Is the JRPG/FF run over?

[Kenryoku_Maxis]

SmoothCriminal said:

DragonLord said:

Huya said:
Have you played Kotor1 and Jade Empire then?

I've played Jade Empire.  It was alright.  I don't HATE WRPGs, they're just second rate to me.  I'll still take a WRPG over a shooter anytime, any day.  But I just grew up playing JRPGs--they're what made me a gamer.  A lot of the younger generations didn't have that opportunity so they've fallen in love with action and button mashing rather than a tear-evoking, cut-scene filled story.

I would disagree. The only emotion I've ever felt while playing a JRPG was frustration. In Morrowind for example, it's not about the characters, it's about the world. There's this massive open world which is rich and vibrant and full of interesting characters and creatures. Sure the characters don't develop much, but the world develops. It changes from this strange and alien land into a home. Also, action and button mashing are not central to Morrowind, as the combat system comes down to *click as fast as you can and whoever has the higer stats wins*. That is really not doing justice to all of the intricies of magic, ranged, and stealth combat, but at the end of the day, that's pretty much it.

 

So I guess it's just what you want from a game. Do you want an open, intricite world with lots of less defined characters, or do you want a flashy cut-scene driven, story-based game.

I love these kinds of examples, where people try to devide 'WRPGs' and 'JRPGs' into extremes.  And I love to then give my favorite example.  WHy not just have both at the same time?

Using your exact examples.  A 'massive open world that is rich and vibrant' that is 'full of interesting characters and creatures'.

Yet why do we have to forget about things like interesting main characters and production values?  We can have both.  Just because some JRPGs have good production values and some WRPGs seem to focus more on fighting over story, that doesn't mean those are the 'standards' for their genre.  Far from it.  Its just what the most flashy and popular games in America have turned out to be.  And even then, those stereotypes aren't even being able to hold up anymore with companies like Bioware forcing even more story into WRPGs every title and more and more companies such as Level-5 and Atlus encroaching on SquareEnix domninance of the JRPG market (which, you must admit, up to now most peoples understanding has been limited to only titles that begin with Final and end with Fantasy).

What I'm trying to get to is, not all JRPGs are 'lacking in gameplay and focused on graphics'.  And not all WRPGs are 'brown and grey armor fests that focus on gameplay so they're superior'.  There's games out there that have a good balance in both genres.  And there's one series that actually balances the ideals of both genres quite well.  Mixing the ideals of a vast open world with tons of content to explore and interact with and solid JRPG style gameplay and character interaction.  Its a little series called Dragon Quest.  And its been doing it for about 25 years.