sums it up.

WRPG > JRPG(lol)

hah thanks

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I prefer WRPG over JRPG's,but I can confess that I like ERPG's as well(Witcher 2,Divinity,Gothic etc).

 

[Hop-along Nussbaum]

When I run out of WRPGs to play, I will revert to JRPGs.

 

[EscapeGoat_v1legacy]

I like both, but I prefer JRPGs over WRPGs. I like the anime-styled graphics they tend to have, I don't mind Turn-Based Combat and the music tends to be much more memorable and melody driven in JRPGs, which is a plus. Also, good JRPGs are doused in colour, whereas most WRPGs seem to stick to single-colour pallets, which I don't like.

I like there to be some form of Role Playing in my games though. For example, Final Fantasy V is one of my favourite JRPGs because it has an amazing job system which allows for some really good stat and skill customisation, instead of just giving me four basic archetypes and making me use them.

 

[Eacaraxe_v1legacy]

Honestly, I can't stand JRPG's any more. I used to love them right up until the time I played Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, or so. That's about the time I realized JRPG's really aren't that interesting.

Take five current-gen JRPG's of your choice. I can guarantee at least four of them will be a true-to-formula monomyth that includes an angsty anti-hero, genki girl, and a boisterous bruiser. That's just the story and character tropes I can throw off-hand into a simple sentence. Yeah, tropes are fun. The monomyth continues running strong to this day. Who doesn't love a boisterous bruiser? Some games may include fantastic aesthetics or a nice combat mechanic, but that doesn't acquit the JRPG genre of voluntary wholesale stagnation.

The last JRPG I played which was in any real sense "new" was FF12. That was because

Spoiler

Venat, who was an heroic character working behind the scenes, won via heroic sacrifice. Moreover, Ashe was being set up the entire game as the ultimate villain but for Venat's interference. Even that was lifted from God Emperor of Dune in a game that was constructed piecemeal from other science fiction works. Still, pretty awesome when you think about it, and Squeenix not hand-holding the player through that is commendable.

 

[Xaio30]

I like Polish RPGs.

Two worlds 2 ftw

Don't forget The Witcher.

 

[kingcom]

snip

Sorry for not being clear, was more trying to expand on your line of thinking from what I look for in a video game.