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The X Button - Cavalry Call

and the news that Suikoden II might finally arrive on the PLAYSTATION Network over here

To this day, you'll see nerds use “Japanese storytelling” as shorthand for the clichés and melodrama of video games, as though the nation's literary methods go no further than Atelier Iris 3.

The Endlessly Annoying JRPG/WRPG Debate: I find the divided debate about what constitutes either/or to be quite laughable at this stage. I'm glad I've always stayed out of these discussions. While these nerds, who delude themselves into thinking they are so-called "experts" on the differences between the terms "JRPG" and "WRPG", are busy wasting energy arguing about why "anime style RPGs are a genre within a genre" (I'm seriously not making this up), I'll happily be playing those games they so despise. People just can't learn to enjoy things without stirring up some kind of idiot storm I suppose.

Heh, I was playing RPG even before there was anything that could be called J-RPG or W-RPG.

In all honesty, the term "JRPG" comes off as borderline xenophobic at times. Like if people label it as a JRPG then they're able separate it from stuff like Baldur's Gate or Ultima, thus making JRPG's not REAL RPGs. It's a bit disgusting and I'd wish people would just drop the term already.

I don't really see the problem or why people need to rock the boat. Jrpgs are Japanese RPGs. It's as simple as that and should be left at that.

The Endlessly Annoying JRPG/WRPG Debate: I find the divided debate about what constitutes either/or to be quite laughable at this stage. I'm glad I've always stayed out of these discussions. While these nerds, who delude themselves into thinking they are so-called "experts" on the differences between the terms "JRPG" and "WRPG", are busy wasting energy arguing about why "anime style RPGs are a genre within a genre" (I'm seriously not making this up), I'll happily be playing those games they so despise. People just can't learn to enjoy things without stirring up some kind of idiot storm I suppose

Typical stupid and ignorant nerds. Atelier Iris 3 is just too beyond them I guess (really, the game's story is not that melodramatic); that, and the likely fact they never played it and are just naming a random example off the top of their heads.

Japanese RPGs are from Japan. Western RPGs are from the west. Seems pretty self explanatory to me What's hard for people to get?

Japanese RPGs are from Japan. Western RPGs are from the west. Seems pretty self explanatory to me What's hard for people to get?

The Atelier series is one of my favorite It's so somber and laid back it's unlike most other RPGs. I'm having a blast in Escha and Logy which is mainly about adjusting to your new life in a small town and building up friendships with your co-workers. Very laid back and comfy. I just sit in the Atelier all day making Apple Pies and stacks of Pancakes and fulfilling requests of the townspeople who need me to make them stuff. Oh sure, there's some business about mysterious floating ruins, but the journey to explore them is fun in itself of trying to prove your small little village is capable of doing it on its own. Very low-stakes game which is the charm of it. Comfy comfy!

Oh, we get it. And it's freaking STUPID. As noted, the term didn't even really start popping up until a little less than a decade ago. And why did it pop up in the first place? Because we needed an indicator because people aren't smart to differentiate between Japanese and Western? No, if anything it was used solely as a pejorative in an effort to try and separate the West from the East for arbitrary reasons. I don't get WHY people suddenly because so xenophobic, but that's kinda what happened.

But yeah, there's definitely some hostilities there now I see from time to time, but I tend to avoid those for the most part. It might be the casual fans who probably never liked Japanese RPGs to begin with though who got into RPGs through Mass Effect and other big western titles.. 2007 was the big year gaming became mainstream and a bunch of new people got into it who maybe only play the mainstream stuff.

The term JRPG exists for the same reason any genre label exists: Because JRPGs are, generally speaking, fairly distinct from western RPGs. It's only a pejorative if you use it as such. With a lot of essentially "western" stuff like Dark Souls or Dragon's Dogma coming out of Japan lately, we could certainly use a descriptor that captures that distinction between the more traditionally Japanese RPGs and the more traditionally western without actually designating a specific country of origin. Although, I'm not sure what that term would actually be.