It's a JRPG, but it being a Gacha negates a lot of the progression satisfaction I get from a JRPG. What I'm saying is, it doesn't matter what genre it is because it being a Gacha dictates a lot of its mechanics and systems.
The only defining feature people use to determine if something is a JRPG is "anime art style" which is even more worthless than country of origins so I vote "no". It is Chinese.
I personally think that's too dogmatic.Common traits to JRPGs:
Cel-shaded/anime art vs realistic art
Game-y music (vs orchestral/incidental music in Western RPGs)
Set characters with distinct personalities (vs making your own character & self-inserts)
Content is generally aimed at teens or all-ages (vs. Western RPGs being edgy and "adult" and inevitably getting M-ratings)
Gameplay is focused on combat & becoming more powerful (Western RPGs often have more non-combat gameplay like dialogue trees & stealth segments)
Story tends to be more linear
Progression tends to be more drastic (WRPGs love tiny incremental stat bonuses)
Not every game fits neatly into the JRPG label and some games take elements from both, but JRPGs have more in common than just anime art style.
If make an RPG in mexico is it a mRPG? is it different from an mRPG made in madagascar?I simply can't fathom what anybody would get from the information that it's a RPG made in Japan. Like that doesn't mean ANYTHING.
Look at Witcher 3, it's PRPG.
And yes, I'd classify Genshin Impact would classify as action jrpg.
Of course it cannot be a Japanese RPG (JRPG) if it's made in China.
Common traits to JRPGs:
Cel-shaded/anime art vs realistic art
Game-y music (vs orchestral/incidental music in Western RPGs)
Set characters with distinct personalities (vs making your own character & self-inserts)
Content is generally aimed at teens or all-ages (vs. Western RPGs being edgy and "adult" and inevitably getting M-ratings)
Gameplay is focused on combat & becoming more powerful (Western RPGs often have more non-combat gameplay like dialogue trees & stealth segments)
Story tends to be more linear
Progression tends to be more drastic (WRPGs love tiny incremental stat bonuses)
Not every game fits neatly into the JRPG label and some games take elements from both, but JRPGs have more in common than just anime art style.
This are definitely common but I think you can describe a JRPG much more accruately the following way:
A JRPG is an RPG that is focused on the mechanical side of the RPG genre with minimal efforts towards allowing true role-playing. The games have linear stories with defined characters. You may get to make your own character but ultimately that character is just an avatar instead of real character you inhabit.
That's all there really is to it. It's why Dark Souls is an RPG. The story is linear and outside of optional endings you can't effect it in a way meaningful way. What makes Dark Souls and other JRPGs, RPGs, is their mechanical ruleset is drawn from Dungeons and Dragons.
Art style is irrelevant.
This sounds as ridiculous as saying "Of course it can't be Japanese food if it's made in the United States." Being Japanese is not a requirement to make Japanese food.
I agree with much of this, but go quite a bit further to separate key RPG sub-genres that happen to be made in Japan. Some of the notable RPG sub-genres that are often developed in Japan:
Stuff like SaGa primarily exist in the giant inter-subgenre void, or as a distinct "Experimental RPG" sub-genre.
- "Traditional JRPGs" - Party based, plot/narrative focused
- "Monster Catching" - Pokemon, etc, have their own gameplay and structural formalisms, and people play them for very different reasons than they play Souls games or Final Fantasy
- Souls-like: Clearly distinct enough to be grouped together rather than trying to dump them in with totally differnet WRPGs are the super-vague "Action RPGs".
- DRPGs: Most DRPG franchises these days come from a handful of Japanese developers, and often have very little of the usual appeal of Traditional JRPGs.
- SRPGs/TRPGs
This sounds as ridiculous as saying "Of course it can't be Japanese food if it's made in the United States." Being Japanese is not a requirement to make Japanese food.
I've been playing JRPGs extensively for about 3 decades. I've been making games as an indie developer for about a decade. As a teen, I imported games like Soul Hackers and Grandia on the Saturn because I felt like we weren't getting enough JRPGs in English. I do not feel I am any less qualified to make a JRPG.
If you made a movie in the UK that copied the style of Italian neorealism I don't think it would be considered Italian cinema.
Trying to split things up by country is just a really bad way to try to define genres. A genre system that doesn't combine Dark Souls with The Surge in the same bucket because they were made in other parts of the world is totally worthless.Korea, japan and china similar. Maybe we should come up with some type of eastern label. That's what wikipedia has anyways
History of Eastern role-playing video games - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Funny that you specifically mention Italian cinema. The Western film genre is a distinctly US genre. Western movies made in Italy became so prevalent that there's actually a subgenre name for it - the Spaghetti Western. And Spaghetti Westerns are still considered to be Westerns.
Country of origin is irrelevant. JRPG is a non-gameplay-focused style. Like horror games - Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Siren, Amnesia, and Clock Tower are all horror games, even though each series has very different gameplay than the others.
The country of origin is part of the descriptor. JRPG means Japanese role-playing game, not Japanese-style or Japanese-inspired. It's like saying Taco Bell is Mexican food when it's clearly not, it's just Mexican-inspired.I've always used the term JRPG as "japanese-style role-playing game" ...so it definitely qualifies for me...not about country of origin...about the style of the game...