Ending=/=Route

imo, JRPGS dont need multiple stories arcs, or endings to return to glory, they just need better stories. the script writing can get so mundane i think, and nonsenscial which is why JRPGS have suffered this gen. it dosent help that the face of the genre this gen is FF13, which imo has a very poor story!!

they've always been nonsensical if you think about it imo with a few with great stories, though I like many of them.

Not arguing that JRPG's have great stories (TWEWY my exception though and favorite game this gen) this gen. though I like many this gen too, about the same as last gen, and will likely like more,  though not as many as psone/snes.

The ones I like despite of the story that FFXIII, Valkyria Chronicles(eh not really a jrpg, but the gameplays more fun than most JRPG's to me), Lost Odyssey (Yes it has great side stories but =/= main story) all having not great stories (though for sure passable IMO)

More OT though
Even western games this gen that let you decide the story Dragon Age, Mass Effect 1 2, Kotor. I never was impressed because of different available decisions that imo were not that different and mostly superficial. Such as you killed the elves in DA:O the werewolves (is that what they were called replaced them). You sided with one side of the Dwarves, the other side didn't join. Though Dragon Age was the most impressive it was still not that impressive to me (the game was impressive just not the choice aspect).

But, really if they were to take completely different routs 1/4th of the way through, and then more branches for each of those branches 1/2 way through that would be cool for some games, and sure as hell interesting if they were all done of equal quality. They could reuse locations in the different versions but, if they reused too many enemy/dialogue assets/locations I think it would be a waste and too samey.

that was a disaster :P

Bah crap, I copy pasted into html and made it normal, but it didn't retain what I posted =/

What I was going to say was that reusing resources are fine. Now, I'm looking at this in a purely story perspective though, not gaming. But even for gaming, if the missions are different, and the same setting was used for a completely differente scenario, I think that it's fine. What if one the routes featured a change or revelation in the game's universe that required a different play style?

But that's another talk, I'm specificly talking about story and story only.

It's fine to reuse resources like skins, models, maps, etc. VN's are the worst offenders of reusing resources and good ones make each route feel absolutely fresh and amazing. JRPGs with bigger budgets can pull it off easily.