This is mainly a response I was going to give to a group of individuals, though the sheer size of it I thought I would put it here so that everyone can read.
IMPORTANT: This is all my opinion, I dont want to start another "JRPG vs WRPG" war thing, or at least be civil about it. I'm just stating my opinion based off my own experiences. I admit my experiences are rather limited when it comes to WRPGs so I'm willing to accept that I ma be wrong in some cases
My general dislike for WRPGs comes from the fact that I dont like having to make decsions that bare no influence on the gameplay
My experience with WRPGs so far is that you get a "create your own character" method with in turn means by default they have to be bland and generic. It also means that you are forced to make many decisions that bare no impact on the gameplay... like "eyebrow thickness". Another problem is this whole "make your own story" concept that I've never understood. Why would why "create a story" that is anything other than what I percieve to be the most logical conclusion to come to?
for example, if somebody comes up to you and asks for your help, you get the choice whether to help or not. When I come to such a decision i take the variables into account, will I benefit in the long term for helping them? taking into account the time and effort it takes to do so? that's how I come to my conclusion. If I discover that it IS worth the time and effort then I have no reason to not do it. The question of "do I want to be good or evil?" doesn't even enter the equation. And of course there is never a way to truely tell what action will result in what consequence in the long run. I was playing Dragon Age: Origins and if memory serves me correctly I had the option of saying "I want to go to war" purely because I thought it would give me the opportunity to try out the battle mechanics, but instead I just got shouted at.
This does mean that the story can go multiple ways, I'm aware of that. But I would much rather have a well-crafted linear story (or no story at all). That way I can say what the "true" story of the game is. The problem I had with Dragon Age: Origins is that I had to make a decision after every 4 or 5 lines of dialogue, which meant I had to check through them to see what would be logically fitting, it got very tedious and I couldn't percieve any distict long-term consequences. If creating my own story is the appeal of these games, then why can't we just create stories without the game mechanics?
I see a game as a series of challenges which must be overcome. If a game presented a story whereby you had to learn the story in order to help progress, I would enjoy that more. Like with point and click adventure games.
I also find WRPGs tend to have the menu screens as expansive as they'll ever be right at the start, meaning its complicated to start with and it doesn't grow from there-on.
After saying all this, this is not to say that I dislike having options. Options are great when they are clear and have percievable consequences. For example, with JRPGs you'll be given the choice of what abilities to learn, and I can look at what the abilities are and judge for myself how and if they will be useful. They also tend to be more varied with their leveling systems, wheras most WRPGs seem to always follow the generic class systems, where you choose warrior, mage, rogue, healer, etc.
An example of a WPRG that I really do like is Borderlands, the abilities have percievable consequences and you're not ultimately limited by the choices you make at the start. I know Oblivion had some interesting ideas, the concept of "level up what you directly use" is pretty flawed though. I mean I'm by no means saying these games are terrible, I do see good gameplay elements within them but the bad ones just overdo it for me
The problem with trying to make the game completely open to the player is that the player doesn't see any degree of specific goals, rather a game of constant questing and such
that's all I have to say on the subject for now, there is more stuff that i have missed out but this is all for now.
IMPORTANT: This is all my opinion, I dont want to start another "JRPG vs WRPG" war thing, or at least be civil about it. I'm just stating my opinion based off my own experiences. I admit my experiences are rather limited when it comes to WRPGs so I'm willing to accept that I ma be wrong in some cases
My general dislike for WRPGs comes from the fact that I dont like having to make decsions that bare no influence on the gameplay
My experience with WRPGs so far is that you get a "create your own character" method with in turn means by default they have to be bland and generic. It also means that you are forced to make many decisions that bare no impact on the gameplay... like "eyebrow thickness". Another problem is this whole "make your own story" concept that I've never understood. Why would why "create a story" that is anything other than what I percieve to be the most logical conclusion to come to?
for example, if somebody comes up to you and asks for your help, you get the choice whether to help or not. When I come to such a decision i take the variables into account, will I benefit in the long term for helping them? taking into account the time and effort it takes to do so? that's how I come to my conclusion. If I discover that it IS worth the time and effort then I have no reason to not do it. The question of "do I want to be good or evil?" doesn't even enter the equation. And of course there is never a way to truely tell what action will result in what consequence in the long run. I was playing Dragon Age: Origins and if memory serves me correctly I had the option of saying "I want to go to war" purely because I thought it would give me the opportunity to try out the battle mechanics, but instead I just got shouted at.
This does mean that the story can go multiple ways, I'm aware of that. But I would much rather have a well-crafted linear story (or no story at all). That way I can say what the "true" story of the game is. The problem I had with Dragon Age: Origins is that I had to make a decision after every 4 or 5 lines of dialogue, which meant I had to check through them to see what would be logically fitting, it got very tedious and I couldn't percieve any distict long-term consequences. If creating my own story is the appeal of these games, then why can't we just create stories without the game mechanics?
I see a game as a series of challenges which must be overcome. If a game presented a story whereby you had to learn the story in order to help progress, I would enjoy that more. Like with point and click adventure games.
I also find WRPGs tend to have the menu screens as expansive as they'll ever be right at the start, meaning its complicated to start with and it doesn't grow from there-on.
After saying all this, this is not to say that I dislike having options. Options are great when they are clear and have percievable consequences. For example, with JRPGs you'll be given the choice of what abilities to learn, and I can look at what the abilities are and judge for myself how and if they will be useful. They also tend to be more varied with their leveling systems, wheras most WRPGs seem to always follow the generic class systems, where you choose warrior, mage, rogue, healer, etc.
An example of a WPRG that I really do like is Borderlands, the abilities have percievable consequences and you're not ultimately limited by the choices you make at the start. I know Oblivion had some interesting ideas, the concept of "level up what you directly use" is pretty flawed though. I mean I'm by no means saying these games are terrible, I do see good gameplay elements within them but the bad ones just overdo it for me
The problem with trying to make the game completely open to the player is that the player doesn't see any degree of specific goals, rather a game of constant questing and such
that's all I have to say on the subject for now, there is more stuff that i have missed out but this is all for now.
