Gamasutra - RPG Game Design Essentials

Gamasutra reposted an article from 2009 with writer John Harris who talks about 20 RPGs that are essential to all RPG designers. He uses a mix of WRPG, and JRPG games.

In the latest in his popular Game Design Essentials series, which has previously spanned subjects from Atari games through 'mysterious games', 'open world games', 'unusual control schemes' and 'difficult games', writer John Harris examines 10 games from the Western computer RPG (CRPG) tradition and 10 from the Japanese console RPG (JRPG) tradition, to figure out what exactly makes them tick, and why you should care.