The difference between RPG, Action-Adventure, and ARPG - and why Skyrim, and Witcher 3 aren't RPGs

[Ol' Willy]

You could probably make an interesting rpg about sports. Making decisions about contracts and deals and stuff, advancing through the leagues, cheating and trying to get away with it, etc

Ever heard of Football Manager?

Squad-based, characters have tons of skills and stats, macro- and micromanagement that will make any grognard rejoice, and much else.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Game is defined by character progression (in it's most rudimentary form the level up) > rpg

Ahh, that's the misconception. RPG is not about progression per se, it's about a character - and his skills - interacting with the game world under the player's watchful guidance. Theoretically, RPG without progression at all (you create char and that is, you play unchanged till the end) is possible, albeit very boring.

 

[ArisatoSeldom]

Game is defined by character progression (in it's most rudimentary form the level up) > rpg

Hm... Raid shadow legends is a party based rpg then. Azure lane too. Yo.

RPG is not about progression per se, it's about a character - and his skills - interacting with the game world under the player's watchful guidance.

I concur.

At first, RPG is an about rp - making a choice you think character would do, i.e. getting inside of his head and looking through his eyes. Choice should be meaningful to some extent (that makes rp part good or bad). Then there is the game part - mechanics. Because without advanced game mechanics it would be just an adventure quest game or CYOA/visual novel.
When we have both rp and game parts, we have got an rpg. Otherwise it's just hack'n'slash (ys), tactical game (fallout tactics), etc.

 

[Thac0]

Hm... Raid shadow legends is a party based rpg then. Azure lane too. Yo.

Gacha games are dominated by monetisation first and foremost, thus the name.
If you were to cut all the loot boxes away they would become, although quite frankly terrible, rpgs.

 

[Ol' Willy]

Because without advanced game mechanics it would be just an adventure quest game or CYOA/visual novel.

CYOA usually don't have combat, stats, skills and according checks. Theoretical RPG without progression will present you with chargen, where you pick your stats, skills, perks, traits, etc and then will throw you right in the gameworld. Difficulty curve would be present in the differently designed encounters, where you need to come with better and more efficient tactics to progress. Skillchecks will play a role of guiding you through the role you picked - "fighter" will get one scenario, "talker" another and "rogue" yet another. Such game will be a 100% RPG, but as I said, very boring.

And one more question: does RPG ceases to be RPG when your character hits level cap? Does Arcanum or Underrail ceases to be a RPG in the lategame?

 

[bec de corbin]

You ain't never played a Lone Wolf gamebook eh

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

This isn't complicated. These are the minimum requirements for an RPG. Everything else gets a hyphen.

1. All player actions moderated through a mechanic (dice/cards/etc.)
2. Intrinsic character customization with mutually exclusive choices.
3. Exploration

Since Skyrim & Witcher have mechanics which are reliant on player dexterity, so they get the hyphen. Definitively A-ARPGs. GTA3 has no character building, so it is an action-adventure. GTA San Andreas has character development, so it is an ARPG. Psychonauts has skills, but they are not choice dependent and received as part of the plot. It is therefore and action-adventure. Do you see this pattern? You're welcome.

 

[Machocruz]

GTA and FarCry are just action games to me, albeit on a larger stage. There are no "keys" necessary to advance, whether in the form of literal keys, items, or powers. All progress is achieved through arcade type play.

 

[Comrade Goby]

You could probably make an interesting rpg about sports. Making decisions about contracts and deals and stuff, advancing through the leagues, cheating and trying to get away with it, etc

I highly doubt that "Captain Tsubasa" is such a thing but maybe someone talented could pull it off

You could make a great one, but sports leagues wouldn't allow it to be licensed. A beefed up Madden franchise RPG mode if designed well has a lot of potential. All the steroids, cheating, prostitutes, drama of the season, etc

 

[TemplarGR]

Yet another retard in this den of scum and villainy who tries to smear some of the best CRPGs ever made just to feel smart about himself.

No, Skyrim and Witcher 3 ARE CRPGs, and in fact, they are some of the best ever made. They definitely trounce anything that was made before 2010, no contest. If you are so butthurt about it, don't play them. I am just happy that 99% of the 8 billions on this planet have better taste than you, and you are left with some extremely niche crowdfunded abominations that you don't even play, and some old trash that you can't even play due to visual diarrhea.

 

[Ol' Willy]

You could make a great one, but sports leagues wouldn't allow it to be licensed. A beefed up Madden franchise RPG mode if designed well has a lot of potential. All the steroids, cheating, prostitutes, drama of the season, etc

A bunch of buffed up on steroids niggers running around with an eggball and doing stupid shit afterwards... it definitely has a potential.

 

[Marat]

Wouldn't this mean that Baldur's Gate 1 is not an RPG, since the plot has little-to-no choice in it?

It would indeed. RPG genre is drastically underdeveloped and it's central concepts have been barely explored in the industry even in, what is classically considered, a premier specimen such as BG1. Of course, as long as supercomputers with AI on board aren't commonplace, the most RPG games could offer is an illusion of freedom and none would fit the definition strictly. Thus games that make a convincing(!) attempt to create an illusion that the player is a significant part of the game world with a measure of influence over how events unfold can be classified as RPGs.

 

[Redshirt #42]

I would define an Action RPG (ARPG) as a role-playing game where your hand-eye coordination skill is significantly more important than your in-game character's skills. Simple as.

That's why a hypothetical turn-based RPG will always be a "purer" form of an RPG than the same hypothetical RPG using RTwP, but on a grand scale both would fall under the RPG genre rather than the Action RPG genre. Games where your character literally dies because he's not even defending himself if you don't keep mashing some button (be it to hack and slash, or to pop some moles) or games where your mole popping skill can make your character a master mole popper even though he doesn't have any points invested in the in-game Popping Moles skill = ARPGs. But it doesn't have to be strictly combat related. An ARPG can also allow your character to gain an unfair advantage by precise movement or jumping to areas that would be otherwise unreachable until you solved certain in-universe quests, etc.

 

[bec de corbin]

RTWP is just an action rpg by a different name, everyone knows that.

 

[Comrade Goby]

You could make a great one, but sports leagues wouldn't allow it to be licensed. A beefed up Madden franchise RPG mode if designed well has a lot of potential. All the steroids, cheating, prostitutes, drama of the season, etc

A bunch of buffed up on steroids niggers running around with an eggball and doing stupid shit afterwards... it definitely has a potential.

There are plenty of buffed roided up white men as well since you seem to be into that