The primordial wCRPG-schism is WIZARDRY vs ULTIMA!

jCRPGs are a derivative of both (combat system from Wizardry / story element from Ultima) - 'just' in an 'infantile' setting. This 'infantile' art-style was the only really new innovation in the first jCRPGs.

"In 1987, Square designer Hironobu Sakaguchi chose to create a new fantasy role-playing game for the cartridge-based NES, and drew inspiration from popular fantasy games: Enix's Dragon Quest, Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda, and Origin Systems's Ultima series."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy

"Even though computer hardware rarely crossed borders, computer software proved to be much more flexible. A large number of Western games were ported to Japanese computer systems, with companies like Starcraft, Infinity, and Pony Canyon focusing almost exclusively on localizing English games. It was a rare time when large numbers of Japanese gamers were actively interested in Western games, an interest which has only just rekindled in the last few years. A little game called Dragon Quest famously arose out of a friendly argument over two Western games. As Koichi Nakamura has stated in an interview, "A game that I have fond memories of is Wizardry, which was popular in our office, but a co-worker of mine named Yuji Horii was hooked on Ultima at the time. Yuji kept saying we should make an RPG, but while I wanted to make a game like Wizardry, he wanted it to be like Ultima. We said to ourselves that we'd combine the interesting parts from both, and what we ended up with was Dragon Quest. So if it wasn't for Wizardry and Ultima, Dragon Quest wouldn't exist -- either in Japan or in the world."
(Ultima, Wizardry, and issues of video game historiography)

Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord:
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry:_Proving_Grounds_of_the_Mad_Overlord]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry:_Proving_Grounds_of_the_Mad_Overlord[/url]

Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness:
[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_I:_The_First_Age_of_Darkness]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_I:_The_First_Age_of_Darkness[/url]

Read this:

Forgotten ruins: The roots of computer role-playing games: Sir-tech:
http://venturebeat.com/2010/12/20/forgotten-ruins-the-roots-of-computer-role-playing-games-sir-tech/

and this:

Ultima, Wizardry, and issues of video game historiography
http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2011/05/ultima-wizardry-and-issues-of-video.html

Hmm yeah, a 'cRPGs that actually let you Role Play' would be a potentially interesting thread, it would certainly be a small sub-set, I think there's some things in Fallout that would be optimal in terms of XP gain that you might decide against doing from a moral perspective - like assassinating the merchant in his house, I certainly dobed the guy that hired me to do that into the police without making the kill (although I did then rob the merchant for the thieves' guild, he WAS a bit of an arsehole after all and the thieves were pretty cool!)
There's probably some more, you can form evil parties in Baulder's Gate for example
And then there's Fable that hits you over the head with the whole 'Decide to be good or evil' thing, INfamous is a bit like that too, more of an open worlder than an RPG though, that one

Also b00bs rul3 j000 = the gh3y!!!1111!1!!!!1!!one

OK maybe they are a little excessive actually, they'd probably get backache, poor dears!

Yes, I've had the same experience, which is why I'm very surprised that this doesn't seem to have happened this time. I guess maybe it means I've managed (for once) to explain my viewpoint as diplomatically and non-confrontationally as I usually attempt, but rarely achieve.

totally agree... *cof *coff Tifa *coff...

Western RPGs can be maddeningly hard in the beginning, even though they all start with killing rats in someone's basement.

JRPGs on the other hand are very easy in the beginning, you basically just press one button the whole time the first few hours to proceed, automatically winning every fight etc.

Later on, WRPGs are quite easy as you have become an unstoppable force that can easily decimate anything in his path, while JRPGs throw some oddly named ("Ruby Weapon?") superbosses at you that decimate you over and over again.

How about this from everyone's favourite cynic:

Such hate for JRPGs here. Don't blame you though.

I guess I find WRPGs so bland what with only 3 options for setting(post apocolyptic, far future/deep space, J.R.R. Tolkien's mind), and battle that is so heavily focused on action either in Diablo style click-fests or being Shooty McShooterton shoot all things in the face.

For all their faults, and there are many, I guess JRPGs feel more relaxing and contemplative to me.

And a better game than Ultima 3, at least FF1 did not have floors that are considered enemies and FF showed its Exodus (who is named Chaos) as the demon on the cover rather than some out of place computer oh and no food management.

Depends if you count Deus Ex as an RPG, then you can add 'near future' also Cyberpunk 2077- coming soon ('citing)
The Bioshocks might be a bit more of a stretch to be called RPGs but they bring 'some bullshit word like 'steam-punk' only for a slighty later age than late Victorian' to the table!
ooh then the 2 Vampire games took wRPGing to the world of darkness visiting many historical ages through a dark lens, also Bloodnet, which was ALSO cyber
there's Fantasy / sci-fi /steam-punk mash-ups in Arcanum, Gene Forge and Shadowrun (also soon to return)
Oh Darklands and The Witcher are both much closer to historical Europe than Tolkien fantasy
So, in short, no!

*edit* also the 2 world of Ultimas - Amazon Jungle and Steampunk on the Moon!
Ok I'll stop now, promise!

*damn, 1 more edit* Even though Planescape: Torment is AD&D the Planscapre Word is WAY weirder than Tolkien, such a shame that TSR / Wizards of the Coast /Hasbro killed of the more esoteric AD&D settings...

What sort of continuity does the D&D worlds have?

Is there anything connecting Neverwinter with Planescape for example?

They are all Planes in a multi-verse, only planswalkers may traverse the blind eterni.... no wait that's Magic: The Gathering,
I don't know really, I think you can end up on any plane via a Planscape planar portal and the Gallions in space from Spelljammer may have been able to traverse them too, but both those settings are gone now, actually I don't know which ones still remain - Forgotton Realms and maybe Ravensloft? dunno
They've really changed the table top RPG into being all about figures on a board, its much more of a board game than it used to be

*edit*
wikipedia says:
"Campaign settings in the 4th edition of D&D consist of only three books each: A campaign guide for the DM, a player's guide for players and DMs, and a ready-to-play adventure. There will only be these three books for each campaign setting, although a new setting will be released each year, and all settings will receive continuing support in D&D Insider. Forgotten Realms, Eberron and Dark Sun have been released for 4th edition. In D&D's 3rd edition, new Dragonlance material and Ravenloft material were being produced by other companies via licensing"

So I guess they're going to a different plane each year. following the M:TG model
I note that Neverwinter hasn't been released yet but there's a new Neverwinter MMORPG so it must still be a thing

Anyway, back to what you actually asked. the part on Spelljammer says
Spelljammer[edit]

"Further information: Spelljammer
A setting based in "wildspace", a fantastical version of outer space based on classical notions of the universe in which magic-imbued ships interact with each other and locations in space, including campaign setting planets such as Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance, allowing for inter-campaign interaction. This campaign setting is no longer officially supported as a standalone campaign setting, but elements from the setting (such as spelljammer ships) have been included in 3rd and 4th edition supplement materials."

So they're planets you can travel between but I think some settings are also supposed to the the distant past of other settings etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_campaign_settings

I've played JRPGs that go into the mind of a dying classical composer, where you're a student at a magical academy learning alchemy, where you're in the wild west with steam powered robots, a game where you play as a Norse Goddess recruiting warriors for Ragnarok.

JRPGs are directed experiences where the game makers have a story to tell. Unfortunately, this tends to be at the expense of player choice. WRPGs avoid this pitfall by making the story more generic in order to incorporate player choice, but size and time limitations make a lot of player choice null in the long run anyway as programmers can only put in so many variants.

Point being, they both have their pros and cons. To each their own.

I think that most role playing games have be redefined by society "fantastical setting" regardless if there is any role playing involved.

What is interesting is that most people define "role playing" not by the feature of what makes something a role playing game but by what the setting is.

As for your question, both Neverwinter and Planescapes are fantastical settings.

As for the difference between RPGs, I think it has to do with where the development of the the RPG was created---n the West (European countries) or Japan (East/Asia). There is a certain cultural style to each I think people touched on already.

However the problem is where you get games like "Dark Souls" that are produced by Japanese in Japan and yet many consider it a WRPG.

I think quite a few older western RPGs were also like this. E.g. <span class="bold">Phantasie 3</span> (and probably the earlier Phantasie games), and I think many other party-based first-person view WRPGs too, e.g. Wizardry games, Might & Magic games etc.

But in many WRPGs, the combat scenes certainly feel a bit like tactical turn-based minigames where you move around your pawns on the battlefield almost like playing chess.

You know Final Fantasy did not turn too JRPGish until 7, I would argue Final Fantasy 1, 4, 6 as just RPGs and to some extant FF 12 and Tactics.