I disagree. JRPGs share a specific set of traits, and so do WRPGs. Some people have preference to games with said traits. Thus, it is a valuable classification tool when describing certain subgenres. Absolutely.

Yes, but those genres are not absolute, as a JRPG can do certain things that WRPGs are known for (like having a character creator) and still be JRPG.

Ok, ok, I'm not going to insist whether Demon's Souls is wRPG, jRPG or both. My point was that jRPGs and wRPG are pretty solid terms to describe RPG games if we look at them as cultural phenomena. That's all.

My take is that WRPG vs JRPG has a MUCH broader divide than a FPS and a TPS.  WRPGs tend to be FAR less linear than JRPG and focus on freedom more than advancing a storyline.  They lean more towards the sandbox than a movie or other form of storytelling.  The divide is also larger there, because people tend to prefer JRPGs or WRPGs over the other.  When you compare Halo to Gears of War, the audiences are similar.

Occasionally, that's true, but those games are actually mixing the subgenres, and are not the rule, but exceptions to said rule. You can have a hybrid, afterall, but the subgenres for all intents and purposes, exist. More often than not, you'll find that a game keeps all but a few traits of each genre, and then branches out in a few select areas. This type of game isn't a true hybrid, but instead, a subgenre with certain branching traits.

Magna Carta II is clearly infuenced by Korean MMOs, which were influenced by Diablo and western MMOs. So I wouldn't say it's just a jrpg. The Koreans have a different outlook than the Japanese when it comes to rpgs and gaming in general. Blizzard and MMOs are huge over there. PC gaming is bigger there than console gaming.

Not that I want to be dragged into the debate here, but just look at Dragon Quest.  As a series, it took inspiration from Wizardry and Ultima, the two most fundamental and influential RPGs made by 'western' companies.  And yet it is considered to be the creator of the 'JRPG' genre and the most influential RPG series in Japan.

Where is the line drawn?  Dragon Quest shares a number of traits that are commonly heralded by fans of WRPGs, such as heavy emphasis on exploration, NPC interaction, character development and etc.  Yet clearly influenced and even established many of the fundamental genre staples of JRPGs.

I think the main reason some people get annoyed with the 'WRPG vs JRPG' topic constantly being brought up is people try to use that as a way to divide RPGs into two groups.  In other words, to exclude one group in topics or say one type is better than the other.  When clearly there's RPGs on both sides of the ocean being influenced by each other.  And obviously as I just showed, what some people claim makes one type of RPG superior can be found on the other side.

No, not really. Categorizing things help people to understand it, that's how human mind works.

And though DQ as well as great majority of traditional jRPGs in their core gameplay mechanics definitely more close to early wRPGs than modern wRPGs (kinda paradox, isn't it? jRPGs throughout their history were more conservative than wRPGs), but that doesn't make those terms unusable. You can't narrow down wRPGs only to their early examples, such as Wizardry and Ultima, almost 30 years of game development of wRPGs and jRPGs make those two things pretty different after all. You know, we and apes have common ancestors, but that doesn't make us similarm does it? Wizardry and Ultima serves as early ancestors to wRPGs and jRPGs, and p'n'p RPGs serves as ancestors to Wizardry, Ultima and such things as MUDs, roguelikes etc.

BTW I could name you yet another group of people who still believes that only p'n'p RPGs could be named as only and truly "role-playing experience". And though I don't like when gamers of different kinds make those elitaristic statements, there's a grain of truth in it. I won't continue, but you may look for definition of "role play" on any p'n'p RPG fan site. Very few wRPGs and couple to none jRPG have it. Why? Beacuse it's extremely hard to imitate this thing digitally, so all those kinds of RPGs despite common name are very different game experiences.

Can we get some comments about how the game plays now please..
So far theres been 1 over 5 pages

Wow. RThis thread went downhill with unecessary posts by people who will never play MC2. And Demon Souls by reviewers is said like Oblivion. Um Oblivion was as far from a JRPG as you can get. MC2 is JRPG!

Right let actual players comment. From what I understand it's actually a good game. Isn't that good for a JRPG?