Have you ever met people on the Internet who argued about what genre this or that game should belong to?? Or maybe you yourself have become a participant in such a discussion?? Well, you know, this eternal debate “The Witcher 3 is not an RPG – it’s an action adventure!", "Dark Souls is not an RPG – it’s a slasher!", "Zelda is not just an action adventure – it’s an RPG!" and so on. Every time a discussion like this happens, I think about Milla Jovovich..
Yes. There is a movie called "The Fifth Element". Watched? Or better yet, how could you not have seen it, considering HOW OFTEN it was shown on TV before?? This can be called folk cinema. Did you know that since the release of this film there has been a debate about the genre of this film?
You might be surprised now, but people have been arguing about this since it came out in theaters. There are two opinions on this matter. First opinion – yes, this is a cyberpunk film. See for yourself.
The world of the future with such high technology like genetic reconstruction, flying cars and robot servants. Strict government control. Every citizen has a file. Law enforcement vehicles equipped with facial recognition software. There are special yellow dots on the doors of residential apartments on which you need to place your hands when the authorities give orders (scene in Corben’s apartment). Put a tick.
Evil corporation The villain of the future is corporate tycoon Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Sorg, played by British actor Gary Oldman, who uses all his power to destroy the main characters. Put a tick.
Low standard of living. The main character Korben Dallas lives in a small apartment in a multi-story futuristic building, where from time to time he is attacked by criminals. He works for a taxi company that is owned by the movie’s villain’s corporation. The New York of the future stretches so high into the sky that we can only guess what is happening on the ground. At the end of the scene where Corben and Lilu escape from the police, we see that the lowest levels of the city are covered in thick fog and, apparently, this part of the city is either uninhabitable or intended for residents of the lowest wage level. And put a tick!
As you can see, elements of the “cyberpunk” genre are really present in the film. Can’t argue with that. Well, only if you’re stubborn, then I give in.
And the second opinion says the following. All of the above elements of the cyberpunk genre in this film, although present, are relegated to the background, while in the foreground a fairy tale story about love and the struggle between good and evil plays out. The Fifth Element is not cyberpunk. For that matter, The Fifth Element is a pop art space opera with cyberpunk elements.
“Doesn’t the presence of elements of one genre or another (and in such quantity and in all respects) mean that it can be classified as this genre??" – supporters of the first opinion will answer and will also be right.
This is, one might say, an unanswerable question among science fiction fans. By the way, write in the comments which of the two opinions you lean towards. Anyway, great movie. "Lilu Dallas multi-passport forever!»
This is true for movies; with video games, things are more complicated. You know it yourself. They contain more elements, some of which may contradict each other. Well, for example, the plot scenario may correspond to the structure of a role-playing game, while the gameplay will be strictly a corridor linear shooter. Yes, Mass Effect 3, I gave you a sideways glance. What criteria are used to determine belonging to the role-playing game genre?? What is most important in a role-playing game??
Your arguments are absurd, gentlemen! Can’t you see it?
Since I often witnessed similar debates in the comments among ordinary people, I remember a few particularly common opinions about which element of the RPG genre is the most important. I’ll start with my favorite argument:
I saw one such comment on the StopGame portal and, yes, answering a question you haven’t asked yet, those two words were written in caps. I just decided not to change anything. Everyone knows that if you write in caps, then you are definitely right, just kidding, then you are definitely CSV.
So, if you follow this thesis, then The Sims is the best RPG on planet Earth. Didn’t you know? In what other role-playing game can you play a maniacal mother who either accidentally or deliberately drowned her child in the pool, and then locked the father of the family in the bedroom, barricading the door with furniture, and he then died from poor hygiene in his own… well, you get the idea? There is no such role-playing in either Fallout or Skyrim, or in any of these games or similar ones, even combined! So how does this work out, guys?. The Sims is the unrivaled RPG of all time?!
The problem is that The Sims does not have a quest system, character leveling, and most importantly, adventures. Exploring the world there, searching for objects or something else. You know how some people write “The Witcher is more of an adventure game than a role-playing game”. The question arises. Um… can you name me an RPG that is not an adventure game?? In my opinion they are all adventure. The genre obliges it, as it were! If I’m wrong, correct me.
By the way! According to Google search "The Sims is an RPG". So we can safely put the games in this series on a par with the mastodons of the genre. Move over Fallout 2, take off your crown, there’s a new king in town. This is how you learn something new every day..
Role-playing games without role-playing are not role-playing games?
And if the game doesn’t have role-playing at all, but all the other elements of the genre are in place, then what is it then?? Well, for example, Final Fantasy 7 (or, probably, the whole series in general). A classic game, not a remake. I just haven’t played it yet. There, the choice of phrases in dialogues by the main character has absolutely no effect on anything. You as a player cannot change the course of events or the ending of the plot in any way. The main character of FF7 is named Cloud, but the player is free to call him Fedor. But again, this will not significantly affect anything.
However, this JRPG features a quest system, extensive character leveling, and world exploration. Also, in Final Fantasy 7, if I’m not confusing anything, there are two optional playable characters for your party. You can meet them if you go off the rails of the main story and start doing side quests. I completed the game without meeting them, simply because I didn’t know about their existence. So, probably, we can say that my experience and the experience of those players who got these heroes into their team are different. Can such a small difference in the gaming experience be called roleplaying?? It seems to me that it’s still not.
Role-playing and its varieties
Under one of the news on the StopGame portal there was the following comment:
Well, first of all, that’s not entirely true. On dates with characters, the game hero may accidentally offend his interlocutor by choosing the wrong words, then the player will have to “court” this character longer in order to secure his strong friendship in the future.
Secondly, another question – what do you understand by role-playing?? There are different types of roleplaying in RPG games. Examples.
In JRPG games of the Persona series roleplaying is time management. The game is designed in such a way that you will not be able to form strong friendships with all the characters in the game. You’ll have to choose.
Note. This can only be done in the “New Game +” mode, and even there you will still have to choose who to communicate with more and with whom less, creating the daily routine of your hero.
By communicating with a fan and establishing a strong friendship with him, our heroes will level up much faster. Well, you understand, because he is their fan and morally supports them.
And if you develop a strong friendship with your teacher (or romance ho-ho-ho), she will give you a massage after a hard day at work, and you will be able to get more things done in a day. Well, you understand, because she’s a milf… caring, that is!
There’s plenty to choose from. It’s impossible to list all the examples at once. Your choice will determine what abilities your hero will receive, all kinds of bonuses, items, additional scenes in the plot and much more. What is most important is that this, one way or another, affects your personal gaming experience. Well, so, isn’t this role-playing??
“No, roleplaying is when you choose a line from the dialogue, and the further course of the characters’ conversation changes, and with it the plot. No other type of roleplaying in games can exist. »
(this is also a real comment, yes)
Oh, yes, yes, yes, I’m stupid.
I once witnessed the following dialogue:
No, of course, I know that Dark Souls is officially listed as Action – RPG. I’m interested in something else. Are there enough RPG elements in Dark Souls to warrant calling it an RPG?? Again, returning to thinking about what counts as “role-playing”. Or rather, can a game be called a role-playing game if it doesn’t have a dialog box with a choice of a line with the hero’s words??
I’ll say this, probably a banal thing, but I believe that Dark Souls is a role-playing game. Because the player can personalize their gaming experience the way they want. Do you want to be a casual magician – please! Do you want to be hardcore and go out to fight enemies in just shorts with a club – please! Do you want to win with cunning?? Well, for example, throw a boss off the edge of a platform, like that big guy with a long ax in Dark Souls 2? Please!
And so, it would seem, we more or less figured it out, but that was not the case..
Difficulties in defining a genre
I decided to ask Google.
What-o-o-o?! That is, GTA V can be considered a role-playing game? No, well, in a sense. There are certain role-playing elements there, of course. Various characteristics of characters that can be upgraded. Change the appearance of heroes. Improve machines in auto repair shops. No, it’s some kind of nonsense. Google is not our help in this matter. Everyone knows that GTA is a fighting game… Stupid Google.
But seriously. You can answer the question:
What elements of an RPG make a game 100% accurate and unequivocally an RPG?? The Greek was driving across the river, he sees the Greek in the river – cancer! Sorry for repeating so often. You understand that it’s hard to do without this when discussing this topic.
Everything is known by comparison. Cyberpunk https://viciwincasino.co.uk/mobile-app/ 2077 this is a role playing game. At least on the game page on this site it says yes. Well, in general it is classified as this genre. GTA V is not an RPG. I’ve never heard anyone call her that. Except Google, of course! Otherwise, both games seem to me to be very similar. They have a lot in common. So here it is. Comparing both, what elements are missing in GTA V to be considered a role-playing game?? I counted two. This is an extensive leveling system and a dialog box with a choice of phrases. If Rockstar’s next GTA game adds these two elements, it will immediately become an RPG?
This is not a rhetorical question! I’m really interested to know if this works or not.
Did you know that The Legend of Zelda games are Action-RPGs? Many reviewers in their articles twenty or ten years ago described the game as a role-playing. In general, it has always been considered an exemplary Action-RPG. Breath of the Wild too.
No, if The Witcher is an Action-RPG hybrid, then why isn’t Zelda? See for yourself. Inventory – yes. Potions system – yes. Different types of clothing, armor, weapons – yes. Link even has his own “Roach”! Role-playing in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild somewhat similar to Dark Souls. Just like there, you can use a different approach, come up with your own style of passing, and finally, the most important thing in an RPG is to personalize your experience. Well, it fits, doesn’t it??
But ordinary players (judging by the voting results, the majority of them) categorically disagree with this. I’ve read comments and opinions on this issue, and I’ve come up with the main reason why they feel this way. They mainly write that The Legend of Zelda games do not have two of the most important elements of RPGs – leveling up the main character and choosing a class. It seems to them that these are the things that play a big role in determining the genre and assigning this toy to it.
Well, since I’ve already gone all out, so to speak, it remains to find out what genre Call of Duty belongs to. At least one of them should definitely be an RPG!
According to the article by the author (his name is not indicated) on the time24 portal.news.com Black Ops Cold War it’s an RPG, but in the style of Call of Duty. An excerpt from his article goes like this:
"Players, calm down. Call of Duty didn’t become Final Fantasy. But when "Cold War" presents dialogue threads and the choice between killing or being captured in the first stage of the campaign, you know something has changed.
My suspicions were soon confirmed when I needed to create a "characteristic" of the main character in the plot, choosing his name, skin tone and gender, as if it were some kind of Fallout. This procedure even included choosing a "biography", as in the case of Shepard in Mass Effect.»
In fact, many reviewers noted the presence of RPG elements in the new Call of Duty. I think I just forgot, the video review from StopGame also talked about this. Moreover, what is most interesting is that the choice between branches in dialogues and the player’s actions really influence the gameplay and plot as the game progresses. And even there are several endings in Black Ops Cold War! If I’m not confusing anything, there are three of them? I guess so.
These elements were added not just for the sake of beauty. They are working! This is a central part of the game mechanics. Amazing isn’t it?
No, I don’t want to pose the question to you – can Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War be considered an RPG?? Of course not! This is Call of Duty. It’s more about shooting, explosions and pathos.
On the other hand, well, we have Mass Effect 3. It’s also more about shooting, explosions and pathos. There, the choice of a branch in dialogues or actions during the game seems to affect something, but in the end it does not affect anything at all. Black Ops Cold War in this sense, even more of a “role-playing game” than the finale of a BioWare space opera. Just try to call Mass Effect 3 just a shooter and someone will immediately offend you in the comments.
Okay, okay, I was just thinking out loud. I feel like I’ll get it from you in the comments for this. I understand that the comparison is very rough. But you must admit that in both cases, the action component of these games with cinematic scenes in the manner of an expensive action movie overshadows everything that they have from the RPG genre.
Conclusion
Somewhere on the Internet I watched a dispute between people about which games can be classified as role-playing games and which cannot, and one person wrote with a sad emoticon – I don’t even know what an RPG is anymore. I thought it was funny because that’s how I feel sometimes. Or maybe we are all a little like him?
So if you came here, find out if The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an RPG? First of all, thanks for stopping by. Secondly, I have to disappoint you. I’ll answer what you already know – it’s a hybrid of action-adventure and role-playing game. In my humble opinion, a very good combination of these two genres. There are hybrids and much worse.
What is the most important element in an RPG for me?? I think it’s about personalizing the gaming experience. This is more important to me than the dialog box and the leveling system. That is, when my passage differs from the passage of my friend or Vasily Galperov or Jubi or specifically yours. But even when this is not the case, say in JRPGs (but they are also different), for example in Final Fantasy VII, it is still a great memorable game and a fun gaming experience. I don’t care about the rest.
Best comments
The problem is that The Sims does not have a quest system, character leveling, and most importantly, adventures. Exploring the world there, searching for objects or something else
The funniest thing. That all this is there. Albeit in a rather primitive form. And if you take the “Stories” branch, then they also brought a written plot, into which real quests are woven, there is also research, and the rest goes on the list. )
A very entertaining topic, interesting and gives a lot of food for thought.
The main difficulty is precisely that with the development of the industry, there are no longer any pure genres left. Almost always (if not always) media works contain elements from a bunch of different genres, and this mixture of genres has so inflated and abstracted genre affiliation that sometimes you don’t really know which specific genre this or that work belongs to.
Personally, I always decide for myself this, which genre in a work is best expressed, such a passion is this work.
IMHO: What is an RPG?
RPG is really role-playing, but not in the sense that the commentators whom the author met on the Internet had in mind. Roleplaying is not a case where you are thrown into a game and you do whatever you want there, if only game mechanics would allow it, in the field of game development, such things are called sandboxes, which is what The Sims is.
Roleplaying is when the developers put you in a situation in which you need to make a certain decision that will resolve the situation in a certain way, and in addition to directly affecting the plot of the game, it will also affect the portrait of your character and the world around you and its relationship to your character.
In an RPG you create a character throughout the game. You play a certain role, create your character type? Who is your character?? Lightbringer Paladin? Trickster – intriguer? The evil barbarian is a berserker, always rude and straightforward? This is an important question in RPGs.
There are different types of RPGs. But for simplicity, I always divide them into three categories. Story RPGs, Action RPGs mentioned here, and MMO RPGs not mentioned here.
1) Story RPGs are when we build the story of our character and, following the path we pave for him, he acquires his own character, acquires friends, enemies, whose fate he himself influenced and they influenced him.
The Dragon Age series is a textbook example.
And a branched plot with several endings and dialogues is a necessary thing, in this case.
2) An action RPG is when we have many opportunities for constructing combat builds, and our passage will vary depending on our combat build, there is an action segment, a mage will go through it in one way, a warrior-paladin in another, a thief with two daggers in a third, for some some enemies will be easier than others, someone will be able to use the location in their own way, and other variability.
In such games there are options for maneuver, during action segments, and a very wide leveling tree and different types of enemies.
as an example: Cyberpan here.
3) Well, MMOs are games with a social component, where the character is the player’s avatar, the player finds roleplaying in social interaction, competition with other players, or vice versa in cooperation, joins alliances, clans, guilds, swears allegiance to one of the factions and so on, and breaks the faces of hostile alliances and guilds, trades, communicates – this is also a great role-playing game.
As an example: World of Warcraft
And we must not forget about the dominance of the genre. The game may contain role-playing elements, but at the same time it’s difficult to call it an RPG. Well, COD:BO CW, as for me, they are like that too, although I haven’t played, I’m judging purely from what I’ve seen, if I’m wrong, they will correct me. It’s more of a wide-ranging Action shooter with RPG elements.
Such things. Plus I put it on the article, it was very interesting to speculate.
P.S. I wouldn’t call The Fifth Element a space opera, because there’s not enough space for a space opera. But I didn’t call it a purebred cyberpunk either; cyberpunk there is more a matter of stylization and aesthetics. The same story could unfold in the world of the gangster twenties and in the fantasy Middle Ages.
The Fifth Element for me has always been a humorous action movie with a cyberpunk twist.
Here’s a slightly different case. The RPG genre is not so much what features a game has, but what heritage it carries. Initially, role-playing games were ordinary tabletop games on systems like D&D. When computer games appeared, they tried to transfer role-playing games there as well as possible. And over time, developers began to fantasize about the topic and come up with new interesting features to diversify the gameplay. The definition of the genre depends primarily on what the game was born from and what the bet was placed on in the first place. The Sims can’t be a role-playing game because the goal was to simulate society and people, not to roleplay. For the Sims to become a role-playing game, the lore of the world and NPCs with prescribed characters and behavior are necessary, so that the player finds himself in a situation where he can roleplay, in the opposite situation he is just a dummy in a city of dummy. It’s important to understand what roleplaying is; it’s impossible if the only character you’ve developed is you.
Situations where a game is called a role-playing game, where there is no roleplaying, like a jrpg, are normal, because, as I wrote in my blog about Japanese role-playing games, they are part of the heritage. It’s a long chain of evolution where D&D mechanics evolved into what they are today. By analogy, I can give an example: palaces used to be the residences of the aristocracy and kings, but now palaces are simply majestic public buildings in which important people could live in the past or in general they were built just recently.
A good topic, but the author clearly took the wrong direction and ended up with nothing but water. Analyzing any concept without giving it a definition is a dubious task. As well as the explanation for RPGs by analyzing modern hybrids, and not going back to the purebred roots of the genre.
So let’s say on one three-letter resource, someone in the comments perfectly explained cyberpunk (as a genre). So we can safely say that “The Fifth Element” is not cyberpunk – firstly, the problems are not the same (does not fit as a genre), and secondly, we have a president of the world with real power (does not fit as a setting).
The Sims is just a fancy Tamagotchi.
GTA did not start with San Andreas, which introduced “pumping”.
The first Zeldas are standard Action Adventure games, but one of the first computer RPGs is Rogue. And here you can understand that something went wrong, because there is not even a hint of any dialogues or roleplaying in bagels. This means we need to turn to tabletop games and figure out why certain conversational gatherings at the table began to be called role-playing games and what a “role-playing system” is. =)
I think the games listed should not be perceived as separate genres; personally, I never look at the genre and setting at all (personally, I do this). Thanks for the blog! I keep my fingers crossed for the mower!
Excellent article, the conclusion is that almost all games use a mixture of genres, and the genre boundaries are something quite vague and they are designated for more convenient search for similar projects, they just formed over time. With such success, I can prove, for example, that diskiples 2 is half jrpg, naturally someone will foam at the mouth to prove to me that no, that I am generally a blasphemer and carrying heresy.
I want to add only one thing, if you force me to choose one fundamental component for which I will immediately say – Yes, this is an RPG! This will obviously be progress in completing the game tied to the accumulation of stats, I’m sure this is called something correctly in game development, but I’ll call it stat-oriented. When you need 8 conventional units of agility to equip a sword with 600 units of damage, and when you gain a new level, your health will increase by 40 units, and if you buff yourself or the sword, you will increase the chance of crit by 10% and you will deal 900 units of damage to them… Well, you understand, and yes, this makes a cyberpunk RPG in my eyes, but GTA does not. As I understand it, this has moved into the genre from tabletop and text versions and, in fact, is its distinguishing factor, at least it’s difficult to remember an RPG without reference to the stats of something. This is in both Parasite Willows and Hallgate London, perhaps it has been transferred to other genres, but still it seems to me that if it is in the game, then no matter how much of a mixture of genres this game is, the main core is still an RPG component.
As a child, when I watched “The Fifth Element”, probably in the wake of such films as “Independence Day”, “Starship Troopers”, “Star Wars” and so on, for me they were all just an ordinary space odyssey. And it was “The Fifth Element” that stood out from the general picture of all space novels. There was something that you look at and think: Wow, how cool, robots, blasters, different races of aliens, everyone has different and strange clothes, costumes, these crap areas, garbage, etc.d. And now, having grown up, and having watched The Fifth Element again, I really thought that this is cyberpunk of the future, cosmo-cyberpunk. And to be honest, it’s cyberpunk that doesn’t fade into the background. But more shows how in the crap world of space-cyberpunk people are trying to survive: there is also a division of the social layer, richer people wear the best clothes, look better, have make-up on their faces, which ordinary hard workers cannot afford, while people who are not particularly rich, represented by the main character, are trying to survive somehow and working for the same CORPOV, who walk with their noses in the air, do not see a real problem that will affect their lives. But all problems, as always, are resolved by the “child of the streets” and then everyone lives happily and peacefully. So, in my opinion, “The Fifth Element” is quite a good cyberpunk, but it’s not something like “Blade Runner”, where everything is so perishable and neon.
Thanks for the article, I really liked it.
You can personalize the gaming experience in any game, declare yourself an ass maniac in the game and kill opponents only with shots in the ass, making your passage unique, but this will not work out as an RPG game.
there is also a big difference between the gaming experience in Zelda and dark souls, in the first all gameplay options are always available to you, and in the second everything is decided by leveling up, both the magician and the swordsman in shorts need to be leveled up.
as a result, there are two things that will turn the game into an RPG:
1. the ability to determine the character of your character (do not influence the development of the plot, not 15 endings, we are interested in our character).
2. leveling determines gameplay.
there must be at least one thing, the best representatives use two points at once.
as I wrote in my blog about Japanese role-playing games, they are part of the heritage. It’s a long chain of evolution where D&D mechanics evolved into what they are today.
Very interesting comment, I would read your blog.
Oh, 44 pieces. Was there a specific one, or is it better to read everything where there is a JRPG?
The main component of an RPG is the presence of restrictions. In dialogues, leveling up, quests, choosing a path – no matter where. The fewer restrictions, the less of an RPG the game is, and the more of a sandbox it is. Everything else follows from this.
Because when you can level up all or almost all your skills, as in Horizon Zero Dawn, Deus Ex Mankind Divided or Assassin’s Creed Odyssey/Valhalla, for example, you don’t play a role, don’t make a choice, and with each playthrough you get a character with the same degree of functionality. Unlike Cyberpunk, where only two branches can be developed to the maximum, and you have to choose whether to be a skilled hacker or an excellent shooter. It’s the same with dialogues: write down at least ten possible answers, but if different reactions don’t have different consequences, there will be no roleplaying in it.
But, in an amicable way, the concept of RPG or Action/RPG in the context of computer games is already an anachronism. If you try to cram such different games as The Witcher 3, Dark Souls, Diablo 3, Fallout 4 into one genre, then this classification makes no sense at all, and it is necessary to either abandon it or thoroughly supplement and expand it.
Also, when I saw the debate that Cyberpunk is an RPG/not an RPG, I wanted to figure out what a “real”, “crappy” role-playing computer game is, but I never found the final criteria that speak about the absoluteness and creepiness of a computer RPG. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it is impossible here, as in the scientific field, to assemble an international convention that would establish clear and unambiguous formulations and standards that the whole world would have to take into account.
I think that what is important is not the presence/absence of genre features (inventory, leveling, quests, dialogues, etc.), but how the totality of these features works and is perceived by the player, and even more important, how the player’s actions are perceived by the game world and whether he perceives them at all.
In the same Skyrim you can play many roles in gameplay.
But you can be as cool as you like the head of the most powerful guilds in the province, you can own real estate in all the cities of Skyrim, you can kill hundreds of dragons, you can wear a masterfully sharpened and enchanted Daedric set. As a player, you already begin to perceive your character as an invincible demi-deity inspiring fear and awe. But the game wanted to spit on your bloated ChSV with riches, high level and epic equipment. NPCs in cities will treat you the same way they treated you initially, only casually mentioning your exploits outside of dialogue, and random robbers will still try to take a “payment for passage”. I understand that I messed up and that such gaming conventions are a consequence of the scale of the game. But the situation turns out to be “I’m playing the Legendary Dovahkiin – the game doesn’t think so.» The game doesn’t feel like it has the proper impact. Kuritsin, after all, can also act out the Russian Schwartz as much as he wants, but what’s the point if no one reacts to him as to Schwartz??
A more intimate Fable, where children surrounded the good Kuroshup and ran away from the evil one, where the evil Kuroshup calmly walked through the bandit camp, while the good one immediately began to attack, where, while pumping up the Warrior, I saw how he turned into a mountain of muscles; in this regard, for me, it is superior to Skyrim. Simply because with the help of such small but significant touches, you create the (albeit deceptive) feeling that you are not playing the game, but that your character actually lives in the game world, influences it, and the game world reacts to it adequately.(Let me clarify in advance: I don’t hate Skyrim).
In general, the main thing is not to try to label games with the words “RPG”, “Shooter”, “Not a game, but a movie-soap” and so on. After all, the main thing is whether games and their game mechanics bring you pleasure, right??
I also remembered that Maxim Milyazev discussed the same topic in two videos “ANATOMY OF THE ROLE-GAME GENRE”. If you are interested in this topic, I advise you to read.
P.S. Thanks to the author. Oh, I hope there won’t be a holiwar here. This is a fertile topic. 
Sorry for the typos, I was in a bit of a hurry because of my business. Yeah, I should have written in a calmer environment, but I was afraid of losing my thoughts and decided to write in a hurry, but it was exactly the amount of information I wanted.
in the first parts of dark souls the magic is imbued, almost none of the bosses know what to do with an enemy who himself is not suitable, and we deal kilotons of damage
and what are the key mechanics in The Witcher?
I went through the first half of the second Dark Souls as a magician, no one could fight back.
killed homeless people with a blade, difficult mobs and bosses with magic. this is incredibly boring.
By the way, the first part of all bosses is even speedrun by a magician
Please tell me how to become a casual mage in DS2?
Please. You pump up knowledge to 3-4 slots, fill them all with ordinary soul arrows, pump up intu and staff. If you don’t waste spells on very weak mobs, then you usually have plenty of arrows until the next fire. And for bosses too. And if you also summon phantoms, then you can generally stand to the side and press one button. Especially in the second souls, where almost every boss has its own summoned NPC, or even two.
p.s. I almost forgot about the hint with aiming through binoculars, which also allows you to shoot mobs from a safe distance.
The Stanley Parable is RPG
It was here, at the very bottom, where the results are summed up.
Hmm, I see. I thought there was something more detailed there.
But thanks, I’ll have to read your blogs sometime.
When I published the blog, I naively hoped that some super-smart person, an expert in the genre and all its various representatives, would look here and explain to me what it costs. Ivan Loev, for example, will come in and say something like this: “They say, look firefly 23412, now I’ll explain to you . »
So I specifically advised those hungry for specifics to familiarize themselves with the “Anatomy of the Role-Playing Game Genre” from Maxim Milyazev (Who, by the way, did a video review of CRUSADER KINGS III). As for me, he analyzed the topic quite expertly and “explained what’s what”. The main Ventrue of all Stopgame seems to come in and say this: “They say, look, firefly 23412, now I’ll explain to you. Nowadays it’s common to juggle game genres like colored balls at a party in a madhouse. »
Next, I will allow myself to relay his main points: (I still recommend watching both videos in full, but I will try to quote them verbatim, without adverb, if you are too lazy to watch the second part of the “anatomy” from 16:20 to 21:30).
“Traditionally, role-playing games have three elements by which we recognize them:
1.Game system – that is, the rules of the game. (more details in the first part of “anatomy” from 8:00 to 12:40)
2.Gameplay that allows for some variability when combining world exploration, interaction with characters and combat. (more details in the second part of “anatomy” from 1:00 to 7:05)
3.Role-playing – or the player’s creative approach to creating and developing a character."(more details in the second part of the "anatomy" from 7:05 to 16:20)
“Gameplay, aka gameplay, is the most inconsistent of them (of the elements). It differs from game to game, its individual elements can appear and disappear even within the same series.You don’t have to look far for examples. This is the amazing fate of dialogues in The Elder Scrolls, and optional elements of crafting and construction (Fallout 4), which came into fashion back in the 2000s, and much more.Therefore, it is impossible to classify a game as a role-playing genre based on gameplay alone. After all, it works exclusively in conjunction with other elements, and every aspect of it is also found in games of other genres.»
“The gaming system is a more interesting case. Often it concerns only the combat component of the game and is not related to roleplaying, as in The Witcher and Gothic, for example. Otherwise, it’s absent as such, reducing the game to a combination of gameplay and roleplaying. „
“A clear example of this approach is the Telltale and Quantic Dream games, which are also interactive movies, which are not traditionally classified as role-playing genres.”. After all, they lack a character – an avatar described through the game system, which the player creates and changes according to his taste and discretion.»
“Therefore, an interesting incident arises: the same Witcher and, say, The Wolf Among Us – games where there is roleplaying – the disclosure of an initially given character through the choices made and a plot that takes into account their consequences. Only in The Witcher we have a well-thought-out combat system, but in the Wolf everything is decided by a banal QTE.»
“Does this mean that what makes The Witcher a role-playing game is leveling up combat skills, an open world and side quests? " – "Not either, because in this case the genre would have to include Assassins Creed, Far Cry and GTA. What common sense already resists with all its might. But resolving this contradiction is not as difficult as it might seem. Why once again turn to the example.»
“You know what game includes all the elements of an RPG, but is never classified as a genre?- "The Sims"
“It has a system, a world, interaction with NPCs, leveling up and even battles. But every brick of this design does not work to develop the character and his story, but to involve the player in the everyday chores of sluggish charges.When describing the gaming experience we talk about built houses, funny incidents and unusual situations. The role-playing element drowns in everyday worries, like bored spouses in a swimming pool. The simulator comes first, which determines the genre.»
Therefore, The Witcher, which gives everyone the opportunity to tell the story of their own Geralt, is included in the role-playing genre without unnecessary delay. And The Wolf Among Us, armed with cinematic techniques, has, perhaps, role-playing elements."
“But often another genre does not overshadow the role-playing component, and one of the elements, however, is weakly expressed or completely absent. In order not to invent a new word from scratch, in such cases subgenres are usually distinguished. As briefly as possible:"
"1.If the outcome of the battle depends more on the player’s skills than on the character’s characteristics. The game belongs to the Action-RPG subgenre.
2.In the absence of roleplaying, all that remains is to clear locations from opponents? That is, the progenitor of the genre (Roguelike-RPG) – an adventure game, Diabloid or dungeon-crawler.
3. Leaving only battles, characters and eliminating choice, the result is a role-playing game of the Japanese school – JRPG.
4. In MMOs, roleplaying is not directed at the world as such, but at other players. Although, it almost never works and everyone stupidly farms gold alone.
5.You fight with scoundrels with a team of like-minded people and do nothing else except, perhaps, leveling up. Here’s a tactical role-playing game (Tactical RPG). (Read the next line with irony) True, there should be swords – without swords the game will simply be tactical, like the same Jagged Alliance"
“The length of the list of subgenres depends solely on the depravity of the one who identifies them, so the classification can be quite extensive. Whether to consider such games role-playing, but belonging to subgenres, or whether to classify them as distant relatives of RPGs, similar only in certain elements, is, by and large, a matter of taste. The debate about terms is the stupidest and most senseless in the universe, because their names do not affect the essence of things.»
“I (Maxim Milyazev) just want to draw your attention to the name of the genre – role-playing games. And it is the word role that is intended to distinguish them from other video entertainment. A role that is not possible without acting out and the disclosure of which, as we have seen, has changed throughout the years of the genre’s existence.”