The term JRPG

[Mr Jt (Gog is king)]

So i saw an article where square actually says that they consider their games as rpgs and not jrpgs and that the term actually hurts. I think jrpgs are usually different than western rpgs so i think the term is right. Western rpgs is also a common term and i don’t see anything bad with it. Final fantasy sp games are just movie games with a skill system now and thats it. What do you think?

[GlaceonChireiden]

Square dislikes the term JRPG since its creation has negative connotations to it. Nowadays, JRPG just means "A Role Playing Game with Japanese influence". Back then, it meant the same thing but in a much more disrespectful undertone to it.

It isn't the equivalent of a slur, but I can't really think of a better word to describe how japanese companies like Square felt when they saw their games described with a JRPG which again at the time, was a negative word to use when describing a game. Think like how "woke" is used in a negative sense to describe a game, that's how Square used to see the term JRPG.

We don't call Western RPGs WRPGS that much, they're just RPGs. That's the same in Japan, to them JRPG is just RPG. JRPG is a term made up by the west to set their RPGs apart from the wests RPGs.

I hate the word RPG now. I hate capitals.

If we're also describing personal definitions, my definition for "JRPG" is anything similar in structure to Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. A small party of members, usually turn based where your attacks are from a menu. Even if it isn't japanese, I consider Deltarune/Undertale to be a JRPG despite both being western games.
RPG would be stuff like Dark Souls or Fallout. Games with a bit more freedom of movement, I guess.

[Lune]

Game's made in Japan = jrpgs
Game's made in western countries = rpgs

This is just my perspective

[Chill-Out-Zone]

Game's made in Japan = RPG
Game's made in western countries = RPG

[Q-T_3.14.exe]

Originally posted by 8bitter:

Game's made in Japan = jrpgs
Game's made in western countries = rpgs

This is just my perspective

Originally posted by Chill-Out-Zone:

Game's made in Japan = RPG
Game's made in western countries = RPG

These make the most sense to me. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

[Holografix]

games made in countries = games

secondary classification based on genre: who cares

but if you care:
rpg
fps
sports
3rd person

[Lilly]

Huh. I always thought jrpg referred to the turn based kinda line battles of like old school final fantasy, as opposed to like western rpgs being the more strategy heavy kinda baldur's gate stuff. I never thought of it has having a negative connotation instead I thought it was giving credit to Japan for their popularizing the style.

[Chris]

They are making jrpgs. If they dont like it they can do something else

[Z i o ⚡]

Originally posted by Falloutboy:

They are making jrpgs. If they dont like it they can do something else

Like not be Japanese and make RPGs.

[permanent name]

Enix favors JRPG as it allows them a more defined market niche which they have control of. This allows them to use this market as a base to invest in ‘RPG’ development such as the newer Deus Ex games.

Before the Squeenix merger Square was rather vocal about disfavoring the term, feeling it was a form of toonamization which undermined the value of Japanese games as a whole. It encouraged the perception of Japan as an exporter of novelty series which the average person does not care much about. Save for obsessives and other kinds of neurotic peoples. In other words, a second rate country whose goods exist at the behest of charity and undesirables.

Square’s difficulty remaining financially soluble, and acquisition in a deal Sony brokered, mirrors the acquisition of Origin Software by Electronic Arts. The same form of destructive and cutthroat marketing and competition was used as well. Many companies in Japan find themselves sold off to Yakuza.

Enix’s reasoning allowed them to remain solvent in a market which favored a dual purpose identity within Japan. But the attempts to have things both ways has been difficult, and is one of the major problems Japan has faced for a while. The attempt to unify Squeenix under a single banner has been mixed, essentially alienating the old order and turning the companies themselves into market puppets in a small pond rather than market leaders who compete with the world.

[Good Night Owl]

To me, RPG and JRPG are the same genre, just one deriving from another culture.

[gugnihr]

Square in my opinion is the very definition of jrpgs. Personally I don't even consider jrpgs as a different genre, they are just rpgs made by people who do not know how to make rpgs, or made by people who wants to make a rpg but don't actually want to make a rpg.
Jrpgs are rpgs, but bad, and lacking most of the things that should be in a rpg. So I can understand why that term hurts their feelings.

[sleeps]

Jrpg is rpg but bad? So it means janky roleplay games? And not japanese roleplay games?

[Q-T_3.14.exe]

Aren't all games RPGs because you control a character and you go from level to level in their shoes? 🤔

[gugnihr]

Originally posted by Q-T_3.14.exe:

Aren't all games RPGs because you control a character and you go from level to level in their shoes? 🤔

RPG games should let you create your own character, decide what to do, decide what to not do, give you many side activities, not force you to stop playing once you get to the end of the main quest (assuming there is a main quest)

Square forces you to play as predetermined characters (but sometimes you can change their name! Wow, amazing!!!), they force you to strictly follow their story exactly as they conceived it and, besides optional grinding, you must do exactly what they decided that you must do in order to advance.
RPG makers are ambitious and generous people who want to give you a tool to create your own stories and your own digital life inside their sandbox. Square are egocentric people who want you to follow their fantasies exactly as they conceived them in games that, in most cases, are extremely less interactive than most other games, in general, not just rpgs. Jrpgs in most cases are in the middle between a normal game and a visual novel in terms of interactivity. And, to "improve" this, instead of giving you actual fun interaction with the environment Square usually puts obnoxious QTEs in their battle systems that strongly put anyone who id not a bot created to win them at a serious disadvantage, or find other ways to pointlessly make the battle system overly complicated to give you the illusion that there is more interactivity while you still can't do anything meaningful in the game besides following exactly what they wanted you to do and talking with stupid npcs that repeats the same prhase over and over again every time you talk with them.

[steven1mac]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smOfbFspijU&pp=ygUYanJwZyB2aXZhIGxhIGRpcnQgbGVhZ3Vl