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The ‘JRPG’ label has always been othering
(www.polygon.com)
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There was a time JRPG meant anime characters and clicking through lots of text to get through the story. Also, the “role playing” portion of the story usually went around characters that were hard wired into the game with no customization beyond their name. That’s changing for a lot of games, but the classic JRPG still survives. Maybe the classic kind of JRPG just needs a new name to avoid “othering”.
The "J" isn't othering any more than any other genre modifier. It sets up my expectations for what type of RPG it is, just like a "C" does. It also doesn't mean that the game comes from Japan, because Sea of Stars looks to be a JRPG, and Anachronox already was back in the day; it just means it's the Japanese style, which is neither inherently good or inherently bad.
But the developers have told you how they feel and literally the style isn't about Japan at all anymore? I don't understand why you would be do determined to keep it?
Because everyone knows what I mean when I say JRPG, and I've never used it as a pejorative. I'm not sure how you'd describe those games better or more succinctly.
This is going to sound really dickish and maybe it is, but people will keep it because it's a helpful descriptor and the developers feelings about the term are less important than the term being helpful. Plus there's no ill intent behind it.
It's like if you built a ranch-style home then threw a fit when people called it that because you don't like the term. Sorry, but people are going to call it that because it's helpful and not intended to be disparaging.