I want to try to define the term, but to do so I?m going to have to go back to the beginning and work my way through methodically.
The term JRPG first came into use in the early 80s to differentiate Japanese table-top RPGs from their western counterparts. Japanese TRPGs games did not receive much attention in the west until the run-away success of D&D which caused people to seek out new rule sets. Having developed in parallel to the west, Japanese TRPGs had distinct differences in lore and play-style, often using classless systems and a lack of polyhedral dice.
When RPGs made the leap to electronic media, the western development was focused mainly on emulating the table-top experience, whether through Multi User Domains (MUDS) or the single player Rogues. In Japan however, games suffered limitations in what could be achieved thanks to the low processing power of early home computers and higher resolution required to display Japanese text. To overcome these limitations Japanese developers began to focus on singular aspects of a games design, like the combat, or the games story, resulting in genres such as the ?Tactical RPG? and ?Visual Novel? to become staples of Japanese gaming. As processing power increased, developers were allowed more freedom and they began to mix and match elements to create new genres. This led to the development of titles such as Bokosuka Wars, which combined tactical gameplay with party management mechanics and laid the groundwork for many future Japanese games that would fall under the labels of ?Grand Strategy? or games such as Dragon Slayer which gave rise to the ?Action-RPG?.
Meanwhile, while Japanese developers were branching out into multiple genres, western developers were focusing their efforts on creating more interactive worlds that better simulated reality and freedom inherent to the table-top experience through a blank avatar. This saw the development of games like Ultima and Wizardry, which would push the envelope of what was achievable with the technology of the day and spearhead the golden age of western CRPGs as the most commercially successful western games in the market.
The success of western style of CRPG did not go unnoticed and inspired Japanese developer, Yuji Horii to create an eastern equivalent to expose the genre to Japan. The result was Dragon Warrior, a game that utilised the mechanics of western CRPGs but was more accessible to a Japanese audience, thanks to the art direction from Akira Toriyama, of Dragon Ball fame and the integration of visual novel elements, such as characterisation and story. The game was a commercial success and was introduced to the west, opening the door for what would become known as Japanese Console RPG.
JRPGs continued to produce their spin on the western approach to RPG creation, with titles such as Hydlide and The Black Onyx, and while these titles were massively popular in Japan, the west was undergoing a love affair with ever more frequently exported Japanese animation. Game sales reflected this and the most popular exported JRPGs were those based more upon the traditional, story based Japanese approach to RPG creation.
The dominance of console gaming in the late-80s saw the beginning of the golden age of JRPGs. As the western CRPG scene began to collapse with rising development costs, seeing many developers fall into bankruptcy, be dissolved or bought out, the console RPG and its greater reliance on story-telling and characters became the dominant method in RPG creation. This success gave Japanese developer the freedom to go wild and experiment with the genre, pushing it into new realms that are barely recognisable from their origins, while companies such as Square, Enix, Konami, etc. continued to produce JRPGs from the template that had popularised them globally.
It is not until recently that the Japanese gaming market has fallen into decline - the reasons for which is something of a mystery and seems to not extend beyond a lack of quality or complacency for the most part, though certainly there are JRPGs of a high calibre being produced. The western market has also made a comeback with the availability of home PCs and the Xbox and we are starting to see a return of the traditional western design philosophy.
But what is that philosophy? Well by looking over this history we can see that the western RPG is based upon the principles of the CRPG: that is namely a focus on world creation, emersion and the emulation of table-top games. We can see the effects of MUDs in MMORPGs and Rogues in the likes of The Elder Scrolls.
On the other hand, the Japanese design philosophy focuses on story, characterisation and relies much more by its gameplay mechanics to define it. I think that when one says JRPG, most will assume that this refers to the visual novel inspired games that brought into widespread acceptance and began its golden age, (e.g. Final Fantasy and the like). That line of thought is incomplete however. The JRPG genre has expanded so far from its roots that that many are no longer recognisable as RPGs at all and many have now become what would now refer to as action games.
So the term JRPG is an umbrella term that can be used to refer to the origin of a games design, but not the actual geographical location it was developed. Similarly for the western RPG, but the type of game it describes is much narrower in scope. That is not to say there aren?t any hybrids, (in fact there are plenty), but I think that at a games core you can see where they originate from.
Just for fun here are some games, try to see which design philosophy they fall under.
Diablo?
Uncharted?
Mass Effect?
Dark Souls?
Silent Hill?
Ed: Just because it's a good example, Zelda?
The term JRPG first came into use in the early 80s to differentiate Japanese table-top RPGs from their western counterparts. Japanese TRPGs games did not receive much attention in the west until the run-away success of D&D which caused people to seek out new rule sets. Having developed in parallel to the west, Japanese TRPGs had distinct differences in lore and play-style, often using classless systems and a lack of polyhedral dice.
When RPGs made the leap to electronic media, the western development was focused mainly on emulating the table-top experience, whether through Multi User Domains (MUDS) or the single player Rogues. In Japan however, games suffered limitations in what could be achieved thanks to the low processing power of early home computers and higher resolution required to display Japanese text. To overcome these limitations Japanese developers began to focus on singular aspects of a games design, like the combat, or the games story, resulting in genres such as the ?Tactical RPG? and ?Visual Novel? to become staples of Japanese gaming. As processing power increased, developers were allowed more freedom and they began to mix and match elements to create new genres. This led to the development of titles such as Bokosuka Wars, which combined tactical gameplay with party management mechanics and laid the groundwork for many future Japanese games that would fall under the labels of ?Grand Strategy? or games such as Dragon Slayer which gave rise to the ?Action-RPG?.
Meanwhile, while Japanese developers were branching out into multiple genres, western developers were focusing their efforts on creating more interactive worlds that better simulated reality and freedom inherent to the table-top experience through a blank avatar. This saw the development of games like Ultima and Wizardry, which would push the envelope of what was achievable with the technology of the day and spearhead the golden age of western CRPGs as the most commercially successful western games in the market.
The success of western style of CRPG did not go unnoticed and inspired Japanese developer, Yuji Horii to create an eastern equivalent to expose the genre to Japan. The result was Dragon Warrior, a game that utilised the mechanics of western CRPGs but was more accessible to a Japanese audience, thanks to the art direction from Akira Toriyama, of Dragon Ball fame and the integration of visual novel elements, such as characterisation and story. The game was a commercial success and was introduced to the west, opening the door for what would become known as Japanese Console RPG.
JRPGs continued to produce their spin on the western approach to RPG creation, with titles such as Hydlide and The Black Onyx, and while these titles were massively popular in Japan, the west was undergoing a love affair with ever more frequently exported Japanese animation. Game sales reflected this and the most popular exported JRPGs were those based more upon the traditional, story based Japanese approach to RPG creation.
The dominance of console gaming in the late-80s saw the beginning of the golden age of JRPGs. As the western CRPG scene began to collapse with rising development costs, seeing many developers fall into bankruptcy, be dissolved or bought out, the console RPG and its greater reliance on story-telling and characters became the dominant method in RPG creation. This success gave Japanese developer the freedom to go wild and experiment with the genre, pushing it into new realms that are barely recognisable from their origins, while companies such as Square, Enix, Konami, etc. continued to produce JRPGs from the template that had popularised them globally.
It is not until recently that the Japanese gaming market has fallen into decline - the reasons for which is something of a mystery and seems to not extend beyond a lack of quality or complacency for the most part, though certainly there are JRPGs of a high calibre being produced. The western market has also made a comeback with the availability of home PCs and the Xbox and we are starting to see a return of the traditional western design philosophy.
But what is that philosophy? Well by looking over this history we can see that the western RPG is based upon the principles of the CRPG: that is namely a focus on world creation, emersion and the emulation of table-top games. We can see the effects of MUDs in MMORPGs and Rogues in the likes of The Elder Scrolls.
On the other hand, the Japanese design philosophy focuses on story, characterisation and relies much more by its gameplay mechanics to define it. I think that when one says JRPG, most will assume that this refers to the visual novel inspired games that brought into widespread acceptance and began its golden age, (e.g. Final Fantasy and the like). That line of thought is incomplete however. The JRPG genre has expanded so far from its roots that that many are no longer recognisable as RPGs at all and many have now become what would now refer to as action games.
So the term JRPG is an umbrella term that can be used to refer to the origin of a games design, but not the actual geographical location it was developed. Similarly for the western RPG, but the type of game it describes is much narrower in scope. That is not to say there aren?t any hybrids, (in fact there are plenty), but I think that at a games core you can see where they originate from.
Just for fun here are some games, try to see which design philosophy they fall under.
Diablo?
Uncharted?
Mass Effect?
Dark Souls?
Silent Hill?
Ed: Just because it's a good example, Zelda?
