Poll: Which do you prefer JRPGs or WRPGs?

[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.

 

[Anachronism]

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.

No worries. As I said, it sounds like we agree on a lot of points in terms of what we expect from an RPG.

 

[kayisking]

I prefer GOOD RPGs. There are good JRPGs and WRPGs and there are awful JRPGs and WRPGs.

Simply being a JRPG or WRPG doesn't inherently make it better/worse than the other.

True enough, but if the two games were off the same quality, wich would you pick? I would definitely go with WRPG, since I'm a huge Bioware fan.

 

[madwarper]

I prefer GOOD RPGs. There are good JRPGs and WRPGs and there are awful JRPGs and WRPGs.

Simply being a JRPG or WRPG doesn't inherently make it better/worse than the other.

True enough, but if the two games were off the same quality, wich would you pick?

If they were both good, I'd play both.

If they were both mediocre or worse, I'd play neither.

 

[Hungry Donner]

I don't like JRPGs, the story and settings generally don't appeal to me and there's something about the mechanics I just can't get in to. I really wanted like Anachronox but the combat mechanics were so awful I had to drop it, and it otherwise seemed like an awesome game.

I love Western RPGs. Sure there are some bad ones, and the genre has its ups and downs, but it's still my favorite game genre.

 

[Quellist]

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.

Agree 100%. Until recently Bioware were the creme de la creme of WRPGs and i enjoyed every one of them, but i've also loved the FF series, the Star Ocean series (except last hope *spit*), Grandia and many others.

Stylistically they are different but both can be highly enjoyable

What was wrong with Last Hope? I through 70 hours in to that, so I'm curious.

Ok this might take a while, i really really hate this game...

Almost every character looked like a freak made of shiny plastic straight from uncanny valley, Only Myuria looked cute in any way. Reimi made me want to spit with her pathetic voice 'Oh i do hope everyone is ok' and Faize's ludicrous cloths....please.... As if that wasn't bad enough both the lead characters looked about 12 (and had emotional maturity to match) yet were treated like adults even given charge of a spaceship. Ok thats all visual but i really want to like the look of a game and its characters if i am going to spend 50-100 hours playing and i couldn't make myself remotely care about even one of them. Dont get me started on the voice acting, to call it terrible would be a compliment, and the characters themselves, such unfunny stereotypes (the fat base commander is a particularly vicious example of a trope taken too far). The combat system was passable but not a patch imo on 'To the end of time' but was ruined for me by the fact i had to trigger ambuses to build SP (i think this little mechanic was what killed the game for me in the end).

Oh and the worst offence...Lymle. A 5 year old kid who is apparantly 15? sorry, she's 5 and i dont care what BS explanation they had for her acting like that, she was horrible, kay?

I really loved To the end of time and its characters (particularly Cliff, Albel and Maria) and i was allowed to sidestep the annoying kiddie characters (Roger and Peppita) and take Albel and Nel rather than having the whole lot forced onto me. after that, Last Hope was a slap in the face and imo a big step backward.

*Edit* I've never been a Welch Vinyard fan either and she got way too much screentime in the last game

 

[GrimHeaper]

I really don't like JRPGs. I hate random battles and the turn based combat sucks the immersion completly from the game. NOBODY fights like that! They also tend to be grindtastic....

If you are grinding you just aren't good enough is the rule.

 

[DirtyMagic]

I honestly try to like JRPG's. I fall for it every freakin' time. But they are just not my thing.
The lame characters, the linearity, the boring storylines...

Well, that's my opinion anyway. I just can't a feel for them.
So I'll take a WRPG any time of the week.

 

[Hellsen]

In recent years I believe that WRPG have been kicking the shit out of JRPG, by that I mean that WRPG have actually been evolving getting lots of small tweaks in the gameplay department that leads to pretty big changes over time, and the stories have come a long way in that it allows the role playing element of the game drive the story, whilst JRPG really haven't done much but made it made the turn base menu interface more user friendly, as for the story well... it pretty much rehashing the same old shit (not to say WRPG don't). But at least with WRPG you get some choices and well developed multi-dimensional characters.

 

[Quellist]

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.

Agree 100%. Until recently Bioware were the creme de la creme of WRPGs and i enjoyed every one of them, but i've also loved the FF series, the Star Ocean series (except last hope *spit*), Grandia and many others.

Stylistically they are different but both can be highly enjoyable

What was wrong with Last Hope? I through 70 hours in to that, so I'm curious.

Ok this might take a while, i really really hate this game...

Almost every character looked like a freak made of shiny plastic straight from uncanny valley, Only Myuria looked cute in any way. Reimi made me want to spit with her pathetic voice 'Oh i do hope everyone is ok' and Faize's ludicrous cloths....please.... As if that wasn't bad enough both the lead characters looked about 12 (and had emotional maturity to match) yet were treated like adults even given charge of a spaceship. Ok thats all visual but i really want to like the look of a game and its characters if i am going to spend 50-100 hours playing and i couldn't make myself remotely care about even one of them. Dont get me started on the voice acting, to call it terrible would be a compliment, and the characters themselves, such unfunny stereotypes (the fat base commander is a particularly vicious example of a trope taken too far). The combat system was passable but not a patch imo on 'To the end of time' but was ruined for me by the fact i had to trigger ambuses to build SP (i think this little mechanic was what killed the game for me in the end).

Oh and the worst offence...Lymle. A 5 year old kid who is apparantly 15? sorry, she's 5 and i dont care what BS explanation they had for her acting like that, she was horrible, kay?

I really loved To the end of time and its characters (particularly Cliff, Albel and Maria) and i was allowed to sidestep the annoying kiddie characters (Roger and Peppita) and take Albel and Nel rather than having the whole lot forced onto me. after that, Last Hope was a slap in the face and imo a big step backward.

*Edit* I've never been a Welch Vinyard fan either and she got way too much screentime in the last game

I get that. VAing was terrible, characters were fairly unlikable (Arumat and Myuria were cool), but it had a sense of humor, and the combat system was fun. Not the best game I've ever played, but it was passable at least.

It was passable yes, in fact without that Ambush thing i might have been able to push through it, but after the previous 3 Star Ocean games i came to expect a lot better than passable. As a standalone game i would have likely just dismissed it as not my thing, but after 3 fantastic games i felt betrayed, i guess thats why all the hate...

 

[varulfic]

Considering that I'm a drooling, unapologetic Bioware fanboy, I'm gonna go with W.

 

[Kakujin]

Heavily prefer JRPGs, just more fun to be honest. Less dark and dreary quasi-fantasyesque worlds filled with voice actors cursing with every alternate word as you click your way through combat using an at best awkward battle system to slog through really.

I do like WRPGs as well, but I'll take a JRPG over them any day of the week.

 

[Swny Nerdgasm]

WRPG all the way, though it probably stems from my hatred of the JRPG story/art style

 

[A random person]

Considering that I've spent a helluva lot more time with JRPG's, I'll go with those. The fact that I'm currently playing Persona 4 is a factor in my decision.

Of course, New Vegas was fun as hell aside from the bugs, so I'm not totally one-sided.

 

[Guilherme Zoldan]

I enjoy both, honestly. I don't quite like that division though, since not all western rpgs are the same nor are jRPGs, but I digress, we all know what the two cathegories refer to.
I enjoy JRPGs because I like turn-based combat, it tends to be more strategic. And I like WRPGs because they tend to have better stories and are overall more interactive and give you freedom.

 

[God's Clown]

Dragon Age, Chrono Trigger, Persona 3&4, Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls, Final Fantasy(4 to 10, minus 8.) All great games, a mix of both JRPG and WRPG.

I minus 8 because the combat system sucked monkey balls. I would include 13 but it wasn't a GREAT game, only good.

So based on that you can tell that I love both of them.

 

[Javarock]

I Can't Understand Jrpgs,

But that genrally comes from my hate of anime... I would assume... Which stems from many things in my childhood. So... Eh...

I Love WRPGS, The Open world ones more so then others, Which is why when I got connected to The Elderscrolls I Fell in love, Same with Minecraft.

Captcha: Reseide Collected - What?, Are you telling me you collected something that sounds like an old hotel of sorts?

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I love both but prefer WRPG's because of their more open enviroments. Games like The Elder Scrolls have tons of content and theres so much to explore and find and that's what I really love about them. JRPG's tend to be more linear and focused on getting the story told, which isn't a bad thing if you're in the mood for a story driven game.

I would never limit myself to just one, both JRPG's and WRPG's have great games, WRPG's have The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Dragon Age. Where as JRPG's have gems like Tales of Vesperia, Final Fantasy and Blue Dragon. And people that do limit themselves to just one are just missing out in my opinion.