What is a JRPG?
At least in my opinion...
JRPGs are a polarizing genre of video games for many. Do they exclude based on geography? Is it about certain mechanics? Does every RPG made in Japan qualify? Can games made outside Japan qualify? Depending on who you ask, each of those questions might have a wildly different answer.
Some people would exclude games like Dark Souls and Elden Ring for various reasons. Others would exclude games like Nier: Automata and Final Fantasy XVI because of their battle mechanics. Another group would exclude games like Sea of Stars and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 because the games weren’t made in Japan. And finally some others would include some or all of those games.
To start, I’m going to examine the most obvious inclusions that everyone can agree on, slowly working out to where I make my personal exclusions from the genre.
Turn-based RPGs made in Japan by a Japanese studio - Nobody argues these aren’t JRPGs. The first 10 Final Fantasy games, Chrono Trigger, the Breath of Fire series, Suikoden, Dragon Quest and countless others are clearly part of the JRPG genre. In fact these games make the foundation of the genre. The only people who don’t want these labeled JRPGs are RPG developers from Japan who don’t want to be differentiated from other RPGs, but the difference between these and something like Skyrim is so massive that they really don’t belong in the same genre.
Action RPGs made in Japan by a Japanese studio with anime style graphics - A few will argue against these, but the argument falls apart quickly when games like Star Ocean, the Tales series and Xenoblade Chronicles end up excluded. Most in this category really are just arguing against the action based Final Fantasy games because they are mad about that series moving away from turn based combat (note that this does not include Final Fantasy XVI because it isn’t a RPG at all but rather a character action game).
Tactical RPGs made in Japan by a Japanese studio - Still a JRPG to me. Games can be in multiple genres and games like Disgaea and Fire Emblem are absolutely JRPGs. There’s a clear difference between those and games like XCOM2 and Marvel’s Midnight Suns even though they share the tactical genre.
Games in the first three categories developed outside of Japan but with clear and obvious influences from those categories - Now we reach the first truly controversial argument. I argue games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Sea of Stars and Chained Echoes are JRPGs. For example in Clair Obscur, the structure of the story is told in a way where it would neatly divide exactly into the same style and length of Acts and discs that Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X did. Yes, those games were made outside of Japan, but the Japanese influence in them is obvious to anyone who’s played classic JRPGs and these kinds of games.
Action Games developed in Japan - Now we hit a ‘you’ll know it when you see it’ category. Does the game have enough RPG mechanics to be called an RPG. For this, I like to use the ‘God of War’ test. If your game has more flexibility and customization in builds than God of War 2018, it can be considered an RPG. If it doesn’t, it is an action game. By this test, the Nier series and Nier Automata in particular is a JRPG. Final Fantasy XVI on the other hand, is not (the changes you make are functionally all cosmetic considering you get a bunch of different elements for a game with no elemental weakness system and no status effects).
Souls-likes developed in Japan - Not a JRPG. I view these as a different sub-genre of RPG. Think about it. Does Elden Ring have more in common with Skyrim or Dragon Quest? Yes, the games are RPGs developed in Japan. But the games also intentionally avoided every single hallmark of the JRPG genre at every step. Even before Souls-like became the terms and Fromsoftware had made its name, they were developing games like King’s Field that had nothing in common with JRPGs and were building blocks to Demon Souls and Dark Souls.
MMO made in Japan - Not JRPGs. They might have some things in common with JRPGs, but MMORPGs are a wholly different genre. Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV might be close but they don’t quite make it. The structure of what is required in an MMO is too different from the JRPG genre no matter how JRPG-like the story is…and those stories fit right in the center of the JRPG genre.
Of course all of this just semantics. Play what you want to play. Just know that once you join the online discourse, terms like this turn into serious arguments very quickly, the likes of which in the past would have been contained in forums but now spread like wildfire across Reddit, Facebook, X and others.
Good dissection of the genre, though (pompous rant incoming) my preference would be that we ditch the term "RPG" altogether. Like "Metroidvania" it's a genre name that only makes sense to people who already play games and are steeped in the context of them. I think we need different terms for these things depending on who we're talking to.
"JRPG" is great short-hand for those in the know, but outside of the gamer context we need more than an acronym. We need words that are actually descriptive.
Just one in a number of language problems in the video game media landscape. I even hate the term "Video Games" as an umbrella term. It maybe accurately describes pac-man but it's an infantilizing descriptor when applied to a work that has something meaningful to say. Does it feel right to call something like "This War of Mine" a game?
The Graphic Novel had to fight to be taken seriously and outgrow the "Comic Books" label. Similarly, I wish we could normalize a term like "Playable Art", or "Interactive" novel/film to describe works in this medium with proper artistic merit.
Another funny thing, I don’t really disagree with your assessment that MMOs are not JRPGs as we understand the term… but that’s a case where the term actually makes sense!
In a single player game playing a ‘role’ isn’t really a big factor like it is in tabletop RPGs where the games got the name from.
In an MMO there is actual role-playing on RP servers. Even off of RP servers everyone in an MMO is mechanically serving a role (tank, healer, damage dealer, crafter, etc) and all of the gameplay is in service of improving the players ability to play that role more effectively.
A rare case where the words we use for the genre actually do define the thing!