RR529 wrote:

MrNiceGuy wrote:

LZBirdboi wrote:

By its technical definition, most games are RPGs. Just saying :3

I've always thought this too..

Traditionally, in RPGs you create your own character & story, and choose what kind of weapons & skills you'd have (which would impact your created story). You're literally creating & deciding for yourself what your role in the game world is.

Since you don't have any say in what roles Mario, Peach, or Bowser play in a Mario platformer for example, it's not an RPG, despite the fact that you are playing the "role" of Mario.

You don't make your own story or characters in a JRPG either though, and that's actually what seperates them from RPGs. They still retain some things though, such as an exp based leveling system, and myriad of equipment (although, unlike an RPG, your choice of equipment doesn't effect narrative). they were created because consoles originally couldn't handle the openness of true RPGs, but have now evolved into their own genré with extravagant stories.

SCAR392 wrote:

Doesn't strategy as a whole count as an RPG element?

Gamesake wrote:

@pixelman Fire Emblem is a strategy game not an RPG.

Gamesake wrote:

@pixelman Fire Emblem is a strategy game not an RPG. Fire Emblem became an SRPG for Nintendo when people started criticising Nintendo handhelds for not having RPGs on them.

moomoo wrote:

Gamesake wrote:

@pixelman Fire Emblem is a strategy game not an RPG. Fire Emblem became an SRPG for Nintendo when people started criticising Nintendo handhelds for not having RPGs on them.

Considering that Fire Emblem features things like levelling-up, various stats like attack, HP, etc., then yes, I'd consider it part RPG. So it is a SRPG.

moomoo wrote:

Gamesake wrote:

@pixelman Fire Emblem is a strategy game not an RPG. Fire Emblem became an SRPG for Nintendo when people started criticising Nintendo handhelds for not having RPGs on them.

Considering that Fire Emblem features things like levelling-up, various stats like attack, HP, etc., then yes, I'd consider it part RPG. So it is a SRPG.

LZBirdboi wrote:

RR529 wrote:

MrNiceGuy wrote:

LZBirdboi wrote:

By its technical definition, most games are RPGs. Just saying :3

I've always thought this too..

Traditionally, in RPGs you create your own character & story, and choose what kind of weapons & skills you'd have (which would impact your created story). You're literally creating & deciding for yourself what your role in the game world is.

Since you don't have any say in what roles Mario, Peach, or Bowser play in a Mario platformer for example, it's not an RPG, despite the fact that you are playing the "role" of Mario.

You don't make your own story or characters in a JRPG either though, and that's actually what seperates them from RPGs. They still retain some things though, such as an exp based leveling system, and myriad of equipment (although, unlike an RPG, your choice of equipment doesn't effect narrative). they were created because consoles originally couldn't handle the openness of true RPGs, but have now evolved into their own genré with extravagant stories.

To be fair, most RPGs don't follow this formula

rayword45 wrote:

If we can be really loose, what then separates a simulation game or a sandbox game from an RPG?

SCAR392 wrote:

Well then what the hell is an RPG? You play a role in every game you play. I thought RPG games were mainly turn based, had certain variables that affect the gameplay, a linear story like non-RPG games, customization options that are also available in non-RPGs, etc... Pretty much every game has an RPG element.

WhiteKnight wrote:

LZBirdboi wrote:

RR529 wrote:

MrNiceGuy wrote:

LZBirdboi wrote:

By its technical definition, most games are RPGs. Just saying :3

I've always thought this too..

Traditionally, in RPGs you create your own character & story, and choose what kind of weapons & skills you'd have (which would impact your created story). You're literally creating & deciding for yourself what your role in the game world is.

Since you don't have any say in what roles Mario, Peach, or Bowser play in a Mario platformer for example, it's not an RPG, despite the fact that you are playing the "role" of Mario.

You don't make your own story or characters in a JRPG either though, and that's actually what seperates them from RPGs. They still retain some things though, such as an exp based leveling system, and myriad of equipment (although, unlike an RPG, your choice of equipment doesn't effect narrative). they were created because consoles originally couldn't handle the openness of true RPGs, but have now evolved into their own genré with extravagant stories.

To be fair, most RPGs don't follow this formula

That's because the gamers who haven't played proper RPGs (of which there are few examples in videogames) tend to call random games they like, like Zelda, as an RPG. Because they tend to take "Role Playing Game" literally, when the actual genre is not a literal interpretation of the name.

RPGs are games like Skyrim and to a lesser extent Dragon Age and The Witcher - games where players don't follow a prescribed path through a plot, but rather have direct control over the direction of the narrative. The idea is that the AI is meant to play the role of the "Dungeon Master" - a concept from Dungeons & Dragons where one of the players around a physical table would design a game world for the other players to explore. The Dungeon Master was not there to dictate a story to the players, and that's been something game developers have struggled with - giving control of the narrative to the player - but there's a couple of examples out there.

The RPG genre has nothing whatsoever to do with having control of a character, of levelling up or statistics, or anything else that simplistic. Those features are in most RPGs, certainly, but an RPG only becomes a real RPG when the player is responsible for the story - what makes an RPG an RPG is a philosophy towards game design, not in-game features.

Minecraft is closer to an RPG than almost anything people have mentioned in here. Minecraft might not have statistics and such, but it's a player-generated story.

The games industry has generated a whole bunch of subgenres that people mistakenly label as "RPGs." JRPGs look and play nothing like Skyrim, so why do people call them both "RPGs?" Fire Emblem is a strategy/ JRPG hybrid, and is completely incomparable to Skyrim. Zelda is an action/ adventure game and bears no resemblance to any of the above mentioned games.

The point of genre is to give people who might not have played a game before a way of getting an immediate understanding about what the game is about. To tell someone that Zelda is an "RPG" is doing them a massive disfavour, since if that person loves Dungeons & Dragons and Skyrim, there is no guarantee that they will enjoy Zelda.

In conclusion, let's stick to calling apples apples, oranges oranges, and spades spades. Skyrim is an RPG, Final Fantasy is a JRPG, Zelda is an Action Adventure game.

The 3DS, once again, has no RPGs on it right now. The DS only had one or two. it's not a genre that does so well on handhelds.