The_Liquid_Laser said:
Accessibility is a big factor. The video kind of hints at the other factor though, but doesn't quite come out and say it. To a Japanese person, playing Dragon Quest feels like a manga turned into a video game. There isn't much story in DQ1, so it might not be obvious. However, if you look at how JRPGs evolved, with a huge story focus, then it becomes more obvious. The Japanese play RPGs to feel like they are playing a manga. The main way DQ1 accomplished this is to get a professional manga artist to do the art design of the game. |
This also remember another key difference from JRPGs compared to western RPGs. Western RPGs follows the premise of board RPGs where you create and customize a character, the focus is in the role-play. I can't tell much about how was gaming during the 80's, but the PC RPGs I used to play such as Dota, Lineage, Ultima, WoW, etc were always very focused in "Let the player be whatever the player wants"
While JRPGs are overall an anime/manga story that you can play. The characters have a well defined story and set of abilities and you rarely can so much more than what are designed to them before hand
