"A young mysterious man who..."

I mean, isn't that pretty much correct? Sure, it slightly branches out from there:

"loves adventures" - Adol in Ys, Lunar, EUO, etc.,

"lost his memory" -FF VII etc.

"while on a mission for the emperor/king unwillingly" -FF IV, etc.

"enters a magical realm" -Ni No Kuni, etc.

I mean, it seems like SO many JRPGs fit into that niche, it's amazing! Not that said games are not great, but I find this most highly amusing. It does seem like there seems to be less interest in those games though, since the popularity of games such as Skyrim, Dragon's Age, Dark Souls is strong.

Yeah, looking back one can't help but notice how cliche J-RPGs were... but I'd honestly take all of that SNES/PS1 stuff over what we have today. I mean I have nothing against the art style but does every J-RPG have have to have anime artwork, use cheap sex appeal or be from the same five no-brainer companies? It's pretty damn frustrating... but every developer out there is so afraid of failure because of cost these days no one wants to take the risk on anything new. They're going to stick with what sells and what they know.

However, I don't think Western RPGs are completely off the hook either... at least in my book. Both types are equally guilty to me... it's just that J-PRG's seem more pathetic with their pandering since they are less popular at this point in time.

Also, don't think that I think that all those J-RPGs I played back in the late 90's and early 2000's were pure gold either. Having replayed some of them in more recent times I've noticed things (flaws, major flaws) I didn't notice back when they came out. I may be blinded a little bit by nostalgia (and I'm still fatigued with the genre a bit) but things really feel like they are in a rut these days.

However, this kind of brings up a topic I was going to bring up. I've played every Final Fantasy up to X... but to be honest even though those games were a big part of my gaming history "Final Fantasy" as a brand just doesn't mean a whole lot to me anymore. I'm not trying to jump on the hatred bandwagon or saying this because I could care less about Square's more recent output... but I'm just more fond of other, less popular titles now.

Final Fantasy VI and IX may be exceptions to the above... but I've really got to replay them at some point to see how I feel about them in today's world.

I have to agree with that. And it's not that today's JRPGs are not cliche either. I mean look at games by the popular JRPG companies, and yeah, well, you get lots of anime-looking characters with huge boobs. Of course, I'm not saying all games are like that, and say what you will, apparently it sells. Fortunately, we still have (although rarely) games like Fire Emblem and Dark Souls (which is arguably a Western-RPG), and Ni No Kuni save us from mediocrity.

But, as Ashley noted... I too miss the days of games such as Shining in the Darkness, and Phantasy Star, and Shining Force (for examples). Those, were amazing games, and I can't say they were less enjoyable than today's huge long graphically amazing JRPGs. Anyway, not trying to pick a fight with those that love today's JRPGs, but we're all entitled to our opinion and constructive criticisms (or complaints

No doubt those tropes exist, but I have no issue if the resulting storyline/characters turn into something I end up liking. Where a lot of JRPG's lose me (and why I've generally lost my taste for them) is their pacing, the need to bloat 10-15 hours of material into 40+ hours. During the PS2 era, I came across a lot of games like that and just never got back to them. The worst offender was the first Atelier Iris game...That thing just ran out of steam. And Wild Arms 3 is the first RPG I've quit when I was more than 50 hours in (well, and Final Fantasy Tactics, but that was because of that stupid battle at the end of Chapter 3...) Nowadays, 15 hours to play through a game is an eternity, much less 40 of bloated material.

On the flip side, as I mentioned in the "What are you playing now" thread, I've been playing Dragon Slayer Legend of Heroes on the Turbo Duo and while it features just about every cliche you can dream up, it offers enough of what I like in a classic RPG (challenge, fast-paced storyline, pleasing graphics/music) to be a worthwhile experience. Also, I played around with Dragon Quest IV and I had forgotten how much this one got right.

The more I deal with Japanese mythology and folk tales, the more I realize that perhaps Japanese writers are just drawn toward that format because of the Momotaro story (Demons are attacking the village - boy sets out to defend village by gathering a "party" of talking/fighting animal companions, boy goes to demon island and kills the offender).  I think there's something to be said for that being a common tale that a lot of kids might aspire to and so playing JRPGs gives them a sense of agency in such a tale.

Or maybe I'm totally off-base.  But how much of WRPG development comes from OUR legends/fairy tales?  There's an awful lot of Tolkien (recent) and Arthurian legend (way older) stuff going on in a lot of those.

I finished WA3 and I can tell you... you didn't miss anything. It wasn't a bad game but it really was the beginning of the end for the franchise.

Yes, RPGs will all fall into a single category if you make that category broad enough. You could do the same with action games and "bad enough dudes who..." Let's kick it up a notch:

Forget RPGs--you'd be hard-pressed to find any story that can't  be boiled down to these.

Didn't catch this until now. Please don't remind me of this horrible twist.

What's sad is I do like VIII's gameplay systems... but that's because they are insanely easy to abuse. 255 speed + Auto Haste = more turns than I know what what to do with (a great time)

Some truth in that, I can't deny.