Years ago I watched an Extra Credits video on YouTube about JRPGs and Western RPGS and I always considered it a fairly bad video but now that I know so much more about the history of RPGs I realize their first mistake was conceding the very idea of JRPGs as being a thing in the first place.
I'm not arguing there are no differences between RPGs in the West and RPGs made in Japan caused by distinct cultural differences. But they are the same as how every genre and medium of story telling seems different in Japan. The only other one where the Japanese version is virtually treated as a completely different thing is Animation aka Anime. In that case though it is increasingly well understood now that what we think of when we hear the word "Anime" is principally certain kinds of Anime that even in Japan are actually a niche interest.
When you look at the history of Japanese RPG Video Games that either never got localized, or even if they were were never as popular over here as they were in Japan, or if they did get popular over here were popular in a way that kind of compartmentalized them from other RPGs in how pop culture thinks about them. You'll realize that what American Gamers think of when we think of JRPGs is really much more specifically Squarsoft Games of the SNES and PS1 (and not even all of them really), Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, the SaGa series, Super Mario RPG ect. Just look at that old College Humor Video parodying JRPGs, every specific game it will make you think of is Square, it's story is mostly a Parody of FF7's plot with visuals taken from Final Fantasy Tactics and Mario RPG.
The main example for that third situation is Pokémon. I saw a Twitter argument sometime last year where some people were getting annoyed at other people not counting Pokémon as a JRPG. And yeah Pokémon technically is one, but it's just as different from our standard perception of a JRPG as any Western RPG is. When you compare the first Gen Pokémon games to prior Game Boy RPGs mechanically and visually it kind of is a natural development, but Game Boy RPGs were never the foundation of how JRPGs were defined, even series that started there gained their true notoriety when prompted to home consoles.
Recently I was watching YouTube videos about NES and SNES Video Games that were officially licensed Dungeons & Dragons games. And in one the person making the video talked about not liking pseudo 3D first person Dungeon Crawlers but referred to that as being specifically a characteristic of Western RPGs in contrast to "what they do in Japan", but I'm well aware that there are plenty of Japanese RPGs that also do that. I also dislike that kind of dungeon gameplay, but since I have such a unique history with how I learned about RPGs I never thought of it as something you'd go to Japan to get away from because my first experience with being annoyed by it was Phantasy Star for the Sega Master System, and then learning the Megami Tensei games also did that is why I never tried to play any of them.
In Japan DragonQuest is the most popular RPG franchise, it doesn't just edge out Final Fantasy it dwarfs Final Fantasy. And there is one Trope we Americans associate with JRPGs that DragonQuest has pretty much been the exact opposite on. The Killing God or God being Evil trope is mostly a Square and Atlus thing, in DragonQuest God is usually The Goddess and pretty benevolent. And that is a more accurate reflection of general Japanese Spirituality where Amaterasu is arguably the centerpiece of the Shinto Pantheon. However back in the 2000s when edgy Atheism was still the trendy thing in Online Culture the Megami Tensei and FF Tactics approach was what American internet Nerds latched onto. The subject of Goddess Worship in Japanese Media is something I may have to go deeper into someday.
DragonQuest so thoroughly dwarfs everything else in Japan that every Manga or Light Novel or Anime set in a "generic RPG setting" is very clearly using specifically DragonQuest III as the model. And secretly I think that's the key to why so many American Weebs be hating on these shows. The reasons they say they don't like them I think are disingenuous, the truth is these American Gamers would much rather be Isekaied to a discount Final Fantasy. Hell I personally would love an Anime set in a world modeled after SaGa Frontier.
But as is the Anime I would recommend to Final Fantasy fans are more Anime that were an influence on Final Fantasy rather then the other way around. These include Ghibli films like Nausica of The Valley of The Wind and Castle in The Sky. And I feel like I'm the only person who notices that Sephiroth's character design was clearly inspired by Kunzite from Sailor Moon.
But going back to that Extra Credits video, their main thesis was that JRPGs are not really the same genre but some coincidental independent development. And that ignores how Western RPGs are played in Japan, specifically the Ultima Series was a very well documented influence on early DragonQuest and early Final Fantasy as was Wizardry. The RPG is a Western concept in origin including the Role Playing Video Game specifically, that Japanese Gaming Culture made several different distinctly Japanese variations on, but only one of those was ever popular enough in America during the formative years of Gamer Culture to really define how American Gamers stereotype Japanese RPGs.
Update: On Mastadon this interesting conversation was brought to my attention.
On Second Thought The Eminence in Shadow might qualify as a more Final Fantasy Esque Isekai. It's resemblance to "Magic Academy" Anime breeds a similarity to Final Fantasy VIII, and then there's the very concept of a prominent background character named Cid.
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