By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Gaming Discussion - Is there a need for JRPG and WRPG?

allblue on 04 November 2013
Alphachris said:
There are so many things that JRPGs do differently than WRPG that it is difficult to lump them together as RPGs.

Epic Stories that are actually taken seriously (while games like Oblivion only put in a main quest so that there is one...)
Characters with their own personalities, motivations, beliefs... The characters in JRPGs often act as a way to let the player see the conflicts of the game through different points of view.
JRPGs often offer an epic classical soundtrack.
JRPGs put more effort/variation in the architecture, music, historical background of the cities
JRPGs focus on emotions of the characters/ WRPGs often focus on violence and brutality.
JRPGs often have complex stories that you can't fully understand the first time you see it... WRPGs hand you hundreds of sidequests instead.

I grew up with JRPGs/Action JRPGs like Terranigma, Final Fantasy, Suikoden, Breath of Fire, Kingdom Hearts. I have always seen them as the special genre, where playing the games and thinking about the stories have left me a little bit wiser and with a deeper understanding on life (FFX - consequences of blind faith, etc...).

Most WRPGs/Action WRPGs that I have played simply gave me an environment where I can max out my character or do hundreds of sidequests without deeper meaning. WPRGs also feel like most assets are reused over and over again. There is no story that makes each game special... I can't substitute FF7 with FF9, but I can totally substitute games like Borderlands1/Borderlands2.

I agree with the soundtrack part but read my post above. I have yet to see one modern jrpg that has writing and voice acting as sophisticated as mass effect or dragon age. Unless jrpg break out of that anime/manga inspired mold with cheesy dialogues, generic plot and characters, they aren't going to make a come back in the west. They are merely surviving on their past glories now. 



Intel core i7 930 OC @ 4.0 ghz

XFX Double dissipation Radeon HD 7950 356 bit 3gb GDDR5 OC @ 1150 MHz core + 1575 x 4 memory

Triple channel DDR 3 12gb RAM 1600 MHz

Around the Network
Videokameras on 04 November 2013

The setting has nothing to do with the soul of a game. Ofc that doesnt mean western games are bad, i just like the distinction.

 



peshkavus on 04 November 2013

Demon Souls/ Dark Souls Character movements are so JRPG so yeah.



outlawauron on 04 November 2013
allblue said:

Demon's souls for me is a wrpg made in Japan in a way that it is a western centric western inspired (in terms of both setting and gameplay elements) title. Jrpg on the other hand are games that have elements of anime/manga/ over the top characters and are just bright colourful with little tribute to realism (as in being believable).

So for me (and I'm assuming the vast majority of rpg fans) the prefixes describe more of the composition of a game rather than where it is made.

I love souls series but I can't stand modern jrpgs. Obnoxious voice acting, childish sometimes very generic and cliche dialogues, plots and characters that makes power rangers oscar worthy in comparison.

I know some western blockbusters like call of duties etc have very cliche, repetitive and sometimes predictable plots etc but you can't dispute the fact that western devs put a lot of effort into writing and narratives to their games.

Did we play the same game?

Oh, I guess this makes sense now.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

outlawauron on 04 November 2013
allblue said:
Alphachris said:
There are so many things that JRPGs do differently than WRPG that it is difficult to lump them together as RPGs.

Epic Stories that are actually taken seriously (while games like Oblivion only put in a main quest so that there is one...)
Characters with their own personalities, motivations, beliefs... The characters in JRPGs often act as a way to let the player see the conflicts of the game through different points of view.
JRPGs often offer an epic classical soundtrack.
JRPGs put more effort/variation in the architecture, music, historical background of the cities
JRPGs focus on emotions of the characters/ WRPGs often focus on violence and brutality.
JRPGs often have complex stories that you can't fully understand the first time you see it... WRPGs hand you hundreds of sidequests instead.

I grew up with JRPGs/Action JRPGs like Terranigma, Final Fantasy, Suikoden, Breath of Fire, Kingdom Hearts. I have always seen them as the special genre, where playing the games and thinking about the stories have left me a little bit wiser and with a deeper understanding on life (FFX - consequences of blind faith, etc...).

Most WRPGs/Action WRPGs that I have played simply gave me an environment where I can max out my character or do hundreds of sidequests without deeper meaning. WPRGs also feel like most assets are reused over and over again. There is no story that makes each game special... I can't substitute FF7 with FF9, but I can totally substitute games like Borderlands1/Borderlands2.

I agree with the soundtrack part but read my post above. I have yet to see one modern jrpg that has writing and voice acting as sophisticated as mass effect or dragon age. Unless jrpg break out of that anime/manga inspired mold with cheesy dialogues, generic plot and characters, they aren't going to make a come back in the west. They are merely surviving on their past glories now. 

I'm curious as to the term sophisicated. Moreso from Mass Effect (as I got bored with Dragon Age and never went back to it). The voice acting was fine, but that's a cause of it's expotentially higher budget than every JRPG not named Final Fantasy.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

Around the Network
Scoobes on 04 November 2013
outlawauron said:
allblue said:

I agree with the soundtrack part but read my post above. I have yet to see one modern jrpg that has writing and voice acting as sophisticated as mass effect or dragon age. Unless jrpg break out of that anime/manga inspired mold with cheesy dialogues, generic plot and characters, they aren't going to make a come back in the west. They are merely surviving on their past glories now. 

I'm curious as to the term sophisicated. Moreso from Mass Effect (as I got bored with Dragon Age and never went back to it), because it's writing was terrible. The voice acting was fine, but that's a cause of it's expotentially higher budget than every JRPG not named Final Fantasy.

I guess this thread was going to eventually transform into a JRPG vs WRPG critique, might as well be now.

What was terrible about the writing in Mass Effect? The dialogue, characterisation and world building in the series are some of the most impressive examples in the industry.




Get your Portable ID!

outlawauron on 04 November 2013
Scoobes said:
outlawauron said:
allblue said:

I agree with the soundtrack part but read my post above. I have yet to see one modern jrpg that has writing and voice acting as sophisticated as mass effect or dragon age. Unless jrpg break out of that anime/manga inspired mold with cheesy dialogues, generic plot and characters, they aren't going to make a come back in the west. They are merely surviving on their past glories now. 

I'm curious as to the term sophisicated. Moreso from Mass Effect (as I got bored with Dragon Age and never went back to it), because it's writing was terrible. The voice acting was fine, but that's a cause of it's expotentially higher budget than every JRPG not named Final Fantasy.

I guess this thread was going to eventually transform into a JRPG vs WRPG critique, might as well be now.

What was terrible about the writing in Mass Effect? The dialogue, characterisation and world building in the series are some of the most impressive examples in the industry.

I'll edit my post to remove the offending bits. I think ME is a case of style of substance, but I haven't played 3.



"We'll toss the dice however they fall,
And snuggle the girls be they short or tall,
Then follow young Mat whenever he calls,
To dance with Jak o' the Shadows."

Check out MyAnimeList and my Game Collection. Owner of the 5 millionth post.

Scoobes on 04 November 2013
outlawauron said:
Scoobes said:
outlawauron said:
allblue said:

I agree with the soundtrack part but read my post above. I have yet to see one modern jrpg that has writing and voice acting as sophisticated as mass effect or dragon age. Unless jrpg break out of that anime/manga inspired mold with cheesy dialogues, generic plot and characters, they aren't going to make a come back in the west. They are merely surviving on their past glories now. 

I'm curious as to the term sophisicated. Moreso from Mass Effect (as I got bored with Dragon Age and never went back to it), because it's writing was terrible. The voice acting was fine, but that's a cause of it's expotentially higher budget than every JRPG not named Final Fantasy.

I guess this thread was going to eventually transform into a JRPG vs WRPG critique, might as well be now.

What was terrible about the writing in Mass Effect? The dialogue, characterisation and world building in the series are some of the most impressive examples in the industry.

I'll edit my post to remove the offending bits. I think ME is a case of style of substance, but I haven't played 3.

I didn't think it was particularly offensive, I was making more of a general comment as these threads always end up being JRPG vs WRPG rather than debating the how or why the genres do things differently.

Personally I thought Mass Effect handled some relatively mature themes fairly well for a video game (racism, morality of science/technology, politics, drug addiction etc.) and developed characters incredibly well over the course of the series. Off the top of my head, Liara goes from being a shy young scientist to running the largest digital information monopoly in the game, Tali goes from young nobody to near criminal to admired admiral, Mordin suffers from guilt for his actions and works to rectify them, Jack finally accepts her past and is able to psychologically move on... they each have a past and fully fleshed back story with moral themes in each.

If I was to make a complaint about the story or writing it would be that the over-arching storyline is fairly generic (save the galaxy/world/universe from the big bad x, y, z). The world building and the characters that are put into that world are what make the writing shine.




Get your Portable ID!

Jaywood2010 on 04 November 2013
Scoobes said:

I didn't think it was particularly offensive, I was making more of a general comment as these threads always end up being JRPG vs WRPG rather than debating the how or why the genres do things differently.

Personally I thought Mass Effect handled some relatively mature themes fairly well for a video game (racism, morality of science/technology, politics, drug addiction etc.) and developed characters incredibly well over the course of the series. Off the top of my head, Liara goes from being a shy young scientist to running the largest digital information monopoly in the game, Tali goes from young nobody to near criminal to admired admiral, Mordin suffers from guilt for his actions and works to rectify them, Jack finally accepts her past and is able to psychologically move on... they each have a past and fully fleshed back story with moral themes in each.

If I was to make a complaint about the story or writing it would be that the over-arching storyline is fairly generic (save the galaxy/world/universe from the big bad x, y, z). The world building and the characters that are put into that world are what make the writing shine.

Yeah i have to agree with you.  Mass Effect was done really well.  One of the best stories Ive seen in games and the scores along with sales really show this.  I personally believe it could reach a fanbase like Star Trek/Star Wars if they decided to make Mass Effect movies(Which i think they are now)

My only complain about the sotry though is it didnt have enough colors at the ending -_-  Where is my Cyan color BioWare :P im Jk  ME3 qas actually my favorite.




       

Scoobes on 04 November 2013
JayWood2010 said:
Scoobes said:

I didn't think it was particularly offensive, I was making more of a general comment as these threads always end up being JRPG vs WRPG rather than debating the how or why the genres do things differently.

Personally I thought Mass Effect handled some relatively mature themes fairly well for a video game (racism, morality of science/technology, politics, drug addiction etc.) and developed characters incredibly well over the course of the series. Off the top of my head, Liara goes from being a shy young scientist to running the largest digital information monopoly in the game, Tali goes from young nobody to near criminal to admired admiral, Mordin suffers from guilt for his actions and works to rectify them, Jack finally accepts her past and is able to psychologically move on... they each have a past and fully fleshed back story with moral themes in each.

If I was to make a complaint about the story or writing it would be that the over-arching storyline is fairly generic (save the galaxy/world/universe from the big bad x, y, z). The world building and the characters that are put into that world are what make the writing shine.

Yeah i have to agree with you.  Mass Effect was done really well.  One of the best stories Ive seen in games and the scores along with sales really show this.  I personally believe it could reach a fanbase like Star Trek/Star Wars if they decided to make Mass Effect movies(Which i think they are now)

My only complain about the sotry though is it didnt have enough colors at the ending -_-  Where is my Cyan color BioWare :P im Jk  ME3 qas actually my favorite.

Yeah, I was really disappointed they didn't at least use all the colours of the rainbow




Get your Portable ID!