RED_NOVA'S PROFILE

Hey kentona!

nah ur just da vp

Looks great! I love the parallax work on the back. I can't wait to see this scene in motion.

author=Shinan
I think I saw Jim Sterling's video on this. There's definitely something to think about, but the interesting thing is that places like this have not really used the term in a disparaging manner (except for me but I also say "anime" disparagingly.) so I don't even know where the negative connotation comes from (except from the part where they are anime games and all anime is shit)

I'd be shocked to see anyone on this site refer to JRPG as derogatory, lol. Outside of niches like RMN, I see this a lot more often. Even now, I still get weird looks from people when I mention I'm into "that Japanese crap."

I definitely think examining all this is worthwhile at least to some degree, but it may be hard to change much at this stage. There are people who have disliked the fact that "Metroidvana" as a genre is basically just named after two games and have wanted it changed for years, but it's an easily recognized label that is quick to grasp and that people still use. Much the same, the name JRPG is now deeply entrenched, used as tags on Steam and elsewhere, so I'm not sure it's going to be changed so easily.

Yeah, that's pretty much my thoughts in general now. Even if we wanted to change it, it likely won't happen. If I took command of all terminology for a day, I'd remove both JRPG and WRPG from everyone's vocabulary and instead stick to gameplay mechanics to define genres like Turn-based RPG or Action RPG.

But I'm can't, so....

this quote is entirely being taken out of context here, and you should actually read the original interview and what he's saying there:
(time stamped for clarify)

Appreciate the better source, but I think my points still stand. Of course Japanese devs don't go into the process thinking they're going to make a "JRPG" because, from their perspective, it's just an RPG. Of course Yoshi-P recognizes that nowadays it's not used as a derogatory term. It doesn't change the fact that it was a derogatory term in the past, or that it's strange that a genre of games is defined by its country of origin rather than its gameplay mechanics.

The difference between JRPG and WRPG is that the former refers to a single country and the latter refers to half of a planet. Why would Japan be the only country that gets a classification? It's almost like there's something *different* about Japanese games that means that they need a genre that singles them out specifically. Also, while Phil Fish was absolutely out of line with his statement, it's worth noting that no one else on the panel disagreed with him.

In my experience, WRPG is a catch all term used for anything that isn't JRPG. Kinda like "Oh no, Elder Scrolls isn't one of THOSE RPGs." If anyone ever described a game I was making as an American RPG, I'd definitely have to do a double take to figure out exactly what they mean, so I would at least understand why a Japanese dev would feel the way they did.

Obviously, Yoshida doesn't speak for the entirety of Japan, so it could be that most Japanese are actually fine with the term. I'm not aware of any other Japanese developers speaking up in support or opposition to his statement, so all I can really talk about is from an westerner's perspective.