Before Dragon Age: Origins, western RPGs were a mixed bag and definitely not the cultural juggernaut that it is now. Final Fantasy broke role-playing conventions with their seventh entry and, for a while, Japanese role-playing games reigned supreme.
That was until Bioware made a firm and clear distinction between Western and Japanese RPGs with their stints on the Dungeons and Dragons franchise, and their two Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, which the stage for a…