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.
__________________ "Every daring attempt to make a great change in existing conditions, every lofty vision of new possibilities for the human race, has been labeled Utopian."
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:
I'm glad there are people here who view American games in a positive way.
I think the problem is that even though they play good, it kind of grows old and almost makes buying the next game pointless.
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United Kingdom
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.
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.
Last edited by Retired Debater on Apr 11th, 2009 at 11:27 AM
to be fair.. kof added neat gameplay elements that kept it from becoming stank.. until the 1999-2006 era... then it was gross
-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
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.
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.
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Apr 10th, 2009 01:42 PM
-thanks scythe, you make some great sigs
