WRPGs versus JRPGs, or: My mis-adventures in KOTOR

[adriane23]

zarx said:

adriane23 said:

The Elder Scrolls games are exactly like that, and it was the main WRPG series I was referring to. The gameplay is to basically strafe and swing your sword wildly around or shoot magic. There's no style to the gameplay at all. Pure hack n' slash games like God of War, Bayonetta, DMC, etc. add style to the mindless button mashing. That's not to say that WRPG's are mindless hack n' slash games, but they generally have no aesthetic appeal. Your character basically just does some flimsy looking action at an enemy and numbers show up. 

TES is not your typical WRPG tho, and the game is more about freedom and exploration than combat. It doesn't try to be a flashy action game like God of War. If you want that there is Kingdoms of Amalur, or you know a flashy action game. No one would hold up a TES game as an example of great combat. 

Not to mention "Your character basically just does some flimsy looking action at an enemy and numbers show up." could be used to describe most JRPG combat (just look at Xenoblade and The Last Story for example), tho I guess some have flashy animation and then numbers show up. Most modern western ARPGs don't even expose damage numbers anymore, Skyrim doesn't, Mass Effect and The Witcher 2 don't, Risen and Gothic never have etc. 

If you want a bit of combat depth (and no numbers poping up) in your WARPGs try the Witcher 2 or Mount & Blade etc. There is also a wealth of tactical/strategic and turnbassed WRPGs if those are your thing, give some of them a try.

And shouldn't this "but they generally have no aesthetic appeal." be "but they generally have no aesthetic appeal to me." asthetics are purely subjective. Personally I find games like The Witcher 2 to look pretty damn good. 

That's not an acceptable excuse. The games should at least have some kind of polish to the battle systems since you fight A LOT in the Elder Scrolls games. What if it was the opposite? What if TES had a great combat system, but the world was ugly, uninspired, and you could only walk?

You countered your own point about JRPG battle systems, but I will say that all JRPGs matched the description that you quoted me on before the fifth generation, but they progressivley improved since then.

Lastly, these are all obviously my opinions, so I won't be putting "imo" or "to me" in each one of my sentences.

Lastly lastly, I mentioned The Witcher 2 as one of the good WRPGs in one of my other posts in this thread.