Gran Turismo 5: One of 2010's Top RPGs?

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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Gran Turismo 5: One of 2010's Top RPGs?



Is the most prominent driving sim of 2010 also one of the year's biggest RPGs?

Lately, I've been playing a game where I earn experience points and level up by completing quests. I collect equipment and upgrade my character by defeating an array of AI-controlled NPCs in combat. The story of the game's world goes back decades. No, it's not Gran Turismo 5 [http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Battle-Chest-Mac/dp/B000H96C9M/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1293396399&sr=8-2].

Working my way through the mass of content Polyphony Digital shoved onto Gran Turismo 5's Blu-ray disc over 5-6 years of development, I really started to feel like I was really playing an RPG instead of a driving simulator (and not because of its B-Spec mode). I'm a little confused by it too, but let me explain.

Gran Turismo 5's most obvious connection to the RPG genre is its experience point system. In Gran Turismo 5, players earn experience for completing license tests, finishing strong in races, and other tasks. Leveling up allows access to new cars, racing events, etc. In other words, you earn new abilities, and unlock new quests. Leveling up definitely makes you more uber, but I'm quite aware that it takes more than an experience point system to make an RPG

The quests I speak of are Gran Turismo 5's racing events, which are filled with exciting combat that takes place at 150+ MPH. Players are given tasks to collect specific cars to race in unique events, such as one that only allows sport trucks like the Dodge Ram, or another that only allows cars from 1969 or earlier (shout out to my '62 Buick Special). You might not be slashing goblins or disarming traps, but Gran Turismo 5 does pit you against challenging opponents in very specific ways, and requires you to come out on top with pure skill, or just powerful equipment. Sound familiar? If "combat" requires actual blood to be spilled, just exchange blood for paint, which is traded aplenty in Gran Turismo 5, and the game resembles Final Fantasy [http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-XIII-Playstation-3/dp/B000FQ2DTA/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1293396947&sr=1-1] more by the minute.

For a game to truly become an RPG, it also has to have a form of character progression and a story. Where are these aspects in Gran Turismo 5? Easy. In Gran Turismo 5, your character is a silent driver that inhabits the game's cars. In a way, the player is the car. These cars can be tuned with new parts, just like a Dragon Age [http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Age-Origins-Ultimate-Xbox-360/dp/B0045ZIENQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1293397029&sr=1-1] character can put on a new helmet. The driver experiences just as many life changes as characters from an RPG, going from Mini to Civic to rally car in different regions of the world within the span of an hour, and finishing multiple "quests" in a different way with each change of vessel, leading to the accumulation of more power for future endeavors.

The story is also right there by your side the whole time. Polyphony has included a detailed history for every car, and since the player basically is the car, that's your history. On the other hand, the game's current-day narrative is written through the player's racing habits. For example, my story has taken me into a hectic battle on the streets of London, seen me triumphantly destroy my foes in evenly-matched Volkswagen Bus combat, and I've even survived a few deadly mid-air flips on occasion (shout out to that '62 Buick again). The story is what you make it, thanks to the freedom Gran Turismo 5 gives the player and some random factors thrown in. It's not Lord of the Rings, but it is a form of story nonetheless.

Do these factors add up to make an RPG? Take Gran Turismo 5's racing and exchange it for battles against varying types of ogres and wombats in a game where you play as a soul that inhabits the bodies of different monster slayers as they destroy evils across the world, and you've got yourself a great RPG right there. The way that Gran Turismo 5's pixels are assembled shouldn't necessarily exclude it from being an RPG.

In the case of certain games, genres are simply becoming blurry. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what umbrella Gran Turismo 5 is put under, but it's interesting to see the similarities between the game and other titles often viewed as being on the completely opposite side of the spectrum.



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Feb 13, 2008
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One real huge problem.

RPG= ROLE playing Game.

What ROLE are you actually playing? Because you seem to be suggesting you're playing the car?
 

BlindTom

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Aug 8, 2008
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I remember having to grind races in an old gran turismo title. It even has the capacity for the monotony of a badly designed RPG
 

BlindTom

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The_root_of_all_evil said:
One real huge problem.

RPG= ROLE playing Game.

What ROLE are you actually playing? Because you seem to be suggesting you're playing the car?

I guess the point is that Gran Turismo is the retarded Japanese step child of the RPG.
 

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
One real huge problem.

RPG= ROLE playing Game.

What ROLE are you actually playing? Because you seem to be suggesting you're playing the car?
An awesome racing dude.
 

meiadose

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Oct 24, 2008
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so having failed in the racing genre are you trying to have it succeed in the rpg genre?
 
Feb 13, 2008
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Tom Goldman said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
One real huge problem.

RPG= ROLE playing Game.

What ROLE are you actually playing? Because you seem to be suggesting you're playing the car?
An awesome racing dude.
But the bits you're upgrading is the car. That's like saying that you're an awesome fighter who just keeps getting a more awesome sword.

After a point, you're just roleplaying the equipment. Because all the "awesome racing dude" does is move it. He's got no role to play.

A Car Playing Game I could go with, but there's nothing to your "Awesome Racing Dude". Just a blank slate that stays blank.

If we're talking that way, then every game is a RPG. Which has been argued many times before.

Is Half Life an RPG, by the same standard? Is Sonic?
 

linkvegeta

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Dec 18, 2010
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just because you level up does not a game an RPG, games like fallout 3 are on the verge of being an RPG but have now received their own category of RPS (role playing shooters), but there is no role in GT5, its just a racing sim with a feature of levels.
 

Ghengis John

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I bought this game and was roundly disappointed. Where are the Hmong kids for me to tutor and gang-members to intimidate? To say nothing of the fact that my avatar looks nothing like Clint Eastwood. All it is is driving around! When do I make with the crazy threatening? I know tie-in games have a history of taking liberties with the source material but this has to be the worst one ever.
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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It's not an RPG, and I'm tiring of the idea that having an upgrade system suddenly qualifies a game as an RPG.
 
Sep 14, 2009
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rpg......?

i understand that can be a loose definition.

but come on.

its gran. fucking. turismo.

which i was highly dissappointed by this game..ill go back to mario kart and full auto, much better racing games imo
 

theSovietConnection

Survivor, VDNKh Station
Jan 14, 2009
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An interesting look at it, and it highlights what I find to be a key problem with genre titles. I personally think that, as far as video games are concerned, that RPG is simply too vague a title now, because if you want to look at it that way, practically every game can be a role-playing game.
 

Smooth Operator

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Oct 5, 2010
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Soo... it's a racing game, well I'm glad you like it somuch, but this comparison with RPGs is more like when you're in love and every girl you see looks like yours truly.

But from the looks of where RPG's are headed now we may end up resorting to racing games just for a taste of RPG elements.
 

Tom Goldman

Crying on the inside.
Aug 17, 2009
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The_root_of_all_evil said:
Tom Goldman said:
The_root_of_all_evil said:
One real huge problem.

RPG= ROLE playing Game.

What ROLE are you actually playing? Because you seem to be suggesting you're playing the car?
An awesome racing dude.
But the bits you're upgrading is the car. That's like saying that you're an awesome fighter who just keeps getting a more awesome sword.

After a point, you're just roleplaying the equipment. Because all the "awesome racing dude" does is move it. He's got no role to play.

A Car Playing Game I could go with, but there's nothing to your "Awesome Racing Dude". Just a blank slate that stays blank.

If we're talking that way, then every game is a RPG. Which has been argued many times before.

Is Half Life an RPG, by the same standard? Is Sonic?
Half-Life and Sonic don't have any notable character progression, so not in my mind. Why is an awesome racing dude not a role? He's constantly building himself up, completing new challenges, and becoming a better racer. Is that blank?
 

kouriichi

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Sep 5, 2010
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I honestly think GT5 kinda sucks.
There are so many problems with it i dont know where to start.
7 years in development and there are problems with something as simple as anti-aliasing? And its not the unnoticeable kind eather, its the horrible kind that waves its a** in your face.

And sure theres alot of cars. ((like 1000 or something)) But you arnt going to own 90% of them, because theyer to expensive, and you earn cash at a snail's pace. Your saying i have to purchase a 2 million dollar car, and spend 100 thousand on upgrades, just to do a single race to win 20 thousand?

And its not even a level system. Its a grinding system. They should basically say, "Win X amount of races to continue on". Theres no point to it. You dont choose abilitys, you dont unlock special races, you dont gain access to better upgrades, you dont get anything more more grinding of the same tracks you played the past 3 ranks!

GT5 will never be in my top 10 games. Dont say, "Its for car lovers", because i love cars. Dont say, "You didnt commit to it", because i went all the way to expert. And definitly dont say, "You just dont get it", because theres nothing to get. I love racing games. I hate this one. 5/10 at least, 7/10 at best.
 

Onyx Oblivion

Borderlands Addict. Again.
Sep 9, 2008
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Sounds like more of an RPG than Mass Effect 2 (the so-called "RPG" of the year) already.

Okay, maybe not.

But Mass Effect 2 was incredibly shallow. RPG elements make everything better!

And by RPG elements, I mean leveling and stat management. Not dialogue choices.
 

Amnestic

High Priest of Haruhi
Aug 22, 2008
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Tom Goldman said:
and becoming a better racer.
Not played Gran Turismo 5, but how much of this 'levelling up' actually translates into increased ability for the driver?