When is a RPG not a RPG?

What is the difference between the following:
RPG
Action-RPG
Strategy-RPG
Tactical-RPG
J-RPG

Whatever happened to a plain RPG?

Hundreds of RPGs have been released in the last decade, and just about every other genre has added RPG elements to its standard feature set.
The terms you mentioned are just a characterization, a sub-genre if you want, making it easier to decide if you're interested in a game.
Strategy-RPG and Tactical-RPG would be the same for me.

RPG
Any game where character development is a central part of the gameplay. If the game also contains the defining trait from another genre, it's a hybrid.

Action-RPG
An RPG that puts a heavy focus on real-time action-focused combat.

Strategy-RPG
Tactical-RPG
These two terms are often used interchangeably (i.e. games like Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, Jagged Alliance and so on) are often referred to as SRPGs. These are games where the brunt of the gameplay is focused on tactical gameplay, where you have a (potentially) larger groups of soldiers, and where the individual soldier is not as important. It's basically a tactics game, with heavy RPG elements. So if Battle Isle had persistent units that level up, it would be an SRPG/TRPG. If you want to be picky, most of these are TRPGs, and there are very few SRPGs out there, but that's not how the term is used.

J-RPG
Game based on the Japanese take on CRPGs, i.e. the type of RPGs that evolved from Final Fantasy & Dragon Warrior/Quest.

Whatever happened to a plain RPG?[/QUOTE]

max killen said:

Whatever happened to a plain RPG?

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It's called sub genres and they are not new.

They have also been used for at least twenty years now.

Update: Read Hiddenx's link below as it explains them all in more detail.

Arhu found even more sub-genres/tags for CRPGs:

• Adventure-RPG: the main emphasis of the game are on Exploring and Story, less on Character Development
• Rogue-like: the main emphasis of the game are on Exploring and Character Development, less on Story. Often features permanent death if a character dies and random generated levels.
• Hack & Slash: many enemies, most of them easy to kill, respawning of enemies, much loot
• J-RPG: Manga Style graphics, turn based combat, Eastern style CRPG
• W-RPG: Western style CRPG
• MMORPG: Many players are questing simultaneously online
• Puzzle-RPG: the game's main emphasis are puzzles
• Non-Combat: the game features no combat
• Action: the combat is real time without pause
• Strategic: additional troop (not your party) management available
• Tactical: the game puts an emphasis on player tactical skill over character skill, often multiple squads (party splitting) are possible
• Sneaker: combat is possible, avoiding it with stealth is better
• Thief-like: combat is possible, avoiding it with stealth is better, thief-skills are essential (lock picking, ambush, hiding, sneaking,…)
• Shooter: combat is mostly ranged and requires hand eye coordination and reflexes from the player
• Sandbox: open environment where a lot of content is organized around simulation rather than story
• Dungeon Crawler: closed environment where a lot of content is organized around dungeon interaction (traps, levers, buttons, teleports, riddles…) rather than story.

When is an rpg not really an rpg? When it is CrpgNUT

HiddenX said:

Arhu found even more sub-genres/tags for CRPGs:

• Adventure-RPG: the main emphasis of the game are on Exploring and Story, less on Character Development
• Rogue-like: the main emphasis of the game are on Exploring and Character Development, less on Story. Often features permanent death if a character dies and random generated levels.
• Hack & Slash: many enemies, most of them easy to kill, respawning of enemies, much loot
• J-RPG: Manga Style graphics, turn based combat, Eastern style CRPG
• W-RPG: Western style CRPG
• MMORPG: Many players are questing simultaneously online
• Puzzle-RPG: the game's main emphasis are puzzles
• Non-Combat: the game features no combat
• Action: the combat is real time without pause
• Strategic: additional troop (not your party) management available
• Tactical: the game puts an emphasis on player tactical skill over character skill, often multiple squads (party splitting) are possible
• Sneaker: combat is possible, avoiding it with stealth is better
• Thief-like: combat is possible, avoiding it with stealth is better, thief-skills are essential (lock picking, ambush, hiding, sneaking,…)
• Shooter: combat is mostly ranged and requires hand eye coordination and reflexes from the player
• Sandbox: open environment where a lot of content is organized around simulation rather than story
• Dungeon Crawler: closed environment where a lot of content is organized around dungeon interaction (traps, levers, buttons, teleports, riddles…) rather than story.

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Thanks, that explained everything. I like story first! Quests second, and then Action. I guess that puts me at adventure RPG. I like Morrowind type games

Very well explained above.

Just like in music there are so many sub-genres. This is a list off of Wikipedia just on metal...

1 Alternative metal 1.1 Derivatives of alternative metal 1.1.1 Funk metal
1.1.2 Nu metal
1.1.3 Rap metal


2 Avant-garde metal
3 Black metal 3.1 Derivatives of black metal 3.1.1 Viking metal
3.1.2 War metal


4 Cello metal
5 Christian metal 5.1 Derivatives of Christian metal 5.1.1 Unblack metal


6 Crust punk
7 Dark metal
8 Death metal 8.1 Derivatives of death metal 8.1.1 Death 'n' roll
8.1.2 Melodic death metal
8.1.3 Technical death metal


9 Doom metal 9.1 Derivatives of doom metal 9.1.1 Death/doom
9.1.2 Drone metal
9.1.3 Sludge metal


10 Extreme metal
11 Folk metal 11.1 Derivatives of folk metal 11.1.1 Celtic metal
11.1.2 Medieval metal
11.1.3 Pagan metal


12 Glam metal
13 Gothic metal
14 Grindcore 14.1 Derivatives of grindcore 14.1.1 Deathgrind
14.1.2 Goregrind
14.1.3 Pornogrind


15 Industrial metal
16 Latin metal
17 Metalcore 17.1 Derivatives of metalcore 17.1.1 Melodic metalcore
17.1.2 Deathcore
17.1.3 Mathcore
17.1.4 Nintendocore


18 Neo-classical metal
19 Post-metal
20 Power metal
21 Progressive metal 21.1 Derivatives of progressive metal 21.1.1 Djent


22 Speed metal
23 Stoner metal
24 Symphonic metal
25 Thrash metal 25.1 Derivatives of thrash metal 25.1.1 Crossover thrash
25.1.2 Groove metal
25.1.3 Teutonic thrash

Specialization is for insects …

I enjoy all styles of RPGs, it really doesn't matter which sub-genre it is. I can usually enjoy myself with it as long as it has those core RPG fundamentals we all love.

max killen said:

Thanks, that explained everything. I like story first! Quests second, and then Action. I guess that puts me at adventure RPG. I like Morrowind type games

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You might like the JRPGs, too. A big difference between them and western RPGs is that you typically don't get to decide anything about the character's personality. The good ones have particularly excellent stories, though. If you can stomach the old graphics and interface, Final Fantasy 7 is a great example.

Considering how easy it is to introduce almost just as much RPG elements in Baldur's Gate than in some random shooter game like Borderland and call it a ''Hybrid'' I guess a more pertinent criteria is in order to be a RPG.

For me it's always been about Choice, consequences and reactivity. That's where I think you really start playing a role, when you're offered consequential interactions with a story or a game world.
Otherwise it's not roleplaying, it's just on rail, even if it's open world.

Sadly there aren't much games who put a good emphasis on this aspect. I can't think of a lot.
There are some recent attempts at a Procedural game world like in Warband, which does fit the definition to a good extent.

DorkUnderimbecile said:

Considering how easy it is to introduce almost just as much RPG elements in Baldur's Gate than in some random shooter game like Borderland and call it a ''Hybrid'' I guess a more pertinent criteria is in order to be a RPG.

For me it's always been about Choice, consequences and reactivity. That's where I think you really start playing a role, when you're offered consequential interactions with a story or a game world.
Otherwise it's not roleplaying, it's just on rail, even if it's open world.

Sadly there aren't much games who put a good emphasis on this aspect. I can't think of a lot.
There are some recent attempts at a Procedural game world like in Warband, which does fit the definition to a good extent.

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I think this is a harshe deviation from what I would include in as an RPG being a big fan of JRPG's. This statement pretty much excludes all of them. My criteria for when it's an RPG or not is generally is it a very story driven game with experience gained, levelling up and stat boosting. I also would require bosses, and equipment management, and probably a few more things I'm forgetting about. I wouldn't include any of the zelda games as RPG's although many do.

I'm presently working on what I would call a casual RPG. It's an RPG designed for mobile devices and tablets, but it's main goal is to bring the RPG elements forward into a mobile friendly play style. I consider it foremost an RPG based on the above criteria I stated, but it's not designed to be anything like a final fantasy game might be either...

I think for me it comes down to if the game falls under two categories, whatever the more dominant category it falls under is what it is to me.

Fnord said:

Strategy-RPG
Tactical-RPG
These two terms are often used interchangeably (i.e. games like Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics, Jagged Alliance and so on) are often referred to as SRPGs. These are games where the brunt of the gameplay is focused on tactical gameplay, where you have a (potentially) larger groups of soldiers, and where the individual soldier is not as important. It's basically a tactics game, with heavy RPG elements. So if Battle Isle had persistent units that level up, it would be an SRPG/TRPG. If you want to be picky, most of these are TRPGs, and there are very few SRPGs out there, but that's not how the term is used.

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In a way, I'd say Crusader Kings 2 could be considered a SRPG, can't think of any other example.

King Arthur?

FixedDiceGames said:

I think this is a harshe deviation from what I would include in as an RPG being a big fan of JRPG's. This statement pretty much excludes all of them. My criteria for when it's an RPG or not is generally is it a very story driven game with experience gained, levelling up and stat boosting. I also would require bosses, and equipment management, and probably a few more things I'm forgetting about. I wouldn't include any of the zelda games as RPG's although many do.

I'm presently working on what I would call a casual RPG. It's an RPG designed for mobile devices and tablets, but it's main goal is to bring the RPG elements forward into a mobile friendly play style. I consider it foremost an RPG based on the above criteria I stated, but it's not designed to be anything like a final fantasy game might be either…

I think for me it comes down to if the game falls under two categories, whatever the more dominant category it falls under is what it is to me.

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I've been thinking for a while that there should be 2 distinct new genres branching off from the old RPG denomination.

Some games are indeed focused on stats and your character progression, almost exclusively toward a fighting angle. If I don't call these RPGs I wouldn't know what to call them.
There goes the JRPGs, most aRPGs, and even the infinity engine games who don't really have much roleplaying going on.


I played a bunch of mobile JRPGs on touchscreens devices a few years ago. I think it fits perfectly the idea of mobile gaming, in a tamagochi kind of way.
Good time killers, especially because they give you a sense of progression, unlike other sorts of mini games.

HiddenX said:

King Arthur?

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Haven't played that one, is it any good?
EDIT: Never mind, I see it's a RTS like the Total Wars games… not for me.

DorkUnderimbecile said:

I played a bunch of mobile JRPGs on touchscreens devices a few years ago. I think it fits perfectly the idea of mobile gaming, in a tamagochi kind of way.
Good time killers, especially because they give you a sense of progression, unlike other sorts of mini games.

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Don't want to get this thread sidetracked off topic but if you enjoyed them would you mind me adding you to my list of beta testers in the future? I'm looking at around end of December to start opening the game up to testers? It's called a Slime Story. anyways I won't get into detail here but if interested please shoot me a pm with your email address as well as anyone else interested.

As far as getting back on topic I can't disagree with you. Perhaps more clearly naming specific genres of RPG's might be a really good idea. We might have people who really like a jRPG but hate a western style, but the first thing they tried was a jRPG so they automatically disregard all RPG's because of it while the two can be completely different... you might be onto something.

FixedDiceGames said:

As far as getting back on topic I can't disagree with you. Perhaps more clearly naming specific genres of RPG's might be a really good idea. We might have people who really like a jRPG but hate a western style, but the first thing they tried was a jRPG so they automatically disregard all RPG's because of it while the two can be completely different… you might be onto something.

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You'll find in these forums it's usually the reverse, many disregard any jRPGs without even reading the description because all they've played are western RPGs, and jRPGs to them are basically 'railroaded grindy games with spiky haired teenagers'.

ah ok, I think I'm one of those rare breeds that likes most of them. I like tactical RPG's first and foremost, gameplay wise, then probably tied between wRPG and jRPG. I must admit though and i think it's a bias from childhood that I prefer the older jRPG style stories vs the newer wRPG's. As far as gameplay goes though I have no bias.

As long as the game has the core fundamentals taken care of, chances are I'll like it.

The core fundamentals, for me, are:

1 - Exploration
2 - Looting
3 - Leveling Up
4 - Story/Quests
5 - NPCs

If those areas are met, I'm a happy gamer .