personal observations why wrpg are currently on top

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rballad
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personal observations why wrpg are currently on top

Post by rballad »

in recent months i have played FF 13, FF 13-2, xenoblade chronicles, tales of zestiria, suikoden 4 and suikoden tactics. i am tired of jrpg. here is my personal observations of jrpg and why western made rpgs are destroying the competitions

putting the mc on a pedestal
in a room full of seasoned warriors and leaders, a kid with no experience and achievements was choosen as the leader. it's a typical scene in a jrpg. give me a gruff marine all day. this is why geralt riviera is such a breath of a fresh air, because he is experienced and his look commands respects from others

Equal opportunity
As i was playing suikoden and tales. i kept wondering "hey there is a beautiful girl right there, why[insert a side character's name] make a move, take a chance on[insert a female character's name]. why let [insert a mc's name]" get all the fun. we are trained to root for side characters. however when it comes to love, they are just too happy to let the mc get the girl/girls.
creating own character option in western rpg, means equal opportunity for all and no more star fated lovers. that dwarf or funny looking dude now can hook-up with that princess, warrior girl or sorceress

why can't awesome female characters just stay awesome?
Toughness in girls is not an abnormality or disease to be cured of. please developers no need of tragic past to explain their behaviors and don't take away female characters' achievement. In the beginning of FF13, lightning was focused and determined just like a soldier she has no time for chit-chat, but after spending time with Hope she mellowed and become more friendly. in other words she was cured. in tales of zestiria. rose was the leader of a powerful assassin guild. it was later revealed that a man has been helping her in secret.

flip-flopping villain
if a villain is a cool loking dude, there is a huge chance he will defect to your side or help you in some way. likewise your lonewolf friend can join the darkside before seamlessly changed side again. there is no consequences at all.
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Vonman
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Re: personal observations why wrpg are currently on top

Post by Vonman »

well, heres my own opinion why jrpg has been on the low;

- uninspiring simple gameplay formula that relies solely on grinding / extremely repettitive gameplay
- boring story with cringeworthy whiny protagonist.
- animu style everywhere. this is what upsets me the most. back in the day JRPG had really cool and unique character designs, now its just big eyed colorful moe anime stuff :feel:
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Re: personal observations why wrpg are currently on top

Post by MisterHentai »

One can easily make a reverse of this and point out some VERY obvious flaws both sides suffer from that have plagued them for decades. And these are practically the No.1 point for the majority of videogaming history and I dare any one to argue against it.

It easy to shit on JRPG's these days when there's been a bajillion of them since forever and especially when alot of modern titles suffers from the usual ANIMEDESU tropes, the general story plots and characters for the most part the weakest and cliched elements. But one thing is for a fact is that at least the JRPG genre overall offers plentiful of unique settings, worlds and universes, where it draws inspiration from all the many different real cultures, legends and mythologies from around world, and then being able to blend into a cesspool of ideas and visions. Oh and huge majority of soundtracks for JRPGs are much more memorable, and you know, contain actual "videogame music".

Western RPGs on the other hand for as great as they hark on big open world scale, better HD realistic graphics and freedom of choice for the story and character, in the end, doesn't amount to anything when it's biggest problem for the majority is that they are so up their own ass and stuck in the "Dungeons and Dragons, Swords and Sorcery, Tolkien/European/Medieval/Norse/Germanic etc Fantasy" rules and mindset. It's why I generally prefer the Sci-Fi end of things like the KotOR's or Mass Effects, but even they still suffer from the "D&D" rules.

You can crap on JRPGs for being too colourful and ANIMU, but the same can be said for WRPGs when they have too much dull gritty greens, greys and browns in the palette. Both of which apply overall for Japanese and Western gaming aesthetics in general.

Two different spectrums. Two different styles and choices. Any one can and should enjoy either, but don't be a moron and be blinded by the most obvious issue and stubborness both sides have.

It only feels like WRPGs are "destroying the competition" when for the fact Western developers finally stepped up in quality in some areas and have a better time in creating the game overall e.g. because of good game engines being the most obvious. It been clear for the longest time now Japan for years has stagnated and struggled in the HD generation (SE's resource wasting time of the FFXIII series and development being the definitive example here, and hell, frigging FFXV!) and their glory days of the JRPG SNES to PS2 years are a thing of the past.

You have a whole other issue of how economic and cultural lifestyle and gaming trends factor into the way both JRPGs and WRPGs are.
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Re: personal observations why wrpg are currently on top

Post by Vonman »

MisterHentai wrote:
It only feels like WRPGs are "destroying the competition" when for the fact Western developers finally stepped up in quality in some areas and have a better time in creating the game overall e.g. because of good game engines being the most obvious. It been clear for the longest time now Japan for years has stagnated and struggled in the HD generation (SE's resource wasting time of the FFXIII series and development being the definitive example here, and hell, frigging FFXV!) and their glory days of the JRPG SNES to PS2 years are a thing of the past.
aaaaaand this is what i meant. WRPG has improved so much over the years contrary to JRPG which now goes the opposite way by adopting simpler big-eyed animu style and gameplay which appeal to specific fanbase. when i played the witcher 3, it gave me the same feeling as excitement as i did when i played JRPGs back in the day like FF7, FF8, shadow hearts etc. sure it may be unique and all now as you said but it is boring when all you can do is explore the same similar cut and paste area over and over again. and most of them is not even an "area" its just a corridor. and then see some pre drawn big eyed animu puppet talk over a huge wall of text while doing three to four same emotion faces repeatedly.


MAKE JRPGS GREAT AGAIN!

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Re: personal observations why wrpg are currently on top

Post by MisterHentai »

Scale, character personality, cinematic presentation and even combat, is what WRPG have improved alot over the past decade or so, things which were common to JRPGs back in the day.

It's ironic how the tides have changed for both JRPGs and WRPGs considering how different they used to be when they began. There are still some hidden gems every now and then, but it can be hard to look through the sea of staleness.

Again, both are not without their own problems though. The Witcher 3 for as great as it is, is still a very definitive and prime example of a WRPG that I described before. There is really no looking past it.

Another irony is how in the past few years, Japan has shown it's able to create very decent WRPG settings in form of the Souls series and Dragon's Dogma (Both of which are heavily inspired by Berserk) or takes the open-world approach like the Xenoblade Chronicles/ X, and on the Western side, you also have many indie developers that are on the retro train, creating SNES-era JRPG types. Both sides are capable if they put the effort.

The cycle continues.
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