What's the difference between JRPG and regular RPG?

[ilovetogame]

if you've played ffIV and ffVI and ff tactics you've played three of the best games ever. i don't think any western rpg comes close to matching any of those games. the only rpg even close to as good as ffVI in my opinion is chrono trigger, and it just so happens that those two are generally considered the two best rpgs ever.

i think of jrpg's as normal rpgs. they were around way before western rpgs. i mean when did western rpgs start coming out in any number? last gen wasn't it? i love jrpgs but western rpgs are good too. i'd like it if some rpgs started incorporating elements of both. i think kotor is the best western rpg and that game is amazing. but some highly tauted western rpg's just pale in comparison to good jrpgs. the original fable was good but there are literally dozens of jrpgs better. and i don't really see how oblivion is interesting at all. it'd be cool if jrpgs implemented some more character customization elements like wrpgs and more branching options (like dialogue choices and the whole good/evil dichotomy in some games). i definitely don't like the wrpgs system of short main quests with a bunch of side quests. rpgs are supposed to be long epic games, not a main quest that you can beat in 20 hours and then just a bunch of other things to do that players hopefully use to fill up time. not saying side quests are bad but they should be what their name implies, on the side, extra, not something that unless you do all of them you're not gonna have a very long adventure.