I don't get how Bethesda RPGs can come close to what a tabletop RPG is either. They're very similar to JRPGs, no matter how you look at it. BTW, Bethesda's main stories are terrible, they shouldn't be calling out JRPGs in general.

TSNAKE617

WRPG's always try to recreate tabletop because thats where the genre started. Japan doesnt get this, at all.

You get to create your own character. How they look and their attributes. Your own ROLE. JRPG's force you to play as a predetermined character, and if youre lucky you get to change their name.

Youre not forced to follow the main storyline. You can play for over 50 hours without touching a single storyline mission. You can go anywhere and create your own story. The whole point of Role Playing is doing what you want on youre own. Not letting the game force you to go in a direction or force a decision.

Japan is litterally oblivious to what a real RPG is about. They (people and developers) just saw how massivly popular DQ was and just went along with it thinking "ok thats an RPG, lets copy rinse repeat for 20 years" without taking any effort wondering about the history of the genre. To show you how out of touch Japan is Square Enix said Hitman and Tomb Raider are western RPG's. Look it up, its hilarious..