[quote name='The Buffmuffin']So what is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning?
Oh wait a WRPG with excellent combat...[/QUOTE]
Ita's a WRPG yes. I can't give my opinion on the combat system never watched game play of it nor have I played it.
I'm not a fan of western games as you can tell and certainly not western developed rpgs. I'm about to put up with Skyrim but I doubt ill enjoy the experience as much as I did the souls games.
In recent years, some have criticized Western RPGs for "becoming less RPG-like and more [like] true
action games" due to the "removal of numbers and rules" that make "the genre an RPG." Christian Nutt of
GameSpy has also stated that, in contrast to Japanese RPGs, Western RPGs' greater control over the development and customization of playable characters has come at the expense of plot and gameplay, resulting in generic dialogue, lack of character development within the narrative, and poor battle systems.[Nutt] It has also been argued that Western RPGs tend to focus more on the underlying rules governing the battle system rather than on the experience itself, and that Western RPGs as a whole are generally not as finely tuned and polished as their Japanese counterparts.[Nutt] Tom Battey of
Edge Magazine noted that the problems often cited against Japanese RPGs (mentioned above) also often apply to many Western RPGs as well as games outside of the RPG genre.
BioWare games have been criticized for "lack of innovation, repetitive structure and lack of real choice." Western RPGs, particularly
Bethesda games, have also been criticized for being "derivative and over-played," focusing on "quantity over quality," lacking variety in dungeon designs, and lacking "narrative strength" or "mechanical intricacy."
It is not uncommon for Western RPGs to be called "crap games" by players in Japan, where the vast majority of console role-playing video games originate, and where Western RPGs remain largely unknown. The developer
Motomu Toriyama also criticized Western RPGs, stating that they "dump you in a big
open world, and let you do whatever you like [which makes it] difficult to tell a compelling story."
[104] Hironobu Sakaguchi noted that "users like to categorise" Western RPGs as "a sort of different style, born from first person shooters."
Rowan Kaiser of
Joystiq argues that many of the often mentioned differences between Eastern and Western games are
stereotypes that are generally not true. Kaiser makes his case by pointing to the similarities between several Western titles (such as
Lands of Lore,
Betrayal at Krondor, and
Dragon Age) and several classic Eastern titles (such as
Final Fantasy and
Phantasy Star), noting that these Western titles share a similar emphasis on linear storytelling, pre-defined characters, and, in some cases, "bright-colored" graphics