Alphachris said:
I agree. The main point of a JRPG is the STORY and Character development. And the main story, the characters and the world should really feel connected. Games like Final Fantasy X or Final Fantasy XIII shine with their story. There are not many games that offer that quality of storytelling. The last few final fantasy games made you think about blind belief and its risks, the consequences of atomic bombs or the effects of propaganda... The last FF offered really mature stories... and this "mature" does not mean massive depiction of violence, blood and gore. It means mature ethical topics. Suikoden offered 108 different characters, but only some of them were really strong. The focus however lied also on the narrative. It was not the battle system that kept you going. It was the story. A game, where the combat mechanics are the main point... thats a strategy RPG for me. Like Final Fantasy Tactics. There is a story, but the characters are there to give you more variety in combat. Final Fantasy Tactics has random characters that can fulfill different jobs and they are not important for the overall story. The main problem in discussing RPGs online is that some people limit RPG to D&D. That is just one form of RPGs. A game like Oblivion felt not really like a true RPG for me. It was just a huge action-Adventure with some RPG-elements for me. It was a huge world, but I couldn't care about anything in the world. The main quest was disappointing and I never felt the world cared about the main quest. And the sidequests was just repetitive and I lost interest pretty soon. Ultimately I feel that WRPG and JRPGs just can't be compared. They offer totally different experiences. And I personally feel that the WRPG dropped everything that I like about RPGS and concentrate on the bits that I do not like. I like to play a RPG focusing on the story. I do not grind xp unless I have problems with the difficulty. I do not even try to maximize character stats. In the older FF's I used my mages only at the bosses because I didn't want to waste my mp on normal enemies that would go down after I short time anyway. Before the Boss fights I only used normal attacks with my mages to conserve mp... I do not care if I can complete my bestiary because I do not want to spent much time to see if there could be a rare enemy that I am still missing... I do not care about sidequests that much. Final Fantasy does it just right with a quest for the ultimate weapons and the ultimate magic/Summons. The one thing that puts Rpgs over all other genres for me is that they are games that make you think about certain issues. Most western games only try to deliver a cool character that is a kind of superhero and that can cope with every problem.
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What Zarx says in his reply to you is very true, Planescape Torment is often regarded as one of the few examples of truly brilliant storytelling in games. The story is so highly regarded that the novel version of the story was included in the New York Times 100 novels of the century (last century 
). You'd probably enjoy it quite a bit. The combat in the game is also mostly avoidable (there will be some combat though) depending on your stats so even if you don't like the battle system, there are ways to play through with minimal fighting..
Anyway, we agree that the most important factor of a JRPG is story and characters but we disagree as to how a game tells that story. Final Fantasy XIII for instance, for me, was just too reliant on cut scenes with little to expand on the storyline beyond them (other then the datalog which is a chore to read). If you don't enjoy the way the story is told in those cut scenes (as was the case with me for large chuncks of the game) then the enjoyment of the story is damaged. With little else
I know JRPGs have little room for story influence, but most have places to explore and mini quests/easter egg moments to expand on the mythology. Some can even help to further expand the background of certain characters. In FFVII for instance, there are a few moments where you can have mini-flashbacks that are completely optional but give a good amount of back story.
WRPGs on the other hand have gone the route of giving player influence in the story. It's technically closer to true old school RPGs although no video game can stay true to the pen and paper RPGs as they'd need a Dungeon Master and no AI is capable of pulling off that feat. The Elder scrolls games are a strange example because the story is meant to be tailored completely to the player experience. You have complete choice in how your personal story plays out, but I can understand that if you want to experience a tight, well contructed story, it can be disappointing.
Other WRPGs though can still give a story with great depth whilst still giving the player choice. Mass Effect 1-3 are a good example of this as is Deus Ex Human Revolution and Witcher 2. They all have storylines with depth and a range of interesting characters.
