It's the story....a nice linear story to follow along with and cutscenes to impress.  Games like Oblivion are about action and not the story.  

It's just different strokes for different folks.  I hate shooters and can't understand what people see in them...I game to relax, not for frenetic action.

I actually don't know, I guess I'm just an Otaku-head that and saw the similarity between JRPG and Anime and went with it.

JRPG's offer a better story than other games. Along with the gameplay, it melds togetehr and its becomes like a book, you always want to know what happens next.

I like them, however, because they are fun. IMO, they offer much more than FPS per say. This is, however, just MY OPINION.

I find it odd at how much of the reasoning isn't merely tailored to RPGs. Great music, character design and engrossing stories that are in the manga style could essentially be inside a number of genres. RPGs just seem to be the only genre to typically cater to those ideals. What's really odd though is that gameplay has shown up so few times thus far as reasons.

Even if you look towards turn based strategy RPGs, this becomes even more clearer. Look at how many RPG fans get into them, and then don't typically get into the other TBS games like Advance Wars and Civilization that feature the same gameplay, just without the manga overtones.

I really think a lot of RPG fans (I don't mean anyone in particular or every fan either) really don't enjoy the gameplay all that much and merely tolerate it to get to the other aspects of the game they enjoy.

Can you really think of any other gaming genre where a commanding lead in appeal isn't the gameplay?

JRPGS are not roleplaying games. They are lumped into the category due to a weak definition of Roleplaying. JRPGS are Combat simulation story telling.

Why people like it. Because some of the stories are pretty darn good. Why do some people like books, movies or TV. It provides a simple form of entertainment. I would certainly classify a JRPG closer to a movie than an RPG though. I like some JRPG stories myself. WEWY is fantastic.

JRPGs are more for folks that like to crunch numbers in games, since they are more like strategy games and require the player to keep track of all sorts of numbers usually. if you add this sort of customization with a good story many folks with this mindset find it appealing.

this is for the same reason many of these fans hate MMOs and some WRPGs, since they have less of a story and more character customization.

@Onyxmeth

Point and click adventures, though the genre is almost extinct. We put up with bad, clunky interfaces and pixel hunting because we loved the characters and their dialogs, the plot and setting, the puzzles, the music.

Actually I love JRPGs and I really don't like WRPGS very much, I never could get into Diablo II

I suppose you're right. In P&C adventures and RPGs it seems it was always the case of hardware limitations as to why they had to be built the way they were. What I wonder is why are they still built the same when they could have the best of both worlds? I know some are, and I applaud the ones that have grown in gameplay in both genres. I also understand there's always a nostalgic subsection of fans that want things to stay old school. I just see the subsection getting catered to than the advancement of the genres to bring in more fans.

thats why i like resident evil 3... it offers choices... if you do certian things you get bonuses....i like kh simply because of the style...and ps.... i hate a HUGE overworld.... it gets confusing and unless you get a bonafied finger pointing in a certian direction or place it gets annoying.