I can’t remember what triggered this, but I felt the need to put in my $0.02 about the ‘great’ JRPG/WRPG debate.
The main argument against JRPGs seems to be ‘They are stagnant, blah blah blah”. SO WHAT? The plot works, and the gameplay is fun. Ya’know? If you don’t like it, then whatever, don’t play them.
On the other hand, (my) argument against WRPGs is that they are stagnant too. ‘Moral Choices’ are boring as fuck. (Especially when the only choice is being ‘THE MOST GOOD’ or being ‘THE WORST THING EVER’.
Also, WRPGs don’t actually exist anymore. There is exactly 1 recent, blockbuster-ish RPG that has come out of a Western company in recent memory.
DARGON AGE.
And it kinda sucked a little. For everything they did right (the dialogue trees, character customization) THEY DECIDED TO TAKE OUT OF THE SEQUEL.
WHAT THE FUCKING SHIT FUCK BIOWARE YOU FUCKING DUMB IDIOTS.
And before you say ‘Mass Effect’! or ‘Fallout 3′! or ‘Oblivion’! or ‘World of Warcraft’!
None of those count.
ME is less of an RPG than it is a shooter, and the sequel is just a sub-par shooter with a large number of boring characters, one genuinely attractive (perhaps not physically, but whatever) character (who would only romance dudes, proving she was more lame than I thought), and about as much RPG as a Coke Zero has sugar.
Fallout 3 was in real time, or in VATS, and then spent mainly in real time.
Oblivion was a watered down Morrowind, with more action and less RPG.
WoW is a m-m-or-ph-guh. (Or MMORPG). RPGs are for a single dude (read: player; not wanting to get attacked by female gamers here) to enjoy on his lonesome. Or something. Apart from that though, it’s good.
That being said, they’re still good games. Just not really RPGs anymore.