Americans or Japanese?

Americans, definatley.
While I enjoy playing the Final Fantasy series, you have to admit the gameplay is a bit overrused and sort of stale,
in the U.S.
RPGs range from: Fable, World of Warcraft, (the upcoming Star Trek one), Fallout 3, Oblivion, and many many more.
All of these plots are completely different - the standard Japanese rpg plot is some young boy who is out to save the world, etc.

Also, look at some of the other games the States have produced.
The Halo trilogy, Gears of War, the GTA series,
It's sort of an easy view point for someone to see the quality.
However,
The Japanese are not short when it comes to creativity.
Less known games like Yume Nikki are incredible and produce (odd) yet interesting takes on gaming.

Though, I believe in the long run and in the current state of things - American Games are just so much better than Japanese ones - plot, graphics, and gameplay really make a difference and the States know how to make games that work.

Originally posted by SaTsuJiN
('cept street fighter.. /sigh..)

If it an't broke why fix it....

I would also say it depends on the genre, though I do hope there would be more non-Japanese games, other than Mortal Kombat, in the fighting game genre. There were some back in the 90s but there should be more this generation. At least that Capoeira Fighter 3 looks good.

But I gotta say, I definitely agree with these comments:

Originally posted by Smasandian
You kidding me?

American, or European developers easily push the technology to its limit than Japanese.

Japanese gaming has hit a rut. Outside of Nintendo, and Capcom, who are starting to become more of an American developer anyways the majority of games coming out of Japan seem to be the same thing.

When Square is starting to use the Unreal engine for some of its game, it shows that American's are pushing the limits. Considering some of the best graphics are coming out of Europe and America also shows how those developers are pushing engines.

Originally posted by BackFire
As of now I think American/European companies have beat out Japanese when it comes to sheer quality and innovation by a pretty significant margin. The only ones that the Japanese still hold a commanding grip on is fighting and maybe plaformers.

Even RPG's, Japan's long standing trademarked genre is being taken over by Americans and Europeans, using new and innovative ways to enhance the genre and move it forward (look no further than Fallout 3 or Fable II, both having infinite more new ideas than any Japanese RPG since FFX).

Think of the best games of the last few years - Bioshock, Fallout 3, The Orange Box, Left 4 Dead, Call of Duty 4, Gears of War, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Company of Heroes. All western games.

It's also of course going to depend on who you ask and where they live.

Originally posted by SaTsuJiN
japanese have their own market (Fighting / Beat-em-up, and Turn Based RPG).. but when it comes to breaking the barriers.. america is tops, IMO (FPS, RTS, Action-RPG,.. and things like A.I. , Simulations, etc)

thats why I'm glad america has their own console now.. so we dont have to give a damn "what the japanese are into" to determine what gets the "thumbs up" for release here.. crap is annoying as hell..

I'm glad there are people here who view American games in a positive way.

Originally posted by Kazenji
If it an't broke why fix it....

I think the problem is that even though they play good, it kind of grows old and almost makes buying the next game pointless.

Originally posted by Kazenji
If it an't broke why fix it....

though I will say SF3 series was a nice refresher.. but even then they couldnt help themselves and went n made some sequels to that lol.. oh well

Depends really, I think the yanks are better for things like shooters but for things that are more fantasy/story based (like RPGs) the Japanese probably prevail.

Not anymore.

JRPGs are mostly the same shit over and over again.

And in terms of plot, nowadays the Americans generally trump the Japanese.

Originally posted by SaTsuJiN
just because it works doesnt mean it should stay the same until we're all 80 years old and senile

Street Fighter is'nt the only that does that...........King of Fighters 😬

Originally posted by ThunderGodEneru
Not anymore.

JRPGs are mostly the same shit over and over again.

And in terms of plot, nowadays the Americans generally trump the Japanese.

Originally posted by Smasandian
You kidding me?

American, or European developers easily push the technology to its limit than Japanese.

Japanese gaming has hit a rut. Outside of Nintendo, and Capcom, who are starting to become more of an American developer anyways the majority of games coming out of Japan seem to be the same thing.

When Square is starting to use the Unreal engine for some of its game, it shows that American's are pushing the limits. Considering some of the best graphics are coming out of Europe and America also shows how those developers are pushing engines.

I meant overall through out history.

Originally posted by ThunderGodEneru

And in terms of plot, nowadays the Americans generally trump the Japanese.

Yeah, definitely. It helps when the plot actually makes sense though 😂

The only Western RPG's i've like so far are the Diablo games and Sacred.

Western RPGs completely lack the charm and magical quality of Japanese RPGs, and that my friends, is a fact. RPGs are fundamentally about storyline; you get games like Oblivion or Fallout 3, the stories of which are overly heavy and slow moving, with little real direction throughout the game, with a vast emphasis on gameplay and traversing the world map; games like Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic that don't appear able to actually depict a captivating Sci-Fi setting (it could take some serious tips from the Star Ocean Series for that), that ultimately ends up looking quite simply gloomy, with a typical Sci-Fi storyline that completely lacks creativity or originality to boot; you get MMORPGs like World of Warcraft which have absolutely no plotline or direction; and then you get games like Fable that ultimately don't know how to tell a good story and try to make it unique by placing a large emphasis on player choice, that doesn't even present that large a storyline variance in the first place.

The only exception to my knowledge would be Secret of Evermore, and even that was presented in a very distinct Japanese style and developed and published by a Japanese Company (but by American Developers), making it an arguable JRPG anyway.

I seem to prefer Western games, especially RPGs.

Well, the only video genres I play are fighting, rhythm, and sports.

I guess Japanese since most of the games I play originate from there.

Originally posted by Kazenji
Street Fighter is'nt the only that does that...........King of Fighters 😬

-Dodging
-Running
-Lv.2 Supers having both different graphics and new way of behavior
-Super systems themselves varied quite a bit (from the charge system to the diamond break, which granted your character higher damage for a brief period)
-In KOF 96, the entire cast (30+chars?) got all new sprites, all new moves, and each of those new moves (or in some cases complete reworks of old moves) acted in a completely different way

this is why I dont like to compare kof to sf :/

Originally posted by §P0oONY
I dislike western RPGs, not played one I've enjoyed.

I'm the same way. I like Guild Wars, but that's an MMO and doesn't really count, and Fable 2 was enjoyable but not great. But for the most part, western RPGs I've played have ranged from mediocre to "bored me to tears and I quit in less than three hours". Didn't like KOTOR all that much, greatly disliked Mass Effect, Oblivion was the biggest waste of time ever, etc. In my opinion, Bioware is one of the most over-rated companies to exist.

Also doesn't help that I just very, very dislike that style of gameplay.

Western RPGs also tend to have claims of "your actions can change the game!" but this is never actually true. No matter what you do, you're still locked into a specific course of action. Maybe two.

Finally, i found someone else who doesnt like mass effect. every time i say that i usually get pummeled with profanity 😬 why dont you like it?

Basically, there was nothing about it that I liked. Didn't care for the plot, didn't like the gameplay or the controls, didn't care for the contrived and clunky character interaction...I just plain disliked it.

I must admit, I don't think Mass Effect is a masterpiece either. Though it's still much better than any JRPG I've played.

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