The hypocrisy is always fascinating to watch. The amount of people I've seen say that Xenoblade is "Anime Trash" but then have Persona 5 as their favourite game of all time is astounding. They also have an overlap with those same people who claim to "Hate anime" but then turn out to be massive fans of shows like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Hellsing, FLCL, Black Lagoon ect. In the end, it all comes down to stereotypes.
Very interesting you brought up the vtuber conversation, because I think it goes the opposite way too where, non japanese people make a distinction between anime and western cartoons, but this time it isn't for negative reason, but rather because it is prized for being Japanese in the same way you prize champagne over other sparkling sine because it's from champagne. I think the reason nowadays people still make distinction for western and jrpgs is because there are, granted a but arbitrary, distinctions these 2 gamesin terms of narrative mechanics and game play designs. You can also make a similar argument with anime and cartoons because for the western the motifs, archetypes, and tropes, in a sense, almost turns in to a genre and medium.
I never really thought much about the terms "JRPG" or "anime", but I can see why they can be seen as derogatory, especially with the former. While I personally have never been stigmatized from liking Japanese games and shows, that largely stems from me keeping to myself rather than living in an open environment. Heck, I didn't even know review sites and channels were a thing until a few years ago (yeah, I was THAT out of touch with the gaming landscape). To this day, I still see people call Nintendo bad because their systems aren't as powerful or offer the same graphics or edge that you'd find on other platforms. They still like to tout that Nintendo games are for kids, but they completely ignore that you don't need an M or even a T rating to tell mature stories. If you need an example, look no further than Majora's Mask, which is easily one of the darkest games in the Zelda series with its themes of death and repeating cycles, and both the N64 and 3DS release got an E rating. Basically, this entire culture of hating something because it's different is stupid. Even more so even you're doing it just to look mature, which newsflash, you aren't if you do. I never understood that mentality as I find it both pointless and stupid. But what do I know? I'm just someone that likes Japanese stuff and a simp for Morgan Le Fay (Fate).
Making a distinction in and of itself, as an action, it is neither good nor bad. It depends on what thing you are trying to distinguish. Is the thing a bad thing? Then the distinction is inherently bad. Is the thing a good thing? Then the distinction is inherently good. JRPGs have a distinct artistic and cultural style. That's high praise. Therefore, the distinction is inherently good. Ergo, the term JRPG is NOT derogatory.
This entire discussion reminds me of that “Thing Japan” meme I heard about a while back, with the difference being that people (mainly mainstream journos) don’t like the Japanese version of a thing compared to the American version.
Oof I do remember how cringe X-Play was What was the name of the other girl on the show with him? I remember her review for Tales of the Abyss being atrociously biased and even so far as accusing Bandai Namco ripping off Star Wars because the main character's name was Luke. 🤦 G4 was only alive as long as it was because of Attack of the show which openly embraced nerd culture. By the way where did you grow up just curious it sounded awful having to hide what you liked due to toxicity like that. I myself grew up in Miami so my experience with Japanese Animation as we referred to it back in the 90s was very different. For us the big and cool kids watched it because of it mature content and some shows like ForNS and Guyvwr and the OG run of Berserk ultra violence. We had Japanese animation stores that sold VHS with subtitles. It wasnt really a niche thing for us but I do admit when I left Miami in 2004 I noticed for the first time that people actually saw anime in a negative light it was strange to me. For me they were the weirdos and in some cases xenophobic that was my real first encounter with open racism. Any way I'm glad you did this.vedeo.and brought to light the B's the western gaming media was pulling. As for me I will stop using the term JRPG as I never called them that till mid 2000s. RPGs are RPGs I just happen to prefer the ones made in Japan 😁
I think there has been too much focus on the term JRPG and not enough on how the media outlets that have treated Asian games and developers consistently for decades.
Because Yoshi-P brought how this term was viewed in Japan and how western media used it 15 years ago has brought that conversation to the front. It's sadly still an ongoing thing at this point it's up to TH-camrs on better media outlets like #Easy Allies to call out the BS of other outlets like IGN.
I think we should drop the term I didn't really see the term used till the mid 2000s and media outlets definitely used it in a negative way. It was a rough time for time to be an RPG fan as tons of games never left Japan as it was too much of a risk because they knew how their games were gonna be set up to fail in the western market. I would just call them RPGs from here on out as I sadly was bamboozled into using the term.
People associated JRPGS with terrible combat and made in japan... Elden Ring is an RPG made from japan but it doesn't have the JRPG feeling so it's just an RPG Japanese developers bought upon themselves when they kept releasing copypasta anime games with the same boring turnbased combat (god I hate it). Or maybe it was RPG maker flooding the market with subpar indie titles (that where made in the west as well)
Yeah it really hurts to think before you act and have patience. And Elden Ring is a JRPG. It’s literally just Wizardry with action, which is pretty common in JRPGs.
The term JRPG is derogatory simply because it's a bad term: these games are not RPGs, there's no role playing involved, they're completely linear. And that's not a bad thing, many games are linear, they just aren't called "RPG", and this mislabeling is what's triggering people.
The hypocrisy is always fascinating to watch. The amount of people I've seen say that Xenoblade is "Anime Trash" but then have Persona 5 as their favourite game of all time is astounding. They also have an overlap with those same people who claim to "Hate anime" but then turn out to be massive fans of shows like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, Hellsing, FLCL, Black Lagoon ect.
In the end, it all comes down to stereotypes.
Very interesting you brought up the vtuber conversation, because I think it goes the opposite way too where, non japanese people make a distinction between anime and western cartoons, but this time it isn't for negative reason, but rather because it is prized for being Japanese in the same way you prize champagne over other sparkling sine because it's from champagne.
I think the reason nowadays people still make distinction for western and jrpgs is because there are, granted a but arbitrary, distinctions these 2 gamesin terms of narrative mechanics and game play designs.
You can also make a similar argument with anime and cartoons because for the western the motifs, archetypes, and tropes, in a sense, almost turns in to a genre and medium.
Really good points. Thanks for your comment!
I never really thought much about the terms "JRPG" or "anime", but I can see why they can be seen as derogatory, especially with the former. While I personally have never been stigmatized from liking Japanese games and shows, that largely stems from me keeping to myself rather than living in an open environment. Heck, I didn't even know review sites and channels were a thing until a few years ago (yeah, I was THAT out of touch with the gaming landscape).
To this day, I still see people call Nintendo bad because their systems aren't as powerful or offer the same graphics or edge that you'd find on other platforms. They still like to tout that Nintendo games are for kids, but they completely ignore that you don't need an M or even a T rating to tell mature stories. If you need an example, look no further than Majora's Mask, which is easily one of the darkest games in the Zelda series with its themes of death and repeating cycles, and both the N64 and 3DS release got an E rating.
Basically, this entire culture of hating something because it's different is stupid. Even more so even you're doing it just to look mature, which newsflash, you aren't if you do. I never understood that mentality as I find it both pointless and stupid. But what do I know? I'm just someone that likes Japanese stuff and a simp for Morgan Le Fay (Fate).
Making a distinction in and of itself, as an action, it is neither good nor bad. It depends on what thing you are trying to distinguish. Is the thing a bad thing? Then the distinction is inherently bad. Is the thing a good thing? Then the distinction is inherently good.
JRPGs have a distinct artistic and cultural style. That's high praise. Therefore, the distinction is inherently good. Ergo, the term JRPG is NOT derogatory.
This is really good you deserved more subs and views. Keep up the good work👍
This entire discussion reminds me of that “Thing Japan” meme I heard about a while back, with the difference being that people (mainly mainstream journos) don’t like the Japanese version of a thing compared to the American version.
Oof I do remember how cringe X-Play was What was the name of the other girl on the show with him? I remember her review for Tales of the Abyss being atrociously biased and even so far as accusing Bandai Namco ripping off Star Wars because the main character's name was Luke. 🤦 G4 was only alive as long as it was because of Attack of the show which openly embraced nerd culture. By the way where did you grow up just curious it sounded awful having to hide what you liked due to toxicity like that. I myself grew up in Miami so my experience with Japanese Animation as we referred to it back in the 90s was very different. For us the big and cool kids watched it because of it mature content and some shows like ForNS and Guyvwr and the OG run of Berserk ultra violence. We had Japanese animation stores that sold VHS with subtitles. It wasnt really a niche thing for us but I do admit when I left Miami in 2004 I noticed for the first time that people actually saw anime in a negative light it was strange to me. For me they were the weirdos and in some cases xenophobic that was my real first encounter with open racism. Any way I'm glad you did this.vedeo.and brought to light the B's the western gaming media was pulling. As for me I will stop using the term JRPG as I never called them that till mid 2000s. RPGs are RPGs I just happen to prefer the ones made in Japan 😁
I think there has been too much focus on the term JRPG and not enough on how the media outlets that have treated Asian games and developers consistently for decades.
Media outlets are woke. They are NOT representative of normal people.
Because Yoshi-P brought how this term was viewed in Japan and how western media used it 15 years ago has brought that conversation to the front. It's sadly still an ongoing thing at this point it's up to TH-camrs on better media outlets like #Easy Allies to call out the BS of other outlets like IGN.
I think we should drop the term I didn't really see the term used till the mid 2000s and media outlets definitely used it in a negative way. It was a rough time for time to be an RPG fan as tons of games never left Japan as it was too much of a risk because they knew how their games were gonna be set up to fail in the western market. I would just call them RPGs from here on out as I sadly was bamboozled into using the term.
JRPG
JRPG
JRPG
People associated JRPGS with terrible combat and made in japan... Elden Ring is an RPG made from japan but it doesn't have the JRPG feeling so it's just an RPG
Japanese developers bought upon themselves when they kept releasing copypasta anime games with the same boring turnbased combat (god I hate it). Or maybe it was RPG maker flooding the market with subpar indie titles (that where made in the west as well)
Yeah it really hurts to think before you act and have patience. And Elden Ring is a JRPG. It’s literally just Wizardry with action, which is pretty common in JRPGs.
@@thomasffrench3639 "Yeah it really hurts to think before you act and have patience" what's this even mean?
The term JRPG is derogatory simply because it's a bad term: these games are not RPGs, there's no role playing involved, they're completely linear. And that's not a bad thing, many games are linear, they just aren't called "RPG", and this mislabeling is what's triggering people.
Eh this is just BS. These games are clearly RPGs. They are literally just Ultima and Wizardry clones.