JRPG

JRPG is an adopted term refering to role-playing video games which borrow notable mechanics primarily introduced in RPGs developed in Japan. Along with western RPG, the concept was coined in the early 2000s when the differences between the major video game platforms (PC and consoles) became diffuse, once their libraries were getting similar. Until then, there was a certain general view of RPGs being divided in two distinct categories: console RPGs and computer RPGs. Those two terms would come to refer to JRPGs and western RPGs, respectively, since they share the same historic development origin, given that in the early generations of video games the major console companies developing games for console were from Japan, while the western development focused in computer games.

Essentially the concept revolving JRPGs is defined, besides the other common general characteristics of the meta RPG genre, by a linear story progression which avoids players of interfering the fixed plot in meaningful ways. The setting is involved in a fantasy based world, often featuring light and colorful graphics. Combat is generally turn-based, with menu-driven mechanics for action choices. Unlike western RPGs, characters (usually designed in anime and manga style) are pre-defined and highly story-based, preventing deep customization of their attributes. directions and skills, which can only be upgraded in a defined scale. These characteristics obviously don't apply to all Japanese developed RPGs, as it is a simple general view of the gameplay tendency of the titles.

It should be noted that despite such definition, the classification of JRPGs and western RPGs also hold a dubious and highly questionable nature, since a regional division of the genres can be shown very imprecise since the library of RPGs video games, both western and eastern developed, do not always show a clear tendency to the coined definitions, and very commonly the gameplay characteristics of both JRPGs and western RPGs are merged in a single game, without matter of its regional development origin. Despite some specific differences between the two styles, taken from relative and comparative analysis, it is common for some RPGs to stand between or out of the two concepts, and thus those games can not be explicitly represented by one term or the another.