None of those things listed are what define "JRPG" and frankly, I'd LOVE to see a game break every one of those conventions. If done by a good developer, it could revitalize the entire genre and become a legendary game.

Why are some people stuck on JRPGs including all of these elements? Have you all been drilled in the head with these plot/game devices so many times that you're resistant to see someone smash the mold to bits and go in a new direction? It wouldn't make it any less "JRPG", it would just mean that someone out there was brave enough to try something new instead of relying on game elements that were created in the original NES generation.

I think I'd die of a heart attack if I ever saw a JRPG that featured adult characters, an old west setting, and a story about the quest to find a new home or something like that. If it featured one party (with characters that can actually die) and wasn't turn-based, I'd start shoveling money in that developers' direction. Not that it necessarily has to be the Old West, that idea just popped in my head while I was typing this. The game could even be linear, I wouldn't care. The entire premise would be so foreign for a JRPG that I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat.

Part of the reason (western) fans obsess over and crave a FF7 remake so bad is because Japan has done little to show them there's other better JRPGs out there.  Take Drago nQuest for example.  How can a series that is even more popular and enjoyed by all audiences in Japan have absolutely no attach rate in the west?  Its not because we 'hate turn based battles (look at Final Fantasy).  Or because we 'hate old school RPGs' (Look at Persona, Pokemon....Final Fantasy).  Its simply because SquareEnix has done little to market the game to the west to make it popular.  And its a similar story for most JRPGs in the last 10 years.  The few JRPGs that have gotten popular in the last few years (Disgaea, Tales, Persona) were just from dumb luck or word of mouth.  There was little or no advertising.

SO you can partially blame the fans if you want, but I would also blame the companies for not actually telling the people the games exist.  You have to advertise the games and make them available for people to buy them.  I mean, on the flip side, you can't turn on the TV without seeing 10 commercials an hour for Dragon Age or Mass Effect 2.  Not that this is bad, its just good marketing for BioWare.  That's what the JRPG companies should be doing.  And what are the only JRPGs which will get this kind of marketing?  Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.  Games which have no trouble selling.

Again, you didn't get the point out of my post.  I wasn't saying games are inferior to movies.  I was saying they are completely different mediums that do completely different things and have completely different variables and shouldn't be compared.  Movies for the most part only have a few variables.  Which most people boil down to the generic things such as plot, audio and 'direction'.  Games have many more variables, which all influence each other (including the story) and the persons perception of the story.  You may think Uncharted 2 or MGS 4 is the 'best story ever'.  But the game also has presentation, gameplay, audio content, etc that the player interacts with and yes, influences the story as well. 

In games, its not so much the writing that delivers the story like in a book or movie, but how you see and play the game.  Whether its through cutscenes like in Final Fantasy, getting drawn into a battle and a story develops such as in Company of Heroes or just being told 'the princess has been stolen' and discovering over the course of the game who took her as in Mario.  'Plot' is a completely different medium in a game than in a Book or Movie.  And no matter how much a game tried to emulate a movie in graphics, they still need to make the player feel connected to the game interactively.  Otherwise, you're just pressing A and watching a Movie.

After you realize this, its just your personal opinion if you think one medium is better than another.  Personally I have yet to find a game come close to the writing of many of the better movies or TV series I've seen.

I'm not saying video games are like movies, there are completely different.  I'm saying there are games that have bland gameplay and people only seem to like them for their cinematic like story.  To me, these are video games trying to be movies.  These certain video games fail at with their main strength because there is another medium that does what they are trying to do, but better.

Once again, games are not movies.  Only some games pretend they are.

The question is, if pepole will still talk about Halo more than a decade after the last game in the series will be released?
Same with Mass Effect, and Oblivion.

With Planescape we know the answer.

And about Deus Ex - This isn't a game that I liked because of the options, or gameplay, but strictly because of the story, and that's why Deus Ex still has that famous motivator pic:

For JRPGs this gen, you should look elsewhere beyond the Consoles.  Since the majority of actual 'innovative' ones aren't on Consoles and most of the console JRPGs seem to be the 'side series' or 'experimental' titles.  In other words, they're hit or miss. 

Games that are looking to do better on innovating the JRPG genre with new forms of gameplay and player interaction are titles such as Dragon Quest IX, Final Fantasy Gaiden and the new Lufia Remake.  Games actually on the DS.  The system Japan is obsessed about.  The only real console title that looks to have done anything different this gen is Demon Souls.  Heck, even some of the Console JRPG titles people obsess over like Tales of Vesperia and Lost Odessey are VERY formulaic to the standard JRPG formula.  This might also be why many people think 'JRPGs are stale'.  But then, those people are probably only playing games on the HD consoles, where JRPGs are predominantly on the handhelds now (DS and PSP).  And, as I've shown, the more original JRPGs are on the handhelds.

I'm not saying video games are like movies, there are completely different.  I'm saying there are games that have bland gameplay and people only seem to like them for their cinematic like story.  To me, these are video games trying to be movies.  These certain video games fail at with their main strength because there is another medium that does what they are trying to do, but better.

Once again, games are not movies.  Only some games pretend they are.