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Being used to western rpgs makes enjoying jrpgs harder to me

Nicolada

Member
I dunno, I'm kinda tired of JRPGs too now that I've been playing WRPGs for a while. I feel like I'm mostly just tired of the overused tropes and I really enjoy the wider freedom and exploration in WRPGs. But at the same time I find that JRPGs still make more interesting stories and characters. I wish there would be more blending of the two so I could have games with the best of both worlds. FFXII is the closest I've played in that regard.
 

Brandon F

Well congratulations! You got yourself caught!
I have tried to figure why, and i have realized that one of the main reasons is that secondary quests in JRPGS are often lacking when compared to their western counterparts. A lot of them are mmo designed and involve collectin a certain amount of items, and the writing is not developped. I have read some feedbacks about ff15, and many gamers point out the repetitivty of side quests. I feel those people have probably experienced western rpgs and that their expectations are influenced by that.

FFXV is the exception to the rule here(arguably its barely even a jRPG in the traditional definition outside of sharing a namesake). Do you have any other examples in your sampling pool to prove this rule? There are innumerable examples of classic genre samples that prove this point otherwise. Actually more WRPG's off the top of my head hem far closer to your point than jRPG's.

Certainly many popular jRPG's do tend cater to a younger demographic though. The influences are clear as are the themes and writing, which can hit some heavy themes but often sanitize the script in a way that differs from how WRPG's explore similar subject matter. That does not mean jRPG's are at any fault or worth indicting.

Seems you are merely reaching to offload blame for your own growing disinterest onto the genre grouping itself. ("It's not me, THEY are the ones at fault for not being like this current thing I enjoy!")
 
Jrpgs have a linear story with basically no side quests. That's basically how they are besides collectathons. Side content is usually saved til the end to beat powerful bosses and get the best gear.
That's just how the formula is.
 

Fou-Lu

Member
I greatly prefer JRPGs to WRPGs. Japanese games generally make more unique and interesting design decisions in both gameplay and art (and often in story, even if the actual telling of that story might be weaker). So yes, WRPGs sometimes have better writing, but not often enough for it to make a big difference for me. Oh, and don't even get me started on how much better the music is in JRPGs.

I have to wonder if people just have a harder time recognizing the tropes they grew up with, I constantly see Japanese media accused of reusing the same tropes over and over, but I see the same thing in most western media too. For me it's more about picking the tropes you aren't tired of, or ignoring them if you are.
 

dlauv

Member
I used to prefer JRPGs. There was a time when Japan could do no wrong.

Ever since the end of the PS2 era (and adulthood), they tend to feel severely alien in their story-telling and dialogue. The tropes are all too visible.

I still liked P5, Yakuza and especially Nier:Automata. I really like Souls games. I tend to like western JRPGs though, like Costume Quest and Stick of Truth.

I just feel a little leery calling Yakuza, Nier and Souls JRPGs, because they're ARPGs. Same as Witcher.
 

mebizzle

Member
Outside of Pokemon I have a hard time playing most JRPGs now, they tend to be too linear for my tastes.

I also think that Skyrim has aged poorly and I hated the Witcher 3 even though it literally should be my perfect game so I don't even know.
 

Opa-Pa

Member
Sounds to me like your interests simply don't align with most JRPG sensibilities anymore OP, just... Please don't use FF XV of all things as an example lmao.

I definitely agree that there's too much anime crap in the "JRPG mainstream" nowadays and makes filtering stuff that might interest you pretty difficult. What was the last JRPG you enjoyed? Nice to see you enjoy SMT at least!

Personally I very rarely get interested in WRPGs, mainly due to the more popular ones looking so boring and samey. Witcher III for example I have yet to try, but everything I hear about it makes it sound like an interesting world and story trapped in an okay game.

Xenoblade and its Wii U sequel XBX have a surprisingly garbage combat system from top to bottom, if I've ever seen one.

But there would be plenty of other examples.

There's plenty of JRPGs with bad combat out there, I'm sure, but these don't qualify at all unless you resorted to grinding instead of understanding the mechanics and made it a chore for yourself. Or Xenoblade at least, XBX I haven't played.
 

kiuo

Member
That is a convincing example and in fact every time i am reminded it was made by a japanese studio it is hard for me to realize it, like it is an instance where i could not guess it was made in Japan.

That's simple (for me aleast) Japan just got the better combat, just look at Dragons Dogma compared to a game like Witcher3. Then again Horizon was a pretty good game too, so I guess it depends.

Disagree.

Xb was all about synergy and xbx was about making optimal skell builds.

On the surface they may seem simple, but they are pretty fun once you try to min max

Xb was pretty confusing in the beginning combat-wise but once I started to min max at post game it all clicked as I finally killed those
superbosses
.

But xbx is a whole other issue. The grinding is ridiculous which I could handle but what I couldn't handle was the rng in drops AND randomised stats on those drops. Trying to farm a certain weapon with certain stats was ridiculous. The main reason why I haven't killed
telethia
and pretty much just stopped playing (endgame content-wise).
 

foxuzamaki

Doesn't read OPs, especially not his own
Sounds to me like your interests simply don't align with most JRPG sensibilities anymore OP, just... Please don't use FF XV of all things as an example lmao.

I definitely agree that there's too much anime crap in the "JRPG mainstream" nowadays and makes filtering stuff that might interest you pretty difficult. What was the last JRPG you enjoyed? Nice to see you enjoy SMT at least!

Personally I very rarely get interested in WRPGs, mainly due to the more popular ones looking so boring and samey. Witcher III for example I have yet to try, but everything I hear about it makes it sound like an interesting world and story trapped in an okay game.



There's plenty of JRPGs with bad combat out there, I'm sure, but these don't qualify at all unless you resorted to grinding instead of understanding the mechanics and made it a chore for yourself. Or Xenoblade at least, XBX I haven't played.

XBX cranks the mechanics of the OG up to 11, its kinda insane, has allooooot of ingredients that alot of people dont know what to do with but when you find your preference, baby you got a stew going!
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
I am directly the opposite to you, OP.

Same. Im currently playing DQ8 and i having absolute blast with this game and by comparison Horizon was such bore to play. They couldn't have chosen most boring way to to do open world game and none of the characters has any charm especially compare to games like Nier Automata and DQ8. heck, I love jackass in Nier automata more all the characters in Horizon combine.

After I'm done with DQ8 I'm planing to trade off Horizon for DQVII. Horizon Zero Dawn was first WRPG and my last. That are not just my type of game.
 
Funny because it's the other way around for me. I get derailed so easily in so many WRPGs, specifically open ones that I end up never finishing them.
 

joe2187

Banned
I used to be the opposite.

Then WRPGs (Bioware) decided they dont know how to handle their own games and I moved on, Witcher 1 and 2's combat immediately turned me off from the very first click and soured me on the whole franchise.

Then I played Dragons Dogma and I became The Dangan.
 

T.O.P

Banned
I'm on the same boat, was huge on Jrpgs when i was a teen but as soon as i started playing stuff like Mass Effect / Dragon Age /Fallout i lost all interest in them

Then Witcher 3 came and it was the coup de grâce

I tried playing stuff like FFXV, Persona 5 and XCX but they all bored me to tears
 

aravuus

Member
XBX cranks the mechanics of the OG up to 11, its kinda insane, has allooooot of ingredients that alot of people dont know what to do with but when you find your preference, baby you got a stew going!

XBX's combat was addictive as fuck. Managed to put almost 100 hours into the game thanks to the combat and exploration alone.

Shame XB2 is seriously dialing back the insane amount of systems and sub-systems.

I kind of go back and forth between JRPGs and WRPGs. I've started finding many anime tropes increasingly annoying and dumb over the recent years so I've started to lean towards WRPGs more, but I still play a good amount of JRPGs too. Just not nearly as much as I used to.
 

kagamin

Member
It's kinda weird, I like both but I find it harder to make an exact distinction because some games from both sides I like, and others I'd rather ignore, KOTOR2 for example is an absolutely amazing game I played when I was younger and probably my favorite WRPG that I try to play every other year, Mass Effect isn't really a straight RPG series much anymore but I did enjoy the original game. Conversely, I just finished The Legened of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC and thought it was absolutely wonderful as well. I guess my tastes are just pretty varied and I can enjoy most games that have good story, good world building, or good gameplay.
 
For me its hard to go back to JRPGs too. I find hard to get invested in their worlds, in my experience feel to unbelievable, overall I find JRPGs to fantastic. I wish more Japanese RPG developers to make games beyond the anime aesthetics, which I'd some of the main reasons that takes me away from those games.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
For me its hard to go back to JRPGs too. I find hard to get invested in their worlds, in my experience feel to unbelievable, overall I find JRPGs to fantastic. I wish more Japanese RPG developers to make games beyond the anime aesthetics, which I'd some of the main reasons that takes me away from those games.

I don't understand what do u mean by this. If u are saying u want JRPG more realistic graphics, I would say FUUUUUUK NO!!! I like Souls games but there is no fucking way I want every JRPG to look llike that.

I dont want to lose this.
Dragon-Quest-XI_2016_12-26-16_001.jpg

30575856564_b8eb7dbc41_z.jpg

Persona5_PS34_thumb.jpg

nier-automata-screenshot-12.jpg


If u want more realistic graphics in your RPG the thats what WRPG are for.
 

Violet_0

Banned
I can't do it either. Though I hardly ever played typical turn-based JRPGs. For reference, Terranigma and Seiken Densetsu 3 are the goat SNES RPGs. I think the best Final Fantasy game is either Tactics or Crystal Bearers and I didn't play any of the others for more than an hour or two. As a kid I played BG2, Morrowind, Gothic 2 and HoMM and I bought my first Playstation console just a little more than a month ago, so that might explain some of it

nowadays I find Pokemon to be stupid and I can only really stand some of the Tales games (Symphonia and Abyss)
 

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
For jrpgs i only like snes 16 bit ones.
Not even ps1.

Modern jrpgs are just not my cup of tea.
Heck i thought dragon quest 8 was boring as hell
 

fireflame

Member
I could also quote Xenoblade for having a lot of rinse and repeat secondary quests. There were so many quests about picking specific items ,components,killing a specific amoiunt of wolves, dinosaurs,etc.

I see that people quoted Dragon Dogma, i do not have good memories about this game, perhaps because i played as a caster, and i found quests in this one very generic too. It looks like a western jrpg, but you can "feel" it was made by capcom, and secondary characters are not developed either, so it ends up being a rpg that looks like a western RPG but has plenty of flaws.(generic side quests, secondary characters thta have no real personality,etc.

As for the anime looking part that is of course very subjective, I get that this design is very popular, especially in Japan,, maybe it is a case of "realism vs whimsical design".
 
I had this issue with going from Horizon Zero Dawn to FF15.

I loved everything about Horizon from the world, story, Aloy, combat etc so soon as i finished it i wanted another big game to play and dived into FF15.

I've quit at chapter 3 and looking to sell the game as its a struggle to enjoy anything about it after coming from HZD.
 

Kuosi

Member
Used to play a lot of jrpg's back in the day but way less these days, Persona 5 is brilliant but someone would have to pay me to play DQ or FF XV
 
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