Honestly, I struggle to find many well written stories coming from Japanese games. Western devs excel at production value, that's for sure, but western games tell much more intelligent stories on average as well. Where they absolutely fail most of the time is in blending the story with the gameplay, not that Japanese devs are any better, but western devs are pretty universally bad with that.

I dunno. I honestly don't think there are many japanese devs aside from Nintendo that are any better in the gameplay department than western devs. Platinum... Some of Capcom's studios... Some of Konami... Eh.

WRPGs have been kicking JRPGs tothe curve for the past 6 to 7 years of so, and I am a big JRPG fan (or I was anyways) JRPGs suffer from way too many cliches and played out tropes, with a few exceptions. WRPGs, in my opinion, are vastly more unique in story, companions, environment and actually letting you makes your decisions have an impact on the world, where as most JRPGs have very little decision or at the very least, some illusions of important decision making.

Recently, Fallout, Mass Effect and Dragon Age have become my favorite RPG series. They bring such unique experiences with tons of replay value. They are the kind of games I want to start all over again as soon as finish them.

Games like FFXV and Xenoblade Chro. X are probably gonna bring JRPGs back to relevance if they sales and are critically well received. For me though, WRPGs evolved and innovated while JRPGs stuck with the same old techniques for the most part (combat being the most rewarding/changed) which I guess is a fault for japanese gaming in general.

I personally prefer Japanese games over Western games. I love Twisted Metal, Crash back in PS1 was great, etc... But outside of a few selected franchises... I don't get any appeal from current and recent Western games.

Of course, there's more than JRPGs to the Japanese gaming business... Remember that yes, Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger are Japanese... But so as Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Metal Gear, Sonic, Megaman, Metroid, Street Fighter, Soul Calibur, Tales, Pokemon, Persona, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania... And tons of other well known franchises with extensive legacies.

And while I believe there's fields in which Japanese designers and developers could improve (always room for it, right?), I also believe many western counterparts could learn much more, specially when it comes to actual care and polish, some games really feel as if they were made with $$ signs in the eyes of the publishers.

And both could learn to vanish those shady tactics that keep growing and becoming standards in the industry, on disc DLC? Microtransactions? Rushed and glitched products that need day 1 patches? Stop it.

Western excel in choices?

Ha good one. Western excels in the illusion of choices. All choice ever seems to do is whether someone dies or someone else dies. Whether this faction or that faction is in control of this area. Meanwhile affecting the story or anything else in no way, just basically a pallete change for the guards or leader of said town.

Way to over-generalizate there, mister...

I think it's hard to pin point whose truly better at an RPG because has become so notoriously subjective, I'd be lying if I didn't say I prefer a Western developed RPG over a Japanese one simply because it appeals more to my personal tastes of what counts as good storytelling, character progression, and gameplay. That said, I think there are genres clearly in favor of Western and Eastern devs. Hack and Slash is obviously dominated by Eastern devs with the only truly notable pure Hack and Slash experience from the West being God of War. Simulation games are truly a Western hallmark though. Not to say Japanese haven't made any note worthy games in the genre, but Westerners truly love a good simulation game overall. Before I would have said that Japanese devs had the horror genre all tired as well, but Westerners have really breathed new life into the genre in my opinion with stuff like Amnesia or Five Night's At Freddys which show what is possible in the genre.

There are more examples I could throw out, but it comes down to preference. I feel like Western devs often deliver the most in the immersion of a game and for my money, that's where the real focus has been for a good long time no w in my opinion.

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