>>725142584
What makes a JRPG is the shop. A shop is a callback to the d&d roots of a RPG where you bought equipment that you then used that equipment to slay monsters from the d&d beastiary™ in an epic adventure. It symbolizes the freedom you have in the game-you can walk to a shop. You can not walk to the shop and go somewhere else in the map instead. The shop hints at the great map--just look at this great map, that you've yet to explore and this combination forms the makings of a coherent world. You can tell it's a JRPG from the moment you see a shop. If it lacks a shop, is it even a RPG? I begin to doubt it. It's now something else. A mere hallway storyboard simulator.