I don't have a type of RPG. I either like it or I don't. Where it came from and what the chars look like play no roll in it for me. I want solid gameplay with a good-great story (that include character development). Graphics are somewhat important, but it doesn't have to be the best looking game on the block.
The ones that allow for "role-playing" and have immersive stories and atmospheres. I don't like the one's that force you down a set path with overly cliched characters spouting overly cliched one-liners. i.e. Final Fantasy.
I like WRPGs and JRPGs pretty much equally, they just have to be interesting and have enough "role-playing" in them for me to enjoy them.
Games like Persona 3 interest me because they are more than just "you are a hero here to save the world from an ultimate evil" like the Final Fantasy games and other JRPG's. They actually do something that set them apart from the overly cliched JRPG genre. That's why I love Atlus.
TBH there are several things I strongly dislike about WRPG's.
1. Reliance on age old DnD rules. This is really annoying because these rules are obscure and not explained. Game tutorials explain how to talk to someone (duh) but not what critical threat 19-20x1d20 or some such nonesense means. nfact it seems most people play ignoring all this stuff. To me, if I can't understand how everything in the game is working then I can't play it tactically which defeats the point of playing properly. It's like playing a fighting game only to button bash...sure you could, but where is the gratification?
2. Self-steered stories come with a major trade-off. They dilute focus on the main quest...in fact I would argue that many WRPG's actually have little or not narrative at all, instead of having an overarcing story that is complex it tends to be quite simple and the game ends up being a series of events that the player passes through rather than one cohesive narrative. To put it simply; if you were to ask someone what a WRPG was about you'd find the story could normally be summed up very simply in a sentence or two. Whereas for a JRPG the narrative is progressive so you sort of have to delve into what happens during the games events to explain it rather than just the premise and ending (or at least you have to explain from the point where the plottwists have resolved themselves). To me this trade-off isn't really worth my time.
There are exceptions to these rules (The Witcher/Deus Ex) and I love those games all the more for it.
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