Most crpgs are relatively primitive, but the ones that stand out have features that jrpgs have rarely or never touched and if they have, not to the same degree of rigor. The simple reason is that those stand outs attempted to recreate the mechanical detail and possibility space of TTRPGs, and/or attempted world simulation. That's the axis along which I call JRPGs primitive, by which I just mean simple, spare, or you can say focused. You don't go into a JRPG expecting Fallout quest structure, or Arcanum reactivity, Arx dungeon design, Daggerfall chargen, Ultima 7/Gothic 2 world simulation, BG2 spell game, etc. Thus they don't do everything better because they don't do all the things. I would like to see a competent Japanese crew do a hardcore, crunchy, full of CnC, skill checks, non-combat solutions, etc. --released to the general audience. Been saying that for years. Bring their pentient for unique settings, high craftsmanship, and high energy to bear on a such a base. CRPGs are fundamentally lacking in verve and personality, rather dry, which is always a problem I've had with them. Like the people in the west who could do otherwise went into adventure games, while in Japan they were in every genre.
tl;dr: Yes, more Elona plz Japan, and crpg developers were always depressed simulationfags.
*talking 'traditional' RPG, excluding T and SRPGs.
