Action adventure is far too broad to describe a game because most games feature action and any kind of story can be considered an adventure. Same as RPG, surely anything where you're playing a role is an RPG. Zelda is both.
In ten years time, the questions could be 'Do RPGs have to be first person?' or 'Does an RPG have to feature a team of youngsters in pursuit of a mythical weapon/power?' or 'Do RPGs have to feature magic/crafting/microtransactions?'.
I only posted this to get my avatar as the forum's thumbnail.
There's a small percentage out there that want to consider Zelda part of the RPG genre. They can think how they like, but its really an action adventure game.
Action adventure is far too broad to describe a game because most games feature action and any kind of story can be considered an adventure. Same as RPG, surely anything where you're playing a role is an RPG. Zelda is both.
The problem is that you're trying to use a dictionary definition to describe a genre. It doesn't quite work like that.
The difference is in Role Playing Game vs role playing game, one is proper and the other is common. Similarly, a Democrat would specifically refer to a member of the Democratic Party, and not just any person living under a democracy.
The term RPG comes from the dice and paper roleplaying games, predating video games entirely. Other dice and paper games included things like Yahtzee, where you're obviously not playing a role. These days, like you say, pretty much every video game involves you playing a role, but "RPG" still specifically refers to the type of game that descended from tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, and later Wizardry and Ultima.
And the only Zelda game that has arguably been an RPG was Zelda II.
I mostly consider it an action/adventure because everything is pretty much real-time. RPG I ONLY use for turn-based games exclusively and strategy too. (Paper Mario, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem). I always found the whole "RPG" thing pretty annoying, because it's a role-playing game. That could mean like more than 80% of ALL games. But turn-based and strategy is what we all think of what an "RPG" IS.
Action adventure is far too broad to describe a game because most games feature action and any kind of story can be considered an adventure. Same as RPG, surely anything where you're playing a role is an RPG. Zelda is both.
The problem is that you're trying to use a dictionary definition to describe a genre. It doesn't quite work like that.
The difference is in Role Playing Game vs role playing game, one is proper and the other is common. Similarly, a Democrat would specifically refer to a member of the Democratic Party, and not just any person living under a democracy.
The term RPG comes from the dice and paper roleplaying games, predating video games entirely. Other dice and paper games included things like Yahtzee, where you're obviously not playing a role. These days, like you say, pretty much every video game involves you playing a role, but "RPG" still specifically refers to the type of game that descended from tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, and later Wizardry and Ultima.
And the only Zelda game that has arguably been an RPG was Zelda II.
This view of what is and isn't a proper RPG didn't exist in the 80s/90s when I played many games that would probably not be considered RPGs by this measure but were universally acknowledge as RPGs at the time. I am sure there were select circles of board game players in the 90s that were offended by action games being considered RPGs back then but the information age has allowed this minority of people to group together and try to claim their sub-genre as the be all and end all of RPGs.
I only posted this to get my avatar as the forum's thumbnail.
Ahhh, this has been a lifelong debate amongst gamers. Perhaps Nintendo should have included the answer to the 'Is LoZ an RPG?' question in Hyrule Historia along with the official Time-line. : D
Zelda is Action/Adventure. man, because everyone knows Final Fantasy is RPG!
I mostly consider it an action/adventure because everything is pretty much real-time. RPG I ONLY use for turn-based games exclusively and strategy too. (Paper Mario, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem). I always found the whole "RPG" thing pretty annoying, because it's a role-playing game. That could mean like more than 80% of ALL games. But turn-based and strategy is what we all think of what an "RPG" IS.
I consider games like Fallout 3 and Skyrim RPG's and they're mostly in real time. But I think the definition has broadened over the years from the original pencil-and-paper, turn-based RPG's to anything with leveling up/ability points/perks. Not saying I agree with it, but that's kind of the consensus now. I mean, people call Kingdom Hearts a RPG, but IMO it's more of a 3D beat-em-up (you don't even choose very much how points are allocated like Fallout 3).
That said though, no, I wouldn't consider Zelda a RPG. Skyward Sword had a few RPG-like elements (based on the consensus ), but the series has always been a sort of action/adventure dungeon crawler.
The Legend of Zelda is widely considered an Action Adventure game. People who consider it to be an RPG probably think so because it takes place in a fantasy setting. The Legend of Zelda games are not RPGs (although some games do posses RPG elements). In an RPG, the progression and growth of a character does not depend on specific events within a story. Yes, there are items/weapons/skills that characters in an RPG receive at a specific point in a story, but character growth is not completely dependent on such events. In the Legend of Zelda games all significant character progression takes place at predetermined points e.g. receiving the item to beat a dungeon's boss. In other words, if you plan on calling Zelda an RPG, you better start calling Metroid one also.
For the people saying action adventure: Remember that adventure is a genre in itself. If you don't know what an adventure game is off the top of your head, look it up. It generally involves puzzle solving and story telling, like what is found in LoZ. They're usually don't contain unscripted combat, though, which is why LoZ is also an action game.
There is other games that are considered to be Action RPG's that have similar systems to finding heart containers or pieces of heart to advance stats. (Or even ones that are 90% a 2D Zelda clone).
Action Adventure contains pretty much everything.
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I really want to ignore you, but it's so hard when you keep spouting crap like this. No, action adventure is not everything. It refers to specific elements - action-based, realitime combat, and set story and character progression, utilization of tools that are often found within the environment, and an emphasis on exploration.
And before you bring up games like Assassin's Creed, a lot of those games are from other genre branches, such as Open world and stealth, but retailers are too lazy to categorize with more than 5 genres, since that would require them actually knowing a thing or two about the games they actually sell.
I really want to ignore you, but it's so hard when you keep spouting crap like this. No, action adventure is not everything. It refers to specific elements - action-based, realitime combat, and set story and character progression, utilization of tools that are often found within the environment, and an emphasis on exploration.
And before you bring up games like Assassin's Creed, a lot of those games are from other genre branches, such as Open world and stealth, but retailers are too lazy to categorize with more than 5 genres, since that would require them actually knowing a thing or two about the games they actually sell.
The definition is anything containing those two elements.
From Wikipedia An action-adventure game (also known as "arcade adventure game") is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements.
That is basically exactly what I said in the first place before I looked it up.
With these subgenres which expand to most things.
Subgenres
Although action-adventure games are diverse and difficult to classify, there are some distinct sub-genres. Popular sub-genres include:
First-person action-adventure, which make use of first-person shooter gameplay, forgoing constant action in favor of important adventure game elements such as environmental problem-solving and a complex plot. These are sometimes called Real-Time Adventure games or RTAs for short. A notable example of this is Metroid Prime, Half-Life 2, Dishonored, and Far Cry 3.
Third-person action-adventure, in which gameplay is in the third-person. Notable examples include games like Tomb Raider series, The Legend of Zelda series, Rune, Severance: Blade of Darkness, Grand Theft Auto series, and Hitman series.
Isometric platform games, which feature freely explorable environments with three-dimensional gameplay and two-dimensional graphics using an isometric projection.
Sandbox/Open World action-adventure, which focus on nonlinear gameplay in an open world. Notable examples include Assassin's Creed and the Grand Theft Auto series.
Platform-adventure games, which emphasize both exploration and puzzle solving, but also feature traditional platform game conventions. Examples of games of this type are Tomb Raider series, Banjo-Kazooie, and the Metroid and Castlevania games; the term "Metroidvania" is derived from these latter two and used describe games in this genre.
Stealth games, which emphasize avoiding detection by enemies rather than engaging them in direct combat, leading to a greater emphasis on exploration and puzzle-solving than other types of action games.
Survival horror games, which emphasize "inventory management" and making sure the player has enough ammunition and recovery items to "survive" the horror setting. Survival-horror is a thematic genre with diverse gameplay, however, so not all survival horror games share these features. The Resident Evil franchise popularized this sub-genre and stands to date as the most popular franchise of it's kind.
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