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Riachu said:
MaxwellGT2000 said:
S.T.A.G.E. said:
Johann said:
JRPGs are not all linear. Most of them are, but some aren't.
Chrono Cross has all kinds of paths to choose. And Star Ocean not only had a couple characters that you had to choose from, but had 80+ endings.

The only true RPGs are the table top ones, cuz you can truly be the character and do anything you want (I can spit, curse, or scratch my ass in the middle of a fight, if I want to). Doesn't matter how much freedom WRPGs give you, you're always bound to do only what the game allows you to do. That's no RPG.

So I see no problem in calling JRPGs RPGs.


Yes, a lot of people have told me that Chrono Cross was one of the very few actual RPG's that the Japanese have created. Thats still no excuse that the majority of RPG's don't follow the rule. JRPG's are mainly their own genre. They created a genre that actually told a story rather than letting you become the role. They took something from RPG's that didn't define what an RPG was and ran with it. JRPG's that follow the RPG rule should be called JRPG's...like Chrono Cross; the rest should've been called something else.

This made me kinda laugh especially when there wasn't a a big RPG until Final Fantasy and really established RPGs in gaming, then WRPGs rode the title wave with things like Ultima gaining popularity and such.  Don't get me wrong RPGs have been on both sides for a long ass time you could say WRPGs started with D&D and you can still see the D&D influence today, RPGs in Japan have been epic tales most likely derived from Japanese folklore as you can see a huge presence in that folklore in many games. 

But games like Final Fantasy made a name for RPGs as a whole and really established the RPG fanbase, sure these fans evolve and now the guys that swore they'd never play D&D are now doing it with Oblivion and Fallout 3, but it's all still the same genre in the end just two styles of story telling.

Exactly, they are the same genre.  They are just different storytelling methods and gameplay mechanics to appeal to the tastes of Japanese and Western gamers.

No they aren't. JRPG started off as a carbon copy of WRPG's, just took a left turn somewhere upstream. RPG's are games where you play the role of a character and grow with them, train them, make their decisions which affect the world around them. JRPG's are in the business of telling stories....not roleplaying.