Why are JRPG's still being built the way they are? ( long read)

[Alphachris]

JRPGs are still my favourite Genre and my most beloved ones are from the PS2/PS3/PSP era. I think that they have progressed and evolved much in the last years.

For me the defining factor of a JRPG is the story. JRPGs are a form in art in my opinion. The developer puts very much thoughts into a game and wants to express something about a deep moral dilemma (religion like in FFX, nature vs culture, free will or destiny,...). They create the game world around one or more moral dilemmas and create characters/roles to make you see the dilemma from different points of view. After beating the game you should have a deeper insight in the moral dilemma and should have been able to understand each side in this conflict. A JRPG is not only a game... it should also make you think about life. Thats why many JRPGs are still remembered after so many years.

Early JRPGs followed the HERO vs. Villain story, but modern JRPGs started to go away from "Main Characters" and gave the whole party more importance in the story. They also went away from the old "the villain is a villain because he is simply plain evil" and started to make you understand his motivation for his actions (like Barthandelus, Sephiroth or Kuja).

The Story and the character roles are the most important aspects of a JRPG for me. Without it the game would only be a strategy game (roundbased combat) or an action/adventure. A good JRPG is just more than a game. It is a piece of art, like a good theatre play, book or film.

I do not have a great opinion about western, open-world RPGs. For me, they are lacking the RPG aspect because they do not focus on the story, the characters role in the story etc. They are action/Adventures with battlesystem that relies on RPG-Elements.

You can make your own characters, but your choices do only have impacts on the battlesystem, not on the game. You will play exactly the same game storywise no matter how you build your character. The choice is ultimately only an illusion.

You can make many choices throughout the game, but often the choices do not matter much or you can't foresee the impacts of your choices because you do not have all the necessary informations to make an educated decision. Ultimately there are only a few endings and despite all choices the possible endings are all written down. It is still a linear game, but you have decision trees you have to follow. There is no real freedom, just the illusion of free will.

Often WRPGs have an extremely weak and forgetabble main quest and offer hundreds of sidequests instead. But the quality of the sidequests is often bad. They are uninspired and repetitive. While a sidequest in a JRPG often gives you access to unique items like ultimate weapons, stong magic spells or summons or at least give you more background information about your characters a Sidequest in a WRPG often only gives you random items (like the diablo-style looting system) or some xp points. Often I have the feeling that the sidequests are only there so that the huge world simply do not feel so empty. They are filler content.

All in all I do not mind that JRPGs are outsold by other games. Everyone has its specific tastes and a game is not with less only because CoD or Skyrim sold more. Sales do not equal quality. For me JRPGs are pieces of Art and I like the way they are heading. Exploration is not that important for me... I am all about Story.