LogFAQs > #935180565

Coastal_elite posted...

what makes a RPG a RPG then?

Just like anything else, it's more about the overall ideas than the actual mechanics, and in that sense RPG is a total blanket term. There are loads of what should be individual genres all blanketed under the term, and I think people more or less realize it, what with all the qualifiers (ARPG, WRPG, SRPG, etc).

So it depends on which kind of RPG you're asking about. WRPGs, for example, are all about role playing and fantasy. You generally get to design your character, you generally get to control their dialog, you generally get optional sidequests with multiple potential resolutions, etc.

JRPGs are more about story and characters. You generally have a party of playables (or semi-playables), you generally have a pretty static story, and you're generally guided through the world as needed to advance the story.

There are the general mechanics that are often associated with RPGs as a whole, like leveling up and skills and all that jazz, but those things are in every game these days, to the point that it's kinda pointless to even mention them.

Adventure games (including action-adventure) are driven by exploration. For example, Zelda. But Adventure is also a bit of a blanket term since we tend to lump anything that doesn't have interesting mechanics in it, like conversation sims or Telltale stuff.

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