• Ulty Ulty
    Ulty ► Favorite Video Game Genres
    9 years ago
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    Hurray for JRPG's :D
    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … *shudders*
      9 years ago
    • Ulty
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      Ulty
      Editing … You don't like JRPG's, renegade?
      9 years ago
    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … It's more that wRPGs > A lot of other genres > jRPGs. I liked Chrono Trigger but other than that I'm pretty meh about the genre, especially Final Fantasy.
      9 years ago Heart 1
    • Ulty
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      Ulty
      Editing … It's funny how you got that completely backwards xD Chrono Trigger is a masterpiece, and there are some really great FF's...not the last ones though, they sucked pretty hard :P
      9 years ago
    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … I tried to get into jRPGs a few times but FFVI, FFVII, FFX, FFXII, FFXIII, Lost Odyssey and The Legend of Dragoon all got boring quickly for me even though I wanted to like them. I think I like Chrono Trigger and Pokemon in spite of the jRPG gameplay rather than because of it and Dark Souls and Demons Souls are more wRPG, they just happen to be by a Japanese dev.
      9 years ago
    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … I know they have more of a cult following but it's weird that jRPGs are beating wRPGs by so much considering the ATF games list has more wRPGs in the top 50 and two wRPGs above the highest jRPG.
      9 years ago
    • Ulty
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      Ulty
      Editing … I'm pretty much the same with wRPGs, I find them so unbelievably boring. There are some really good wRPGs though, like Dark Souls, Demon's Souls, Oblivion and Dragon Age (which has the same battle system as FFXII :P) but to me popular picks like Mass Effect, Fallout, Star Wars and Diablo are so painfully boring I have to ask my brother to punch me just to make sure I stay awake. I guess it all comes down to just which you prefer.
      9 years ago
    • chemical
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      chemical
      Editing … The problem with JRPGs is that while they are pretty good, the style isn't very flexible and tends to follow the same cookie-cut paradigm with each title. Western RPGs offer that flexibility by changing it up here and there. Like, Mass Effect is different from World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft is different from The Elder Scrolls series. JRPGs tend to follow the same style over and over. I think both styles have their merits, hell... KRPGs are another story entirely, haha. XD KRPGs tend to follow a very grindy style, moreso than WRPGs and JRPGs. Speaking of which, that needs to be added...
      9 years ago
    • Ulty
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      Ulty
      Editing … I agree to an extent. Yes jRPGs tend to be formulaic most of the time, but there are many that go beyond the formula and create a very different experience just in terms of tone and even gameplay. Chrono Trigger was one that felt very different from every jRPG at the time, then later you got Chrono Cross, Persona, TWEWY, Kingdom Hearts, Xenoblade and now with FFXV and Wonderflick. I guess it's cool that wRPGs are more flexible when it comes to game design, but since all of them are boring I don't see the point :P
      9 years ago
    • Fincher
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      Fincher
      Editing … If we divide them up as RPGs made in Japan vs. RPGs made in the West, I would say the opposite. JRPG combat and levelling systems can vary wildly, and the games are sometimes experimental in a way I've never seen from Western titles. For better or worse, the SaGa series is just plain nuts. Japan isn't afraid of making spectacular failures. Meanwhile, I've seen frustratingly little effort to innovate the choice systems in WRPGs. Stylistically, Western games tend to fall into archetypes: this is the medieval fantasy game, this is the space game, this is the spy game. JRPGs blend influences together and have varied towns within the same game, and maybe from a certain perspective that might make them same all the same, but they aren't, really. FFVI is steampunk, FFVII is cyberpunk, FFVIII is modernistic, FFIX is medieval, FFX is more Asian-influenced. None of this is to say I don't like the Western games, though, it's just a different approach.
      9 years ago
    • Fincher
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      Fincher
      Editing … As for JRPGs doing better on this list than the All Time Favorite Games, I'm not sure, but I can think of two possibilities. One is that games like Mass Effect 2 and Fallout 3 get votes from more mainstream gamers who don't think of themselves as RPG fans at all. Another is that JRPG votes are split up among a larger number of games.
      9 years ago
    • Gries He
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      Gries He
      Editing … Both WRPGs and JRPGS suck. There, I said it.
      9 years ago
    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … That doesn't add up to me Finch, there's more wRPGs than jRPGs all the way down to #100 so it's not like support for wRPGs is just focussed on a few games at the top. I can buy that there's a fair few people that just think "I like Mass Effect/Elder Scrolls/Fallout/Witcher/Dragon Age/Deus Ex" and don't really think of it as "I like western style RPGs" but game genres in general aren't that well known so I'd guess they all have that problem. I'd suggest possibility #3) Only 64 people have voted in this list compared to 528 in the ATF games list hence the ATF games list is more representative of what gamers like whereas here a few hardcore jRPG fans can get their favourite genre to the top.
      9 years ago
    • Ulty
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      Ulty
      Editing … Yeah if we had more users to rank stuff, i'm sure JRPGs would drop drastically. Therefore drastically decreasing the quality of the list with it :P
      9 years ago Heart 2
    • Rich .
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      Rich .
      Editing … Gameplay wise JRPG's seem pretty stale to me, they mostly spurn action in favour of the stats and levelling tradition whereas western RPGs incorporate both which I'd say leads to way more involving gameplay and allows wRPGs to borrow gameplay from other genres - shooting, swordplay, stealth - and create a more immersive and less detached experience while still having the levelling and dice rolls going on behind the scenes. Stylistically western RPGs vary from a space opera based on cycles of extinction and whether galactic civilisations can coexist and humanity's place in that, a post apocalypse based on the future they imagined in the 1950s and a near future based around conspiracy and transhumanism on the sci fi side of things. On the fantasy side of things Dragon Age and Oblivion/Skyrim do follow genre cliches quite a lot but they do it very well and putting those aside there's everything from a gritty medieval world based around a mutant hunting the monsters of eastern-european folklore, an exaggerated version of imperial china, an immortal undead in a desolate fallen civilisation populated by demons and other undead who've since gone mad and settings as alien as Planescape and Morrowind. I'd say jRPGs are way more guilty of cliches, starting with the ridiculous haircuts and oversized swords.
      9 years ago
    • Fincher
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      Fincher
      Editing … I can't think of any oversized sword games other than FFVII, so I wouldn't call that much of a cliche. As for ridiculous haircuts, I think that goes to show that cliche/sameyness is in the eyes of the beholder, because technically non-ridiculous haircuts are as much of a "cliche" as ridiculous ones. All media has its tropes, but it's the ones you don't like or want to change that tend to get called cliches. For example, the choice systems in WRPGs are the most important aspect to me, and since I see them as regressing rather than advancing in that regard, it stands out to me. Whereas someone might complain that "all" JRPGs are about teens with spiky hair because they'd prefer stories about mature characters in a more subdued world. It just depends on what you want.
      9 years ago Heart 1
    • Fincher
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      Fincher
      Editing … JRPGs are more about creating their own imaginative worlds, so when they do go the medieval fantasy route, they produce chocobos and slimes and rabites and pretty much go wild in that regard. They play around with art styles and regularly invent unique fashion statements that no one would ever wear in real life unless they were a cosplayer. WRPGs are more about faithfully recreating something that already exists, whether it be real life or genres in other media, so when they go the medieval fantasy route, there's more often than not dwarves and elves like out of Tolkien. They're more subtle and grounded and stay in the lines more. There's nothing inherently bad about that; in fact, I would say it's good for the choice-based approach of a number of these games. I like that KotOR is a make-your-own-Jedi game, that Alpha Protocol is a make-your-own-spy game, that VTM Bloodlines is a make-your-own-vampire game. I just wouldn't call it less "cliched". WRPGs want to break into the mainstream, so there's been a lot of push in more recent years to blend with stuff like shooters and stealth, whereas JRPGs seem more in love with the idea of being RPGs, and their innovations are often in terms of playing around with that and going even deeper down the rabbit hole. More intricate and abstract leveling, crafting weapons out of other weapons, building your own characters' programming...the genre they blend with more than WRPGs (if WRPGs do this at all) is strategy, which leads to games that can be even more arcane for the casual gamer.
      9 years ago Heart 2
    • Ulty
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      Ulty
      Editing … *standing ovation*
      9 years ago Heart 1
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