RPGs perhaps my personal favorite genre and one that is beloved by many others on this board. However it's also a genre that has become very broad and are now home to games that can be quite different compared to eachother such as in the case of wRPGs vs jRPGs. With the jRPG sub genre making RPGs a main stream success hosting many beloved franchises spanning over several console generations like Final Fantasy, Persona even the hugely succesful Pokemon. Often having an anime inspired artstyle and turn based combat being common. Western RPGs were for some time largely overshadowed by these and mostly only a few lesser known PC gems existed like Baldurs Gate. Now they have gained much more mainstream prominence often featuring open worlds and choose your own path gameplay  with franchises like The Elder Scrolls, The Witcher, Mass Effect and Dragon Age among others.

So which sub genre of RPG are you usually more drawn to?

I find myself split a lot of the time. Pokemon SoulSilver, Wild Arms 3, Tales of Legendia (yes I enjoyed that game ) and Suikoden 5 are home to some of my best and most nostalgic gaming memories and were a big part of my childhood. Right now I'm also anxiously awaiting games like Persona 5 and Odin Sphere Leifthrasir. But the same can be said when I later got into games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dragon Age: Origins and The Witcher III: Wild Hunt (which I'm still in the process of playing). Overall there are many games from both sub genres that I thoroughly enjoy so I can't really pick a side.

Enough about me though, I'm interested to hear what you all have to say on this

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Juliaisme123 : I have noticed plots in jRPGs tend to be more focused in their narrative which is likely made possible by the gameplay most of the time being less open ended. I usually prefer the overarching plot in jRPGs with some exceptions but I think there are some wRPGs that feature great storytelling like The Witcher series or Mass Effect like you said.

What I think a lot wRPGs do better than most jRPGs from a narrative point is world building which I really haven't seen in the same way in most jRPGs. I think Skyrim is a great example of this. The overrarching plot wasn't that memorable or well told but the great world building made it so one could really get immersed into the world of Tamriel with all the lore and the different side quests you could do and different buildings and locations.

You could see a fight between two people and choose to ignore it or interrupt and start an entirely new questline about two long running families who are feuding. You could pick up a book from a store that could've easily been missed otherwise. Read it and it tells a tale about a warrior who had a powerful weapon. Then you'd get a quest and you could go and challenge him for that weapon.

That made the world feel like an actual living place that I find is rare to see in jRPGs. That sort of organic story telling. Many of them also do feature great characters though they may not be expanded as much upon as in a jRPG which I'd guess have less but more detailed characters most of the time.

Also the Souls games are technically jRPGs since they were made by a japanese developer even if they aren't exactly what you'd think of when talking about jRPGs in a traditional sense. I find those to be great as well though the gameplay and aesthetics is mostly what makes them stand out.

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Juliaisme123 : I find the artstyle to be mixed, at face value they do resemble that of a wRPG more but once I played them for a while I started to notice that there were a lot of asian influences. Either way I go based on where the developer is from so I consider them to be jRPGs if any of them.

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Eirinn : You make a good point though I do think there are some wRPGs exist with good overarching stories like the Witcher games. Like I said in another post I think what I like about wRPGs more than jRPGs is that while usually less focused in terms of story they seem to do a better job of immersing me and making the game world come alive because of the nature of the game. Often like in the case with games like Skyrim and Witcher 3 which features more organic story telling in the form of side quests which trigger through regular interactions or that allows you to learn more about the world and the people who live there. Ironically that is likely why the overall story often falters in many wRPGs like Skyrim because not as much focus is placed on it compared to your standard jRPG which is often entirely driven by it.

Of course now the terms have become so broad and gaming so widespread that there are games that are technically jRPGs or wRPGs but often feel more like the other, for example the Souls series. So in truth of course you can't really stick every jRPG or wRPG under one label anymore but it is talking about it more generally and what we most commonly see from those sub genres.

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