| arcelonious said: The problem with calling Demon's Souls or Dark Souls a Western RPG is that it's influenced from Japanese game design. For example, the Souls games have much more in common with Shadow of the Colossus (minimalism, epic boss fights, etc.) or Castlevania (level/world design), than it does with The Elder Scrolls or say a Bioware game. |
The primary difference between the two genres is that WRPGs give the player an avatar to explore a world and/or story whereas JRPGs have pre-contructed characters and storylines. The main character is not really and avatar of the player, but a fully fleshed out character in a wider story.
From this regard, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are both very much WRPGs, allowing the player to customise their character from the very start and allowing the player to determine how their avatar interacts with the world around them. This is the very core of why I'd consider these games more WRPG than JRPG. They may take influence from Japanese style games/culture, but then Bioware was influenced by FFXII in Dragon Age Origins, but that is still very much a WRPG. I also see just as much influence/similarity from Western titles as the games you mentioned above (namely Legacy of Kain, Darksiders, Dragon Age).
