Wrpgs or Jrpgs overall?

Monster Hunter is missing from your list.

I'm definitely for the WRPGs. Those are the games where I feel like I actually am role playing, being my own character to experience the world in my own way - as opposed to JRPG which places you in someone else's character (the developers).

JRPG, because Final Fantasy XIII.

A good JRPG beats a good WRPG.

But we have been handed so many terrible JRPG's lately that the genre is just sh!tty now.

Why's Mass Effect in that list? That's a 3rd person shooter.

It wouldn't be so bad if the main characters in the vast majority of JRPGs weren't excruciatingly annoying while also looking like women.

WRPGs by a long shot. This whole past gen has been insanely disappointing for me when it comes to JRPGs.

Why... why do you tempt fate like this?? :(

You forgot Demon's/Dark Souls under JRPG.

WRPG are superior to me.

Nothing better than a great JRPG, but they are becoming rare nowadays.

Can Mods please start locking and banning none SW topics.

And like the other 2 who had similar comments, try reading the OP.

Also it would not be a Jrpg anyway.

@Michael0134567: He said JRPG's and not Bad Cinematic Experiences Dude <3.

Oh and you missed a whole of JRPG's like The World Ends with You. Knights in the nightmare, Suikoden, Final Fantasy Tactics & Advance, Luminous Arc... I can go on and with top quality Games which where on DS.

JRPG's and that JRPG list is missing major top tier games and series.

WRPGS.

This topic is completely approved for System Wars :)

WRPGs. Deus Ex is one of my favorite games of all time. New Vegas and Vampire the masquerade bloodlines are probably top 10. I didn't even really like Chrono Trigger much, the gameplay was kind of boring. Only JRPG series I've enjoyed a lot is pokemon.

I like JRPGs more, they focus on character development in their stories. It's fun to see how your protagonist has grown in areas other than his/her stats. Plus I have seen more fun battle systems in JPRGs than WRPGs. And let's not get into the soundtracks. (JRPGs win there too)

JRPGs, easily. Over all spectrum.

Especially character design.

You might want to actually play Some Wrpgs before you say things like that. Or I guess you assume all of them are made by Bioware and Bethesda.

I didn't miss anything, read the OP. Which is odd because you should have read that first before you noticed the lists anyway.

a couple of those I did not play, and the rest I did not like or they BARELY passed tolerable.

Generally I like WRPGs better, but I'll be damned if there aren't some excellent JRPGs.

Then you my friend don't know what JRPG means. Yes they are JRPG.

like 8-13 years ago WRPGs were getting their ass handed to JRPGs but that changed. I always thought JRPGs became bad this gen because they always been heavily influenced by anime and anime these days is just for filthy weaboos and creepy otakus.

At least with Dark Souls and the promise showed in games like Project Phoenix and FFXV things might change a little for the better again. Although, FF13 had a very good premise (that's all the praise it'll ever get from me) but the execution was a disaster and Toriyama only made it worse with each sequel. Other decent modern JRPG's on consoles can be counted in 1 hand. That's how bad the state of the JRPG is on consoles that after an entire gen there are only like 5 truly "decent" games. And in my opinion those are:

1. Valkyria Chronicles

2. Tales of Vesperia

3. Demon/Dark Souls

4. Ni No Kuni

5. Lost Odyssey

On the other hand the modern WRPGs are at a level so high that at this point I don't think any JRPG will ever be able to reach. And that's because Square-Enix are the only Japanese company that still takes this genre seriously. Or at least that's how I see it since they are the only ones still pushing Triple A budgets to make JRPGs.

FF is garbage. There's way better JRPG's out there. Overall I'd go JRPG, cause they're more challenging and offer a high level grind, which I like.

Have to go with WRPG's, while there are amazing JRPG's they've been pretty much nonexistent in terms of quality the past 13 years except for maybe a few.

I hate most WRPGs but even so, JRPGs regressed so much this gen that I have to put in the vote for the west. With that said though, the Souls series is the GOAT

In the past I would have voted for JRPG (SNES, PSX, and PS2 era). But for some reason or another I can't get into them, and I feel like that is partially due to how stagnant they've become. Now I give a large amount of play time to WRPG titles (old and new).

I voted both though as the nostalgic part of me is always hoping for more Persona, Vagrant Story, Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Grandia, Chrono, Shadow Hearts, Star Ocean, Breath of Fire, Suikoden, Seiken Densetsu, Lunar etc.

Oh please guy. Not every topic on this board has to be some annoying PS4 vs PC debate. We can have a bit more diversity.

Oh, and Dark Souls isn't a JRPG. JRPG denotes a loose game style and aesthetic (primarily anime driven), not the country of origin. A western dev can make a JRPG (see Cthulhu Saves the World and other Zeboyd games) just as a Japanese dev can make a WRPG. Dark Souls may be made by Japanese devs, but stylistically it has more in common with western action rpgs than it does with JRPGs, which are often turn-based.

If I have to pick JRPG.....

@Gue1:

That's really not the case. There were a ton of amazing WRPGs being made at that time period like Fallout 1/2, Baldur's Gate, and others; the thing is, most people primarily played on consoles back then, so you likely had far more exposure to JRPGs at that time than WRPGs. All of that really changed during the XBOX days, when you started seeing devs like Bethesda and Bioware porting their PC games over to the XBOX. It wasn't that great WRPGs didn't exist, but they just rarely made it over to consoles and thus didn't get as much attention.

Why cant we have the best of both worlds? Games like Xenoblade and Final Fantasy 12 blur the line quite well.

I've liked and loved games from both sides so it's hard to decide something like this. But JRPGs used to be cool years ago and seem to be inferior to WRPGs nowadays.

More potential in the games I play? WRPGs

Games that are more fun to play overall? JRPGs

None of those came out 8-13 years ago. He's right, hardly any good WRPGs came out at that time. Only a few big 2D wrpgs released in the 2000s.

what about non-RPG games with better Role Playing Mechanics than the Text Book RPGs. Like Arkham City/Trine 2's Character Progression, Battlefield's/Gears Of War: Judgement's Multiplayer modes with practical role/class options, Heavy Rains decision making concept and last but not least The Last Of Us'/Splintercell Blacklist's Strategic Freedom (Even Bioshock 2 is a good contender for strategic freedom). None of these games are RPGs but each of them do handle a specific Role Playing Element better than almost any RPG can, lol and it seems incidental too.

There is no JRPG or WRPG; the only thing that matters is whether it's good or not.

WRPG, if we are talking about past WRPGs, but nowadays WRPGs are a bit weak compared to what it use to be, outside maybe Witcher. You had games like Baldur Gates, original Fallout, even the early Neverwinter, Planescape, and so on. Though JPGs have been okay with great titles like Xenoblade, Dark/Demon Souls, The Last Story, Ni No Kuni and some others. Not to say some of the previous series like Final Fantasy haven't went downhill. Honestly I take Old WRPGs over New JRPGs Over the rest.

WRPG by a country mile.

Noone likes anime.

I don't get why the witcher series gets so much love. The first ones gameplay is awful and the second one's is passable.

jrpgs largely because FFX and FFXII are my two favorite games, but both have a lot of great games

I'l be frank, RPG's suck, because even in the year 2013 the genre is still defined by how you can boost your avatar's stats and how much of the gameplay is dictated by lore instead of logic.

@ cain006 because RPG are built for idealists, they ignore practical flaws because the idea of a specific gameplay mechanic is more appealing than its execution. This is a genre that predates video games afterall. Its powered by the player's imagination, and who can find a fault with their own imagination. Atleast thats my only theory that can explain a piece of sh!t like Skyrim winning a bunch of awards and selling a buttload of copies.

This really just illustrates how trying to define and quantify games by their regional origins is so flawed now. Granted there may have been a time (perhaps 10 years ago or so) that most western and most Japanese games rigidly adhered to their established design philosophies. The terms came about because while trying to lump both categories of games in the RPG camp, gamers always noticed how differently they played, to the point of feeling like different genres.

But the lines are becoming more blurred. When you get games like Dark Souls and Dragon's Dogma that take the same design and aesthetics of what we categorize as a WRPG, yet they really come from Japan. By that criteria they're really JRPGs, though they don't play like how we'd traditionally associate with that sub genre. Or how about The Witcher games? They would also be taken as a WRPG, but is neither from NA or Japan. It's from Poland, defying all regional classification.

The truth is, these games should be quantified by their game designs & aesthetics. To really get to the core of the gameplay experience being aimed for the players. And I've given this some thought. Do keep in mind my proposal is only a rough concept for better labeling games on this criteria, but here goes :)

WRPG to be called Interpretive RPG - This is based on the foundation of the player being able to customize the game and their interaction according to their personal interpretation, which can include any combination of the following;

* character race, gender, and appearance
* self defining the personality and characteristics of the character (such as being an extension of the player them self)
* deciding on story paths or other forms of personal world interaction, where choices can differentiate large or localized outcomes

So by this definition, Skyrim, Baldur's Gate, Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Dark Souls, Dragon's Dogma, and The Witcher would all fit this category, nation of origin not with standing. Even where appearance in Witcher and Deus Ex is pre-designed, there's still plenty of player interpretation in interaction and story paths.

JRPG to be called Narrative RPG - This is based on the player assuming a pre-defined role, both in appearance and behavioral patterns of the character. The gameplay is structured around a tightly crafted story according to the designers narrative, where the players involvement in world interaction is more of a passive observer and with little to no input outside of the combat gameplay.

So... thoughts?

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls not in the lists, JRPGs and pretty much seal the deal imo.

@AdobeArtist: People will bicker about what WRPG and JRPG means forever. Nothing you can do will change that sadly.

@Lulu_Lulu: I like RPGs a lot. In fact they may be my favorite genre. I mostly go for stuff like Deus Ex, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Fallout: New Vegas, and pokemon. No other genre offers the choice in gameplay that they do. It's fun to build your own character even if the core mechanics of the game aren't very good.

Western RPGs are light years ahead.