Western and Japanese RPGs are clearly distinct but share the same origins. The pioneering titles were the Ultima and Wizardry games which saw many sequels and many more imitators but both series have long been dormant. These titles were influenced by Dungeons & Dragons and other board games and fantasy works. The former was heavily influenced by Tolkien’s Middle Earth, Jack Vance’s Dying Earth, Fritz Leiber’s Lankhmar stories among a number of other works. The Japanese took influence from these games which led to Dragon Quest and then Final Fantasy which are the two most well-known with the former preceding the latter. These two series arrived in the late 1980s and a clear difference between Western and Japanese games then emerged though generally speaking they derived from the same source.
In this post I will hereafter use the initialisms “WRPG” and “JRPG” to distinguish them. The latter is well recognised but the former is not and Western Role-Playing Games are usually distinguished as “Western RPG” or “CRPG” (C for Computer). I am not attempting to set any new or consistent standard here — it is just easier for the purposes of this post. I am also aware that there are earlier titles and could go into more depth but the four series I’ve mentioned are definitely the titles that popularised the genre in both East and West. That so-and-so made this one game in 1977 on some university mainframe that three people played isn’t really relevant here. I should also state that a lot of this knowledge came later for me as I was too young to have played most of these games at the time. I’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons and have only more recently become familiar with some of the other influential fantasy works. I’ve not played any Ultima or Wizardry games as of writing and only played later titles in the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series.
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