Your pick - Japanese RPGs (JRPGs) or Western RPGs (WRPGs)

[sharkey360]

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GameTrailers' Best Role-playing Game award goes to....

GameTrailers Game Of The Year Awards 2009 Video Game, Best Role-Playing Game | Game Trailers & Videos | GameTrailers.com

Watch it to find out.

[sharkey360]

Score

WRPG - 5
JRPG - 5
No comment - 2

[sharkey360]

Readers choices for Role-Playing Games at TeamXbox's 2009 Game Awards revealed!

Poll Results:
Dragon Age: Origins – 55%
Borderlands – 38%
Star Ocean – 5%
Sacred 2 – 1%
Magnacarta 2 – 1%

Source - 2009 TeamXbox Readers' Choice Awards - Xbox

Meanwhile, those of you who have not participated in this thread's poll, please consider joining in. Thank you.

[comicGeek]

For RPG games I still prefer playing on the PC. RPGs are to PCs. Best RPG examples are Baldur's Gate, Never Winter Nights, Diablo, Dragon Age - 3rd person games are best played with a controller either on a PC, xbox or ps3.

Based on my observation

western RPG or classic style rpgs are mostly tactical or hack & slash and rarely turn-based. Mostly story driven and character and skill based.

japanese rpgs are for mostly tactical and turn-based with a lot of fancy effects. Mostly coupled with fantastcal stories and characters with amazing hairdo. And unlike western rpg characters, look like members of a boy band. haha

MMORPGs = grind.

[sharkey360]

JRPG fans will like this!

RPG Battle Royale: Final Fantasy Vs. Dragon Quest

[z3r012]

hmm.. i loved Diablo series from blizzard and waiting for the third installment ^^

[eirawn]

So far my best played RPG's:

WRPG: Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins
JRPG: Kingdom Hearts 2

[Isteb]

Ahak, lisora diay ani...

First of all, let me say that FF7 remains not just the best RPG of all time, but the BEST GAME OF ALL TIME. in my heart.

But then again, what made me love FF7 is the fact that it had such a wonderful story and a world that totally immerses you. While it may not be original, the portrayal of a post-apocalyptic was so enchanting that I instantly became a fan of the genre. The game blew me away so much that I wasn't bothered by the fact that I couldn't customize my character.

Which, for me, is the biggest turn off when it comes to most other RPG's (western and japanese alike). In JRPGs, almost every hero is a clone from any FF title. Most of the time it's a spiky-haired pretty boy wielding a sword the size of a lamp post.

Now WRPG's, on the other hand, put the ROLE-PLAYING back in ROLE PLAYING GAME. There are some that only allow you to use pre-generated avatars (such as in my favorite dungeon crawler, DIABLO) but for the most part, you can customize everything about your character down to the last detail.

I remember playing Neverwinter Nights for the first time, spending hours on the character creation screen. You can fuss over the tiniest details such as subrace, deity, age, history, weapon specialization, etc.

It was a geek's dream come true.

But apart from the character customization, you can customize the game experience itself. WRPGs like Neverwinter Nights, Fallout 3, Oblivion and so on have hundreds if not thousands of mods each that you can fine tune almost every aspect of the game.

My only complaint with WRPGs is with the exception of the recent Dragon Age: Origins, almost everyone looks ugly. It's the complete opposite of JRPGs where even the "old" vendor NPC looks like a runway model.

But then again, there are plenty of appearance mods (mostly by Japanese gamers - SURPRISE!) that can remedy this. Gurren Lagann mod for Fallout 3, anyone?

But every once in a while, the Japanese release a game that is so perfect, you find no need for customization. So while I voted for WRPGs for the number of great games out there, the Final Fantasy franchise still wins. In my heart.

[sharkey360]

2009 was not a good year for JRPGs, at least on Xbox 360. Star Ocean: The Last Hope just did not cut it, and I noticed that the quality of JRPGs on the 360 went down after it peaked with Lost Odyssey. Infinite Undiscovery and The Last Remnant were just disappointing follow-ups to LO.

Back to 2009, it's a great thing that Dragon Age: Origins came out and made RPGaming exciting again.

This month, Mass Effect 2 will flare up the excitement for RPGamers.

[sharkey360]

Percentages of the poll

WRPG - 52.63%
JRPG - 36.84%
No comment - 10.53%

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