Seeing people get all riled up over this makes me laugh.
Most JRPGs are not RPGs. I don't see why people get insulted over this. Does it make them bad games because the someone disagrees about its category? Grow up, people. If you all of a sudden accepted that the name was not right for the genre would you go back and burn all of your old JRPG games because all of your previous experiences were now tainted?
Lets face it, the only element of an RPG that JRPGs have is the listing of stats for characters and the ability to swap gear. Outside of that they are mostly linear, closed story, games. For most of them there is little player choice in the story so the control you have in the game is purely tactical. So, they are more like strategy games than anything else. So, is that bad? I used to be a big fan of those games, but I didn't stop playing them because one day I realized they weren't RPGs. I just grew out of the play style. Like other adventure or strategy games, if you implement the right strategy you unlock another segment of the story. Obviously there is a fair amount of people that do enjoy that sort of game.
I give this thread a 9.3.
Thank god for the disable signatures option.
