Is the Legend of Zelda a... JRPG?

[Takuanuva]

MOST JRPGs have:
-Statistics. Tons of them.
-Items you can equip to your character(s). They mostly modify your stats.
-A party of characters that follow you pretty much everywhere and help you blah blah blah.
-Turn-based combat.

JRPGs focus mostly on the strategic part of combat, while action/adventure ones focus on the mash-buttons-like-crazy part of combat.

Pokemon red/blue/gold/silver/etc. would be a pretty good example of a JRPG. You have a party of up to 6 characters (although only one [sub](sometimes two)[/sub] can fight at the time), turn based combat in which you chose if you want to attack (and which attack you want to use), use an item or run (or change the active pokemon, but most JRPGs don't have such option, since you can have multiple characters fighting at the time). Your pokemons have statistics that you can modify by using certain items (either by giving them to your pokemon or by using them on it), and those statistics (and sometimes dumb luck) is all that matters when you're fighting.

Legend of Zelda, on the other hand, would be a pretty good example of an action/adventure game. You only have one character you can control. He has no statistics you could modify, and the entire fight is based on timed button mashing.

I'm not a specialist, feel free to correct me if I just said something incredibly stupid.

 

[Kruxxor]

A friend and I were just talking about JRPG's over Skype, when he asked me what my favorite was. For some reason, LoZ sprang to my head, so I said that. He proceeded to call me a blasphemer and swear that all my children will forever be born dogs.

But I kinda think I'm right.

I mean, it's a Japanese game... that's an action/rpg hybrid, right? So... JRPG?

Technically every game is an RPG - Role Playing Game, as you're playing the role of someone.

Gears of War you play the role of Marcus Fenix (So it's now and RPG)
Tiger Woods - You create your own character, the better you are at the game the more your skills improve - RPG

So yes, Zelda is an RPG, as you play the role of Link, it was made in Japan, thus it's a JRPG. But it's also an adventure game, just like Gears of War is a third person shooter and Tiger Woods is a golf game.

But they're all still RPGs.

 

[MassiveGeek]

No its not, its an adventure game.

This.

There are no real RPG elements to the Legend of Zelda games, except for the fact that you pick your name, games to begin with, so it being a JRPG just isn't true. It's a linear adventure game where you don't make your own choices and the ending can't be changed because of that. The most "choosy" thing you can do is decide if you want to find all the collectables or learn how to make that complicated jump to get through a level quicker.

 

[Therumancer]

A friend and I were just talking about JRPG's over Skype, when he asked me what my favorite was. For some reason, LoZ sprang to my head, so I said that. He proceeded to call me a blasphemer and swear that all my children will forever be born dogs.

But I kinda think I'm right.

I mean, it's a Japanese game... that's an action/rpg hybrid, right? So... JRPG?

It's not an RPG in any way, shape, or form. It's an action-adventure game, leaning towards one of those elements more depending on the exact installment.

To be an RPG the game has to be stat driven, with the player's actual abillity having very little to do with the outcome of events. RPG actually coming down to a "statistical simulation". The term having been confused in recent years because the actual term "role-playing" got confused with cinema, actors playing roles, and of course the storyteller movement within the RPG comunity, and the games became seperated from their wargaming origins, with plenty of people involved in RPGs, even just PnP ones, who had no real knowlege of, or interest in, collegiate wargaming, perhaps never even knowing it existed.

I could say a lot more about that (I have in the past, things like the old "Dragon Magazine" explained RPGs right from their first origins) but it's kind of irrelevent to the overall point.

Zelda is totally determined by the reflexs of the player, he might fight items that make things a bit easier, but it comes down to the abilluty of the player to control Link, and his abillity to strike/block/dodge to resolve conflicts. The other element o the game is very much adventure gaming at it's most basic, where you need to find and use the right item in the right place... and usually in a fairly straightforward fashion, in order to proceed. I say "at it's most basic" because while there are exceptions, you rarely wind up having to think with bizzare, surreal, and/or obtuse logic to figure out what you need to do. In many adventure games you wind up collecting what might be scores of items and then having to figure out what item, or combination of items, can be made relevent to a given obstacle. A situation frequently complicated by having to combine more than one item you find into differant items just to acheive the basic tools. An adventure game puzzle being something where you might run into say a guard dog in a junkyard bordered on one side by a cliff. You have meat, but can't just bribe the dog with it, instead you need to pull out the hook from a pirate's hand, and a piece of fishing line with popcorn on it, remove the popcorn, place the pirate's hook on the end of the high tensile line, move a nearby crane so it's arm is over the area where the dog is, attach the meat to the hook, throw it over the crane arm in the right location (over the cliff) so the dog leaps for the meat, plummets to it's death, and allows you into that section of the junkyard..... that's adventure game logic. Zelda is pretty much the elementary version.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Wow, I'm reading through these and I'm honestly shocked at how many people are actually saying Zelda is an RPG. It's an adventure/puzzle game. There's no numbers game involved, your character doesn't really level up at all, the combat engine and the base gameplay engine are exactly the same, the items you get pretty much all primarily serve a puzzle mechanic,until recently link's sword fighting moveset was the same from beginning to end, and saying that it has a narrative and therefor is an RPG makes no sense because almost every game has a narrative.

I mean I suppose arguing nothing but symantics you could probably say it's an RPG if you had a really really really loose definition of RPG, but using those same symantics it would be less of a stretch to call God of War an RPG.

 

[Tim Mazzola]

When I think "JRPG" the first 2 things that pop into my head are "turn-based battle system", "lots of clearly visible point systems" and "linear story." So... ya, Zelda games have linear stories generally, but the numbers of the game aren't all too visible and the game isn't really built on said number systems, nor is anything about it turn-based, so... I call it an adventure game.

 

[Ranorak]

Do stats determine if your hit with your sword or your skills?
Can you increase your stats?
Are their choices to be made (stat wise, say, I wanna increases strength at the cost of magic)

No, it's not a RPG.

 

[Skratt]

It's an action adventure game. It can't be RPG - you don't have to do any bull-shitty grinding for levels that infests nearly every RPG on the planet. Combat is also real time, so there is where the action comes in. You don't have equipment lists, every item is essential in some way.

You can argue that you "play a role", but you "play a role" in the single player of Halo, but that game is not an RPG now is it?

Zelda = RPG or JRPG? Total stretch of the imagination, but whatever floats your boat.


And I hate you red button. Justin Beiber needs to fucking die...

 

[valleyshrew]

FF was my favourite game series for the longest time and I don't like Zelda but it's a lot more of a jrpg than FFXIII was. FFXIII was corridors, combat and cutscenes and all 3 of them were shallow and unengaging. The combat was exponentially simplified, replacing a huge traditional spell library with autobattle and 6 classes. The level design was just straight lines with a marker telling you where to go at all times and a meaningless uninspired fantasy world. The cutscenes were horrible too.

I also consider Yakuza to be a jrpg and GTA to be a wrpg. RPG to me represents a game that's on a higher level than others in narrative and setting. There are two types of singleplayer games - linear/gameplay focused ones, and RPGs which have player choice and more advanced settings. The categories "action", "adventure" & "role playing" are pretty meaningless to begin with. If you think about it, FFXIII has action and adventure but no role playing outside of scripted battles and most FF games have just a smidgen of role playing. And the game I know with the most role playing (heavy rain) is never called an RPG by anyone.

I realise the term comes from d&d where it's mostly linked to combat roles but I don't play games for the combat so it wouldn't make sense to define genres by it. GTA's combat is a lot more similar to a linear shooter, but overall it's a lot more similar to an RPG.

 

[weker]

nope, its and adventure game. nothing else I can say really XD

 

[V8 Ninja]

If I'm not insane, one of the rules of an RPG is that your character has to increase their skills/stats throughout the adventure. The problem with The Legend of Zelda series is that you can really only increase your hearts and magic bars. Yeah, you can "Increase" your inventory and wallet, but:

#1) Increasing you inventory is not increasing a skill, and...
#2) Most games have their money limit in the tens of thousands, which is usually far more than any game item costs.

From a technical standpoint, yes; The Legend of Zelda is an RPG. However, there are so few RPG elements that they basically become void.

EDIT: I did not fail to notice that the OP is asking if Zelda is a JRPG. I'm just going by the "if X =/= Y, then X cannot = Ya" rule. In this case, if Zelda: (insert game title here) is not an RPG, it cannot be a JRPG.

 

[Jaffinnegan]

The Legend of Zelda is in No way an RPG or JRPG, because there is little to no choice in how things play our (All you can do is some small side stories to Pospone the Main one), you only get new items when the game gives you them to advance the plot, you get stronger not through fighting but through just finding stuff, in fights if you are on target you will always hit with the same amount of damage, there is not Random dice role involved, there is no customization involved, buying stuff is almost always just to get more of what you already have, and not to get better gear and you do not Level-Up, all this means that it is in no wayan RPG, and as for JRPG, the Combat here is not turnbased, and LoZ is....well, Good, where as JRPGs are shit with such small amounts of gameplay, its like watching a bad DVD that keeps going back to the mean, so you have to select "Play" again. (Sorry if People Like JRPGs, but to me, they are the most boring thing I have ever tryed to play)

 

[Baneat]

RPG game: Numbers decide if you hit a target. Like in world of warcraft.

Action/adventure games: The players skill decide if you hit the target. Like counter-strike, or legend of zelda.

Hm, but whether or not you hit in WoW depends sometimes on your positioning. You're less likely to be dodged or parried attacking an opponent from behind, so you can influence the liklihood to a degree. Does that tread into the other genre?

 

[Double A]

JRPG is a genre. That doesn't mean every RPG made in Japan is automatically a JRPG, though most are.

LoZ is an adventure game with RPG elements.

 

[lord.jeff]

The problem here is the name, RPG or role playing game, any game that has a narrative and several that don't like simulation games ask you to play a role, in this regard Zelda is an RPG but we use RPG as a term for games with a leveling system, in this case you could argue Zelda falls in but it still has more in common with adventure games, like how a lot of shooter have upgradeable guns that's a RPG element but we still call the game a shooter.

RPG game: Numbers decide if you hit a target. Like in world of warcraft.

Action/adventure games: The players skill decide if you hit the target. Like counter-strike, or legend of zelda.

What about Kingdom Hearts.

 

[deftones440]

The question shouldn't be is Zelda an RPG, or JRPG even, it should be how do you define an RPG.

If you take what an RPG actually is...

A role-playing game (RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development.

...Then yes, Zelda is in fact an RPG. An Action/Adventure-RPG. Another fact: in every single game you play, you assume the role of something or someone. You are in fact role-playing, in the form of a game. Thus, RPG.

Take shooters for example. The proper genre term would be Shooter-RPG as you are in fact, assuming the role of a gunman and going through the game.

Someone had a good argument earlier, then totally ruined it by saying something along the lines of "yes you're assuming the role of that character [link], but no it's not a role-playing game". Nice contradiction :/

The "best" argument I've seen is the difference of combat systems determines what is and isn't an RPG (in regards of the genre viewed today). Some people are trying to claim choice, but I have to wonder, just what games are you playing where you get so many choices that it's swaying what you think an RPG really is? Then there's other people saying it's all numbers and since Zelda doesn't have a number system, it's not an RPG. I've yet to see a reason given with these arguments though. No numbers? Okay, why does that make Zelda a non-RPG game? How about choice, or leveling, why do those make it a non-RPG? I can't level so suddenly I'm not assuming the role of a character meant to save the world from evils hands? But leveling in Final Fantasy suddenly changes all of that. Not a very good reason.

I hope people are getting the idea. RPG is basically what every game is categorized as, and then there are sub-genres. Shooters, Action/Adventure, RTS, Simulators, etc etc. Learn the REAL definition of an RPG; not the one used by todays culture because it doesn't work. And quite honestly, I would dub all those JRPGs as Adventure games. Turn-based Adventure-RPG if you want to get technical. Why? Well, why not? Take Final Fantasy 7 for example. Do you not embark on an adventure to save the world from certain destruction? Sounds exactly like Zelda. Some gameplay elements may differ but you're still doing the exact same thing.

tl;dr - Learn that every game is an RPG based on definition. Then get over it. Also, poster above me got it right. Finally.

 

[Okysho]

A friend and I were just talking about JRPG's over Skype, when he asked me what my favorite was. For some reason, LoZ sprang to my head, so I said that. He proceeded to call me a blasphemer and swear that all my children will forever be born dogs.

But I kinda think I'm right.

I mean, it's a Japanese game... that's an action/rpg hybrid, right? So... JRPG?

See the thing is, there's no leveling system and you don't have to look at the spreadsheets (MASSIVE generalization. Plus I actually love JRPGs) I think that the lack of a leveling system is what makes it the hardest to place.

I still consider it action adventure though because most of the focus is drawn away from the stats (which are barely there to begin with) in favour of the gameplay (though it's been the same gameplay since 1997, but I love LoZ too so don't lynch me) and the story, which always does something cool, new and exciting.

AND NO GRIND!!

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Zelda is more of an action adventure game....although I can see it being called an action RPG.

....but...I really don't think I'd call it a JRPG.

 

[Draconicfeline]

Its a japanese Action RPG. Its not a JRPG, though.
At least, I dont think so...

It doesnt have the qualities I associate with JRPGs... such as whatever Final Fantasy does XD