Cerebralbore101 said:
spemanig said:
No, it's not. "Japanese" isn't a genre, JRPG is. And the use of the term JRPG has been criticized for decades because it doesn't mean anything. There is no "style" of game specific to the JRPG genre. When Undertale and Dragons Dogma can be said to be part of the same genre, and people do have valid reasons to argue that point, the categorization has major issues.
There are plenty of JRPGs that don't get criticized for being "too Japanese." Fire Emblem is not a JRPG, but is subject to similar criticisms. Senran Kagura and Dead or Alive are subject to the same criticisms, and aren't even RPGs. Dark Souls and Metal Gear Solid don't get these criticisms, and they are as Japanese as any JRPG. Earthbound, Pokemon, and Super Mario RPG are some of the most renowned JRPGs of all time, and none of them are populated by the tropes, styles, or mechanics that make people criticize games for being "too Japanese." So when someone says a game is "too Japanese," don't pretend they are criticizing the entire genre or something as if there is any blanket criticism that can be made to such a diverse set of games.
Substituting black or white isn't an accepted term because it would be clearly viewed as racially ignorant. If there was a sudden boom of RPGs made in Africa that gained mass popularity, BRPG wouldn't suddenly gain some use.
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I understand where you're coming from, but the Japanese don't care one tiny bit about this sort of thing. This entire discussion would come off as foreign and strange to them.
IMO JRPG refers to specific games with turn based battles, and story driven gameplay. Xenoblade, and Tales of are a mix of JRPG and Action RPG.
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What makes you so sure? Japan is an incredibly traditional, conservative, nationalistic culture. What makes you certain that most of them wouldn't feel uncomfortable that people were associating their culture with such negative connotations? Most of the things people are criticizing in cases like these are associated with otaku culture, which isn't something most of the population in Japan like or want to be associated with.
And I want to be clear that I'm not trying to get into the semantics of what a JRPG is. That's not what this is about, and "too Japanese" isn't a criticism only or even mostly levied at JRPGs. I'm just saying to call a spade a spade. People need to stop hiding behind inaccurate, offensive generalizations. If you have a specific criticism, criticize it specifically.
