Why is Star Ocean an ARPG and Tales of is an RPG?

[Pumpkin]

So I've played a few Star Ocean games and a lot of Tales of games and they both seem pretty similar to me in terms of how they play. So why is one an ARPG and one is not? Anyone know?

[Fynn]

I haven't played either so I can't give a personal opinion on it, but I've actually seen ARPG used a lot in reference to Tales, so I guess it varies depending on the area of the Internet that you check?

[Fynn]

Yep. One denotes style, whereas the other denotes gameplay. Fable and Kingdom hearts are both ARPGs, but one is a WRPG, while the other is a JRPG. Out of the games I played, at least. I'm sure there are more examples.

Though I'm pretty sure SRPGs don't have a WRPG equivalent

[Fynn]

Not really, though. Art direction is not really where it's at. If you take Akihiko Yoshida's artwork for Vagrant Story or Tactics Ogre, it really doesn't look like anime at all, as it's really more reminiscent of Western comics and oil paintings. And then we have Child of Light with a very Western art style, but it's considered a JRPG, despite being a French Canadian game. The style I mentioned doesn't really pertain to art style, really, but rather a design philosophy that is distinct from how WRPGs are made.

[Mirage]

Both are action RPGs, because the games perform accurate hitbox detection, and your performance in the real-time combat system depends heavily on how well and fast you react to events.

Yep. One denotes style, whereas the other denotes gameplay. Fable and Kingdom hearts are both ARPGs, but one is a WRPG, while the other is a JRPG. Out of the games I played, at least. I'm sure there are more examples.

Though I'm pretty sure SRPGs don't have a WRPG equivalent

But SRPG doesn't say anything about the visual design of the game, only gameplay design, so why should there be one? Fundamentally, X-COM and the Banner Saga falls under this as well as Disgaea and FFT.