Which do you prefer: JRPG or WRPG?

[Michael-5]

Mnementh said:
First on, the distinction probably make no sense. Back in the golden times of RPGs there was no distinction, as no JRPGs existed. They came into existence later and for some reason some people started to distinct between JRPG and WRPG. But what makes the difference? Is it only the country of origin? Because games like Pokemon or Xenoblade Chronicles have the classic qualities that are often attributed to WRPGs. So if the distinction is only made of the country of origin, then cannot be one chosen over the other. But if the distiction is made on the style and way to develop story or character, it means the JRPGs are the one with fixed storyline and character-development, that the player cannot change. That is great to develop cinematic gameplay. The WRPGs in this distiction focus more on explorable world and many option for the player to customize characters and/or story. In this case Xenoblade Chronicles and Pokemon are WRPG, additional to all the classical RPGs as Ultima, Wizardry, Might and Magic and so on. Also in both cases the best RPG of all time - Baldur's Gate - is a WRPG. So I have to chose WRPG.
But I really think you have to rethink this classification.

Pokemon and XenoBlade are very linear compared to games like FallOut and Mass Effect. In Pokemon you have to get 8 badges, in a specific order to finish the game. There is no free exploration, just party customization. XenoBlades is argueable, it blends the lines from WRPG and JRPG because it does play a lot like Dragon Age. However again, it's still linear, you got up the Bionis, then the Mechonis, you can't just fly to the head at the very start.

However I think the biggest distinction is art style and character development. In XenoBlade, Sharla becomes more independed, Reyn becomes less childish, and Shulk takes control of situations and becomes more of an Adult. In FallOut, your character never really changes. In Mass Effect, you can pursue a romantic relationship, but characters have fixed personalities. Miranda's a b***h, Jack is blood tirsty, Garrus is a leader, and all Krogans are high testosterone egotistical beings. Things happen which make them treat others differently, some races becomes more capable of co-existing with others through long term interactions on the Normandy, but they are still more or less the same people when they started.

Another great example is Lost Odyssey. The one non-imortal on your team (Jansen? I forget his name) starts off as a huge womanizer, sleeping with prostitutes, getting drunk, but at the end of the game he gets married and is very respectful towards women. You don't get this in WRPG's.

Also I mentioned Art style. WRPG's typically push greek mythologies, or  involves quests with kings, dragons and knights. JRPG's are generally more over the top outragious. Persona involves you shooting yourself in the head to enter a different dimension. FFVIII has gun/swords, and Clouds Sword in FFVII will separate your shoulder disks with only a couple swings. You don't get ridiculous stuff like that in WRPG's, unless it's heavily based on greek mythologies (Like Too Human), but then the science is always attempted to be justifieds (Nural implants, etc).