American Or Japanese RPGs?

[Jamcat]

Ok, this is kind of a sub question to my other topic of "What Are Your Favorite Computer RPGs?"

What do you like better... American or Japanese RPGs?

I myself like American RPGs because they are closer to the stat-based D&D style of play. Games from SSI are a perfect of this. As well as Telengard from Avalon Hill, and the Temple of Apshai series from Epyx. Plus I like American RPGs because they don't bog down with a back story or character history. You are given a quest, such as kill the dragon and save the princess, and that was that. You hacked & slashed your way through the dungeon until you were either killed, or finished your quest.

The trouble with Japanese RPGs is I find them to be too soap opera-ish. I don't care to know that the reason for the character going on the quest is to avenge the death of his pet hamster. Or that he has conflicting love interests. But he can never take a lover because he is cursed with erectile dysfunction. Point is, I find all that back story and character background too much.

[Plunder Down-Under]

I dont care where its from, most american rpg's are terrible. And most japanese ones are just as bad. But there are plenty that are great among both.

If i was forced to choose or have my family eaten I'd go with japanese, sure its gun to midlessly kill everything you're told to. But I prefer a story that i can emphasise with the hero and occasionally the enemy.

[Sehson]

In the older days of computer RPGs it didn't matter where it was from the Story was being told because you didn't have room for all sorts of extranious crap.

Now American RPGs still tend to have the story tied into even the side quests, but the japanese RPGs tend to have turned into MINI-game quest more then anything else. Simply because of the whole Oh gee we have an extra XXXXmbs on the disk lets fill it with yet another useless mini-game that has absolutley nothing to do with the story but must be played to get some useless item which is still a key item needed to complete the game.

Give me a good RPG and I'm happy, don't care who made it or if it has side quests or mini games, as long as the side quests and mini games can advance the story, give USEFUL items and are actually doable by someone that isn't a 16 yrold japanese kid with a controller cybernetically embeded into his skull.

[sableagle]

You know that one that plays the same damn music the whole time your room-mate's walking his little group around, and then the same OMG COMBAT theme when something gets in the way, and everything takes turns hitting each other and every five-minute chunk of game-play is interrupted by half an hour of video?

Not that one.

[Plunder Down-Under]

What rpg's arent turn based?

[sableagle]

I was referring to the Final Fantasy thing where everyone else stands still while character 1 walks forwards, makes an attack and returns to his position, then everyone else stands still while character 2 walks forwards, makes an attack and returns to her position, then everyone else stands still while enemy 1 walks forwards, makes an attack and returns to its position.

If it's on a computer it shouldn't be hard to make them actually react to each other. Even table-top we had dodge, one sensible werewolf intercepting one angry werewolf mid-charge, quick reflexes allowing a martial artist to nail someone in the side of the head while that someone was still trying to attack, car chases, air combat and the incredibly sophisticated option of disengaging from an enemy.

In Werewolf, one wolf dashes through the running mob, jumps onto their truck, wipes out the gunner, yanks the MG off its mount and turns it on the other vehicle while the rest of the pack are trying to break up the front line. In FF you can't have a running mob. You have a static mob, from which one person at a time advances to take a single swing with a bat or throw a single brick. I still believe that the Cadillacs and Dinosaurs arcade game more accurately portrayed combat than FF ever did ... and with fewer annoying repeating OMGWTFCOMBAT! sound effects.

[Plunder Down-Under]

They do dodge miss intercept in final fantasy, they arent really just standing there fighting its just how the fight is shown to us. In the final fantasy universe they'd all be moving around, it has most of the variables of movement it just doesnt physically show it. Kind of like table top games, you can just look at the still figures or you can imagine the fight.

I think its kinda dumb to advocate a table top game over final fantasy because they dont move... They dont move in table top either. Its contextually the same.

[Jamcat]

I never cared for the Final Fantasy series. The first game on the NES bored the hell out of me. And what I hated most about it was that you couldn't walk a couple steps before running into another monster encounter.

The only thing I liked about Final Fantasy was the movie. And I loved it for the main reason why everybody hated it... It had nothing to do with the RPG games.

[Plunder Down-Under]

Spirits withing or Advent Children?

I liked them both but i dont see why Spirits Within was a Final Fantasy movie as oposed to being its own film

[Jamcat]

Spirits withing or Advent Children?

I liked them both but i dont see why Spirits Within was a Final Fantasy movie as oposed to being its own film

Oh, Spirits Within.

Now if only the Final Fantasy games were more sci-fi in nature like Spirits Within.

I know Final Fantasy 6 on the GBA has magic mixed with tech, but I think that was more steampunk-ish.

[LegacyTyphoon]

When I want something (sometimes) more serious I go for American RPGs ala Monkey Defect (Mass Effect), Bladder's (Baldur's) Gate, Oblivious (this one should be obvious...), etc...
If I want something more light-hearted or just entirely over-dramatic or like a monkey hopped up on crack, I go for the Japanese RPGs...ala Grandia, Final Fantasy (The FF series is great for those totally whiney, girly-men who wear leather and are the whole loner/depressed monkey-boy characters...I can only take so much of this...), Threads of Fate, Persona 2, etc...

[Mike Taylor]

What rpg's arent turn based?

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic comes to mind.

[Sehson]

there's a bunch of real-time based RPGs where if you don't want your ass kicked all over you have to pause the game to give the chars commands.

I'm looking forward to "THE FORCE UNLEASHED"

when it finally comes out on PC..

[LegacyTyphoon]

Is the Force Unleashed going to be an RPG?

[Mike Taylor]

Is the Force Unleashed going to be an RPG?

Yes it is.

[Jamcat]

The best non turn-based action RPG I've played on the computer was Darkstone.

I did like that the dungeons in the game were randomly generated each time you started a new game. But the downside was that the goals of the quests never changed. So that limited it's replay value.

[Uilleand]

*Canadian* RPG's FTW!! *grin* NWN, KotOR, Jade Empire and Mass Effect ... well, everything by BioWare, actually...
ANd KotOR *is* very definitely turn-based. Pause, choose all your actions (for 3 or 4 turns, anyway) and sit back and watch. That's turn-based.
Mass Effect and Jade Empire are not...