Topic: FPS vs RPG vs Platformer...Clarification please!

Rather than hijack another thread, I figured I would start a new one. In the DS forum, there is a thread regarding the best DS RPG. I thought Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks was an RPG, but it apparently is not. What is it?

I know FPS (First Person Shooter) are games like Doom, or Link's Crossbow Training - you are looking through the character's eyes, and you are shooting. What about Platformers and RPGs? How are they defined? And what other classifications are there for video games?

• Puzzle?
• Strategy?
• Arcade?

I think RPG's in which you are looking at the world through the character's eyes (first person) are called Action RPG's. I'm more of a turn-based RPG fan myself, in which you're looking at all of your characters on the field. Games like Fallout3 blur the line a bit because you can play the game from a 1st person or 3rd person perspective. Combat can also be paused using the in-game V.A.T.S. system which is very similar to turn-based RPG's. There can also be strategy-rpg. Example: Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. Basically it's a large (pretty) chessboard in which you move your characters around and attack your enemies while "leveling up".

Most (all?) platformers are 2d side-scrolling adventure games such as Metroid, Castlevania, Shadow Complex, Super Mario Bros. etc. There's the adventure element combined with quite a bit of exploration and searching for "power ups".

RPG = role playing game. They usually involve stats, and you can power up attack/other stats by beating enemies. Some have turn-based battles.
Platformers- it would seem pretty obvious. Games like Mario, where you are jumping on platforms, trying to get somewhere. There are 3d platformers also, like Super Mario Galaxy.
Zelda does not include stats, and killing enemies doesn't increase your experience. There are other reasons also.

Well, I knew what RPG stood for!
Okay, so Zelda would be a platformer then? I always lumped "side-scrollers" (hope that's right) like SMB and Megaman together as a "platform" game. I guess that is where my confusion started.

No, Zelda would be 3rd person adventure, but there are multiple ways you could classify it.

Puzzle: series of brain teasers that require certain methods of solving them; think of Tetris or the Art Style series

Strategy: kinda like puzzle but there are vastly different ways of solving certain situations; think of chess

Arcade: Games found in an arcade, usually used to refer to old-school arcade games

I would agree with 110%. However I have always referred to Zelda as an RPG. I dunno why though.

It's not adventure though. There is some action involved (i.e. killing enemies constantly)

Monkey Island can be considered an adventure game

Wouldn't it be in the action/adventure genre?

What exactly is Zelda? I consider it a mix of adventure/action/puzzle

I'm gonna say it's just unique.

That works.

Doom is, but Link's Crossbow Training isn't. Crossbow Training is a 3rd person shooter.

Zelda is an Action/Adventure game with a lot of Puzzle elements in it.
It's not a RPG because in just about every RPG you have more than one person in a party and you can level up and increase your stats and gain new skills. Pretty much none of which are in Zelda games. And it's not a Platformer because again in just about every Platformer you just jump across platforms on a side-scrolling screen. You do sometimes have to jump across platforms in Zelda games, I'll give you that, but it's not like Mario games where you're constantly going platform to platform to platform.

Clarification granted.

The question about Zelda pops up every so often in threads about RPGs, but here's a thread all its own that has enough responses to clarify that part of your confusion. :3

Well Nintendo consider Zelda as a Action-RPG. Just search for Genre of RPG in the Wii VC section and you will find Ocarina of Time for sure.

Nintendo DID consider. Also, you can't trust game-sorting engines. It said that Rayman dsiware wasn't a platformer.

To be honest, every game is an RPG. You're living as someone else for an amount of time, however long that time is. However, I know what you're actually talking about, so an RPG is a game where you increase your skills/power to progress in the game while experiencing a fantasy story. Platformers are games where you have to jump on platforms and defeat/avoid enemies in order to beat the game. Arcade games focus more on short bursts of play and high scores than anything else. Puzzle games involve solving......well...puzzles over anything else. Strategy games involve giving you a set of equipment/people and rules and throwing you in situations to see how you plan according to that specific situation. Now for some examples:

RPGs: Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Okami
Platformers: Super Mario Bros., Sonic the Hedgehog, Castlevania
Arcade Games: Tetris, Time Crisis, Crazy Taxi
Puzzle Games: Umm......any game that involves solving puzzles over anything else.
Strategy Games: Starcraft, World of Warcraft

@V8: WoW isn't a strategy game. It is a MMORPG.

RPG is the most misunderstood genre of them all. No one even comes close to a reasonable definition of it.

The reason is the definition of the genre is rooted in games outside of video games, and most video gamer people have never played those. The original RPGs were pen-and-paper games like Dungeons and Dragons. Those games, in turn, were based on tabletop miniature wargames.

What does this mean? To be a proper RPG, and in terms of core mechanics, a game requires a strategic manipulation of a character's statistics. You, as the player, need to be able to control the development of your character to build him/ her into a unique individual, which you then "act" as though you're seeing the world through.

In truth, there are very, very few RPGs that properly adhere to the genesis of the genre. Western RPGs, such as Morrowind and Baldurs Gate, do. JRPGs do not. JRPGs are a separate genre again.

Zelda is in no way an RPG. You perform no character development (no, getting extra hearts does not count as character development), there is no performance through the avatar, and there's no ability for you to properly shape your character's destiny and place in the game world.