I think judging games by what region they come from is about as irelivant as whether we're eating square-shaped waffles or circle shaped waffles.

The only types of RPGs that I feel are polar opposites are 'You're on your own' style RPGs, like Phantasy Star, Elder Scrolls, Dragon Quest, or Ultima, and 'Telling more of an epic story with only bare minimal of RPG elements to fool players into thinking they have actual involvment' such as Xenosaga, some of the Final Fantasys, Fable, Sudeki and probably a bunch of others.