Some of the older JRPGs had a major focus on jobs or classes. By choosing the job (=playing that role) you defined the capabilities of your character.

Most newer JRPGs don't have that anymore and I agree that the term is stupid, cause it could be said about almost all games that you play a role.

BLACK MAGE!!!!!!

i sort of reject all the monikers that come with rpg`s

eg. A, S, W, J

there all rpg really just different types.

western style rpg`s are the most popular and have mass buy up, japaneese stlyle are more niche with starategy types even more niche

The thing is, just having a good story doesn't make an RPG. The Metal Gear Solid franchise, for example, is famous for having good stories, yet no one calls it an RPG series, in part because it's difficult to feel for the characters. Similarly, there are plenty of RPGs, even among those considered classics, with paper-thin stories. Consider the first Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games for examples of that: you'd have a hard time arguing that these are not RPGs, yet the stories are as deep as the paper the manuals are printed on. They're glorified sandboxes, essentially, with no story other than what the player writes.

Because if it weren't for JRPGs (God I hate the fact that tossing a J in there is the norm now), there'd be no other RPGs.

(The ones we now call JRPGs were the original genre....why it has to be changed by adding a J is beyond me...it's like saying Native American. They're the original Americans, but now since everyone moved to the US, they have to have "Native" on it. /rant over lol)

How about because table-top games were the "original" RPGs?

Really? Didn't know that

The majority of them are not turn-based anymore. Also jRPGs don´t need skill trees because a) have a ability/spell board that you further and further unlock depending on the battle points gained or b) don´t have anything at all because the characters have a preset one-way class.

Anyway, jRPGs are RPGs because their japanese makers say so, their japanese audience has always been accepting them as such and the gaming industry never denied classifying them as RPGs. Also, they didn´t invent tabletop RPGs, have a minimal knowledge about these, their first RPG prototype was Ultima (hardly an ideal pure RPG) and finally because they have other values and lifestyle than Westerners their RPG definition is consequently far different from the original one.

Well neither JRPGs or WRPGs are RPGs per say imo...

I think they are referred to that way because it`s the genre in gaming that most resembles those table-top RPGs. But neither one or the other are actually RPGs because you are always restrained to do only the things that the game allows you to do, as oposed to a real RPG where you can do anything you want...

JRPGs may not be real RPGs but that doesn`t stop me from liking them way more than WRPGs.

Hey, I just thought of something. If JRPGs are not real RPGs than should we call them just "Js"?

Um, no.

Even if one were to believe that tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons weren't the direct inspiration for JRPGs, Western computer RPGs like Rogue (1980), Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord (1981), Akalabeth (1980), and Ultima (1981) predate by far Final Fantasy (1987) and Dragon Quest (1986). The West was making electronic RPGs years before Japan.