For the last few years I have noticed a growing disdain in the western video game industry, in both the development and journalistic communities towards Japanese role-playing games. If you are skeptical, consider this; within the last five years or so the term “JRPG” has spontaneously become a regular part of the western game journalists’ vocabulary. This may seem fairly innocuous, but often how we discuss something is far more revealing than what we discuss.

As I see it, the creation of this new label has two effects. First, it creates a distinction where previously none existed; we used to just call them RPGs regardless of where they were developed. Now I realize that the distinction might have come up out of simple necessity, as both types of games are often quite different. But it still doesn’t explain my next point: that no-one uses “WRPG” (Western RPG) to describe those games made in North America or Europe. This isolates the Japanese games from the rest and denotes a hierarchical relationship. It implies that those made in Japan are inferior to others and are therefore not true RPGs anymore.

Now I know some of you reading may think I’m making too much of this, but take a look at this interview by Destructoid’s Anthony Birch with BioWare’s co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk on the supposed decline of JRPGs. To give you an idea of the tone of the article, Birch claims JRPGs have “fallen somewhat to the wayside” and that he “no longer [has] any patience for JRPGs whatsoever”. Meanwhile, Zeschuk blames JRPGs’ woes on a “lack of evolution”.

While I realize this article is old news by internet standards, I’d still like to answer the question it asks, “Do JRPGs really suffer from a lack of evolution?”

Evolutionary shooting robot gameplay!

I say, not anymore than WRPGs. If you think JRPGs are stagnant in design, consider that just about all of their western counterparts have the same frameworks: player generated characters are guided through an open “sandbox” world where they have the freedom to do what they please having their actions judged by a shallow system of morality. If decision making in JRPGs are characterized by cheap Yes/No If/Then statements, most WRPGs use an equally pathetic Kill/Don’t Kill system.

Comparatively, Japan has produced some of the most interesting and innovative RPGs in the last several years, including Valkyria Chronicles, Soul Nomad and The World Ends With You. Even the up and coming Resonance of Fate features a fresh and unique combat system. The idea that either set of developers has been more innovative than the other is absurd.

But what I find most disturbing in this trend is the arbitrary association between the West and “innovative” and “dynamic” while Japan is associated with “stale” and “backwards”. Although I can’t blame the BioWare guys for this as they were understandably just using the interview as a conduit to take shots at their competition and by comparison make their products look more attractive.

In the end I wonder why things have unfolded this way and have begun to question reviewers’ opinions of JRPGs. Take Demon’s Souls for instance. It is easily the most critically acclaimed JRPG of 2009, but it also just so happened to be the most “western” in style.