What defines an RPG as "Eastern" or "Western" anyway?

Seriously guys, this is driving me up the wall.

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.

Where it was made.

Oh no, not this freaking thread again.

I personally don't care, I'll just call them all RPGs and be done with it.

^That can work as well.

edited 13th Jul '11 12:15:13 AM by RocketDude

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Well, yeah. Thats what I thought. But apparently there are differences between the styles as well. Our trope page for Eastern RPG defines an Eastern RPG as one with a pre-made set of characters. (What you think of when you hear the words JRPG.) While I'm guessing Western RP Gs have more flexibility or even an outright blank slate.

Ah, sod. This is common ground for arguing?

edited 13th Jul '11 12:16:40 AM by GameChainsaw

The term "Great Man" is disturbingly interchangeable with "mass murderer" in history books.

^We've had this topic come up before multiple times.

"Hipsters: the most dangerous gang in the US." - Pacific Mackerel

Eastern RP Gs have characters with gravity-defying hairstyles. Duh.

But more accurately: Most Eastern RP Gs don't let you actually determine the main character's personality, and all cutscenes follow one straight path, whereas most Western RP Gs let you choose dialogue from a tree, and scenes can go a number of ways.

I still considering them both the same genre, though I understand why people feel the need to state their preference of one or the other.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

Well, they're both RPG's. But I'd say the major difference is customization is more apparent in WRPG's instead.(no, I don't mean equipment, I mean more than just that) Quest 64 is a good example of a Western RPG. There is no equipment. The thing is, while the path is pretty damn linear, everything about levels up are purely your choice. You train everything yourself.

Eastern RPG's don't give you that choice very often. It does happen, but most of the time, you have a setup of stats that go up based off of your character, sometimes certain equipment(whether sentient equipment or not)

Quest 64 thread

They're two ill-ly defined sub-genres of an equally ill-ly defined genre of games, that happen to share certain characteristics with each other, though none of these characteristics in and of themselves, determin their nature as an RPG, J or otherwise.

They're shaped like themselves.

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Eastern RP Gs very rarely let you make storyline choices. They're generally incredibly linear, with you being forced to play as a prebuilt character without you being able to choose their dialogue choices. Although this is in more of the general assumption than the previous, they tend to focus on teenaged characters, and usually take place in fantasy worlds, as compared to sci-fi or other genres.

Western RP Gs place a very large focus on player interaction. Beyond simple things like choosing your character's appearance or skills, western RP Gs often let you define your character's entire moral stances and dialogue choices, allowing for character to behave the way the player would want them to. However, the vast majority of WRP Gs these days have fallen victim to the Bioware plague of faux-interactivity and awful "save these kids or eat this kitten" moral choice systems, which makes me quite a sad panda.

Je Suis "Aware"

What about Strange Journey? Fantasy environment, check. Moral choices, check. Different endings, check. Unamed, undefined protagonist whose stats you can alter, check. WRPG... not check. It's made by Shin Megami Tensei.

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You can add SMT: Devil Survivor there as well. I guess those games are the exceptions rather than the rule.

The main difference between Eastern RP Gs and Western RP Gs is whether or not you can kill random townspeople.

Shin Megami Tensei (bar DDS), occupies the Void Between Dimensions with Planescape Torment.

one has spiky hair and big swords while the other has only big swords

This level of trolling is reasonable for Commander Obvious. What do you think of this, everyone?

There's exceptions to every rule. Anachronox is a linear game with pre-definited characters, turn-based combat, and little in the way of dialogue choices besides "Tell me more about ____", but it's a WRPG.

Je Suis "Aware"

Nah, Anachronox was always meant to emulate jRPGs.

@Travis Bickle: Well, implementing good moral system or choices with real diverging consequence will be a pain with what is expected from the game right now (good graphics, VA, that kind of stuff...)

Devil Survivor and Strange Journey is easier to implement because there's less to implement (mostly text, graphics is mainly with limited amount of character portrait and sprites...)...SJ at least have a choice that only determines your alignment and have no real consequence what's the difference between killing Captain Jack or sing the song thing at him......until you reach Sector 7 I think...DS is a bit better from what I've heard though...

edited 13th Jul '11 1:43:52 AM by onyhow

Give me cute or give me...something?

De Su is a lot more into the C&C.

Except rules like "What Defines A Western/Eastern RPG?" don't work that way. The rule is either incorrect, limited, or true. In which case Strange Journey and Persona4 and so on are all Western RP Gs.

Which, but any working definition of the terms, they cannot be.

edited 13th Jul '11 1:45:41 AM by Nicknacks

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From what I can tell.......generally....

Eastern is often more fantastic, and often have lots of weapons that are completely made up(Keyblade). More attention is paid on the character's appearance, so they generally put an effort into the character's outfits and faces. Generally edging towards what looks better rather than what looks realistic(or what people think is realistic). There are more flashy attacks, both spells and warrior attacks.

Western is often less fantastic. All the weapons are what the developers assume is realistic for that setting, so you'll rarely see weapons that runs on Rule of Cool(like whip-swords), and mostly see sword, axe, bow, etc. Not as much attention is paid to outfits of the characters, and they often ATTEMPT at making their faces look realistic rather than making them look good. Some spells can be pretty flasy(the "Weird" spell in NWN), but attacks from non-mages tend to be vanilla looking.

In terms of gameplay....both sides take a lot of ideas from each other. And even worse, WRP Gs are VERY different from what they were in the past. So it's a bit more difficult to compare JRPG and WRP Gs...because there would be a 3rd category, old WRP Gs.

edited 13th Jul '11 2:32:14 AM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

That applies to every work of fiction though, nothing to do with jRPG vs wRPG, just art style...

edited 13th Jul '11 2:32:04 AM by deuxhero

Art style gives the games flavor and atmosphere.

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

But not gameplay (Well, unless it's Epic Yarn or Okami...)

I think it's more of a "you'll know it when you see it" kind of thing.

360 Gamertag: Electivirus. 3DS friend code: 5412-9983-8497. PSN ID: Electivirus. PM me if you add me on any.

Oh, and maybe it's just my general lack of even experience of both sides...but I've noticed that Eastern RP Gs, in fact, their games in general, are a lot more likely to us Corrupt Church very reminiscent of christianity, as villains. Making their god as either a tyrant or just a being humanity no longer needs.

Western RP Gs generally fight evil cultists fighting evil gods/demons(which Eastern RP Gs do a lot too).

Of course, it could be different now...I haven't been keeping up too much since I give up on most WRPG after I get bored...so I rarely beat them. But there are still quite a few JRP Gs that does the whole "obvious expy of Real Life christians" as villains thing...without calling them christians.

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."