MAN, I was just thinking about that.

I actually recommend Part 2 as an answer to this thread's main question.

To sum it up, it makes no sense to classify games according to their country of origin and call it a "genre", and JRPG and WRPG are simply misnomers. "JRPGs" can be made by Western devs and vice-versa. We don't have to feel obligated to call Dark Souls a JRPG just because it was made in Japan. Rather, we should think of a better term to define its genre -- a term that emphasizes the main differences between the two types of RPGs.

It's a tough call though, because there are exceptions to every rule. EC suggests that "WRPGs" are defined by their sense of fantasy, by making the player the main character, whereas "JRPGs" focus on delivering a specific narrative with set-in-stone characters. This just feels off to me, as it means games like Mother and Pokémon are grouped with The Elder Scrolls instead of, say, most MegaTen games. It means that, despite ditching turn-based battles for real-time action, rendering cutscenes in real-time instead of pre-rendering them, and applying a host of other Western ideas, Xenoblade Chronicles would still be grouped with SNES Final Fantasy games rather than something like Mass Effect, just because the main character is not a blank-slate avatar for the player. So that's not a perfect solution, either.

This is the biggest hole in their comments about defining a game's genre by the reason we play it -- that different people may play the same game for different reasons.

Xenoblade borrowed elements from WoW, but to me it still had the classic JRPG feel. I'm curious about "X". Monolith lists the games you mentioned in the thread title as inspiration so the game may take on more of their qualities. But based on style and story, I think I will still call it a JRPG. We'll see when it arrives. But as said in other posts, the term JRPG is relatively new, so what we may see is just a reduction in the divide in styles from east and west and we can just call everything an RPG again.

For me its all about the core elements that makes the difference between the two genre.

So even if a WRPG game is made out of Japan. I will still consider it a WRPG and vice versa.

JRPG has always been story driven an inward-out experience, while WRPG has always been world driven an outward-in experience. Nothing wrong with both but this simple underlining difference is what defines the genre from each other,

By that, you mean they have an open world with create your character aspects?

If so, there are plenty of JRPGs already like that.

No, JRPG is a genre that contains certain elements created and evolved in Japan
People don't remember what JRPG used to mean.. kids of these days. :)

These terms have lost their 'meaning' some time ago. They should be defined otherwise.
Something like Tbrpg, Arpg, Tactrpg or something.

For me, a JRPG is simply a Japanese Role-Playing Game (i.e., a RPG developed in Japan). There is a tremendous amount of variety within RPGs developed in Japan, and trying to filter out titles just because they don't fit according to a particular stereotype doesn't seem right to me (and the same could be said for Western-developed RPGs).  I think that it is better to classify games according to their gameplay design (i.e., Turn-based, Turn-based Tactical, Action, Sandbox, etc.).

Honestly, I think the role-playing genre itself is rather nebulous.

JRPGs and WRPGs are both derived from table-top RPGs but evolved along different lines from the 80s, separated by the geographical and cultural divides to the point of being distinct genres in their own right. I would argue that the 'J' and 'W' are more to signify the origin of the genre rather than the origin of the game itself.

Therefore, it is the style of the game (how the story is told, who the main character is, player influence etc.), not its origin that determines whether it is a JRPG or a WRPG. Dark Souls and Demon Souls for instance, are very much WRPGs made by Japanese developers. On the other hand, we've had games like Septerra Core that are very much JRPGs made by Western developers. Also, would you call any Western developed game that used the tools in 'RPG Maker' a WRPG? Everything about them screams JRPG.

Skyrim, the most overrated game the last 5 years. A close second behind GTA 4 this gen.
But back to the tpoic. Of course.

The problem with calling Demon's Souls or Dark Souls a Western RPG is that it's influenced from Japanese game design. For example, the Souls games have much more in common with Shadow of the Colossus (minimalism, epic boss fights, etc.) or Castlevania (level/world design), than it does with The Elder Scrolls or say a Bioware game.