What exactly is an RPG

[Gudrests]

The term RPG comes with alot of argument. One person might say Oblivion is the perfect RPG. But as good of a game that it is, others will say its not a true RPG but Final Fantasy games are......

If you look a the word RPG.....Role Playing Game...most games are RPG's....simply you are playing a role of a character and doing what they must do....but does it make it a true RPG if you get to choose there stats...make them unique......make them follow a path you set out for them...or have them make choices you want them to make to change outcomes...

P.S. I have no hate for either.... JRPG's or WRPG's are both good to me...i just prefer not having to watch as an Boss upps his speed to 1000% and can hit my whole party multiple times.....i like being able to at least TRY and get out of the way

 

[PurpleSky]

Fallout is what comes to my mind when I think of RPG.Because you aren't thrown into a story/universe.You see your story from the beginning (birth).

 

[Layz92]

I think a RPG requires you to play a character role of your choice, picking your MO and so on. Fallout 3 allows you to be a dick and gun everyone down given the option or you can be a borderline pacifist. My favourite RPG is Baldur's Gate though so much to do and several ways of handling things.

 

[Frannyboy]

To me there are some things a game must have before i call it an rpg, things like :

Choices
Stats
Inventory
AND FAVORITE ! Character creation ! i think people will agree that a well made character creator in a game is usually one of the best if not THE best part of that game

Then there are a lot of other things that make rpgs greater to me like freedom and and sandbox maps with a lot of content and i think Oblivion suceeded there. it had a lot quests and cities and areas to explore with a fitting soundtrack while doing it !

But its good to see the genre expanding aswell, with game creators combining fps with rpg and stuff like that.

 

[RivFader86]

Finaly Fantasy an rpg?
Well to be honest i haven't played any FF game since 7 but isn't there any character development at all in a FF game aside from weapons and armour?
No stats and nothing as i recall and you play as a fixed character(s) wich in general is a poke in the eye as far as roleplaying goes...would rather call it an action adventure...although round based combat and walls of text and spoken diaglogue don't scream action to me....maybe rather an interactive anime where you run from cutscene to cutscene and every now and then oder your group of adolescent "heroes" to smash their spikey haired heads into an enemy...while riding on fruity yellow birds

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

I have long disagreed with the notion that stats make an RPG, because, as this guy put it: "At the end of the day all games have stats, even if in most of them they are not directly revealed to the player. In fighting games, for example, each character has his own set of strength, vitality, speed, etc. attributes, yet only the lifebar is displayed on-screen. Same goes for even the simplest FPS, RTS, platformer, etc. What these games lack compared to RPGs is rules enabling the player to influence the plot in meaningful ways, or, to put it in Britannica's terms, to 'shape the direction and outcome of the game.'" (The whole article is at http://insomnia.ac/commentary/on_role-playing_games/ .)

That bit about influencing the plot and "shaping the direction of the game"? That's what makes an RPG, if you ask me; that's what distinguishes RPGs from FPSs and sports games and whatever. That's why I think Mass Effect 2 is an RPG and Final Fantasy XIII isn't.

 

[PurpleSky]

To me there are some things a game must have before i call it an rpg, things like :

Choices
Stats
Inventory
AND FAVORITE ! Character creation ! i think people will agree that a well made character creator in a game is usually one of the best if not THE best part of that game

Then there are a lot of other things that make rpgs greater to me like freedom and and sandbox maps with a lot of content and i think Oblivion suceeded there. it had a lot quests and cities and areas to explore with a fitting soundtrack while doing it !

But its good to see the genre expanding aswell, with game creators combining fps with rpg and stuff like that.

I agree about the character creation.I tried City of Champions on it's free wekend,and loved the infinite ways your character could look,or the powers he could master.I think it was great fun and imersion,especially for a mmorpg.

 

[Littaly]

It's a very broad genre. Too many people tend to get hooked up on the "Role Playing" part, when in reality, very few games classed as RPGs let you role play at all.

My guess is that the definition goes back to old pen and paper RPGs, but not in the actual role playing part, but rather in the combat. Games that handle combat in the same way that role playing games did have adapted the name for the genre.

To me the distinction between RPG and everything else is the the action, if it resolves it through numbers, values and choosing actions (like role playing games used to do) then it's an RPG. If it's more direct then it's platform/action/shooter and whatnot.

That's my theory. The genre RPG is actually nothing about role play, it's about a system adopted from role playing games. That's why Final Fantasy and Borderlands (and old 8-bit games, back when nobody had ever heard of choice in games) get classified as RPGs.

 

[Subzerowings]

Finaly Fantasy an rpg?
Well to be honest i haven't played any FF game since 7 but isn't there any character development at all in a FF game aside from weapons and armour?
No stats and nothing as i recall and you play as a fixed character(s) wich in general is a poke in the eye as far as roleplaying goes...would rather call it an action adventure...although round based combat and walls of text and spoken diaglogue don't scream action to me....maybe rather an interactive anime where you run from cutscene to cutscene and every now and then oder your group of adolescent "heroes" to smash their spikey haired heads into an enemy...while riding on fruity yellow birds

If Final Fantasy 7 wasn't an RPG, why would it be described as a turn-based RPG?
This whole categorising-thing is starting to annoy me.
You could call Blind Guardian speed metal, but others would describe it as folk metal, melodic metal, celtic metal, progressive melodic vegan death metal,....
It doesn't matter what an RPG is.
Every game is unique (sort of) and the creators can call their games anything they want.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

To me an RPG is any game that puts you into an empty shell and asks that you fill in the blanks to make the shell a character. That is any game where you feel the game is talking to you personally and not a video game character you just happen to be controlling. Alot of western RPG's let you do that while JRPG's are starting to fall out of that habit.

It used to be that in JRPG's you we're the character, you'd give him a name and the story seemed to revolve around your character but in later games like they've shifted to creating their own character and at best letting you control all of them and at worst controlling them for you. while this isn't neceassarily a bad idea (except for the taking control away from the player, which is a terrible idea) it feels more like interactive story telling to me rather than an RPG.

As late as FF7 i felt like i was the main character, the game would revolve around me and occasionally even ask my opinon about somthing but now most JRPG's have phased that out of there game play in favor of a cinamtic experience.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

RPGs are when you play a character, usually a hero, who starts pissweak and progresses until you can kill the final boss. Throughout you're switching old weapons and armor for new ones, depending on the game adding characters to your battle group, making money and upgrading your skills.

 

[razormint21]

If an RPG is about taking the role of a character What differentiates it from other games?

I mean, what is the difference of assuming the role of Niko Bellic in GTA IV, to let's say, creating your character and making his story unique in Fallout?

I mean, is it the levelling system, the inventory, the interaction with NPCs?
And if so, what makes JRPGs betray the convention of the formula?
Is it really about making your own experience? About you influencing the way the story goes?


Someone with knowledge enlighten me. I'm a retro gamer and i've pretty much have not kept up with what RPG is what becoming into. I mean, during my prime, FF8, Diablo and Fallout were considered RPGs, now it's starting to crumble...

 

[The King of Rock and Roll]

An RPG (rocket propelled grenade), or rocket launcher, is any hand-held, shoulder-launched anti-tank weapon capable of firing an unguided rocket equipped with an explosive warhead.

RPGs are very effective against unarmored or lightly armored vehicles such as armored personnel carriers (APCs).

An RPG comprises two main parts: the launcher and the rocket, which is equipped with a warhead. The most common types of warheads are high explosive (HE) or high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds. These warheads are affixed to a rocket motor and stabilised in flight with fins. Some types of RPGs are single-use disposable units similar to the U.S. M72 LAW; others are reloadable, such as the Soviet RPG-7.
The RPG launcher is a hollow tube that concentrates the rocket exhaust to create an over-pressure within the tube. This over-pressure propels the warhead at a higher speed than from the specific impulse of the rocket alone. This higher speed is necessary for the rocket to be stable in flight.
The launcher is designed such that the rocket exits the launcher without discharging an exhaust that would be dangerous to the operator. In the case of the RPG-7 the rocket is launched by a gunpowder booster charge, and the rocket motor ignites only after 10 metres. In some other designs the rocket burns completely within the tube.
An RPG is an inexpensive way to deliver an explosive payload over a distance with moderate accuracy. Substantially more expensive, wire-guided rockets are used when accuracy is important. These rockets trail a thin wire behind them during firing and steering corrections can be sent by the operator while in flight.

 

[TwistedEllipses]

I think this is why 'action', 'turn-based', 'western' and 'Japanese' have been added to the classic RPG description. It is stupidly vague.

For a similar example, see: ROCK MUSIC

 

[DarkHourPrince]

It used to be that in JRPG's you we're the character, you'd give him a name and the story seemed to revolve around your character

See: Persona 3 and Persona 4. You name the MC, who is a silent protagonist, and while the other characters are not customizable, there are so many options about what you can do to the MC and how you want his stats to be, how you want to work their relationships with other characters, etc..

You definitely bring up a good debate about what makes the RPG an RPG. Classically, I would think that an RPG was the chance to go across a world map, getting progressively stronger though the leveling up systems, and have quests along the way while leading to one ending goal. And that's essentially what you'll find in any RPG, just with the tweaks that then slide it into the category of MMORPG, turn-based RPG, or whatever else kind of RPG. In the end, the game is still based around those kinds of ideas they truly bind the genre together.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

I have long disagreed with the notion that stats make an RPG, because, as this guy put it: "At the end of the day all games have stats, even if in most of them they are not directly revealed to the player. In fighting games, for example, each character has his own set of strength, vitality, speed, etc. attributes, yet only the lifebar is displayed on-screen. Same goes for even the simplest FPS, RTS, platformer, etc. What these games lack compared to RPGs is rules enabling the player to influence the plot in meaningful ways, or, to put it in Britannica's terms, to 'shape the direction and outcome of the game.'" (The whole article is at http://insomnia.ac/commentary/on_role-playing_games/ .)

That bit about influencing the plot and "shaping the direction of the game"? That's what makes an RPG, if you ask me; that's what distinguishes RPGs from FPSs and sports games and whatever. That's why I think Mass Effect 2 is an RPG and Final Fantasy XIII isn't.

I'd like to thank you for linking that article. It was a good read and verbalized much of my own opinions on this topic.

Actually, somebody else brought it up a while back, and now posting the link is the first thing that comes to my mind when the what-is-an-RPG issue comes up. But yeah, it's probably the most enlightening thing I've read on the subject...

 

[Nevyrmoore]

When I think of an RPG, I think of the pen-and-paper versions. Where a character is your character, and you have the freedom to do whatever you want, be it helping the dwarves with their problems, or dicking over the campaign in the most magnificent way possible.

 

[rt052192]

a rocket propelled grenade silly!

 

[Stuntcrab]

I say a RPG is a type of game were you choose your own path and has several different endings

 

[Weaver]

The search bar is my definition of an RPG.