MagnaCarta II may be great or it could be a flop, who knows, but it's pretty obvious that you're not very objective either and have ulterior motives after taking that dig at 360. You hate Microsoft, we get it. Anywho I didn't see that 6.1 review on metacritic (I never seen this review anywhere either) nor do I see this 4.4 one on metacritic. So two small-time reviewers rate the game poorly. Doesn't say much. It has a 80 and a 70 on metacritic. I doubt this is going to be a critical success (not that I personally care about the scores. I pay attention more to what they say about the game. If I paid attention to scores only instead of looking into WHY the reviewers rate them good/bad and looking at previews/footage and more detailed fan feedback, I would have overlooked many great games.) But for gamers that want a change of pace from the usual jrpg fare, perhaps MagnaCarta II is worth looking into. I'm interested to see what the upcoming english reviews are going to say about this. Particularly IGN and Game Spot (not that they are perfect).

Neither genre's are true RPGs. You want a true RPG go play a fucking trading card game. It wasn't until recently that WRPGs have had half the stuff you are mentioning. WRPGs basically are Action-Adventure games while Jrpgs are a type of strategy game. Jrpgs rooted in Ultima and Wizardry. Both of these are based off games like Dungeon & Dragons. Whether you like it or not, both came from the same thing. Dragon Quest isn't much different from WRPGs of the time, and neither genre is a TRUE RPG. Please go ahead and show me a definition that says Role Playing, or Role Playing Games need these requirements that you mentioned. I never remembered customizing my characters in Magic: The gathering, a game I played when I was 8. Is that not an RPG? I didn't interact with any scenery, it was just there for mana. To be honest, you don't even need to level in an RPG. How about you go fix your definition of an RPG first then come back and tell me that WRPGs are "True" Role Playing games.

I smell a typical JRPG vs WRPG fight coming.

And I love it when people start dropping the 'absolutes'.  There's always examples to prove an absolute statement wrong.  JRPGs don't have multiple choices?  What a vague statement.  Multiple options in story paths? (Suikoden, Fire Emblem, Chrono Trigger, etc)  Multiple options in character customization? (Dragon Quest, Seiken Densetsu, nearly any SRPG, etc) Seriously come on.

And as it has been stated multiple times, no video based RPG has ever created an experience mimicking Dungeons and Dragons 1:1.  That doesn't make them 'non-RPGs'.  That's like saying you can't classify a basketball game as a 'sports' game unless you're really playing actual Basketball.  Or a shooter as a shooter unless you're out playing actual paintball/shooting real guns.

In other words, if you have to go back to the source of a genres namesake to discredit the rest of a genre, then you're just grasping as straws.  And the same can be done for any genre.

i like star ocean:the last hope better than tales of vesperia. and demon souls is more of a action/rpg than anything, but no demon souls isnt better than tales of vesperia in my opinion anyway. magna carta 2 is a very good jrpg(krpg actually since a korean company made it).

Oh btw. I tell you this. A JRPG by the name of Etrian Oddyssey has more in common with your "pen and paper" role playing games, and the first WRPGs than Oblivion(or any of the elder scrolls series for that matter) ever will. This is coming from somebody who played daggerfall before morrowind was even released. A matter of fact, it was my 1st "WRPG" or should I rephrase it as my first Computer RPG.

Dig at 360? Pointing out that there's a 360 JRPG that's better is a dig at 360? I'm an all platform owner. Every handheld, every console, and a gaming PC. Don't you dare try to lower me to your level of bullshit console fued. If you want to talk about the game, talk about the game, but a shitty game is a shitty game no matter what console it's on. I know that's can be hard to admit if you only own one and feel starved for games on it, but from where I stand I don't really give a damn what console it's on. As for it being a change from the "standard JRPG fare" that 4.4 says that the problem is that it is a mediocre standard JRPG.

Oh and the 61/100

http://www.n4g.com/xbox360/News-408687.aspx

Get over yourself, your stupid console wars, and your preconceptions of this game, and open your eyes and take a look around.

This is not a direct answer to you, but what you describe is what I consider splitting hairs. I dont live in absolutes. But there is my mind no way a JRPG can really be considered a true RPG. Some have slight differences to each other, but IMO the JRPg's I have played have ALOT more in common with point and click adventures than RPG's. I feel like they are point and click adventures with a level/battle system. A traditional RPG is layered with choices. Not just you can do this or do that. But rather do what you want. Also RPG stands for Role laying Game. Where you play the role of A character. determining it's status, bloodline, strengths weaknesses etc. NOT a Party of people. Bioware are the closest devs to a true RPG experience in Video games. Bethesda also very impressive in this area.

The original WRPGs were pretty much the same as, say Dragon Quest, Phantasy Star, Shin Megami Tensei, or the first three Final Fantasy's in set-up. You basically choose a Race, Class, Gender, then play through linear dungeons and that is that. It wasn't until MUCH later did Computer RPGs(WRPGs) gather the sandbox features. So you can probably say that many Jrpgs are much more traditional than Wrpgs. :) If you don't believe me, just read about the first Ultima. Tell me which that sounds more like Dragon Quest or Oblivion?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_I:_The_First_Age_of_Darkness

Well first of all, you did use absolutes and still are (see bold).  You may think you're stating only general statements or even only citing a small percentage of games you have played, but you're not referencing those games.  And even then, you're using those games you have played to represent all JRPGs as a genre.

In any event, I stand by what I said.  No video based RPG has delivered a DnD based RPG experience.  And the reason is because they introduced things like story and graphics to the experience, which were created by the games developers.  Where in Pen and Paer RPGs, the players had total control over those properties.  While you think I might be splitting hairs, I think you need to go back and analyze the gripes you have with JRPGs and see many WRPGs are also at fault for this, including having multiple party members and focusing on story over character customization. 

While you may think some WRPGs got closer to your idea of what a 'true' RPG experience is, that doesn't make JRPGs inferior or 'non-RPGs'.  And just because you haven't played a JRPG that has good character customization and balance, etc, doesn't mean they aren't out there.  As we have already given examples in this thread.

While I applaude your devotion to owning multiple consoles, citing game review sites as the basis of showing why a game is 'good' or 'bad' is not exactly solid proof.  They could say a game is only a 7.5 or even lower, but it could be a persons favorite game.  And, as we've seen a lot recently, they could give a game a score of 9.5 or even a perfect 10 and fans could give it a collective 'meh'.

For the purpose of accuracy, I just want to interject and say that Demon's Souls is nothing like Oblivion. I have nothing else to say.