Topic: RPGs

Alright, please don't call me stupid, but what exactly makes an RPG and RPG? Cause I've also heard of SRPGs, and JRPGs. I know it stands for role playing game, but wouldn't that make every game like halo an RPG? Cause you are playing as the Chief. Please answer so I can finally not be Ignorant on RPGs. Oh and please TAKE TURNS. [lame sorta pun, I know.]

Not only are you playing a roll of character but it would also involve a system of dice and statistics. I never played Halo but if it's just a first person shooter, you typically don't level them up or change their stats in anyway. Now a game like Mass Effect would qualify as an RPG even though it's a first person shooter.
Does that help?

RPG's are generally more story-driven than other games.

Thanks, that does help.
Still, what does JRPG and SRPG mean?
Wouldn't the pokemon games be considered RPGs? I remember playing one when I was younger and you leveled them up.

Japanese RPG is JRPG I think. No clue about SRPG.

JRPG stands for Japanese role-playing game. Also known as an Eastern RPG. It's counterpart is the Western RPG. SRPGs are strategy role-playing games, which add a more strategic bent to the basic RPG formula. And yes, Pokemon is an RPG.

SRPG mean strategy RPG which would be a game like fire emblem.

SPRG means Super Role Playing Game

@110electropercent
Exactly, just like Pokemon.
Unless I'm wrong, what an RPG basically is: a game where you can build a team, level up your team, and enhance the stats of your team. Also, in most RPGs the battle style is turn-based, as in: You, opponent, you, opponent, etc, etc. Like Pokemon, the Mario and Luigi series (Superstar Saga, Partners in Time, Bowser's Inside Story), Dragon Quest, and so on.

And one last thing:
JRPG - Japanese Role-Playing game
SRPG - Strategy Role-Playing game (Other times referred to as TRPG - Tactical Role-Playing game)

so for SPRGs, what makes them strategy games if you take turns already in most RPGs?
Thanks for all the help so far everyone.

A good example is Final Fantasy: Tactics. There are usually many characters involved and combat usually takes place on a "grid-based" battle field. Hopefully there is some sort of story-line as well. Imagine playing chess with characters that can be leveled, upgraded, etc.

My favorite game and where my avatar comes from "Brigandine" is a big example of a SRPG. It's got the tactical elements of a strat, but is also very story driven

Yeah I did and it's really too bad it never got translated and sent to the states. maybe I would actually import this game if I could get a translated script including character bios. I love reading that stuff in the game and it would be hard for me to play If I couldn't understand what they were saying. I mean I could play it, just it wouldn't be as enjoyable to me. I also heard you can fight Bulnoil too which is awesome.

Oh there are also Action RPGs.
Some would consider the Zelda games to be action RPGs while others would consider them to just be action-adventure.

But better examples of Action RPGs are games like Ys Book I & II, or Crystalis.
Both of these games feature 1 protagonist. The protagonist has a life meter, attack power, and defensive power.
These values can be increased by gaining experience. Attack and Defensive power can also be improved by obtaining new items.
But the battles are not turn-based.
In Crystalis, you defeat your enemies by swinging a sword at them in real-time (like Zelda).
In Ys, you vanquish your foes by ramming straight into them - the amount of damage you take and the amount of damage the enemy takes will be determined by your attack vs. their defense and vice versa, as well as who attacked whom and from what angle.

Ok, thanks everyone. No longer is my head clouded with ignorance.

Role Playing games began life with the creation of Dungeons and Dragons, a pen-and-paper game first released over 30 years ago. In that game, each individual player builds a character, which she or he then takes on some kind of quest, divised by another player, called the Dungeon Master.

In Pen-and-paper games, statistics and "leveling up" typically play a back seat to exploration and characterisation - the goal was to speak, and act, through your avatar, much like an author of a book does when he/ she writes.

Now, when Square and Enix pioneered the JRPG, the technological constraints of the consoles at the time weren't going to allow them to create the kind of massive, open world to explore and relate to that we can in a modern day Morrowind and Oblivion, so the decision was made to focus on a linear story, the statistics, and the levelling up. The formula was popular, and stuck, creating the JRPG genre that we all know today.

Western RPGs (like the aforementioned Morrowind and Oblivion) these days are truer to the D & D roots, while JRPGs have continued to evolve into a distinctly different style of game to an RPG - they're more combat orientated and. by-and-large, the plots remain linear (though sub quests alleviate this a little)

Strategy RPGs are just JRPGs, with some unit management and turn-based strategy conventions thrown in.

If you want a clear understanding of the origins of, and what an "RPG" in the purest sense looks like, look into Dungeons and Dragons. It singlehandedly created the genre, and it remains the holy grail of RPG gaming.

I have read the comic foxtrot for many years, so I already know what dungeons and dragons is and how it works. It's interestion that it all becag with that though.

As much as I LOVE Foxtrot, D&D isn't portrayed very well in that comic strip.

if you think Foxtrot portrayed it poorly, you should check out the Chick tract, lol.

What in the world....