naznatips said:
I play a lot of RPGs, both Western and Japanese. It doesn't make these games bad, but their settings, art, and to a slightly lesser extent their stories are derivative. Maybe you are just too young to have played enough of these games to see this. I don't really know, but I have experienced more diversity in gameplay, setting, art, and plot in Japanese RPGs than in Western RPGs. Again, this doesn't make them inherintly better. Just means they have more variety. |
Most wRPGs and jRPGs seem derivative, but I think you are wrong when you say jRPGs are more diversive. Japanese RPG's are more derivative in terms of art style, gameplay, setting and plot:
99% of the jRpg's characters are anime-styled, and the setting usually doesn't range far from the typical european-like fantasy setting or feudal setting. On the other hand the wRPG's aren't much better either, but they still are more diversive, ranging from Medieval, to Tolkien-like fantasy, to Futuristic Sci-fi settings, and wRPG's don't just confine to 1 art style for the characters, giving them a realistic look, and sometimes a more cartoonish look.
In Gameplay, wRPGs are more diversive than jRPGs by default, by the sheer force of PC interface: from Turn-based such as Fallout, to RT /w Pause like Baldur's Gate, to Fast clicking Diablo, to shooter-like Mass Effect, to the addictive WoW gameplay.
And last, but not least, the Plot. wRPGs are usually more open-ended, so I think we should say Plot/Lore, than just Plot. naznatips, no jRPG can even compare to the great wRPGs in that regard. Planescape: Torment, the game of highest order when it comes to writing and complex story, is brilliantly original, and Imo, no jRPGs has surpassed it (or any other game for that matter). If there is 1 thing that characterizes the wRPGs above jRPGs it's the Plot/Lore. The grittiness of Fallout, the Black Isle-quality NWN 2: Mask of the Betrayers, the ambiguous Kotor 2, the lore of Morrowind, the grayness of The Witcher, etc...
