Same lmao, it wasn’t until years later that I started to dabble in CRPGs and found how they’re the inverse of the JRPG, shit stories but fantastic combat.
I mean… annoyingly a Japanese developer can make a W/CRPG and a western developer can make a JRPG because the genres are defined by gameplay styles, core engagements, and tropes not actually the region they come from.
Extra Credits did a whole three part video series about this back in like 2010 thats worth watching. Video game genre names are BAAAAAAAAAAAADDDD.
CRPG is not a term that is used often but whenever I have seen it (Disco Elysium, Planescape Torment, etc.) it seems to be describing a video game that has implemented the mechanics of a table top RPG. Like Baldur’s Gate 3 uses DnD as the foundation. Disco dice rolls feel that way too.
JRPGs are games like Chrono Trigger, older Final Fantasy games, Tales of Arise, etc. On the other hand there are Japanese games with RPG elements that are not considered JRPGs like Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Dragon’s Dogma, etc. I hope you are getting the vibe. I don’t play JRPGs much so I can’t say for sure what defines them.
Video game genres are kind of vibes based lol. Theres videos out there defining JRPGs (search Extra Credits JRPG vs WRPG or the video I just posted in my post history in /c/videos) but theres like three things that define them.
The core engagements of narrative. (Extra Credits argues that abnegation through grinding is also a core engagement of JRPGs, but Ive never felt that. However, grinding for gold and exp is often a part of them, though some are designed such that you never have to grind).
A whole slew of mechanical trappings that you only need some of to define the game. Turn based combat is one, linear stat development (some games like FFXII and FFX play with the linearity of it a bit), a (minimally) explorable overworld thats a separate screen from towns and dungeons and where you can have encounters and save the game freely, sidequests outside the core linear narrative, battles taking place on a separate screen from the overworld or dungeon, OFTEN random battles but some avoid that, replaceable equipment often with a linear progression (but sometimes there’s choices and tradeoffs). Noteably there’s games like the Tales of series and Star Ocean series that have actiony combat instead of turn based that most people still define as JRPGs, but some people define as action RPGS instead. A now verbotten youtuber made a “top 10 JRPGs not from SquareEnix” video where he disqualified Action RPGs first and showed Tales of Symphonia footage, and this blew my mind lol. But for me they are JRPGs, partially because of point three
Plot, worldbuilding, artstyle, and character tropes and style that are similar to anime particularly shonen but also have their own things. This part isnt strictly necessary. a game that has the first two elements but a totally non-Anime artstyle and setting is still a JRPG (regardless of where it was developed). But vibes wise it helps define games that may not have ALL the JRPG mechanics in them as still being JRPGs. Like I said, this is why Tales of and Star Ocean fit for me.
Like I said. Video game genres are vibes based (Call of Duty has an experiance and leveling system but its an FPS not an RPG, conversely Fallout and Mass Effect have first person shooting, but they’re both considered WRPGs). This can be very annoying as an autistic person who likes clear rules! But it really does come down to vibes. Or as Extra Credits argues in that video series I mentioned, “core engagements”.
I’ve always known that acronym as “computer role-playing game” but it’s often also used to mean “classic role-playing game”, as opposed to “action role-playing game”.
Same lmao, it wasn’t until years later that I started to dabble in CRPGs and found how they’re the inverse of the JRPG, shit stories but fantastic combat.
Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 broke that rule for me at least. The talking heads were the greatest thing known to gaming.
Yeah Fallout is peak CRPG story telling, but there’s a lot of stinkers too.
What’s a CRPG?
Computer RPG
I thought you meant Chinese RPG or somethin’… what’s the difference between CRPG et JRPG?
jrpgs are japanese. crpgs are western. Both have stylistic differences best understood by playing two games of each genre from different franchises.
Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and Pokemon games are more alike than they are similar to Disco Elysium, Fallout 2, or the shadowrun video games.
I mean… annoyingly a Japanese developer can make a W/CRPG and a western developer can make a JRPG because the genres are defined by gameplay styles, core engagements, and tropes not actually the region they come from.
Extra Credits did a whole three part video series about this back in like 2010 thats worth watching. Video game genre names are BAAAAAAAAAAAADDDD.
I mean, yeah that’s true, just hard to explain the tropes to someone seemingly unfamiliar with either genre.
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CRPG is not a term that is used often but whenever I have seen it (Disco Elysium, Planescape Torment, etc.) it seems to be describing a video game that has implemented the mechanics of a table top RPG. Like Baldur’s Gate 3 uses DnD as the foundation. Disco dice rolls feel that way too.
JRPGs are games like Chrono Trigger, older Final Fantasy games, Tales of Arise, etc. On the other hand there are Japanese games with RPG elements that are not considered JRPGs like Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Dragon’s Dogma, etc. I hope you are getting the vibe. I don’t play JRPGs much so I can’t say for sure what defines them.
Video game genres are kind of vibes based lol. Theres videos out there defining JRPGs (search Extra Credits JRPG vs WRPG or the video I just posted in my post history in /c/videos) but theres like three things that define them.
Like I said. Video game genres are vibes based (Call of Duty has an experiance and leveling system but its an FPS not an RPG, conversely Fallout and Mass Effect have first person shooting, but they’re both considered WRPGs). This can be very annoying as an autistic person who likes clear rules! But it really does come down to vibes. Or as Extra Credits argues in that video series I mentioned, “core engagements”.
Thank you for the explainer.
I’ve always known that acronym as “computer role-playing game” but it’s often also used to mean “classic role-playing game”, as opposed to “action role-playing game”.
It’s more as opposed to ttrpg, table top role playing game.
I meant classic vs. action if you’re only talking about computer RPGs, but you’re right about computer vs. tabletop.
I was just adding, yeah computer doesn’t make as much sense anymore because RPGs are so much more diverse on the computer today.