painocus: And since this is going off-topic... um... here is another marginally relevant info-dump:
The Wizardry Summoner game is sometimes considered an Wizardry Gaiden off-shoot (although as far as I know it is not made by any of the same people as the Gaiden games) for apparently basing it's content on those. In particular Japanese reviewers like to complain it ripped-off Gaiden II (which is a rather absurd criticism since Gaiden II itself just "ripped-off" Wizardry V).

Anyways, in addition to the Wizardry V/early-Gaiden standards it has a Summoner class which works differently from any other Summoner class in the series. Unlike Wizardry IV or Wizardry Empire/Elminage (where you have your standard adventurer party and one addition party-slot reserved just for summons) Wiz.S. puts your summoned monsters straight into the same party as your summoner(s). In effects this means that the fewer adventurers you have in the party the more slots you have open for summons. Just send out a summoner alone and you can walk around with five summoned monsters at a time, bring five adventurers and you can only have one summon with you, fill your party with six adventurers and having a summoner in your party at-all would be useless since you don't have the room to summon anything, etc. Summon spells are also learned from "capturing" monsters rather than the shrines of Empire and Elminage.

It's an interesting mechanic, but sadly the game (at-least the GBA version) had a reputation of being horribly unbalanced. That being said; the reviews that say this often also claim that you can only either have a one-summoner-party or a six-adventurers-party, which is flat out and obviously wrong. So I'm a bit inclined to doubt them, but I haven't played the game enough to make up my own opinion on the balance. It did seem much easier than the average Wizardry game though.

English reviews seemed to have liked it at-least. (The game was going to be released in the West, as Wizardry: The Summoning but was canceled right before release, after review-copies had already been sent out. The game's Amazon-Uk page is still up.)

Hopefully this is interesting to someone.

Sarisio: It just so happened that people, who dislike "cartoon" graphics and Japanese approach, usually use their personal preference to bash those "cartoon"games, e.g. Torchlight II - I saw a lot of people bashing it for its artstyle and strongly asking developers to change it.

On other side, I never saw people bashing "realistic" games for not having "cartoon" graphics.

Surely there might be exceptions to both rules, it is just general observation. Just like with this thread, which didn't avoid having some people come and show their dislike of Japanese games.

painocus: People's problem with what he said wasn't that they disagreed with his preference, but that he stated completely incorrect things about the Japanese Wizardry games that a quick google-search could dispel. Therefor his comments seems to be more out of laziness and/or blind prejudice than intelligence.

PetrusOctavianus: Actually I didn't comment on the Japanese Wizardries, but on Japanese games in general. It is still my impression that most of them have anime artwork, a spikey haired punk with an oversized sword as the protagonist and lote of little girls in skimpy clothing (why the hell are the Japanese so afraid of adults?).

I already know the Japanese versions of Wiz 1-5 have decent graphics, but I checked the other Jap Wizardries on Mobygames, but after a quick check the only game I saw with decent artwork was Tale of the Forsaken Land.

PetrusOctavianus: All the Japanese Wizardries have anime artowork, so nothing is lost as far as this Wizardry fan is concerned.

PetrusOctavianus: Also, I've got the impression that Japanese games in general are highly linear, revolves around a "chosen one" (usually a a spikey haired punk with a huge sword), and you pick up companions (usually 8 year old girls in skimpy outfits) instead of creating your own party.

painocus: So your impression still seems like laziness and/or blind prejudice to me.

dtgreene: In Wizardry 4 Arrange, when you step on a pentagram, you may choose to summon 5 monsters to accompany Werdna. (Note that you can choose not to use a pentagram that you just stepped on.) These 5 monsters are then treated as ordinary party members, which are controllable in combat, and can be ordered to cast spells outside of combat. The game is otherwise based of Wizardry 4, with the maps being almost identical. There is some extra text (in Japanese only, unfortunately) to make puzzle solutions a bit more clear, and some items (like the Black Candle) have no break chance in Wizardry 4 Arrange.

dtgreene: Note that the other 2 games can be set completely to English, and I recommend doing so because of the wordplay in the games, much of which is likely untranslatable.

PetrusOctavianus: But if the Japanese Wizardry games (not the remakes) really do have non-anime graphics, then I retract my comment, and admit my error.
My impression of Japanese games in general still stands, though.

painocus: As far as non-anime visuals, the Gaiden and most of the Empire game are safe. The PSX Empire game might be too animey for you (although since you don't consider Tale of the Forsaken Land animey, it is a bit hard to judge your reaction). Stay away from Wizardry Xth and I doubt you will like the character sprites of most of the Renaissance games (Prisoners of the Lost City, Labyrinth of Lost Souls, Pledge of Life and Boukyaku no Isan) either. The monsters in the latter are fine though.

(I''ll post some comments on the other games and Elminage later, but I don't have time right now.)

PetrusOctavianus: But aren't most/many of them console only?
Tried looking them up on Mobygames, but it doesn't even list Wizardry Empire or Elminage.

Dartpaw86: This series is HUGE in Japan, as they made over 20 sequels and many remakes (that are released in Japan only)

That is beyond ungrateful, we supply them with a great series, and in turn they horde the games they made to themselves.

Seriously this ticks me off so much...

rob.liefeld: Don't feel bad.
Many of these games (tried some on emulators) seem incredibly repetitive.

Sarisio: Personally, I find simulators and some other genres quite repetitive and too formulaic, but I don't bash them because I don\\t really like those genres. Perhaps you simply don't enjoy the genre as whole, there is no need to make such generalizations.

rob.liefeld: I was talking about the japan-only wizardry games, not a whole genre. Wiz8 is one of my all time favorite games.

Floid: Despite preferring cartoonish or "real" graphics, jrpg´s often have a very different gameplay approach.
As said before, char building often is just a matter of combat skills.

However, I managed to avoid jrpgs for over 20 years of gaming. But the last years for some reason I got hooked..

In general they are well playable, without investing too much time in micro-management, inventory and so on.
For example if you are used to Etrian Odissey its hard to come back to older pc rpgs. Most things are well balanced in this series, the developers really do have experience with combat systems.You do have a quest log and so on. most things simply go really smart.

That´s what put me in and the last three year, since I´ve got my ds, I´ve invested around 200h in Etrian and about 400h in disgaea.

I come back to western prgs, if I have the desire for a good story and char building, but combat wise, the only one I know to have combats as deep as Etrian is ToEE and maybe Wizardry, but not as well balanced.