Poll: East vs. West: RPGs

[Sternenschweif]

Hmmm, where do i vote for "both types suck"? Also i'm missing the ultimate RPG-fanboy choise: "both rocks!"

Earlier i used to play a lot RPGs. Can't remember how many times i finished to play Fallout 2, but since RPGs have become some wierd type of crossover games, they simply suck. Fallout 3 for example: Why the fuck do i have to aim myself? For what reason i can play that game like slaming my head onto the keyboard without risking to die? And who slapped the Deathclaws long enough to make them stupid animals again? OK, ignore the last question, but I mean the classic RPG is were you rule the fate of some little brat you usually design yourself. At least in the good RPG games you had the posibility to do that however you wanted it. I see no point in adding action game content, because that's what makes the game lose it's charm. At least that's it for the western RPGs these days. Maybe i'm just a freaking backflipping old dinosaur, but i like the old game concepts more.

Well for the JRPGs ... Hmmm, they allways felt to me like Square Enix is some kind of factory were they improve the players. If the players didn't fit in the machinery of the game he got stomped through it. And related to how many body parts you losing by running all this, you end up being a cripple, dead or even worse a Final Fantasy fanboy. I don't understand their success. I don't understand why others copy them and earn no success. And i don't understand why Hideo Kojima not commited harakiri after the complete failure of Metal Gear Solid 2, 3 and 4, but i think that's another problem. Japs allways kept me confused.

In the end i think i should vote for the western RPG then. JRPGs never were good as a game, but maybe as an anime movie replacement.

 

[tsb247]

I never understood how Japanese RPGs became popular.

All the men look and sound like women, have ridiculous hair, and usually carry swords that are 4 times taller than they are. What gives?!

I'll take Diablo 2 over that any day of the week!

 

[Agayek]

Baldur's Gate...
Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magick obscura.
Fallout 1+2.

If you haven't played the Baldur's Gate saga through from Candlekeep to Throne of Bhaal you know nothing of Western RPG stories.

This.

PS - I lost my BG I and II CDs . Anyone know where I can find more aside from eBay?

 

[Valiance]

Fable, Dungeon Seige, World of Warcraft

NO! NO! NO!!!

Dungeon Siege is a hack and slash.

WoW is a MMO.

Fable is an action-RPG, doesn't count as other games. Elder Scrolls too, but it offers more customization.

No Neverwinter Nights makes me sick.

But I still vote for Western RPGs. RPGs, not action games with elements of RPG or MMO games where you have as much RPG as devil in the matchstick.*


*- Sorry, Polish saying. Devil is understood here as sulfur.

Exactly.

Also, Zelda isn't an RPG, and Phantasy Star Online is realtime combat and feels more hack-and-slash than it should. Like a very very slow version of Diablo II in 3D.

The only JRPG on your list that I love is Shining Force, though I'm playing through FFX and enjoying it (to a point), and I think everyone played Pokemon at some point...

But Baldur's Gate II is the best RPG I ever played, coming in slightly above Fallout 2. Those two alone would be enough to vote Western, but then I remembered that I have Daggerfall...

So yeah, for me it's a no-contest, but again, not everyone is blessed to have a PC that can run games from 1998, so everyone has an excuse to have never played Fallout 2 (and that had turn-based combat, by the way).

 

[Archaeology Hat]

You can pick Baldur's Gate saga up on Amazon

 

[Abedeus]

Jade Empire...

Can't decide.

I can't decide if I should slap you or feed you with a raw fish head.

 

[Xaositect]

Western RPGs for me. Ive played some JRPGs before, but I dont really think they are for me. I think my biggest beef is how they always force the protagonist and party on you, without any ability to inject something of yourself into the role. Baldurs Gate is the polar opposite of this in my experience.

That said, I know lots of people love JRPGs, and Im not just talking about Japanese people. As long as JRPGs are pleasing gamers, theyre doing alright by me. I just dont like them personally.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Jade Empire...

Can't decide.

I can't decide if I should slap you or feed you with a raw fish head.

Sheesh, that was unnecessary. Wishing me my death or being hit. Since when Gonzos gave death threats...

 

[NeutralDrow]

I can't decide between the two.

My experience with JRPGs is oddly lacking in FF series (aside from VI). So I'm basically going off of Baten Kaitos, Skies of Arcadia, Legend of Mana, and the Tales series. And since Tales of Symphonia (with its character development, interesting story, fun real-time combat, great soundtrack, etc.) is one of my favorite games of all time, I'm inclined towards JRPGs.

My experience with WRPGs is oddly lacking overall. I didn't like Diablo or Baldur's Gate. I loved Planescape Torment and Soulbringer. I haven't played any others that I can think of.

Conclusion: inconclusive evidence. I'd vote JRPGs if I thought I'd done justice to Western types. Get a third option in there ("both").

 

[NeutralDrow]

Explaining why western RPG are way better than JRPGs would be like trying to explain why beautiful women look better than goats to a zoophile. If you have some kind of a brain defect that makes you prefer games set in the (more or less) same fucking unspecified world with the same fucking characters, using the same fucking combat system, saying the same fucking things and having the same fucking retarded hairstyles over games set in various places, featuring various characters and having a plot that sometimes makes sense, it's your problem.

I didn't think Western RPGs were that bad. Don't they let you customize your hair most of the time?

 

[Abedeus]

Jade Empire...

Can't decide.

I can't decide if I should slap you or feed you with a raw fish head.

Sheesh, that was unnecessary. Wishing me my death or being hit. Since when Gonzos gave death threats...

I said "slap you". And a raw fish head would at best make you sick. Not gravely, but enough to understand that reading the thread (or at least the very page one posted on) is important.

 

[Random Argument Man]

Jade Empire...

Can't decide.

I can't decide if I should slap you or feed you with a raw fish head.

Sheesh, that was unnecessary. Wishing me my death or being hit. Since when Gonzos gave death threats...

I said "slap you". And a raw fish head would at best make you sick. Not gravely, but enough to understand that reading the thread (or at least the very page one posted on) is important.

Ok, wishing me pain because of my choices... I still don't get it...

 

[dalek sec]

I generally try out Western RPG's for the most part. As Ushario said on the first page I too never had the patience for number crunching or D&D type rules. While I do like a few JRPG's but for the most part it's the same flipping story with them and this was long before I hever heard of Yahtzee.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Explaining why western RPG are way better than JRPGs would be like trying to explain why beautiful women look better than goats to a zoophile. If you have some kind of a brain defect that makes you prefer games set in the (more or less) same fucking unspecified world with the same fucking characters, using the same fucking combat system, saying the same fucking things and having the same fucking retarded hairstyles over games set in various places, featuring various characters and having a plot that sometimes makes sense, it's your problem.

I didn't think Western RPGs were that bad. Don't they let you customize your hair most of the time?

*twirls mustache* MWAHAHA!

Spoiler

But seriously, it really looks like Final Fantasy has tainted perceptions of the whole genre. It even makes people overlook the awesomeness personified as Jade Curtis, an unforgivable crime!

In fact, if it weren't for Nobuo Uematsu's godliness, I'd march to Square and give them a talking-to they wouldn't forget.

 

[Abedeus]

Jade Empire...

Can't decide.

I can't decide if I should slap you or feed you with a raw fish head.

Sheesh, that was unnecessary. Wishing me my death or being hit. Since when Gonzos gave death threats...

I said "slap you". And a raw fish head would at best make you sick. Not gravely, but enough to understand that reading the thread (or at least the very page one posted on) is important.

Ok, wishing me pain because of my choices... I still don't get it...

Oh, no no. I love Jade Empire.

It's just not an RPG. It's an action game with elements of RPG. Sure, it has a lot of them, but you have a combo system (and such thing usually excludes it from being compared to, lets say, KotOR). It has more action than RPG.

 

[Xaositect]

I know there are JRPGs good enough to have their fans, but the genre is like Manchester City, they may have Robinho, but that still doesn't make them champions. Western RPGs are like Manchester United, enough excellent players for whole 2 teams.

May I be permitted to kiss your virtual arse for that awesomethon of a quote?

 

[Sternenschweif]

I know there are JRPGs good enough to have their fans, but the genre is like Manchester City, they may have Robinho, but that still doesn't make them champions. Western RPGs are like Manchester United, enough excellent players for whole 2 teams.

True, but even having more than hundred good players doesn't make the team a champion, when the trainer sucks. Exchange trainer for idea and you see the bigger picture. If there would be only one single JRPG on this planet, it would be completly different to everything else and some amazing game. But the Japs just don't have any idea how to do things different, so they do it the same thing over and over again to at least earn some money.