By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
sc94597 on 30 November 2014
Edit Thread
MDMAlliance said:
sc94597 said:

I see. I think that is true for any genre though. People argue whether Metroid Prime is an FPS or "FPA." The difference between Survival Horror and Action Horror. What constitutes an Action-Adventure rather than an Action game. So I think it is a pre-requisite when speaking of any genre. 

Some genres have overlaps, and you can say the same about WRPG and JRPG, except that people don't even quite agree how to define what WRPG and JRPG are due to the fact that the term refers to location rather than a set of mechanics.  People may think of some mechanics when they use the term, but it's not even close to being universal.  

For things like Metroid Prime being FPS or "FPA," it seems less to do with the genres and more to do with the game that causes the confusion.  FPS = First Person shooter.  That's well defined.  "FPA" = First Person Action, I suppose?  So I assume the game has elements of both in it while not completely identifying as one.  With JRPG and WRPG, what exactly defines these genres?  That JRPG's are from Japan?  You say console and PC, but you say Dark Souls is a WRPG even though it was a console game before it was a PC game.  It also is preferred to be played on the console due to poor optimization edit: on PC.

I know a lot of people also define JRPG's by the turn mechanic, but then the confusion will inevitably come when you have games people want to call JRPG's but don't use a turn taking mechanic.  Some say WRPG's are darker and "grittier," but those have nothing to do with a game being from Japan or the West and is misleading, and really shouldn't be something of its own genre.  

Some say it's about the open world aspect, but that then limits the games considered a WRPG and games called a JRPG given that open world games that are considered WRPG's are mostly a recent thing.  There are also JRPG's that can arguably be labeled as an open world game.  Then there's the argument about being "linear" or not, which the exact same problem comes up.  

Then I've seen those who say it's a combination of all those things, but that just makes things much more difficult because then it really just limits WRPG's and JRPG's to literally just a handful of games.

FPA stands for first person adventure. 

Console vs. Computer RPG was defined by tradition. The question one asks when determining genre is, does the content of the game traditionally place with console or computer RPG's? Jrpg vs. Wrpg replaced this because consoles were finally getting what would traditionally be a computer RPG. 

Think of it like music. One does  not have to be German to compose or play what would be classified as traditional German music, or Japanese to play traditional Japanese music. But a piece that is indistinguishable by genre from other "traditional" Japanese music, even if composed and played by a German, is  still part of the genre of traditional Japanese music because all of its  features are rooted from traditionally japanese pieces . Politics also has a similar classification system in some ideologies. For example, there were two types of Classical Liberalism: French and English. Some Englishmen fell within the French school of classical liberalism, and vice-versa. Or the terms "Austrian School of Economics" and" Chicago School of Economics", they originated in Austria and Chicago respectively, but one does not have to be from Austria  or Chicago to be an Austrian economic or Chicago School economist. 

But I honestly don't see how it's any harder to define a WRPG than defining a pure Action game (as  opposed with Action-Adventure.) An Action-Adventure might have action, but it also has many other things. Just like the WRPG is the sum of the things you listed, not any single one. Some WRPG's can be absent of one or two of these features, but because it has all of the other ones it would likely be called a WRPG. Now there is a point in the history of video games in which JRPG's and WRPG's were indistinguishable, because they all took from eachother, but that was very long ago and early in video-games.