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Is it really a jrpg if I, a westerner, make it?
Yes! JRPGs aren’t defined by the country of origin… that’s where the style originated, hence the name, but really, the difference between a JRPG and a Western RPG is the narrative style.
In JRPGs, the story is pre-written, and you play as one of the protagonists, experiencing the story through them. The story beats are pre-written, the avenue from start to finish is linked by immutable progression points, and the player doesn’t have much influence on the story itself, rather they are mostly an observer. See: Final Fantasy, for example.
In Western RPGs, the player typically chooses their own path, and while there is usually an underlying narrative to follow, what the player’s character is like, how they act, and what they do is typically up to the player. Note that this doesn’t require it to be an open-world game; Mass Effect is a good example - there’s a clear start, middle and end point, but the player’s character is their own to define, not something that has been pre-written with a pre-defined personality. See: Elder Scrolls games, for example.
Although, some JRPGs allow for some decision on parts of the game allowing for multiple endings. So it’s not set in stone.
It’s more that the character you’re playing is a pre-written one with a set personality. You don’t create the character, you play the character the writers provided. You don’t define their morals, their morals are written into the story. You can’t play Final Fantasy 7 and decide to side with Sephiroth, nor can you play Lost Odyssey and come to the conclusion that Gongora’s viewpoint is the correct one.
There is more to it than that since by that logic The Witcher series is a JRPG and the Dragon’s Dogma is a western RPG.
As with trying to categorize any media into genres, there is a lot of gray areas and overlap.
What about Dragon’s Dogma?
I wouldn’t call Dragon’s Dogma a JRPG… it’s closer to being an action RPG or a hunting game, whatever that genre is even called. Taken literally, it’s an RPG with Japanese origin, but I think if someone is asking, “Hey, can you recommend me a JRPG?” and you said “Dragon’s Dogma”, it would not be what they were looking for.
so which one does undertale fall more into? i thought it’s more similar to jrpgs but it doesn’t really comply with the ‘not much influence on the story’ thing
Undertale is a weird one; it’s probably a jrpg, by this definition. I get what you’re saying, but there’s really just 3 paths through the story; you don’t have any real influence over what happens on each path aside from choosing which one to follow. There’s no dialog trees or decisions to make (aside from, obviously, which ending you’re pursuing), and character interactions are handled via static dialog or cutscenes. It feels like there’s a lot of player agency but in reality, you’re either completing a checklist for ending A, completing a checklist for ending B, or you’re getting ending C.
Which one would Witcher 1 be? Gerald is pre-written but has amnesia so might as well be a blank slate. You can make choices that influence the story but what you choose doesn’t matter in the big picture, and the game heavily leads you with how witchers are supposed to act
Given the general freedom and dialog trees, I think Witcher falls pretty cleanly into WRPG. You’re not going through character creation, but you do get to define his morals and behavior. The Witcher games do tell you how a Witcher is supposed to act, but they also put you in situations where it’s pretty unambiguous that the morally correct choice would require going against those guidelines. For example, you take and complete a job for a very poor character and their offered payment would clearly mean major hardship for them. The Witcher’s code dictates that a Witcher must always be paid for a job, but the game still gives you the choice to decline.
If it was a JRPG (by my definition above, which I will admit may not be wholly complete or fit every use case, but is more of a ‘general rule’ thing), if Witcher started and ended every quest with a cutscene where you could not interact at all, and the player was only given agency to execute the quest, it’d be closer to a JRPG.
Just a little correction: Western RPGs are called CRPGs. While JRPGs were huge on game consoles, most western devs were making RPGs on the Computer.
Fair enough! I always thought of CRPGs as things like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale and Planescape: Torment - does the term encompass things like Morrowind too?
I would say yes for Morrowind. Oblivion, Skyrim and their Fallout games would be action rpg.
