Yeah, AoD is such a wonderful gem, though quite rough around the edges.

Pity that more devs don't try for non-combat video game RPGs - when you look at TTRPG market, you only need to move one step aside from D&D (and by extension Pathfinder) to immediately bump into Call of Cthulhu, where fighting is something that you really don't want to do.

I don't understand why JRPGs are called JRPGs. Why not just call them RPGs?

Japanese RPGs at the time were very distinct to western RPGs, and by extension tabletop RPGs. Just compare Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy with something like Baldur's Gate, Ultima, Might & Magic, or on the tabletop side AD&D or Shadowrun.

It's not just visually, but also mechanically. In JRPGs status effects are generally very weak to the point of being basically useless. On classic western RPGs, status effects were vital for survival and generally the better choice over high damage spell "nukes". in JRPGs grinding is pretty much part of the gameplay, while many classic western RPGs had level caps or restrictions that made grinding unviable.

Also in JRPGs, the characters are normally set, while in western RPGs, you tend to create your character(s). It's the story of THE hero vs YOUR hero - or villain, which is another distinction. The me any JRPG where you play anything else than a hero..

I do find you answers helpful.

I've had an idea that I want to become a reality, and I figured that I should understand more about what I want to make. So yes you are spot on there as well. I figured who better to ask than people who love games :)

Reading all of the posts have been really cool to learn about the history, changes, and what can be done.

When you say nuance of game mechanics for elevating the RPG experience, what do you mean?

An RPG is a game where you role play a character into making choices that influence the game in some capacity. Some games have RPG elements like a skill tree, but that doesn't make them an RPG. For example: Spider-man 2 is NOT an RPG because no matter what you do, the game always plays out the same. If the player could choose to be Venom or Spider-man and make decisions with a good, bad, or neutral result, then it would be an RPG.

So that would also make Pokémon not an RPG?

Based on this an RPG has a flavor of customization where the story can change depending on your actions.

No because you can pick and choose which pokemon you want, what moves they learn, if they evolve or not. Decisions don't necessarily need to be story driven. 

Ok so the ability to make playable distinctions can give it the ability to be called an RPG?

Yes for instance picking which party of characters to use and when to use them. 

Why are JPRGs called JRPGs?

Marketing.

Seriously, though, there are differences between what W/C/RPGs try to do and what JPRGs try to do.

For the most of their existence, western made RPGs tried to emulate TTRPGs, which means you create your character, you make character progression choices, at least partially (since, unlike something like RuneQuest or GURPS, even D&D never gave you completely free character progression, given that some things are hardcoded in class/level progression), your character acts toward the world in a matter that tries to emulate RL (AKA "everything goes", so everything can be tried), and world reacts back as close as possible to RL, which translates to any problem can be tackled from different angles, with different short/long term consequences, both for character and world.

Of course, the amount of western made RPGs that actually pull this off is 0, but that is, more or less, a theoretical ideal. In practice, they are orders of magnitude more constrained by medium, since you can't code or predict everything, budgets, no matter how big they are, are limited, and there is no GM to improvise and adjust on the fly all the wheels that are in motion, so even most lauded western made RPGs, which check a lot of those boxes, are far cry from that ideal.

Now, my knowledge of JRPGs is very limited, but from what I observed, they tend to be focused on telling (fairly) preset story with (mostly) preset characters. In TTRPGs this often falls under "railroading" or, in extreme cases, "failed novelist GM" approach. Not saying all JPRGs are like this, just like there are quite a few western made RPGs that are more akin to this (and thus pretty much fail at being true to RPG core principles), but JRPGs tend to generally be way more constrained. Which is quite odd, given that JPRGs began as a mix of RPGs and visual novels, and from what I've heard (not really got into it yet thoroughly), there are plenty of visual novels that are very open-ended and have branching stories.

This is a very fun video from one of the most recognizable people in TTRPG scene these days, Matt Collvile (who worked in both tabletop and VG industry, started a YT series "Running the game" some 7-8 years ago to give advice to folks who want to be GMs, and whose MCDM productions garnered around $10 millions combined in crowdfunded projects), on The Sandbox vs The Railroad.

Another one, discussing Railroadng, Agency and Choices (more to the point and with better distinctions and advices)