So...what is a JRPG for you?

Is it an RPG made in Japan? Or are there specific things a game needs to have to be considered a JRPG?

Dark Souls is a Japanese RPG but many do not consider a JRPG.

Thought for the longest time Sudeki was Japanese. Turns out it's not. Does it disqualify it from being a JRPG?

So in your mind what makes a game a JRPG?

An RPG made in Japan. Dark Souls is a Japanese RPG and Pier Solar is a Western RPG. That's the end of it.

Anime experience.

If it's made in Japan, it's a JRPG. It's that simple to me.

Swipe left.

I'm going back to just calling them RPGs.

Then there would be no reason to have the J in the front and not classify jrpg or western rpg but instead just say rpg. The reason jprg had their own group was because of the style not location. You would not call Bioware games CRPG for Canada or The Witcher PRPG for Poland. You call them western rpg because of the style.

A person is Japanese if they are.....

A person is American if they are....

There you go.

Crap like this spoke to me when I was 6.

@Juub1990:

An rpg made in Japan. = My view

A Japanese rpg seasoned with a heavy dose of Japanese pop culture anime. = Everyone's view

I don't care where it's made.

An RPG is a fabricated world full of well-developed characters and events. The characters which are controlled by the player need to be built up and given a skill set that lets them interact with the world around them. If a developer does their job well, the world should seem to exist beyond just your role during the game once you've learned enough about it. If I don't at least care about the world and its inhabitants then it's not an RPG.

I believe that most games can be given the RPG tag, that's not important. What is important is how far down the list the 'RPG' tag is. Let's use Dark Souls as an example. Dark Souls is a Third-Person Action game first and foremost before it is an RPG.

The various modifiers really just define how the game is played to me:

• JRPG - The 'J' stands for Japan, however these are typically turn-based or semi-turn-based games with angsty teen characters with very angular hair. Usually party-based.
• WRPG - The 'W' stands for Western, however these are typically open-worlds with action-based combat and have darker themes than most JRPGs
• CRPG - The 'C' stands Computer (or whatever i don't even really know); these are typically party-based games with turn-based or real time combat. Usually these are inspired by a dungeons & dragons style progression. They typically offer more role-playing freedom than other types.
• ARPG - The 'A' stands for Action. These are barely RPGs since there really isn't much to the worlds or characters. Nothing to care about except the loot.
• SRPG - The 'S' stands for Strategy. The combat is generally turn-based on a grid. These are usually more 'on-rails' stories but still have some pretty decent character building.

An RPG made in Japan.

EDIT: I'll take it a step forward and think games made in Eastern Europe should have its own regional category.

Anything with piss poor music, an overly large sword and sucks to high hell gameplay. JRPG defined.

An rpg developed in Japan by Japanese people.

There are a lot of morons who will limit this to geography, ignoring the fact that we do not take geography into account for any other genre. So they will prattle on stupidly about pier solar being a WRPG and Dark Souls 3 being a JRPG and say such bollocks as "that's all there is to it" but they will never address why there is no such thing as a JTPS or a WRacer.

The only reason there is any distinction is because JRPGs and WRPGS are different styles of game. JRPGs tend to be menu driven and turn based and were a reaction to the limitations of consoles. WRPGs were born on computers and were more action orientated and less limited technically (although that isn't a question of quality, as many JRPGs are fantastic).

Quite frankly, anyone who can't understand this is a dullard. It's simple. We only make the distinction because there is one to make.

But we do separate (or categorize) Japanese games with the rest of the world.

Well the J is pretty much a way to show that the game is from Japan while WRPG is Western RPG.

Both types have qualities that a lot of people associate with a specific regional RPG like random battles for JRPGs but nothing is really definite so that makes me guess that the J or W represents the region the game was made in.

Well, we all know that there are different RPG experiences, but an RPG is still an RPG. Final Fantasy is an RPG, if you want to subcategorize it, it would fall under JRPG. A Japanese RPG. Fallout 3 is action RPG or western RPG, but it's still an RPG.

I don't get what's so difficult to understand. RPG = Role-playing game. JRPG = Japanese Role-playing game. One is an overall genre, while the other is a subcategory of that genre.

Again it would be like asking what is the difference between animation and Japanese animation.

Teenagers overcoming their apathy to save the world with magic.

A subset of the RPG genre (Like ARPGs for example). They tend to focus more on the storys told, then the actions of the main character, often with a main character set in stone (though this is not a requirement, not soley seen in JRPGs, but they are more often then not).

The game is build up on the basics of the first RPGs created, having very distinct combat systems, and far more of s stone/paper/scissors type of combat where weakness and resistence is much more important. Where as most other RPG types it is the direct action that matters, and the weapon used.

Most JRPGs also focus far less on character building, there is not a lot of perk and stat lines that is up to the player, rather often automated, and play a minor role compared to the overall character level. So scaling also tends to work completely differently. Stats are less important overall, often reaching into the 90s showing a far more binary focus, not only in how the characters evolve, but also in how stats are calculated

I would say that JRPGs are the evolution of the first RPGs attempted, with a focus on telling a story.

Where as most Wrpgs how you level up is much of the focus, what skills you have, what perks you have, do you have the all important +1 in str, and hope for overall being a better melee fighter? or do you try to unlock the path for higher spells?

Wrpgs tend to follow PnP RPGs FAR more, in fact most WRPGs have a PnP version (like fallout did have an actual honest to good PnP rpg, and baldurs gate had a cut down modified version of something akin to a players handbook as a game manual). Often focusing less on the overall story of the world, but more on the induvidual story of the player character, and the choices you make with them, attempting to give the illusion of choice and consequences.

Ofcourse the two genres often meet, and create hybrids that are not really one or the other. like FF15.

JRPG typically have weird Japanese culture influences. Things like anime art style, feminine male characters with emo hair, plenty of silly and ridiculous elements, and they often feature crappy turn based combat.

LMAO perfect

Made in Japan!

Yes, I agree with this completely. If somebody told me they love JRPGs, assuming they would like Dark Souls would not make sense.

They do for Japan. When people say JRPG they mean an RPG from Japan. You can categorize RPGs more specifically like action RPG or traditional, but in common (or vague) terms people refer to games from Japan as JRPGs. The reason for this is probably because the majority of RPGs from the east stem from Japan. People pretty much associate eastern RPGs with Japan.

I typically don't use the term JRPG. I'm usually more specific. But I was just answering the OP's question.

For me JRPGs can span things I love to things I detest, mostly the latter.

When I was growing up, I enjoyed classics such as Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger. But as the medium matured, I didn't like what it had grown up to become. I often find the storytelling in modern JRPGs to be all too pandering to specific demographics, culturally absurd, and completely nonsensical at times.

But then there is Dark Souls, my favorite series of the past decade. Without a trace of anime to be found but with a level of cultural abstraction that intends for it to feel foreign, it ironically becomes one of my favorite games of all-time.

Japanese games have historically been innovative and fun. It is when they break away from their myopic storytelling ideals that I can say they are some of the best, if not the best, games out there. On the other hand, when they are steeped in Japanese tropes and quirks, I find them among the worst.

LOVE:
Dark Souls
Secret of Mana
Final Fantasy I-VI

HATE:
Fire Emblem
The Last Remnant
Final Fantasy VIII-present

A rpg made by a Japanese studio. Because a variety of different types of games have been made even in that sub genre, from SRPGs (Fire Emblem), to Dungeon Crawlers (Etrian Odyssey), to turn based rpgs that everyone associates as the rpg (classic Final Fantasy), to the variety of different action rpgs that exist: Souls games, Dragon's Dogma, FF15, Kingdom Hearts, etc.

"hur dur teh western influence" seems dumb, because why would we ignore decades of Eastern influence on western game design as well? It's just the nature of the beast, would that make Anachronox a jrpg? Because it's very much influenced by the traditional jrpg, but it would be idiotic to ignore the western influences on that game as well. It is fundamentally a western game.

Anything else is too rigid for the sake of category, and I already think gamers don't flex enough of their vocab to describe a video game.

@davillain-: I don't get why you are replying to me with this. You are not disagreeing with anything I've said. I've not made any comment on whether Fallout or FF are true RPGs and it's obvious the J and the W are sub categories. That's what I'm getting at.

@Seabas989: No we don't. Gran Turismo is not a Jracing game. It's a Racing game. It's subcategory would be simulation but it is in the same category as Forza or Project cars, developed in the west.

Mortal Kombat is not a Wfighting game. It is a fighting game. It's subcategory would be 2D one on one. It is in the same category as Street Fighter, developed in Japan.

It is dishonest even to suggest that we subcategorise other genres by location. We do not. The only one we do is RPGs, because of the difference in style. It is the style which makes the difference, and it is that which the game is defined by, not the location. Fact.

There is no reason to make a distinction other than style.

I thought for the longest time that Burial - Archangel was dubstep but then it turned out it was future garage.

It doesn't really matter what box you put something into or what label you give it, as long as it's enjoyable, right ?

The Soulsborne series is a perfect jrpg if its considered as one.

1- Does not have any spiky haired jpop bitches
2- Doesn't have any ear melting voice acting
3- Doesn't have any dialogue written by an 11y old
4- Doesn't have any generic villain that taunts you through the whole game
5- Doesn't have any "grind" to simply be able to go through a level

GODSOFT is just too damn good.

Souls series xenoblade and ni nokuni and tales i prefer

I'm not talking about genres I am talking about how people compare Japanese and Western games all the time (especially in this board).

I feel like gamers are still stuck in the 80s and 90s with this whole West and Japan categories. In 2017 gaming has become a globalized hobby where there are far more diverse studios from a regional and nationality standpoint. Almost like gamers are stuck in an orientalist/ East vs. West mindset. Nowadays I see more collaborations and publishers from Japan merge with publishers in the "West" (Square-Enix/Eidos and Sega). For example, is a game made in Ukraine a western game? Is a game made in Korea a Japanese game? Does it even matter given how much people are influenced by others with the internet? I doubt AAA devs and indie devs think from an isolationist lens creatively.

Perhaps it is time to get rid of these WRPG and JRPG categories and call them turn based or action rpgs. Then again gamers spent way too much time debating on what an RPG is. Hell I am not even sure after reading paragraphs of people on here.

I can totally understand not liking FF8, but why the hate for FF9? It was totally a return to series' roots.

An RPG from Japan. Which is a dumb way to separate these two things, though the alternative definitions start getting into extra stupid territory. As if the W or the J consistently describes the gameplay, stories, structures, or visual styles of RPGs from either of these two regions. It doesn't. It never has. And what few seemingly distinct aspects there are only continue to blur as time goes on.

Every time I see someone try to describe the supposed differences between the two, (even in this thread), it would be all too easy to list a **** load of examples to the contrary.

Do Japanese RPGs tend to lean towards a different flavor on the whole? Sure. Just as Japanese beat 'em ups do. And fighting games. And horror games. And their rare takes on TPS and FPS. But we don't classify those with J's and W's, even though they're much easier to pin down as such. Why isn't Vanquish a JTPS? Why isn't Guilty Gear a JFG? Whatever.

I think we just need to lose the J and W altogether. Stuff like ARPG and SRPG work because at least they loosely describe broadest idea of how the game plays. Even CRPG, it's kind of dumb when you think about it, (all video game RPGs are technically CRPGs) but at least it does well to describe a specific type of game.

The J and W? It's just one of those dumb things we're stuck with because this industry and its fans are terrible at labeling genres and their multitude of sub-genres. More often than not they're just used as a means of arguing some petty nonsense rather than describing what type of game it is.

Pretty much a JRPG is one that would probably have a Japanese Influence while a WRPG will have a Western Influence.

Though there's that grey area in between where a JRPG style game is made in the west and a WRPG style game is made in Japan.

Really I'm gonna just assume that a JRPG just boils down to an older style of Video Game RPG. (less Baldur's Gate or Elder Scrolls and more Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest)

@Seabas989: A game made in Ukraine is a Ukrainian game. A game that is a western style RPG made in Ukraine is a wrpg from Ukraine. We can debate all day over whether the terms need to be dropped but that's a different argument. It's not the one in the OP and that's the one I'm having.

You just answered your own question

Generally speaking, an automatic ignore. The vast majority are complete trash, thankfully though they never leave Japan's shores.

JRPG is just a bad title. Kingdom Hearts is an action game to me. Final Fantasy is a tactical game. Neither really has any "role playing". Forza, WWE, COD and PES all have stats, exp and growth now, they ain't RPGs either.

Great Story

Great Music

Great characters

RIP good JRPG's SNES-->PS1

Dragon quest 8, and Suikoden 3 were pretty decent on PS2 at least.

PS2 is where final fantasy began going seriously downhill though. :(

An RPG with anime or manga elements made by Japanese developers.

With a peppering of ridiculous hair.

I think the OP's been answered. Great post.