Role-playing game (video games)
Encyclopedia
Role-playing video games (commonly referred to as role-playing games or RPGs) are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games
such as Dungeons & Dragons
, using much of the same terminology, settings
and game mechanic
s. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests
. The major similarities with pen-and-paper games involve developed story-telling and narrative elements, player character development, complexity, as well as replayability
and immersion. Electronic medium removes the necessity for a gamemaster
and increases combat resolution speed. RPGs have evolved from simple text-based console-window games into visually rich 3D
experiences.
and game mechanic
s as early pen-and-paper role-playing game
s such as Dungeons & Dragons.
Generally, the player controls a small number of game characters, usually called a party, and achieves victory by completing a series of quests and reaching the conclusion of a central storyline. Players explore a game world, while solving puzzles and engaging in tactical combat. A key feature of the genre is that characters grow in power and abilities, and characters are typically designed by the player. RPGs rarely challenge a player's physical coordination, with the exception of action role-playing game
s.
Role-playing video games typically rely on a highly developed story and setting, which is divided into a number of quests. Players control one or several characters by issuing commands, which is performed by the character at an effectiveness determined by that character's numeric attributes. Often these attributes increase each time a character gains a level, and a character's level goes up each time the player accumulates a certain amount of experience.
Role-playing video games also typically attempt to offer more complex and dynamic character interaction than what is found in other video game genres. This usually involves additional focus on the artificial intelligence and scripted behavior of computer-controlled non-player characters.
or science fiction
universe, which allows players to do things they cannot do in real life and helps players suspend their disbelief about the rapid character growth. To a lesser extent, settings closer to the present day or near future are possible.
A strong story often provides half the entertainment in the game. Because these games have strong storylines, they can often make effective use of recorded dialog and voiceover narration. Players of these games tend to appreciate long cut scenes more than players of faster action game
s. While most games advance the plot when the player defeats an enemy or completes a level, role-playing games often progress the plot based on other important decisions. For example, a player may make the decision to join a guild, thus triggering a progression in the storyline that is usually irreversible. New elements in the story may also be triggered by mere arrival in an area, rather than completing a specific challenge. The plot is usually divided so that each game location is an opportunity to reveal a new chapter in the story.
Pen-and-paper role-playing games typically involve a player called the gamemaster
who can dynamically create the story, setting, and rules, and react to a player's choices. In role-playing video games, the computer performs the function of the gamemaster. This offers the player a smaller set of possible actions, since computers do not yet have the power to engage in imaginative acting comparable to a skilled human gamemaster. Characterization of non-player characters in video games is often handled using a dialog tree. Saying the right things to the right non-player characters will elicit useful information for the player, and may even result in other rewards such as experience. Multiplayer online
role-playing games can offer an exception to this contrast by allowing human interaction among multiple players and in some cases enabling a player to perform the role of a gamemaster.
, Diablo
, and the FATE series randomize the structure of individual levels, increasing the game's variety and replayability. Role-playing games where players complete quests by exploring randomly generated dungeons are sometimes called roguelike
s, named after the 1980 computer game Rogue
.
The game's story is often mapped onto exploration, where each chapter of the story is mapped onto a different location. Unlike other linear games, RPGs usually allow players to return to previously visited locations. Usually, there is nothing left to do there, although some locations change throughout the story and offer the player new things to do in response. Players must acquire enough power to overcome a major challenge in order to progress to the next area, and this structure can be compared to the boss
characters at the end of levels in action game
s.
The player typically must complete a linear sequence of certain quests in order to reach the end of the game's story. However, RPGs also often allow the player to seek out optional side-quests and character interactions. Quests of this sort can be found by talking to a non-player character, and there is no penalty for abandoning or ignoring these quests other than a missed opportunity. There is usually a reward for completing a side-quest, although quests in some games such as Arcanum
or Geneforge can limit or enable certain choices later in the game. Quests may involve defeating one or many enemies, rescuing a non-player character, item fetch quests, or locational puzzles such as mysteriously locked doors.
Many role-playing games allow players to play as an evil character. Although robbing and murdering indiscriminately may make it easier to get money, there are usually consequences in that other characters will become uncooperative or even hostile towards the player. Thus, these games allow players to make moral choices, but force players to live with the consequences of their actions. Games often let the player control an entire party of characters. However, if winning is contingent upon the survival of a single character, then that character effectively becomes the player's avatar
. An example of this would be in Baldur's Gate
, where if the character created by the player dies, the game ends and a previous save needs to be loaded.
Although some single-player role-playing games give the player an avatar that is largely predefined for the sake of telling a specific story, many role-playing games make use of a character creation screen. This allows players to choose their character's sex, their race or species, and their character class. Although many of theses traits are cosmetic, there are functional aspects as well. Character classes will have different abilities and strengths. Common classes include fighters, spellcasters, thieves with stealth abilities, and clerics with healing abilities, or a mixed class, such as a fighter who can cast simple spells. Characters will also have a range of physical attributes such as dexterity and strength, which affect a player's performance in combat. Mental attributes such as intelligence may affect a player's ability to perform and learn spells, while social attributes such as charisma may limit the player's choices while conversing with non-player characters. These attribute systems often strongly resemble the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset.
Role-playing games frequently make use of magical powers, or equivelents such as psychic powers or advanced technology. These abilities are confined to specific characters such as mages, spellcasters, or magic-users. In games where the player controls multiple characters, these magic-users usually complement the physical strength of other classes. Magic can be used as an attack or defense, or to temporarily change an enemy or ally's attributes. While some games allow players to gradually consume a spell, as ammunition is consumed by a gun, most games offer players a finite amount of mana
which can be spent on any spell. Mana is restored by resting, or by consuming potions. Characters can also gain other non-magical skills, which stay with the character as long as he lives.
Role-playing games usually measure progress by counting experience point
s and character levels. Experience is usually earned by defeating enemies in combat, with some games offering experience for completing certain quests or conversations. Experience becomes a form of score
, and accumulating a certain amount of experience will cause the character's level to go up. This is called "levelling up", and gives the player an opportunity to raise one or more of his character's attributes. Many RPGs allow players to choose how to improve their character, by allocating a finite number of points into the attributes of their choice. Gaining experience will also unlock new magic spells for characters that use magic.
Some role-playing games also give the player specific skill points, which can be used to unlock a new skill or improve an existing one. This may sometimes be implemented as a skill tree. As with the technology trees seen in strategy video game
s, learning a particular skill in the tree will unlock more powerful skills deeper in the tree.
Three different systems of rewarding the player characters for solving the tasks in the game can be set apart: the experience system (also known as the "level
-based" system), the training system (also known as the "skill-based" system) and the skill-point system (also known as "level-free" system)
s; more modern RPGs are more likely to have persistent wandering monsters that move about the game world independently of the player. Most RPGs also use stationary boss
monsters in key positions, and automatically trigger battles with them when the PCs enter these locations or perform certain actions. Combat options typically involve positioning characters, selecting which enemy to attack, and exercising special skills such as casting spells.
In a classical turn-based system, only one character may act at a time; all other characters remain still, with a few exceptions that may involve the use of special abilities. The order in which the characters act is usually dependent on their attributes, such as speed or agility. This system rewards strategic planning more than quickness. It also points to the fact that realism in games is a means to the end of immersion
in the game world, not an end in itself. A turn-based system makes it possible, for example, to run within range of an opponent and kill him before he gets a chance to act, or duck out from behind hard cover, fire, and retreat back without an opponent being able to fire, which are of course both impossibilities. However, tactical possibilities have been created by this unreality that did not exist before; the player determines whether the loss of immersion in the reality of the game is worth the satisfaction gained from the development of the tactic and its successful execution. Fallout has been praised as being "the shining example of a good turn-based Combat System".
Real-time combat can import features from action game
s, creating a hybrid action RPG game genre. But other RPG battle systems such as the Final Fantasy battle systems have imported real-time choices without emphasizing coordination or reflexes. Other systems combine real-time combat with the ability to pause the game and issue orders to all characters under his/her control; when the game is unpaused, all characters follow the orders they were given. This "real-time with pause" system (RTwP) has been particularly popular in games designed by BioWare
. The most famous RTwP engine is the Infinity Engine
. Other names for "real-time with pause" include "active pause", "semi real-time" and "smart pause".
Early Ultima games featured a RTwP system: they were strictly turn-based, but if the player waited more than a second or so to issue a command, the game would automatically issue a pass command, allowing the monsters to take a turn while the PCs did nothing. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
is another game which used this system.
There is a further subdivision by the structure of the battle system; in many early games, such as Wizardry
, monsters and the party are arrayed into ranks, and can only attack enemies in the front rank with melee weapons. Other games, such as most of the Ultima series, employed duplicates of the miniatures combat system traditionally used in the early role-playing game
s. Representations of the player characters and monsters would move around an arena modeled after the surrounding terrain, attacking any enemies that are sufficiently near.
genre began in the mid-1970s on mainframe computer
s, inspired by pen-and-paper role-playing game
s such as Dungeons & Dragons
. Several other sources of inspiration for early role-playing video games also included tabletop strategy
wargames
, sports simulation games, adventure game
s such as Colossal Cave Adventure
, fantasy
writings by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien
, and ancient epic literature
dating back to The Epic of Gilgamesh which followed the same basic structure of setting off in various quests
in order to accomplish goals.
After the success of console role-playing games such as Dragon Quest
and Final Fantasy
, the role-playing genre eventually diverged into two styles, Japanese role-playing games and Western role-playing games, due to cultural differences, though roughly mirroring the platform divide between consoles
and computers
, respectively. Finally, while the first RPGs offered strictly a single player
experience, the popularity of multiplayer modes rose sharply during the early to mid-1990s with action role-playing game
s such as Secret of Mana
and Diablo
. With the advent of the Internet, multiplayer games have grown to become massively multiplayer online role-playing game
s, including Final Fantasy XI
and World of Warcraft
.
text-based RPGs on PDP-10
and Unix
-based computers, such as Dungeon, pedit5
and dnd
. In 1980
, a very popular dungeon crawl
er, Rogue
was released. Featuring ASCII
graphics where the setting, monsters and items were represented by letters and a deep system of gameplay, it inspired a whole genre of similar clones on mainframe and home computers called "roguelike
s".
was Dungeon n Dragons, written by Peter Trefonas and published by CLOAD
(1980). This early game, published for a TRS-80
Model 1, was just 16K long and included a limited word parser command line, character generation, a store to purchase equipment, combat, traps to solve, and a dungeon to explore. Other contemporaneous CRPG's were Temple of Apshai
and Akalabeth: World of Doom, the precursor to Ultima. Some early microcomputer RPGs (such as Telengard
or Sword of Fargoal
) were based on their mainframe counterparts, while others (such as Ultima or Wizardry
, the most successful of the early CRPGs) were direct adaptations of D&D. They also included both first-person displays and overhead views, sometimes in the same game (Akalabeth, for example, used both perspectives). Most of the key features of RPGs were developed in this early period, prior to the release of Ultima III
, one of the prime influences on both computer and console RPG development. For example, Wizardry featured menu-driven combat, Tunnels of Doom
featured tactical combat on a special "combat screen", and Dungeons of Daggorath
featured real-time combat which took place on the main dungeon map.
Starting in 1984 with Questron
and 50 Mission Crush
, SSI
produced many series of CRPGs. Their 1985 game Phantasie
is notable for introducing automapping and in-game scrolls providing hints and background information. They also released Pool of Radiance
in 1988, the first of several "Gold Box
" CRPGs based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. These games featured a first-person display for movement, combined with an overhead tactical display for combat. One common feature of RPGs from this era, which Matt Barton calls the "Golden Age" of computer RPGs, is the use of numbered "paragraphs" printed in the manual or adjunct booklets, containing the game's lengthier texts; the player could be directed to read a certain paragraph, instead of being shown the text on screen. The ultimate exemplar of this approach was Sirtech's Star Saga
trilogy (of which only two games were released); the first game contained 888 "textlets" (usually much longer than a single paragraph) spread across 13 booklets, while the second contained 50,000 paragraphs spread across 14 booklets. Most of the games from this era were turn-based, although Dungeon Master and its imitators had real-time combat. Other classic titles from this era include The Bard's Tale, Wasteland, the start of the Might and Magic
series and the continuing Ultima series.
Later, in the middle to late 1990s, isometric, sprite-based RPGs became commonplace, with video game publishers Interplay Entertainment
and Blizzard North
playing a lead role with such titles as Fallout, the Baldur's Gate
and Icewind Dale
series, and Diablo
. This era also saw a move toward 3D game engines with such games as Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven
and The Elder Scrolls I: Arena. TSR, dissatisfied with SSI's later products, such as Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager
and Menzoberranzan
, transferred the AD&D license to several different developers, and eventually gave it to BioWare
, which used it in Baldur's Gate
(1998) and several later games. By the 2000s, 3D engines had become dominant.
on the Atari 2600
in 1982. Another early RPG on a console was Bokosuka Wars
, originally released for the Sharp X1
computer in 1983 and later ported to the NES
in 1985. The game laid the foundations for the tactical role-playing game
genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan. It was also an early example of a real-time, action role-playing game
. In 1986, Chunsoft
created the NES
title Dragon Quest
(called Dragon Warrior
in North America until the eighth game), which is regarded as the template for future console role-playing games released since then.
In 1987, the genre came into its own with the release of several highly influential console RPGs distinguishing themselves from computer RPGs. Shigeru Miyamoto
's Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
for the Famicom Disk System was one of the earliest action role-playing game
s, combining the action-adventure game
framework of its predecessor The Legend of Zelda with the statistical elements of turn-based RPGs. Most RPGs at this time were turn-based. Faxanadu
was another early action RPG for the NES, released as a side-story to the computer action RPG Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu
. Square
's Final Fantasy
for the NES introduced side-view battles, with the player characters on the right and the enemies on the left, which soon became the norm for numerous console RPGs. In 1988, Dragon Quest III introduced a character progression system allowing the player to change the party's character classes during the course of the game. Another "major innovation was the introduction of day/night cycles; certain items, characters, and quests are only accessible at certain times of day." In 1989, Phantasy Star II
for the Genesis established many conventions of the genre, including an epic, dramatic, character-driven storyline dealing with serious themes and subject matter, and a strategy-based battle system.
Console RPGs distinguished themselves from computer RPGs to a greater degree in the early 1990s. As console RPGs became more heavily story-based than their computer counterparts, one of the major differences that emerged during this time was in the portrayal of the characters. Console RPGs often featured intricately related characters who had distinctive personalities and traits, with many of them seeming to offer more of the traditional role-playing
, with players assuming the roles of people who cared about each other, fell in love or even had families. Romance in particular was a theme that was common in most console RPGs at the time but absent from most computer RPGs. During the 1990s, console RPGs had become increasingly dominant, exerting a greater influence on computer RPGs than the other way around. Console RPGs had eclipsed computer RPGs for some time, though computer RPGs began making a comeback towards the end of the decade with interactive choice-filled adventures.
The next major revolution came in the late 1990s, which saw the rise of optical disks in fifth generation
consoles. The implications for RPGs were enormous—longer, more involved quests, better audio, and full-motion video. This was first clearly demonstrated in 1997 by the phenomenal success of Final Fantasy VII
, which is considered one of the most influential games of all time,. With a record-breaking production budget of around $45 million, the ambitious scope of Final Fantasy VII raised the possibilities for the genre, with its more expansive world to explore, much longer quest, more numerous sidequests, dozens of minigames, and much higher production values. The latter includes innovations such as the use of 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds, battles viewed from multiple different angles rather than a single angle, and for the first time full-motion CGI
video seamlessly blended into the gameplay, effectively integrated throughout the game. The game was soon ported to the PC and gained much success there, as did several other originally console RPGs, blurring the line between the console and computer platforms.
and Final Fantasy
.
Though sharing fundamental premises, Western RPGs often tend to feature darker graphics, older characters, and focus more on roaming freedom
and realism; whereas Eastern RPGs often tend to feature brighter, anime
-like graphics, younger characters, and focus more on scripted linear storylines. Japanese RPGs today are also more likely to feature turn-based battles; while Western RPGs today are more likely to feature real-time combat. In the past, the reverse was often true: real-time action role-playing game
s were far more common among Japanese console RPGs than Western computer RPGs up until the late 1990s, due to gamepad
s usually being better suited to real-time action than the keyboard and mouse. There are also a number of exceptions today, such as Final Fantasy XII
(2006) and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
(1995 onwards), which feature real-time combat; and The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003), which features turn-based combat.
JRPGs often tend to feature tightly orchestrated, linear narratives that emphasize intricate plots and the development of player character
s within the story, but often lack the option to create or choose one's own playable characters or make decisions that affect the plot. This often gives an impression that JRPGs are similar to adventure game
s. In contrast, Western RPGs often tend to focus more on open-ended, non-linear gameplay and extensive dialogue systems (from keywords to dialogue tree systems), and traditionally gave comparatively less emphasis to tightly structured narratives, plot development, or character relationships; they are also more likely to allow one to create and customize characters from scratch. One reason given for this difference is that many early Japanese console RPGs can be seen as forms of interactive manga
(Japanese comics) or anime wrapped around Western rule systems at the time. As a result, Japanese console RPGs differentiated themselves with a stronger focus on scripted narratives and character drama, alongside streamlined gameplay. In recent years, these trends have in turn been adopted by Western RPGs, which have begun moving more towards tightly structured narratives, in addition to moving away from "numbers and rules" in favour of streamlined combat systems similar to action games. In addition, a large number of Western independent games
are modelled after Japanese RPGs, especially those of the 16-bit era
, partly due to the RPG Maker game development tool
s.
Another oft-cited difference is the prominence or absence of kawaisa
, or "cuteness", in Japanese culture, and different approaches with respect to character aesthetics. Western RPGs tend to maintain a serious and gritty tone, with predominantly male protagonists exhibiting overtly masculine physical features and mannerisms. JRPG protagonsists tend to be designed with an emphasis on aesthetic beauty, and even male characters are often androgynous or bishōnen
in appearance. JRPGs often have cute (and even comic-relief type) characters or animals, juxtaposed (or clashing) with more mature themes and situations; and many modern JRPGs feature characters designed in the same style as those in anime
. The stylistic differences are often due to differing target audiences: Western RPGs are usually geared primarily towards teenage to adult males, whereas Japanese RPGs are usually intended for a much larger demographic, including female audiences.
s" due to the "removal of numbers and rules" that make "the genre an RPG." Japanese RPGs are also sometimes criticized for having relatively simple battle systems in which players are able to win by repetitively mashing buttons,[Turner] though it has been pointed out that Japanese RPG combat systems such as in Final Fantasy X
and Xenosaga
have become increasingly complex over the years, with more of an emphasis on strategy and timing, and with each new game often introducing their own rules and systems.[Nutt] In contrast, Western RPGs' greater control over the development and customization of playable characters has, according to some, come at the expense of plot and gameplay, resulting in generic dialogue, lack of character development within the narrative, and poor battle systems.[Nutt] Lastly, it has been argued that Western RPGs tend to focus more on the underlying rules governing the battle system rather than on the experience itself, and that Western RPGs as a whole are generally not as finely tuned and polished as their Japanese counterparts.[Nutt]
As a result, Japanese-style role-playing games are held in disdain by some Western gamers, leading to the term "JRPG" being held in the pejorative. Likewise, it is not uncommon for Western RPGs to be called "crap games" by Japanese players, where the vast majority of console role-playing games originate, and where Western RPGs remain largely unknown. Further, there is a belief among some—particularly in the West—that Japanese RPGs are stagnating or declining in both quality and popularity, including remarks by BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk
and writing director Daniel Erickson that JRPGs are stagnating—and that Final Fantasy XIII
is not even really an RPG; criticisms regarding seemingly nebulous justifications by some Japanese designers for newly changed (or, alternately, newly un-changed) features of recent titles; calls among some gaming journalists to "fix" JRPGs' problems; as well as claims that some recent titles such as Front Mission Evolved
are beginning to attempt—and failing to—imitate Western titles. Finally, one recent advertisement by Obsidian Entertainment in Japan openly mocked Japanese RPGs' traditional characteristics in favor of their own Western title, Fallout: New Vegas
.
This has produced responses such as ones by Japanese video game developer
s, Shinji Mikami
and Yuji Horii
, to the effect that JRPGs were never popular in the West to begin with, and that Western reviewers are biased against turn-based systems; as well as "overly agitated responses" from among members of the sizable Japanese Internet discussion forum, 2channel
. The developer Motomu Toriyama
also criticized Western RPGs, stating that they "dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like [which makes it] difficult to tell a compelling story." In response to criticisms, reviewer Tom Battey of Edge Magazine noted that the cited problems are not limited to Japanese RPGs, but also apply to many Western RPGs as well as games outside of the RPG genre. Jeff Fleming of Gamasutra
has pointed out that, while Japanese RPGs on home consoles are generally showing signs of staleness (though with exceptions such as the Megami Tensei
series and Demon's Souls
), this has not been the case for the Nintendo DS
handheld
, which has had a wave of original and experimental Japanese RPGs released in recent years. Finally, in an interview held at the American Electronic Entertainment Expo, Japanese video game developer Tetsuya Nomura
emphasized that role-playing games should not be classified by country-of-origin, but rather described simply for what they are: RPGs. And despite criticisms, Japanese RPGs have continued to maintain a large fanbase, and remain a popular source of inspiration for independent developers worldwide.
Finally, the largely secular nature of Japanese culture results in heavy usage of themes, symbols, and characters taken from a variety of religions, including Christianity
and Japanese Shinto
. This tends to be problematic when JRPGs are exported to Western countries where the topics of religion and blasphemy remain sensitive, such as the United States. It is not unusual for a JRPG to exhibit elements that would be controversial in the West, such as Xenogears
or Final Fantasy Tactics
featuring antagonists that bear similarities to the Abrahamic God and the Roman Catholic Church
, respectively; and Nintendo has made efforts in the past to remove references such as these prior to introducing their games into the North American market.
s, RPGs seldom test a player's physical skill. Combat is typically a tactical challenge rather than a physical one, and games involve other non-action gameplay such as choosing dialog options, inventory management, or buying and selling items.
Although RPGs share some combat rules with wargames
, RPGs are about a small group of individual characters. Wargames tend to have large groups of identical units, as well as non-humanoid units such as tanks and airplanes. Role-playing games do not normally allow the player to produce more units. However, the Heroes of Might and Magic
series crosses these genres by combining individual heroes with large amounts of troops in large battles.
RPGs rival adventure game
s in terms of their rich storylines, in contrast to genres that do not rely upon storytelling such as sports game
s or puzzle games. Both genres also feature highly detailed characters, and a great deal of exploration. However, adventure games usually have a well-defined character, whereas while RPGs may do so, many allow the player to design their characters. Adventure games usually focus on one character, whereas RPGs often feature an entire party. RPGs also feature a combat system, which adventure games usually lack. Whereas both adventure games and RPGs may focus on the personal or psychological growth of characters, RPGs tend to emphasize a complex eternal economy where characters are defined by increasing numerical attributes.
Gameplay elements strongly associated with this genre, such as statistical character development, have been widely adapted to other video game genres. For example, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
, an action game
, uses resource statistics (abbreviated as "stats") to define a wide range of attributes including stamina, weapon proficiency, driving, lung capacity, and muscle tone, and uses numerous cutscenes and quests to advance the story. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
, a real-time strategy
game, features heroes that can complete quests, obtain new equipment, and "learn" new abilities as they advance in level.
According to Satoru Iwata
, president of Nintendo
, turn-based RPGs have been unfairly criticized as being outdated. According to Yuji Horii
, creator of the popular Dragon Quest series and Ryutaro Ichimura, producer of Square Enix
, turn-based RPGs allow the player time to make decisions without feeling rushed or worry about real-life distractions. According to Iwata, action-based RPGs can frustrate players if they are unable to keep up with the battles.
and Ys series, which feature hack and slash
combat where the player character
's movements and actions are controlled directly, using a keyboard
or game controller
, rather than using menus. This formula was refined by the action-adventure game
, The Legend of Zelda
(1986), which set the template used by many subsequent action RPGs, including innovations such as an open world
, nonlinear gameplay, battery backup saving
, and an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. The game was largely responsible for the surge of action-oriented RPGs released since the late 1980s, both in Japan and North America. The Legend of Zelda series
would continue to exert an influence on the transition of both console and computer RPGs from stat-heavy, turn-based combat towards real-time action combat in the following decades.
A different variation of the action RPG formula was popularized by Diablo
(1996), where the majority of commands—such as moving and attacking—are executed using mouse clicks rather than via menus, though learned spells can also be assigned to hotkeys. In many action RPGs, non-player character
s serve only one purpose, be it to buy or sell items or upgrade the player's abilities, or issue them with combat-centric quests. Problems players face also often have an action-based solution, such as breaking a wooden door open with an axe rather than finding the key needed to unlock it, though some games place greater emphasis on character attributes such as a "lockpicking" skill and puzzle-solving.
One common challenge in developing action RPGs is including content beyond that of killing enemies. With the sheer number of items, locations and monsters found in many such games, it can be difficult to create the needed depth to offer players a unique experience tailored to his or her beliefs, choices or actions. This is doubly true if a game makes use of randomization, as is common. One notable example of a game which went beyond this is Deus Ex
(2000) which offered multiple solutions to problems using intricately layered story options and individually constructed environments. Instead of simply bashing their way through levels, players were challenged to act in character by choosing dialog options appropriately, and by using the surrounding environment intelligently. This produced an experience that was unique and tailored to each situation as opposed to one that repeated itself endlessly.
Action RPGs were far more common on consoles rather than computers, due to gamepad
s being better suited to real-time action than the keyboard and mouse. Though there had been attempts at creating action-oriented computer RPGs during the late 1980s and early 1990s, often in the vein of Zelda
, very few saw any success, with the 1992 game Ultima VII
being one of the more successful attempts in North America. On the PC, Diablo' s effect on the market was significant from the late 1990s. It had many imitators and its style of combat went on to be used by many games that came after. For many years afterwards, games that closely mimicked the Diablo formula were referred to as "Diablo clones"; and three of the four titles in the series are still sold together as part of the Diablo Battle Chest over a decade later. Other examples of action RPGs for the PC include Dungeon Siege
(2002), Sacred (2004), Torchlight
(2009), Din's Curse
(2011) and Hellgate: London
(2007)—the last of which was developed by a team headed by former Blizzard employees, some of whom had participated in the creation of the Diablo series; and like Diablo and Rogue before it, Torchlight, Din' s Curse, Hellgate: London and Fate (2005) all made use of procedural generation
to generate game levels. Lastly, there is debate over whether games like BioWare's Mass Effect (2007) constitute action RPGs as opposed to more traditional RPGs (though the game's sequel pushed more in that direction).
Also included within this sub-genre are role-playing shooters, games which incorporate elements of role-playing games and shooter game
s (including first-person
and third-person
). Recent examples include Borderlands
(2009) and The 3rd Birthday
(2010).
released that same year. Conventionally, however, the term tactical RPG (known as simulation RPG in Japan) refers to the distinct subgenre that was born in Japan; the early origins of tactical RPGs are difficult to trace from the American side of the Pacific where much of the early RPG genre developed. Tactical RPGs are descendents of traditional strategy game
s, such as chess
, and table-top role-playing and strategic war games
, such as Chainmail
, which were mainly tactical in their original form. The format of a tactical CRPG is also like a traditional RPG in its appearance, pacing and rule structure.
Many tactical RPGs can be both extremely time-consuming and extremely difficult. Hence, the appeal of most tactical RPGs is to the hardcore, not casual, computer and video game player. Traditionally, tactical RPGs have been quite popular in Japan
but have not enjoyed the same degree of success in North America and elsewhere. However, the audience for Japanese tactical RPGs has grown substantially since the mid-90s, with PS1
and PS2
titles such as Final Fantasy Tactics
, Suikoden Tactics
, Vanguard Bandits
, and Disgaea
enjoying a surprising measure of popularity, as well as hand-held war games like Fire Emblem. (Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1 is often considered the breakthrough title outside of Japan.) Older TRPGs are also being re-released via software emulation
—such as on the Wii's
Virtual Console
—and hand-held systems, giving games a new lease on life and exposure to new audiences. Japanese console games such as these are as a result no longer nearly as rare a commodity in North America as they were during the 1990s.
Examples of tactical RPGs for 8-bit and 16-bit Japanese systems include: Bokosuka Wars
(1983), considered the progenitor of the strategy/simulation RPG genre with its blend of RPG and strategy video game
elements, originally a Sharp X1
computer game later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System
in 1985; Nobunaga's Ambition
(1983), an early strategy RPG that featured a blend of role-playing, turn-based grand strategy
and management simulation
elements, originally an MSX
computer game that was later ported to the NES in 1987; Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Tsurugi (1990), released and published by Nintendo
for the NES, and generally accepted as the first tactical RPG made for consoles, with a highly tactical turn-based
combat system that resembles those of the later 3rd and 4th editions
of Dungeons & Dragons; Master of Monsters
(1991), originally released by SystemSoft for the MSX and PC-8801 and later ported to a variety of other platforms; Sega
's Shining Force
(1992) for the Sega Genesis (among the first TRPG played among Western audiences); and Tactics Ogre
(1995), originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
and later ported to the PlayStation
. Examples for fifth- and sixth-generation consoles consoles include Konami's Vandal Hearts
(1996), Square's Final Fantasy Tactics
(1997), and Square's Front Mission 3
(1999)—all released for the PlayStation. Even more recent examples include Sega
's Valkyria Chronicles
(2008), a quasi-turn-based/real-time game for the PlayStation 3.
Western PC games have utilized similar mechanics for years, as well, and were largely defined by X-COM: UFO Defense (1994) in much the same way as Eastern console games were by Fire Emblem. Western titles such as the X-COM
series have generally allowed greater freedom of movement when interacting with the surrounding environment. Other notable examples include the Jagged Alliance (1994–2009) and Silent Storm
(2003–2005) series, with many other titles owing considerably to X-COM
and its sequels (1994–1997). Other examples for the PC include: Incubation: Time Is Running Out (1997), part of the Battle Isle
series, and one of the first strategy
titles to use fully 3D graphics
and support hardware acceleration on the 3dfx Voodoo; Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
(2001) a spin-off
of the Fallout series of CRPGs; Irrational Games
' super hero comic games, Freedom Force
(2002) and Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich
(2005); and Russian developer Apeiron
's Brigade E5: New Jagged Union
(2006) and 7.62 (2008), a real-time tactical series that evokes Jagged Alliance in setting, mechanics and tone. Examples of Western-style tactical RPGs for video game consoles include: Dungeons & Dragons Tactics
(2007) for the PlayStation Portable
, Gladius
(2003) by LucasArts
, and Rebelstar: Tactical Command
(2005) by X-COM developers, Julian
and Nick Gollop, for the Game Boy Advance
.
Further, there are a number of "full-fledged" CRPGs which could be described as having "tactical" combat. Examples from the classic era of CRPGs include parts of the aforementioned Ultima series; SSI's Wizard's Crown
(1985) and The Eternal Dagger
(1987); the Gold Box
games of the late '80s and early '90s (many of which were later ported to Japanese video game systems); and Sierra's Betrayal at Krondor
(1993) and Return to Krondor
(1998) based on Raymond Feist's Midkemia
setting. More recent examples include Troika Games
' The Temple of Elemental Evil
(2003), which featured an accurate implementation of the Dungeons & Dragons
3.5 edition ruleset; Knights of the Chalice (2009), which implements the D20 Open Game License; and Pyrrhic Tales: Prelude to Darkness (2002). According to some developers, it is becoming increasingly difficult in recent years to develop games of this type for the PC (though several have been developed in Eastern Europe with mixed results); and even Japanese RPG developers are beginning to complain about a supposed bias against turn-based systems. Reasons cited include Western developers' focus on developing real-time and action-oriented games instead.
(1993), an early action role-playing game
by Square
, was one of the first commercial RPGs to feature cooperative multiplayer
gameplay, offering two-player and three-player action once the main character had acquired his party members. Later, Diablo (1996) would combine CRPG and action game
elements with an Internet
multiplayer mode that allowed up to four players to enter the same world and fight monsters, trade items, or fight against each other.
Also during this time period, the MUD
genre that had been spawned by MUD1
in 1978 was undergoing a tremendous expansion phase due to the release and spread of LPMud
(1989) and DikuMUD
(1991). Soon, driven by the mainstream adoption of the Internet, these parallel trends merged in the popularization of graphical MUDs, which would soon become known as massively multiplayer online role-playing games or MMORPGs, beginning with games like Meridian 59
(1995), Ultima Online
(1997) and EverQuest
(1999) and leading to modern phenomena such as Final Fantasy XI
(2003), EVE online
(2003) and World of Warcraft
(2004).
Though superficially similar, MMORPGs lend their appeal more to the socializing influences of being online with hundreds or even thousands of other players at a time, and trace their origins more from MUDs than from CRPGs like Ultima and Wizardry. Rather than focusing on the "old school" considerations of memorizing huge numbers of stats and esoterica and battling it out in complex, tactical environments, players instead spend much of their time forming and maintaining guilds and clans
. The distinction between CRPGs and MMORPGs and MUDs can as a result be very sharp, likenable to the difference between "attending a renaissance fair
and reading a good fantasy novel".
Further, MMORPGs have been criticized for diluting the "epic" feeling of single-player RPGs and related media among thousands of concurrent adventurers. Stated simply: every player wants to be "The Hero", slay "The Monster", rescue "The Princess", or obtain "The Magic Sword". But when there are thousands of players all playing the same game, clearly not everyone can be the hero. This problem became obvious to some in the game EverQuest, where groups of players would compete and sometimes harass each other in order to get monsters in the same dungeon to drop valuable items, leading to several undesirable behaviors such as kill stealing
, spawn camping, and ninja looting. In response—for instance by Richard Garriott in Tabula Rasa—developers began turning to instance dungeon
s as a means of reducing competition over limited resources, as well as preserving the gaming experience—though this mechanic has its own set of detractors.
Lastly, there exist markets such as Korea and China that, while saturated with MMORPGs, have so far proved relatively unreceptive to single-player RPGs. For instance, Internet-connected personal computers are relatively common in Korea when compared to other regions—particularly in the numerous "PC bang
s" scattered around the country where patrons are able to pay to play multiplayer computer games—possibly due to historical bans on Japanese imports, as well as a culture that traditionally sees video games as "frivolous toys" and computers as educational. As a result, some wonder whether the stand-alone, single-player RPG is still viable commercially—especially on the personal computer—when there are competing pressures such as big-name publishers' marketing needs, video game piracy, a change in culture, and the competitive price-point-to-processing-power ratio (at least initially) of modern console systems.
s and gameplay
styles have created a myriad of hybrid game categories formed by mixing popular gameplay elements featured in other genres such as first-person shooter
s, platformers, and turn-based
and real-time strategy
games. Examples include first-person shooters such as parts of the Deus Ex (starting in 2000) and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
(starting in 2007) series; real-time strategy games such as SpellForce: The Order of Dawn (2003) and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
(2009); puzzle video games such as Castlevania Puzzle (2010) and Puzzle Quest (2007); and turn-based strategy games like the Steel Panthers
(1995–2006) series, which combined tactical military combat with RPG-derived unit advancement. As a group, hybrid games have been both praised and criticized; being referred to by one critic as the "poor man's" RPG for omitting the dialogue choices and story-driven character development of major AAA titles in order to cut costs, and by another critic as "promising" for shedding the tired conventions of more established franchises in an attempt to innovate.
for creating the first computer role-playing game, Dungeon, in 1975; Yuji Horii
for creating the Dragon Quest series; Hironobu Sakaguchi
for creating the Final Fantasy series; Richard Garriott
for creating the Ultima series; and Ray Muzyka
and Greg Zeschuk
for founding BioWare
. Ryozo Tsujimoto (Monster Hunter
series) and Katsura Hashino (Persona
series) were also cited as "Japanese Game Developers You Should Know" by 1UP.com
in 2010.
The best-selling RPG series worldwide is Pokémon, which has sold over 200 million units as of May 2010. The second and third best-selling RPG series worldwide are Square Enix
's Final Fantasy
and Dragon Quest
series, with over 92 million units and over 50 million units sold as of December 2009 and July 2009, respectively. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green
alone sold approximately 20.08 million copies (10.23 million in Japan, 9.85 million in US); and all the games in the main Dragon Quest series (as well as many of the spin-off games) have sold over a million copies each, with some games totaling over four million copies.
Among the best-selling PC RPGs overall is World of Warcraft
with 11.5 million subscribers as of May 2010. Among single player PC RPGs, Diablo II
has sold the largest amount, with the most recently cited number being over 4 million copies as of 2001. However, copies of the Diablo: Battle Chest continue to be sold in retail stores, with the compilation appearing on the NPD Group
's top 10 PC games sales list as recently as 2010. Further, Diablo: Battle Chest was the 19th best selling PC game of 2008—a full seven years after the game's initial release; and 11 million users still play Diablo II and StarCraft
over Battle.net. As a franchise, the Diablo series has sold over 20 million copies.
The Dragon Quest series was awarded with six world records in the 2008 Gamer's Edition
of the Guinness Book of World Records, including "Best Selling Role Playing Game on the Super Famicom", "Fastest Selling Game in Japan", and "First Video Game Series to Inspire a Ballet". Likewise, the Pokémon series received eight records, including "Most Successful RPG Series of All Time", "Game Series With the Most Spin-Off Movies" and "Most Photosensitive Epileptic Seizures Caused by a TV Show". Diablo II was recognized in the 2000 standard edition for being the fastest selling computer game ever sold, with more than 1 million units sold in the first two weeks of availability; though this number has been surpassed several times since. A number of RPGs are also being exhibited in the Barbican Art Gallery's "Game On
" exhibition (starting in 2002) and the Smithsonian
's "The Art of Video Games
" exhibit (starting in 2012); and video game developers are now finally able to apply for grants from the US National Endowment of the Arts.
According to GameStats and Metacritic
, respectively, the highest-rated RPGs of all time are Final Fantasy VII
(as of January 2011), with an average GameStats score of 9.4 out of 10, and an average press score of 10.0 out of 10; and the Xbox 360
version of Mass Effect 2
(as of May 2011) with an average metascore of 96 out of 100. According to GameRankings, the four top-rated video game RPGs (as of May 2010) are Mass Effect 2 with an average rating of 95.70% for the Xbox 360 version and 94.24% for the PC version; Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
with an average rating of 95.40% for the PlayStation 3 version; Chrono Trigger
with an average rating of 95.10%; and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
with an average rating of 94.18% for the Xbox version. Sales numbers for these five titles are 10 million units sold for Final Fantasy VII as of May 2010; 1.6 million units for Mass Effect 2 as of March 2010, just three months after release; 4.7 million units for Fallout 3 on all three platforms as of November 2008, also only a few months after publication; 3 million units for both the Xbox and PC versions of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as of November 2004; and more than 2.65 million units for the SNES and PlayStation versions of Chrono Trigger as of March 2003, along with 790,000 copies for the Nintendo DS
version as of March 31, 2009. Of these five titles, none were PC-exclusives, three were Western multi-platform titles released for consoles like the Xbox and Xbox 360 within the past decade, and two were Japanese titles released by Square
for consoles like the SNES
and PlayStation in the 1990s.
Final Fantasy VII also topped GamePro
's "26 Best RPGs of All Time" list, as well as the GameFAQs
"Best Game Ever" audience polls in 2004 and 2005. On IGN
's Top 100 Games Of All Time list in 2007, the highest ranking RPG is Final Fantasy VI
at 9th place; and in both the 2006 and 2008 IGN Readers' Choice polls Chrono Trigger is the top ranked RPG, in 2nd place. Final Fantasy VI is also the top ranked RPG in Game Informer
s list of its 200 best games of all time list, in 8th place; and is also one of the eight games to get a cover for the magazine's 200th issue. The 2006 Famitsu
readers' poll is dominated by RPGs, with nearly a dozen titles appearing in the top twenty; while most were Japanese, a few Western titles also made a showing. For the past decade, the Megami Tensei
series topped several "RPGs of the Decade" lists. RPGFan's "Top 20 RPGs of the Past Decade" list was topped by Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
& Digital Devil Saga 2
followed by Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, while RPGamer
's "Top RPGs of the Decade" list was topped by Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3.
Lastly, in recent years, Western RPGs have consistently been released on consoles such as the Xbox and Xbox 360. However, systems like the Xbox and Xbox 360 have not shown as much market dominance in Eastern markets such as Japan, and only a few Western RPG titles have been localized to Japanese. Further, RPGs are not the dominant genre on the most popular of the current-generation video consoles, the Nintendo Wii, although their presence among handheld systems such as the Nintendo DS
is considerably greater.
Role-playing game (pen and paper)
A tabletop role-playing game, pen-and-paper role-playing game, or Table-talk role-playing game is a form of role-playing game in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech...
such as Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
, using much of the same terminology, settings
Setting (fiction)
In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may...
and game mechanic
Game mechanic
Game mechanics are constructs of rules intended to produce an enjoyable game or gameplay. All games use mechanics; however, theories and styles differ as to their ultimate importance to the game...
s. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests
Quest (gaming)
A quest in role-playing video games — including massively multiplayer online role-playing games and their predecessors, MUDs — is a task that a player-controlled character or group of characters may complete in order to gain a reward...
. The major similarities with pen-and-paper games involve developed story-telling and narrative elements, player character development, complexity, as well as replayability
Replay value
Replay value or replayability is a term found in combination with video games, but it may be also used to describe other kinds of games, movies, music, or theater plays. In video games, the term replay value is used to describe the entertainment value of playing a game more than once...
and immersion. Electronic medium removes the necessity for a gamemaster
Gamemaster
A gamemaster is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for questions regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer game...
and increases combat resolution speed. RPGs have evolved from simple text-based console-window games into visually rich 3D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
experiences.
Characteristics
Role-playing video games use much of the same terminology, settingsSetting (fiction)
In fiction, setting includes the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place, and initiates the main backdrop and mood for a story. Setting has been referred to as story world or milieu to include a context beyond the immediate surroundings of the story. Elements of setting may...
and game mechanic
Game mechanic
Game mechanics are constructs of rules intended to produce an enjoyable game or gameplay. All games use mechanics; however, theories and styles differ as to their ultimate importance to the game...
s as early pen-and-paper role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s such as Dungeons & Dragons.
Generally, the player controls a small number of game characters, usually called a party, and achieves victory by completing a series of quests and reaching the conclusion of a central storyline. Players explore a game world, while solving puzzles and engaging in tactical combat. A key feature of the genre is that characters grow in power and abilities, and characters are typically designed by the player. RPGs rarely challenge a player's physical coordination, with the exception of action role-playing game
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
s.
Role-playing video games typically rely on a highly developed story and setting, which is divided into a number of quests. Players control one or several characters by issuing commands, which is performed by the character at an effectiveness determined by that character's numeric attributes. Often these attributes increase each time a character gains a level, and a character's level goes up each time the player accumulates a certain amount of experience.
Role-playing video games also typically attempt to offer more complex and dynamic character interaction than what is found in other video game genres. This usually involves additional focus on the artificial intelligence and scripted behavior of computer-controlled non-player characters.
Story and setting
The premise of most-roleplaying games tasks the player with saving the world, or whichever level of society is threatened. There are often twists and turns as the story progresses, such as the surprise appearance of estranged relatives, or enemies who become friends or vice versa. The game world tends to be set in a fantasyFantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
or science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
universe, which allows players to do things they cannot do in real life and helps players suspend their disbelief about the rapid character growth. To a lesser extent, settings closer to the present day or near future are possible.
A strong story often provides half the entertainment in the game. Because these games have strong storylines, they can often make effective use of recorded dialog and voiceover narration. Players of these games tend to appreciate long cut scenes more than players of faster action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
s. While most games advance the plot when the player defeats an enemy or completes a level, role-playing games often progress the plot based on other important decisions. For example, a player may make the decision to join a guild, thus triggering a progression in the storyline that is usually irreversible. New elements in the story may also be triggered by mere arrival in an area, rather than completing a specific challenge. The plot is usually divided so that each game location is an opportunity to reveal a new chapter in the story.
Pen-and-paper role-playing games typically involve a player called the gamemaster
Gamemaster
A gamemaster is a person who acts as an organizer, officiant for questions regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a multiplayer game...
who can dynamically create the story, setting, and rules, and react to a player's choices. In role-playing video games, the computer performs the function of the gamemaster. This offers the player a smaller set of possible actions, since computers do not yet have the power to engage in imaginative acting comparable to a skilled human gamemaster. Characterization of non-player characters in video games is often handled using a dialog tree. Saying the right things to the right non-player characters will elicit useful information for the player, and may even result in other rewards such as experience. Multiplayer online
Online game
An online game is a game played over some form of computer network. This almost always means the Internet or equivalent technology, but games have always used whatever technology was current: modems before the Internet, and hard wired terminals before modems...
role-playing games can offer an exception to this contrast by allowing human interaction among multiple players and in some cases enabling a player to perform the role of a gamemaster.
Exploration and quests
Exploring the world is an important aspect of all RPGs. Players will walk through, talking to non-player characters, picking up objects, and avoiding traps. Some games such as NetHackNetHack
NetHack is a single-player roguelike video game originally released in 1987. It is a descendant of an earlier game called Hack , which is a descendant of Rogue...
, Diablo
Diablo (video game)
Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on December 31, 1996....
, and the FATE series randomize the structure of individual levels, increasing the game's variety and replayability. Role-playing games where players complete quests by exploring randomly generated dungeons are sometimes called roguelike
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
s, named after the 1980 computer game Rogue
Rogue (computer game)
Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading...
.
The game's story is often mapped onto exploration, where each chapter of the story is mapped onto a different location. Unlike other linear games, RPGs usually allow players to return to previously visited locations. Usually, there is nothing left to do there, although some locations change throughout the story and offer the player new things to do in response. Players must acquire enough power to overcome a major challenge in order to progress to the next area, and this structure can be compared to the boss
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
characters at the end of levels in action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
s.
The player typically must complete a linear sequence of certain quests in order to reach the end of the game's story. However, RPGs also often allow the player to seek out optional side-quests and character interactions. Quests of this sort can be found by talking to a non-player character, and there is no penalty for abandoning or ignoring these quests other than a missed opportunity. There is usually a reward for completing a side-quest, although quests in some games such as Arcanum
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is a single player / multi-player computer role-playing game developed by Troika Games and published by Sierra Entertainment. It was released in North America and Europe in August 2001 for Microsoft Windows...
or Geneforge can limit or enable certain choices later in the game. Quests may involve defeating one or many enemies, rescuing a non-player character, item fetch quests, or locational puzzles such as mysteriously locked doors.
Items and inventory
Players can find loot throughout the game world and collect it, such as clothing, weapons, and armor. Players can trade items for currency and better equipment. Trade takes place while interacting with certain friendly non-player characters, such as shopkeepers, and often uses a specialized trading screen. Purchased items go into the player's inventory. Some games turn inventory management into a logistical challenge by limiting the size of the player's inventory, thus forcing the player to decide what they must carry at the time. This can be done by limiting the maximum weight that a player can carry, by employing a system of arranging items in a virtual space, or by simply limiting the number of items that can be held.Character actions and abilities
Most of the actions in an RPG are performed indirectly, with the player selecting an action and the character performing it by their own accord. Success at that action depends on the character's numeric attributes. Role-playing video games often simulate die-rolling mechanics from non-electronic role-playing games, to determine success or failure. As a character's attributes improve, their chances of succeeding at a particular action will increase.Many role-playing games allow players to play as an evil character. Although robbing and murdering indiscriminately may make it easier to get money, there are usually consequences in that other characters will become uncooperative or even hostile towards the player. Thus, these games allow players to make moral choices, but force players to live with the consequences of their actions. Games often let the player control an entire party of characters. However, if winning is contingent upon the survival of a single character, then that character effectively becomes the player's avatar
Avatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...
. An example of this would be in Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate is a computer role-playing game developed by BioWare and released in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a high fantasy campaign setting, using modified Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition rules...
, where if the character created by the player dies, the game ends and a previous save needs to be loaded.
Although some single-player role-playing games give the player an avatar that is largely predefined for the sake of telling a specific story, many role-playing games make use of a character creation screen. This allows players to choose their character's sex, their race or species, and their character class. Although many of theses traits are cosmetic, there are functional aspects as well. Character classes will have different abilities and strengths. Common classes include fighters, spellcasters, thieves with stealth abilities, and clerics with healing abilities, or a mixed class, such as a fighter who can cast simple spells. Characters will also have a range of physical attributes such as dexterity and strength, which affect a player's performance in combat. Mental attributes such as intelligence may affect a player's ability to perform and learn spells, while social attributes such as charisma may limit the player's choices while conversing with non-player characters. These attribute systems often strongly resemble the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset.
Role-playing games frequently make use of magical powers, or equivelents such as psychic powers or advanced technology. These abilities are confined to specific characters such as mages, spellcasters, or magic-users. In games where the player controls multiple characters, these magic-users usually complement the physical strength of other classes. Magic can be used as an attack or defense, or to temporarily change an enemy or ally's attributes. While some games allow players to gradually consume a spell, as ammunition is consumed by a gun, most games offer players a finite amount of mana
Mana
Mana is an indigenous Pacific islander concept of an impersonal force or quality that resides in people, animals, and inanimate objects. The word is a cognate in many Oceanic languages, including Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian....
which can be spent on any spell. Mana is restored by resting, or by consuming potions. Characters can also gain other non-magical skills, which stay with the character as long as he lives.
Experience and levels
Although the characterization of the game's avatar will develop through storytelling, characters may also become more functionally powerful by gaining new skills, weapons, and magic. This creates a positive-feedback cycle that is central to most role-playing games: The player grows in power, allowing them to overcome more difficult challenges, and gain even more power. This is part of the appeal of the genre, where players experience growing from an ordinary person into a superhero with amazing powers. Whereas other games give the player these powers immediately, the player in a role-playing game will choose their powers and skills as they gain experience.Role-playing games usually measure progress by counting experience point
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s and character levels. Experience is usually earned by defeating enemies in combat, with some games offering experience for completing certain quests or conversations. Experience becomes a form of score
Score (game)
In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points, and events in the game can raise or lower the score of different parties...
, and accumulating a certain amount of experience will cause the character's level to go up. This is called "levelling up", and gives the player an opportunity to raise one or more of his character's attributes. Many RPGs allow players to choose how to improve their character, by allocating a finite number of points into the attributes of their choice. Gaining experience will also unlock new magic spells for characters that use magic.
Some role-playing games also give the player specific skill points, which can be used to unlock a new skill or improve an existing one. This may sometimes be implemented as a skill tree. As with the technology trees seen in strategy video game
Strategy video game
Strategy video games is a video game genre that emphasizes skillful thinking and planning to achieve victory. They emphasize strategic, tactical, and sometimes logistical challenges. Many games also offer economic challenges and exploration...
s, learning a particular skill in the tree will unlock more powerful skills deeper in the tree.
Three different systems of rewarding the player characters for solving the tasks in the game can be set apart: the experience system (also known as the "level
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
-based" system), the training system (also known as the "skill-based" system) and the skill-point system (also known as "level-free" system)
- The experience system, by far the most common, was inherited from pen-and-paper role-playing games and emphasizes receiving "experience pointExperience pointAn experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
s" (often abbreviated "XP" or "EXP") by winning battles, performing class-specific activities, and completing questsQuest (gaming)A quest in role-playing video games — including massively multiplayer online role-playing games and their predecessors, MUDs — is a task that a player-controlled character or group of characters may complete in order to gain a reward...
. Once a certain amount of experience is gained, the character advances a level. In some games, level-up occurs automatically when the required amount of experience is reached; in others, the player can choose when and where to advance a level. Likewise, abilities and attributes may increase automatically or manually. - The training system is similar to the way the Basic Role-PlayingBasic Role-PlayingBasic Role-Playing is a role-playing game system which originated in the fantasy-oriented RuneQuest role-playing game rules...
system works. The first computer game to use this was Dungeon Master, and emphasizes developing the character's skills by using them—meaning that if a character wields a sword for some time, he or she will become proficient with it.
Combat
Older games often separated combat into its own mode of gameplay, distinct from exploring the game world. More recent games tend to maintain a consistent perspective for exploration and combat. Some games, especially earlier console games, generate battles from random encounterRandom encounter
A random encounter is a feature commonly used in various role-playing games whereby encounters with non-player character enemies or other dangers occur sporadically and at random...
s; more modern RPGs are more likely to have persistent wandering monsters that move about the game world independently of the player. Most RPGs also use stationary boss
Boss (video games)
A boss is an enemy-based challenge which is found in video games. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight...
monsters in key positions, and automatically trigger battles with them when the PCs enter these locations or perform certain actions. Combat options typically involve positioning characters, selecting which enemy to attack, and exercising special skills such as casting spells.
In a classical turn-based system, only one character may act at a time; all other characters remain still, with a few exceptions that may involve the use of special abilities. The order in which the characters act is usually dependent on their attributes, such as speed or agility. This system rewards strategic planning more than quickness. It also points to the fact that realism in games is a means to the end of immersion
Immersion (virtual reality)
Immersion is the state of consciousness where an immersant's awareness of physical self is diminished or lost by being surrounded in an engrossing total environment; often artificial. This mental state is frequently accompanied with spatial excess, intense focus, a distorted sense of time, and...
in the game world, not an end in itself. A turn-based system makes it possible, for example, to run within range of an opponent and kill him before he gets a chance to act, or duck out from behind hard cover, fire, and retreat back without an opponent being able to fire, which are of course both impossibilities. However, tactical possibilities have been created by this unreality that did not exist before; the player determines whether the loss of immersion in the reality of the game is worth the satisfaction gained from the development of the tactic and its successful execution. Fallout has been praised as being "the shining example of a good turn-based Combat System".
Real-time combat can import features from action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
s, creating a hybrid action RPG game genre. But other RPG battle systems such as the Final Fantasy battle systems have imported real-time choices without emphasizing coordination or reflexes. Other systems combine real-time combat with the ability to pause the game and issue orders to all characters under his/her control; when the game is unpaused, all characters follow the orders they were given. This "real-time with pause" system (RTwP) has been particularly popular in games designed by BioWare
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by American company Electronic Arts...
. The most famous RTwP engine is the Infinity Engine
Infinity Engine
Infinity Engine is a game engine which allows the creation of isometric computer role-playing games. It was originally developed by BioWare for a prototype RTS game codenamed Battleground Infinity, which was ultimately re-engineered to become the first installment of the Baldur's Gate series...
. Other names for "real-time with pause" include "active pause", "semi real-time" and "smart pause".
Early Ultima games featured a RTwP system: they were strictly turn-based, but if the player waited more than a second or so to issue a command, the game would automatically issue a pass command, allowing the monsters to take a turn while the PCs did nothing. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, better known as simply Fallout Tactics, is a turn-based/real-time tactical role-playing game based in the post-apocalyptic Fallout universe. Developed by Micro Forté and published by 14 Degrees East, Fallout Tactics was released on 14 March 2001 for PC...
is another game which used this system.
There is a further subdivision by the structure of the battle system; in many early games, such as Wizardry
Wizardry
Wizardry is a series of computer role-playing games, developed by Sir-Tech, which were highly influential in the development of modern console and computer role playing games. The original Wizardry was a significant influence to early console RPGs, such as Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. ...
, monsters and the party are arrayed into ranks, and can only attack enemies in the front rank with melee weapons. Other games, such as most of the Ultima series, employed duplicates of the miniatures combat system traditionally used in the early role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s. Representations of the player characters and monsters would move around an arena modeled after the surrounding terrain, attacking any enemies that are sufficiently near.
Interface and graphics
Players typically navigate the game world from a first or third-person perspective in 3D RPGs. However, an isometric or aerial top-down perspective is common in party-based RPGs, in order to give the player a clear view of their entire party and their surroundings. Role-playing games require the player to manage a large amount of information, and frequently make use of a windowed interface. For example, spell-casting characters will often have a menu of spells they can use. On the PC, players typically use the mouse to click on icons and menu options, while console games duplicate this functionality with the game controller. Older games often revealed calculations of the game as seen in Dungeons and Dragons games, although more recent games have removed this information to improve immersion.History and classification
The role-playing video gameRole-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
genre began in the mid-1970s on mainframe computer
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
s, inspired by pen-and-paper role-playing game
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
s such as Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
. Several other sources of inspiration for early role-playing video games also included tabletop strategy
Strategy game
A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
wargames
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
, sports simulation games, adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s such as Colossal Cave Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure
Colossal Cave Adventure gave its name to the computer adventure game genre . It was originally designed by Will Crowther, a programmer and caving enthusiast who based the layout on part of the Mammoth Cave system in Kentucky...
, fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
writings by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
, and ancient epic literature
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
dating back to The Epic of Gilgamesh which followed the same basic structure of setting off in various quests
Quest (gaming)
A quest in role-playing video games — including massively multiplayer online role-playing games and their predecessors, MUDs — is a task that a player-controlled character or group of characters may complete in order to gain a reward...
in order to accomplish goals.
After the success of console role-playing games such as Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest
, published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005,Due to the inconsistent usage by sources since Square Enix obtained the naming rights to Dragon Quest in North America. Dragon Quest has been used by sources to refer to games released solely under the Dragon Warrior titles...
and Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
, the role-playing genre eventually diverged into two styles, Japanese role-playing games and Western role-playing games, due to cultural differences, though roughly mirroring the platform divide between consoles
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
and computers
Personal computer
A personal computer is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...
, respectively. Finally, while the first RPGs offered strictly a single player
Single player
A Single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. "Single-player game" usually implies a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" usually refers to a game mode for a single player, where...
experience, the popularity of multiplayer modes rose sharply during the early to mid-1990s with action role-playing game
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
s such as Secret of Mana
Secret of Mana
Secret of Mana is an action role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System developed and published by Square in 1993. The game was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in 2008, and was ported to Japanese mobile phones in 2009...
and Diablo
Diablo (video game)
Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on December 31, 1996....
. With the advent of the Internet, multiplayer games have grown to become massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....
s, including Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XI
, also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, is a MMORPG developed and published by Square as part of the Final Fantasy series. It was released in Japan on Sony's PlayStation 2 on May 16, 2002, and was released for Microsoft's Windows-based personal computers in November 2002...
and World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
.
Mainframe computers
The role-playing video game genre began in the mid-1970s, as an offshoot of early university mainframeMainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
text-based RPGs on PDP-10
PDP-10
The PDP-10 was a mainframe computer family manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation from the late 1960s on; the name stands for "Programmed Data Processor model 10". The first model was delivered in 1966...
and Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
-based computers, such as Dungeon, pedit5
Pedit5
pedit5 was perhaps the first dungeon crawl video game , written in 1975 by Rusty Rutherford for the PLATO system...
and dnd
Dnd (computer game)
dnd is a computer role-playing game. The name dnd is derived from the abbreviation "DND" from the original role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons, which was first released in 1975....
. In 1980
1980 in video gaming
-Notable releases:* May 22, Namco releases Pac-Man, which is their biggest selling game of all time* December, Nintendo releases the Radar Scope arcade game...
, a very popular dungeon crawl
Dungeon crawl
A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters, and looting any treasure they may find...
er, Rogue
Rogue (computer game)
Rogue is a dungeon crawling video game first developed by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman around 1980. It was a favorite on college Unix systems in the early to mid-1980s, in part due to the procedural generation of game content. Rogue popularized dungeon crawling as a video game trope, leading...
was released. Featuring ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
graphics where the setting, monsters and items were represented by letters and a deep system of gameplay, it inspired a whole genre of similar clones on mainframe and home computers called "roguelike
Roguelike
The roguelike is a sub-genre of role-playing video games, characterized by randomization for replayability, permanent death, and turn-based movement. Most roguelikes feature ASCII graphics, with newer ones increasingly offering tile-based graphics. Games are typically dungeon crawls, with many...
s".
Personal computers
One of the earliest computer role-playing game (CRPG) on a microcomputerMicrocomputer
A microcomputer is a computer with a microprocessor as its central processing unit. They are physically small compared to mainframe and minicomputers...
was Dungeon n Dragons, written by Peter Trefonas and published by CLOAD
CLOAD
CLOAD was a magazine on cassette for the TRS-80 Model I computer, and was a forerunner of the later concept of disk magazines. It began publishing in March, 1978, by founding publisher Ralph McElroy and editor Dick Fuller. Its name was from the command used in TRS-80 BASIC to load a program from...
(1980). This early game, published for a TRS-80
TRS-80
TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation's desktop microcomputer model line, sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The first units, ordered unseen, were delivered in November 1977, and rolled out to the stores the third week of December. The line won popularity with...
Model 1, was just 16K long and included a limited word parser command line, character generation, a store to purchase equipment, combat, traps to solve, and a dungeon to explore. Other contemporaneous CRPG's were Temple of Apshai
Temple of Apshai
The Temple of Apshai is a computer role-playing game from Epyx. The game was first released for the TRS-80 in 1979, then the Apple II and Atari home computers in 1980. In 1983, it was released for the Commodore VIC-20, Commodore 64, and IBM PC compatibles. Even later it was made available with...
and Akalabeth: World of Doom, the precursor to Ultima. Some early microcomputer RPGs (such as Telengard
Telengard
Telengard is a computer-based video game that provides an early example of the dungeon crawl genre. The game, written in 1978 by Daniel Lawrence , was purchased by Avalon Hill in 1982 and made available on multiple computer platforms...
or Sword of Fargoal
Sword of Fargoal
Sword of Fargoal was a computer game written in 1982 by Jeff McCord. The November 1996 anniversary issue of Computer Gaming World listed Sword of Fargoal as #147 on the "Top 150 Best Video Games of All Time."-History:...
) were based on their mainframe counterparts, while others (such as Ultima or Wizardry
Wizardry
Wizardry is a series of computer role-playing games, developed by Sir-Tech, which were highly influential in the development of modern console and computer role playing games. The original Wizardry was a significant influence to early console RPGs, such as Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. ...
, the most successful of the early CRPGs) were direct adaptations of D&D. They also included both first-person displays and overhead views, sometimes in the same game (Akalabeth, for example, used both perspectives). Most of the key features of RPGs were developed in this early period, prior to the release of Ultima III
Ultima III
Ultima III: Exodus is the third game in the Ultima series. Exodus is also the name of the game's principal antagonist. Released in 1983, it was the first Ultima game published by Origin Systems.-Gameplay:...
, one of the prime influences on both computer and console RPG development. For example, Wizardry featured menu-driven combat, Tunnels of Doom
Tunnels of Doom
Tunnels of Doom is a computer game programmed by Kevin Kenney in 1982 for the TI-99/4A computer system. Tunnels of Doom is consistently listed by TI-99/4A fans as one of the top games available for the system....
featured tactical combat on a special "combat screen", and Dungeons of Daggorath
Dungeons of Daggorath
Dungeons of Daggorath is a 1982 computer game and one of the first computer titles to use a 3D wireframe first-person perspective. It was produced by DynaMicro for the Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer....
featured real-time combat which took place on the main dungeon map.
Starting in 1984 with Questron
Questron
Questron is a fantasy RPG computer game series produced by Strategic Simulations, Inc.-Questron:In Questron the player takes on the role of a young serf who tries to make a name for himself by traveling the realm in order to gain the power and experience necessary to defeat the wicked "Mantor",...
and 50 Mission Crush
50 Mission Crush
50 Mission Crush is a turn-based strategy game published in 1984 by Strategic Simulations, Inc. that simulates the career of the crew of a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber during World War II. The bomber is based out of the RAF Thurleigh base just north of London, and is part of the 8th Air Force...
, SSI
Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Strategic Simulations, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher with over 100 titles to its credit since its founding in 1979. It was especially noted for its numerous wargames, its official computer game adaptations of Dungeons & Dragons, and for the groundbreaking Panzer General...
produced many series of CRPGs. Their 1985 game Phantasie
Phantasie
Phantasie is a fantasy computer role-playing game series designed by Winston Douglas Wood and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. in 1985. It was developed for a variety of systems, including the Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Amiga, Commodore 64 and DOS.With the popularity of the Ultima...
is notable for introducing automapping and in-game scrolls providing hints and background information. They also released Pool of Radiance
Pool of Radiance
Pool of Radiance is a computer role-playing game developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc in 1988. It was the first adaptation of TSR's Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game for home computers. It is the first in a four-part series of D&D computer adventure games...
in 1988, the first of several "Gold Box
Gold Box
Gold Box is the name for a series of computer role-playing games produced by SSI. The company won a license to produce games based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game from TSR, Inc...
" CRPGs based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. These games featured a first-person display for movement, combined with an overhead tactical display for combat. One common feature of RPGs from this era, which Matt Barton calls the "Golden Age" of computer RPGs, is the use of numbered "paragraphs" printed in the manual or adjunct booklets, containing the game's lengthier texts; the player could be directed to read a certain paragraph, instead of being shown the text on screen. The ultimate exemplar of this approach was Sirtech's Star Saga
Star Saga
Star Saga is a series of floppy-based computer games which combine a computerized game arbiter with hefty sections of printed text. Released in an era before the availability of the CD-ROM format, the titles make up for the limited storage available at the time by using print to attempt to tell a...
trilogy (of which only two games were released); the first game contained 888 "textlets" (usually much longer than a single paragraph) spread across 13 booklets, while the second contained 50,000 paragraphs spread across 14 booklets. Most of the games from this era were turn-based, although Dungeon Master and its imitators had real-time combat. Other classic titles from this era include The Bard's Tale, Wasteland, the start of the Might and Magic
Might and Magic
Might and Magic is a series of role-playing video games from New World Computing, which in 1996 became a subsidiary of The 3DO Company...
series and the continuing Ultima series.
Later, in the middle to late 1990s, isometric, sprite-based RPGs became commonplace, with video game publishers Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment
Interplay Entertainment Corporation is an American video game developer and publisher, founded in 1983 as Interplay Productions by Brian Fargo. The company had been a quality developer until they started publishing their own games in 1988, like Neuromancer and Battle Chess. The company was renamed...
and Blizzard North
Blizzard North
Blizzard North was the Bay Area division of Blizzard Entertainment, known for the Diablo series. The studio was originally based in Redwood City, and then moved a short distance away to San Mateo, with Blizzard proper being based in Irvine .-History:Blizzard North was originally an independent...
playing a lead role with such titles as Fallout, the Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate is a computer role-playing game developed by BioWare and released in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a high fantasy campaign setting, using modified Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition rules...
and Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale
Icewind Dale is a computer role-playing game developed for Windows by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Entertainment. Released on June 30, 2000, it takes place in the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms campaign setting, and is based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition...
series, and Diablo
Diablo (video game)
Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on December 31, 1996....
. This era also saw a move toward 3D game engines with such games as Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven
Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven
Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven, commonly abbreviated to Might and Magic VI or simply MM6, is a role-playing video game developed by New World Computing and published by 3DO in 1998...
and The Elder Scrolls I: Arena. TSR, dissatisfied with SSI's later products, such as Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager
Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager
Dark Sun: Wake of the Ravager is a computer role-playing game developed and published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. in 1994 for the MS-DOS operating system. It is the sequel to Dark Sun: Shattered Lands. Wake of the Ravager was initially released in two boxed versions: on floppy disk and on...
and Menzoberranzan
Menzoberranzan
Menzoberranzan, the City of Spiders, is a fictional city-state in the world of the Forgotten Realms, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting. It is located in the Upper Northdark, about two miles below the Surbrin Vale, between the Moonwood and the Frost Hills...
, transferred the AD&D license to several different developers, and eventually gave it to BioWare
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by American company Electronic Arts...
, which used it in Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate
Baldur's Gate is a computer role-playing game developed by BioWare and released in 1998 by Interplay Entertainment. The game takes place in the Forgotten Realms, a high fantasy campaign setting, using modified Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition rules...
(1998) and several later games. By the 2000s, 3D engines had become dominant.
Video game consoles
The earliest RPG on a console was DragonstomperDragonstomper
Dragonstomper is a role-playing video game programmed by Stephen Landrum and published in 1982 by Starpath. It was developed for the Atari 2600 video game system....
on the Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
in 1982. Another early RPG on a console was Bokosuka Wars
Bokosuka Wars
is a 1983 action-strategy role-playing video game developed by Kōji Sumii and released by ASCII for the Sharp X1 computer, followed by ports to the MSX, FM-7, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-8801 and NEC PC-9801 computer platforms, as well as an altered version released for the Nintendo Famicom console and...
, originally released for the Sharp X1
Sharp X1
The X1 is a series of home computer released by Sharp Corporation from 1982 to 1988. It was based on a Z80 CPU.Despite the fact that the Computer Division of Sharp Corporation had released the MZ series, suddenly the Television Division released a new computer series called the X1...
computer in 1983 and later ported to the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
in 1985. The game laid the foundations for the tactical role-playing game
Tactical role-playing game
A tactical role-playing game is a type of video game which incorporates elements of traditional role-playing video games and strategy games. In Japan these games are known as , a designation which might seem peculiar to native English speakers...
genre, or "simulation RPG" genre as it is known in Japan. It was also an early example of a real-time, action role-playing game
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
. In 1986, Chunsoft
Chunsoft
is a Japanese video game developer specializing in console RPGs and visual novels. It was founded by Koichi Nakamura, a video game designer from Enix...
created the NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
title Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest
, published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005,Due to the inconsistent usage by sources since Square Enix obtained the naming rights to Dragon Quest in North America. Dragon Quest has been used by sources to refer to games released solely under the Dragon Warrior titles...
(called Dragon Warrior
Dragon Warrior
Dragon Warrior, known as in Japan, is the first role-playing video game in the Dragon Quest media franchise. It was developed by Chunsoft for the Nintendo Entertainment System and published by Enix in Japan in 1986...
in North America until the eighth game), which is regarded as the template for future console role-playing games released since then.
In 1987, the genre came into its own with the release of several highly influential console RPGs distinguishing themselves from computer RPGs. Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
's Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, released as in Japan and often mistakenly called The Adventures of Link, is an action role-playing video game with platforming elements. The second installment in The Legend of Zelda series, it was developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment...
for the Famicom Disk System was one of the earliest action role-playing game
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
s, combining the action-adventure game
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
framework of its predecessor The Legend of Zelda with the statistical elements of turn-based RPGs. Most RPGs at this time were turn-based. Faxanadu
Faxanadu
is an action role-playing platform-adventure video game for the Nintendo Family Computer and Nintendo Entertainment System . The name was licensed by computer game developer Nihon Falcom and was developed and released in Japan by Hudson Soft in 1987...
was another early action RPG for the NES, released as a side-story to the computer action RPG Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu
Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu
is an action RPG developed by Nihon Falcom in 1985 for the PC-8801, PC-9801, FM-7, MSX and X1 computers. Enhanced remakes were released for the Sega Saturn, PC-9801 and Windows systems...
. Square
Square Co.
was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...
's Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
for the NES introduced side-view battles, with the player characters on the right and the enemies on the left, which soon became the norm for numerous console RPGs. In 1988, Dragon Quest III introduced a character progression system allowing the player to change the party's character classes during the course of the game. Another "major innovation was the introduction of day/night cycles; certain items, characters, and quests are only accessible at certain times of day." In 1989, Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star II
Phantasy Star II is a console role-playing video game developed by Sega AM7 and released for the Sega Mega Drive in Japan in 1989. It was also released for the Mega Drive in Europe and the Genesis in America in 1990...
for the Genesis established many conventions of the genre, including an epic, dramatic, character-driven storyline dealing with serious themes and subject matter, and a strategy-based battle system.
Console RPGs distinguished themselves from computer RPGs to a greater degree in the early 1990s. As console RPGs became more heavily story-based than their computer counterparts, one of the major differences that emerged during this time was in the portrayal of the characters. Console RPGs often featured intricately related characters who had distinctive personalities and traits, with many of them seeming to offer more of the traditional role-playing
Role-playing
Role-playing refers to the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role...
, with players assuming the roles of people who cared about each other, fell in love or even had families. Romance in particular was a theme that was common in most console RPGs at the time but absent from most computer RPGs. During the 1990s, console RPGs had become increasingly dominant, exerting a greater influence on computer RPGs than the other way around. Console RPGs had eclipsed computer RPGs for some time, though computer RPGs began making a comeback towards the end of the decade with interactive choice-filled adventures.
The next major revolution came in the late 1990s, which saw the rise of optical disks in fifth generation
History of video game consoles (fifth generation)
The fifth-generation era refers to the computer and video games, video game consoles, and video game handhelds available at stores...
consoles. The implications for RPGs were enormous—longer, more involved quests, better audio, and full-motion video. This was first clearly demonstrated in 1997 by the phenomenal success of Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...
, which is considered one of the most influential games of all time,. With a record-breaking production budget of around $45 million, the ambitious scope of Final Fantasy VII raised the possibilities for the genre, with its more expansive world to explore, much longer quest, more numerous sidequests, dozens of minigames, and much higher production values. The latter includes innovations such as the use of 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds, battles viewed from multiple different angles rather than a single angle, and for the first time full-motion CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
video seamlessly blended into the gameplay, effectively integrated throughout the game. The game was soon ported to the PC and gained much success there, as did several other originally console RPGs, blurring the line between the console and computer platforms.
Cultural differences
After the success of console role-playing games in Japan, the role-playing genre eventually began being classified into two fairly distinct styles since the early 2000s, Western role-playing games (previously known as computer RPGs) and Japanese role-playing games or JRPGs (previously known as console RPGs), due to stylistic, gameplay and/or cultural reasons; with the latter having become popularized and heavily influenced by early Japanese console games such as Dragon QuestDragon Quest
, published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005,Due to the inconsistent usage by sources since Square Enix obtained the naming rights to Dragon Quest in North America. Dragon Quest has been used by sources to refer to games released solely under the Dragon Warrior titles...
and Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
.
Though sharing fundamental premises, Western RPGs often tend to feature darker graphics, older characters, and focus more on roaming freedom
Open world
An open world is a type of video game level design where a player can roam freely through a virtual world and is given considerable freedom in choosing how to approach objectives...
and realism; whereas Eastern RPGs often tend to feature brighter, anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
-like graphics, younger characters, and focus more on scripted linear storylines. Japanese RPGs today are also more likely to feature turn-based battles; while Western RPGs today are more likely to feature real-time combat. In the past, the reverse was often true: real-time action role-playing game
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
s were far more common among Japanese console RPGs than Western computer RPGs up until the late 1990s, due to gamepad
Gamepad
A gamepad , is a type of game controller held in two hands, where the digits are used to provide input. Gamepads generally feature a set of action buttons handled with the right thumb and a direction controller handled with the left...
s usually being better suited to real-time action than the keyboard and mouse. There are also a number of exceptions today, such as Final Fantasy XII
Final Fantasy XII
is a console role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2. Released in 2006, it is the twelfth title in the Final Fantasy series and the last in the series to be released exclusively on the PlayStation platform...
(2006) and Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner
Devil Summoner
is a Japanese console role-playing game originally released for the Sega Saturn in 1995, and later re-released in a slightly-enhanced port for the PlayStation Portable in 2005. The game was never released in North America, though at one time a release of the Sega Saturn version was planned and...
(1995 onwards), which feature real-time combat; and The Temple of Elemental Evil (2003), which features turn-based combat.
JRPGs often tend to feature tightly orchestrated, linear narratives that emphasize intricate plots and the development of player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
s within the story, but often lack the option to create or choose one's own playable characters or make decisions that affect the plot. This often gives an impression that JRPGs are similar to adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s. In contrast, Western RPGs often tend to focus more on open-ended, non-linear gameplay and extensive dialogue systems (from keywords to dialogue tree systems), and traditionally gave comparatively less emphasis to tightly structured narratives, plot development, or character relationships; they are also more likely to allow one to create and customize characters from scratch. One reason given for this difference is that many early Japanese console RPGs can be seen as forms of interactive manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
(Japanese comics) or anime wrapped around Western rule systems at the time. As a result, Japanese console RPGs differentiated themselves with a stronger focus on scripted narratives and character drama, alongside streamlined gameplay. In recent years, these trends have in turn been adopted by Western RPGs, which have begun moving more towards tightly structured narratives, in addition to moving away from "numbers and rules" in favour of streamlined combat systems similar to action games. In addition, a large number of Western independent games
Independent video game development
Independent video game development is the process of creating video games without the financial support of a video game publisher. While large firms can create independent games, they are usually designed by an individual or a small team of as many as ten people, depending on the complexity of the...
are modelled after Japanese RPGs, especially those of the 16-bit era
History of video game consoles (fourth generation)
In the history of computer and video games, the fourth generation began on October 30, 1987 with the Japanese release of Nippon Electric Company's PC Engine...
, partly due to the RPG Maker game development tool
Game development tool
A game development tool is a specialized software application that assists or facilitates the making of a computer or video game. Some tasks handled by tools include the conversion of assets into formats required by the game, level editing and script compilation.Almost all game development tools...
s.
Another oft-cited difference is the prominence or absence of kawaisa
Cuteness in Japanese culture
Since the 1970s, cuteness, in Japanese the noun , has become a prominent aspect of Japanese popular culture, entertainment, clothing, food, toys, personal appearance, behavior, and mannerisms...
, or "cuteness", in Japanese culture, and different approaches with respect to character aesthetics. Western RPGs tend to maintain a serious and gritty tone, with predominantly male protagonists exhibiting overtly masculine physical features and mannerisms. JRPG protagonsists tend to be designed with an emphasis on aesthetic beauty, and even male characters are often androgynous or bishōnen
Bishonen
is a Japanese term literally meaning "beautiful youth ". The equivalent English concept is a "pretty boy".The term describes an aesthetic that can be found in disparate areas in East Asia: a young man whose beauty transcends the boundary of gender or sexual orientation...
in appearance. JRPGs often have cute (and even comic-relief type) characters or animals, juxtaposed (or clashing) with more mature themes and situations; and many modern JRPGs feature characters designed in the same style as those in anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
. The stylistic differences are often due to differing target audiences: Western RPGs are usually geared primarily towards teenage to adult males, whereas Japanese RPGs are usually intended for a much larger demographic, including female audiences.
Controversy
Within the RPG community, some have criticized action JRPGs for not being "true" RPGs due to heavy usage of scripted cut scenes and dialogue, and due to many of them having a lack of branching outcomes.[Turner] Likewise, some have criticized recent Western RPGs for "becoming less RPG-like and more [like] true action gameAction game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
s" due to the "removal of numbers and rules" that make "the genre an RPG." Japanese RPGs are also sometimes criticized for having relatively simple battle systems in which players are able to win by repetitively mashing buttons,[Turner] though it has been pointed out that Japanese RPG combat systems such as in Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy X
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square as the tenth title in the Final Fantasy series. It was released in 2001 for Sony's PlayStation 2, and will be re-released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita in 2012...
and Xenosaga
Xenosaga
is a series of science fiction video games developed by Monolith Soft and published by Namco Bandai. Xenosaga's main story is in the form of a trilogy of PlayStation 2 video games. There have been three spin-off games and an anime adaptation. The Xenosaga series serves as a spiritual successor to...
have become increasingly complex over the years, with more of an emphasis on strategy and timing, and with each new game often introducing their own rules and systems.[Nutt] In contrast, Western RPGs' greater control over the development and customization of playable characters has, according to some, come at the expense of plot and gameplay, resulting in generic dialogue, lack of character development within the narrative, and poor battle systems.[Nutt] Lastly, it has been argued that Western RPGs tend to focus more on the underlying rules governing the battle system rather than on the experience itself, and that Western RPGs as a whole are generally not as finely tuned and polished as their Japanese counterparts.[Nutt]
As a result, Japanese-style role-playing games are held in disdain by some Western gamers, leading to the term "JRPG" being held in the pejorative. Likewise, it is not uncommon for Western RPGs to be called "crap games" by Japanese players, where the vast majority of console role-playing games originate, and where Western RPGs remain largely unknown. Further, there is a belief among some—particularly in the West—that Japanese RPGs are stagnating or declining in both quality and popularity, including remarks by BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk
Greg Zeschuk
Dr. Gregory P. Zeschuk is a VP and Group Creative Officer at BioWare Corp. and Electronic Arts. He co-founded BioWare in 1995 with BioWare’s other co-founder and Group GM/CEO, Dr...
and writing director Daniel Erickson that JRPGs are stagnating—and that Final Fantasy XIII
Final Fantasy XIII
is a console role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Released in 2009 in Japan and 2010 in North America and PAL regions, it is the thirteenth major installment in the Final Fantasy series...
is not even really an RPG; criticisms regarding seemingly nebulous justifications by some Japanese designers for newly changed (or, alternately, newly un-changed) features of recent titles; calls among some gaming journalists to "fix" JRPGs' problems; as well as claims that some recent titles such as Front Mission Evolved
Front Mission Evolved
is a third-person shooter video game developed by Double Helix Games and published by Square Enix Co., Ltd. and was released in Japan on September 16, 2010, September 28, 2010 in North America, and October 8, 2010 in Europe. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
are beginning to attempt—and failing to—imitate Western titles. Finally, one recent advertisement by Obsidian Entertainment in Japan openly mocked Japanese RPGs' traditional characteristics in favor of their own Western title, Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas is a first person action role-playing video game in the Fallout series developed by Obsidian Entertainment, and published by Bethesda Softworks. The game is based in a post-apocalyptic environment in and around Las Vegas, Nevada...
.
This has produced responses such as ones by Japanese video game developer
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
s, Shinji Mikami
Shinji Mikami
is a Japanese video game designer best known for creating the seminal survival horror series Resident Evil. He also contributed to some of Capcom's most popular post-32-bit era franchises, including Viewtiful Joe, Devil May Cry, and Ace Attorney, where he served as an executive producer...
and Yuji Horii
Yuji Horii
is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the Dragon Quest series of console role-playing games, as well as the visual novel adventure game Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken.-History:Dragon Quest is recognized as the first role-playing game to posit the idea...
, to the effect that JRPGs were never popular in the West to begin with, and that Western reviewers are biased against turn-based systems; as well as "overly agitated responses" from among members of the sizable Japanese Internet discussion forum, 2channel
2channel
is a Japanese textboard. In 2007 there were 2.5 million posts made every day. Launched in 1999, it has gained significant influence in Japanese society, comparable to that of traditional mass media such as television, radio, and magazines. As of 2008, the site generates revenue upwards of ¥100...
. The developer Motomu Toriyama
Motomu Toriyama
is a Japanese game director and scenario writer who has been working for Square Enix since 1995. He is the director in charge of the main series Final Fantasy games developed by their 1st Production Department, which is managed by Yoshinori Kitase....
also criticized Western RPGs, stating that they "dump you in a big open world, and let you do whatever you like [which makes it] difficult to tell a compelling story." In response to criticisms, reviewer Tom Battey of Edge Magazine noted that the cited problems are not limited to Japanese RPGs, but also apply to many Western RPGs as well as games outside of the RPG genre. Jeff Fleming of Gamasutra
Gamasutra
Gamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...
has pointed out that, while Japanese RPGs on home consoles are generally showing signs of staleness (though with exceptions such as the Megami Tensei
Megami Tensei
, commonly abbreviated as , is a Japanese console role-playing game metaseries which was originally based on the novel series Digital Devil Story by Aya Nishitani and has gone to become one of the major franchises of the genre in its native country...
series and Demon's Souls
Demon's Souls
is an action role-playing game video game developed primarily by From Software exclusively for the PlayStation 3. It was released in Japan on February 5, 2009 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment...
), this has not been the case for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
handheld
Handheld game console
A handheld game console is a lightweight, portable electronic device with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are run on machines of small size allowing people to carry them and play them at any time or place...
, which has had a wave of original and experimental Japanese RPGs released in recent years. Finally, in an interview held at the American Electronic Entertainment Expo, Japanese video game developer Tetsuya Nomura
Tetsuya Nomura
is a Japanese video game director and character designer working for Square Enix , best known for his work on both the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series.-Time before Square:Nomura was born in Kōchi, Japan...
emphasized that role-playing games should not be classified by country-of-origin, but rather described simply for what they are: RPGs. And despite criticisms, Japanese RPGs have continued to maintain a large fanbase, and remain a popular source of inspiration for independent developers worldwide.
Finally, the largely secular nature of Japanese culture results in heavy usage of themes, symbols, and characters taken from a variety of religions, including Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and Japanese Shinto
Shinto
or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...
. This tends to be problematic when JRPGs are exported to Western countries where the topics of religion and blasphemy remain sensitive, such as the United States. It is not unusual for a JRPG to exhibit elements that would be controversial in the West, such as Xenogears
Xenogears
is a science-fiction console role-playing game developed and published by Square for Sony's PlayStation. It was released on February 11, 1998 in Japan and on October 20, 1998 in North America. The game was never released in PAL territories...
or Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics
is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Sony PlayStation video game console. It is the first game of the Final Fantasy Tactics series and was released in Japan in June 1997 and in the United States in January 1998...
featuring antagonists that bear similarities to the Abrahamic God and the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
, respectively; and Nintendo has made efforts in the past to remove references such as these prior to introducing their games into the North American market.
Relationship to other genres
Unlike action gameAction game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
s, RPGs seldom test a player's physical skill. Combat is typically a tactical challenge rather than a physical one, and games involve other non-action gameplay such as choosing dialog options, inventory management, or buying and selling items.
Although RPGs share some combat rules with wargames
Wargame (video games)
Wargames are a subgenre of strategy video games that emphasize strategic or tactical warfare on a map, as well as historical accuracy.-History:The genre of wargame video games is derived from earlier forms of wargames...
, RPGs are about a small group of individual characters. Wargames tend to have large groups of identical units, as well as non-humanoid units such as tanks and airplanes. Role-playing games do not normally allow the player to produce more units. However, the Heroes of Might and Magic
Heroes of Might and Magic
Heroes of Might and Magic is a series of video games originally created and developed by Jon Van Caneghem through New World Computing. As part of the Might and Magic franchise, the series changed ownership when NWC was acquired by 3DO and again when 3DO closed down and sold the rights to Ubisoft...
series crosses these genres by combining individual heroes with large amounts of troops in large battles.
RPGs rival adventure game
Adventure game
An adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
s in terms of their rich storylines, in contrast to genres that do not rely upon storytelling such as sports game
Sports game
A sports game is a computer or video game that simulates the practice of traditional sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, athletics and extreme sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport , whilst others emphasize strategy and organization...
s or puzzle games. Both genres also feature highly detailed characters, and a great deal of exploration. However, adventure games usually have a well-defined character, whereas while RPGs may do so, many allow the player to design their characters. Adventure games usually focus on one character, whereas RPGs often feature an entire party. RPGs also feature a combat system, which adventure games usually lack. Whereas both adventure games and RPGs may focus on the personal or psychological growth of characters, RPGs tend to emphasize a complex eternal economy where characters are defined by increasing numerical attributes.
Gameplay elements strongly associated with this genre, such as statistical character development, have been widely adapted to other video game genres. For example, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action video game developed by British games developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall...
, an action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
, uses resource statistics (abbreviated as "stats") to define a wide range of attributes including stamina, weapon proficiency, driving, lung capacity, and muscle tone, and uses numerous cutscenes and quests to advance the story. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos
Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos is a real time strategy computer game released by Blizzard Entertainment on July 3, 2002 . It is the second sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, and it is the third game set in the Warcraft Universe...
, a real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
game, features heroes that can complete quests, obtain new equipment, and "learn" new abilities as they advance in level.
According to Satoru Iwata
Satoru Iwata
is the fourth president of Nintendo, succeeding the long-standing previous president of the company, Hiroshi Yamauchi in 2002. He was responsible in great part for defining Nintendo's strategy both before and during the release of its Nintendo GameCube video game console in 2001, a vision which...
, president of Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
, turn-based RPGs have been unfairly criticized as being outdated. According to Yuji Horii
Yuji Horii
is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the Dragon Quest series of console role-playing games, as well as the visual novel adventure game Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken.-History:Dragon Quest is recognized as the first role-playing game to posit the idea...
, creator of the popular Dragon Quest series and Ryutaro Ichimura, producer of Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
, turn-based RPGs allow the player time to make decisions without feeling rushed or worry about real-life distractions. According to Iwata, action-based RPGs can frustrate players if they are unable to keep up with the battles.
Action RPGs
Typically action RPGs feature each player directly controlling a single character in real time, and feature a strong focus on combat and action with plot and character interaction kept to a minimum. Early action RPGs tended to follow the template set by 1980s Nihon Falcom titles such as the Dragon SlayerDragon Slayer
is an early action role-playing game developed and published by Nihon Falcom in 1984 for the NEC PC-88 computer system and ported by Square for the MSX. Designed by Yoshio Kiya, the game gave rise to a series of sequels, nearly all of them created by Falcom, with the exception of Faxanadu by Hudson...
and Ys series, which feature hack and slash
Hack and slash
Hack and slash or hack and slay, abbreviated H&S or HnS, refers to a type of gameplay that emphasizes combat. "Hack and slash" was originally used to describe an aspect of pen-and-paper role-playing games , carrying over from there to MUDs, MMORPGs, and video games in general...
combat where the player character
Player character
A player character or playable character is a character in a video game or role playing game who is controlled or controllable by a player, and is typically a protagonist of the story told in the course of the game. A player character is a persona of the player who controls it. Player characters...
's movements and actions are controlled directly, using a keyboard
Keyboard (computing)
In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...
or game controller
Game controller
A game controller is a device used with games or entertainment systems used to control a playable character or object, or otherwise provide input in a computer game. A controller is typically connected to a game console or computer by means of a wire, cord or nowadays, by means of wireless connection...
, rather than using menus. This formula was refined by the action-adventure game
Action-adventure game
An action-adventure game is a video game that combines elements of the adventure game genre with various action game elements. It is perhaps the broadest and most diverse genre in gaming, and can include many games which might better be categorized under narrow genres...
, The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda, originally released as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Nintendo, and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments...
(1986), which set the template used by many subsequent action RPGs, including innovations such as an open world
Open world
An open world is a type of video game level design where a player can roam freely through a virtual world and is given considerable freedom in choosing how to approach objectives...
, nonlinear gameplay, battery backup saving
Saved game
A saved game is a piece of digitally stored information about the progress of a player in a video game. This saved game can be reloaded later, so the player can continue where he or she had stopped...
, and an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. The game was largely responsible for the surge of action-oriented RPGs released since the late 1980s, both in Japan and North America. The Legend of Zelda series
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda, originally released as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Nintendo, and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments...
would continue to exert an influence on the transition of both console and computer RPGs from stat-heavy, turn-based combat towards real-time action combat in the following decades.
A different variation of the action RPG formula was popularized by Diablo
Diablo (video game)
Diablo is a dark fantasy-themed action role-playing game developed by Blizzard North and released by Blizzard Entertainment on December 31, 1996....
(1996), where the majority of commands—such as moving and attacking—are executed using mouse clicks rather than via menus, though learned spells can also be assigned to hotkeys. In many action RPGs, non-player character
Non-player character
A non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
s serve only one purpose, be it to buy or sell items or upgrade the player's abilities, or issue them with combat-centric quests. Problems players face also often have an action-based solution, such as breaking a wooden door open with an axe rather than finding the key needed to unlock it, though some games place greater emphasis on character attributes such as a "lockpicking" skill and puzzle-solving.
One common challenge in developing action RPGs is including content beyond that of killing enemies. With the sheer number of items, locations and monsters found in many such games, it can be difficult to create the needed depth to offer players a unique experience tailored to his or her beliefs, choices or actions. This is doubly true if a game makes use of randomization, as is common. One notable example of a game which went beyond this is Deus Ex
Deus Ex
Deus Ex is an action role-playing game developed by Ion Storm Inc. and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000, which combines gameplay elements of first-person shooters with those of role-playing video games...
(2000) which offered multiple solutions to problems using intricately layered story options and individually constructed environments. Instead of simply bashing their way through levels, players were challenged to act in character by choosing dialog options appropriately, and by using the surrounding environment intelligently. This produced an experience that was unique and tailored to each situation as opposed to one that repeated itself endlessly.
Action RPGs were far more common on consoles rather than computers, due to gamepad
Gamepad
A gamepad , is a type of game controller held in two hands, where the digits are used to provide input. Gamepads generally feature a set of action buttons handled with the right thumb and a direction controller handled with the left...
s being better suited to real-time action than the keyboard and mouse. Though there had been attempts at creating action-oriented computer RPGs during the late 1980s and early 1990s, often in the vein of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda
The Legend of Zelda, originally released as in Japan, is a video game developed and published by Nintendo, and designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Set in the fantasy land of Hyrule, the plot centers on a boy named Link, the playable protagonist, who aims to collect the eight fragments...
, very few saw any success, with the 1992 game Ultima VII
Ultima VII
Ultima VII: The Black Gate is the seventh installment of the Ultima series of computer role-playing games. It was released in 1992.The Black Gate was critically and commercially successful, being widely lauded as a high point in the series and as one of the best isometric RPGs ever created...
being one of the more successful attempts in North America. On the PC, Diablo
Dungeon Siege
Dungeon Siege is a computer role-playing game developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios. Chris Taylor showed Dungeon Siege years in production for the first time at E3 2000...
(2002), Sacred (2004), Torchlight
Torchlight
Torchlight is an action role-playing game developed by Runic Games and published by Perfect World, released for Windows in October 2009. The fantasy-themed game is set in the fictional town of Torchlight and the expansive caverns and dungeons nearby, which adventurers explore to collect valuable...
(2009), Din's Curse
Din's Curse
Din's Curse is an action role-playing game by independent developer Soldak Entertainment. It was officially released March 31, 2010, for the Windows and Mac OS X platforms. The retail game was published October 3, 2010, by Masque Publishing...
(2011) and Hellgate: London
Hellgate: London
Hellgate: London is a dark fantasy themed action role-playing game originally developed by Flagship Studios, released on October 31, 2007. It was developed by a team headed by former Blizzard Entertainment employees, some of whom had overseen the creation of the Diablo series...
(2007)—the last of which was developed by a team headed by former Blizzard employees, some of whom had participated in the creation of the Diablo series; and like Diablo and Rogue before it, Torchlight, Din
Procedural generation
Procedural generation is a widely used term in the production of media; it refers to content generated algorithmically rather than manually. Often, this means creating content on the fly rather than prior to distribution...
to generate game levels. Lastly, there is debate over whether games like BioWare's Mass Effect (2007) constitute action RPGs as opposed to more traditional RPGs (though the game's sequel pushed more in that direction).
Also included within this sub-genre are role-playing shooters, games which incorporate elements of role-playing games and shooter game
Shooter game
Shooter games are a sub-genre of action game, which often test the player's speed and reaction time. It includes many subgenres that have the commonality of focusing "on the actions of the avatar using some sort of weapon. Usually this weapon is a gun, or some other long-range weapon". A common...
s (including first-person
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
and third-person
Third-person shooter
Third-person shooter is a genre of 3D action games in which the player character is visible on-screen, and the gameplay consists primarily of shooting.-Definition:...
). Recent examples include Borderlands
Borderlands (video game)
Borderlands is a science fiction based first-person shooter with RPG elements that was developed by Gearbox Software for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It was first revealed in the September 2007 issue of Game Informer magazine...
(2009) and The 3rd Birthday
The 3rd Birthday
is an action role-playing game develpoed HexaDrive and published by Square Enix. The game was made for the PlayStation Portable and marks the third entry in the Parasite Eve series...
(2010).
Tactical RPGs
A number of early Western computer role-playing games used a highly tactical form of combat, including parts of the Ultima series, which introduced party-based, tiled combat in Ultima III: Exodus (1983), Ultima III would go on to be ported to many other platforms and influence the development of later titles, as did Japan's Bokosuka WarsBokosuka Wars
is a 1983 action-strategy role-playing video game developed by Kōji Sumii and released by ASCII for the Sharp X1 computer, followed by ports to the MSX, FM-7, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-8801 and NEC PC-9801 computer platforms, as well as an altered version released for the Nintendo Famicom console and...
released that same year. Conventionally, however, the term tactical RPG (known as simulation RPG in Japan) refers to the distinct subgenre that was born in Japan; the early origins of tactical RPGs are difficult to trace from the American side of the Pacific where much of the early RPG genre developed. Tactical RPGs are descendents of traditional strategy game
Strategy game
A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
s, such as chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
, and table-top role-playing and strategic war games
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
, such as Chainmail
Chainmail (game)
Chainmail is a medieval miniatures wargame created by Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren. Gygax developed the game with fellow Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association member Perren, a hobby-shop owner with whom he had become friendly, and the game was first published in 1971...
, which were mainly tactical in their original form. The format of a tactical CRPG is also like a traditional RPG in its appearance, pacing and rule structure.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
but have not enjoyed the same degree of success in North America and elsewhere. However, the audience for Japanese tactical RPGs has grown substantially since the mid-90s, with PS1
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
and PS2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
titles such as Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics
is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Sony PlayStation video game console. It is the first game of the Final Fantasy Tactics series and was released in Japan in June 1997 and in the United States in January 1998...
, Suikoden Tactics
Suikoden Tactics
Suikoden Tactics, originally released in Japan as , is a tactical role-playing video game developed and published by Konami for the PlayStation 2 console as part of their Suikoden series. Initially released in Japan and North American in late 2005, the game was later made available in Europe and...
, Vanguard Bandits
Vanguard Bandits
Vanguard Bandits, known in Japan as , is a tactical role-playing game for the PlayStation. The game was developed by Human Entertainment and originally released in Japan on July 30, 1998...
, and Disgaea
Disgaea
is a video game series of tactical role-playing games created and developed by Nippon Ichi. The series debuted in Japan on January 30, , with Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, later re-released as Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness and Disgaea DS. One of Nippon Ichi's most popular franchises, it has branched...
enjoying a surprising measure of popularity, as well as hand-held war games like Fire Emblem. (Final Fantasy Tactics for the PS1 is often considered the breakthrough title outside of Japan.) Older TRPGs are also being re-released via software emulation
Emulator
In computing, an emulator is hardware or software or both that duplicates the functions of a first computer system in a different second computer system, so that the behavior of the second system closely resembles the behavior of the first system...
—such as on the Wii's
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
Virtual Console
Virtual console
A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...
—and hand-held systems, giving games a new lease on life and exposure to new audiences. Japanese console games such as these are as a result no longer nearly as rare a commodity in North America as they were during the 1990s.
Examples of tactical RPGs for 8-bit and 16-bit Japanese systems include: Bokosuka Wars
Bokosuka Wars
is a 1983 action-strategy role-playing video game developed by Kōji Sumii and released by ASCII for the Sharp X1 computer, followed by ports to the MSX, FM-7, NEC PC-6001, NEC PC-8801 and NEC PC-9801 computer platforms, as well as an altered version released for the Nintendo Famicom console and...
(1983), considered the progenitor of the strategy/simulation RPG genre with its blend of RPG and strategy video game
Strategy video game
Strategy video games is a video game genre that emphasizes skillful thinking and planning to achieve victory. They emphasize strategic, tactical, and sometimes logistical challenges. Many games also offer economic challenges and exploration...
elements, originally a Sharp X1
Sharp X1
The X1 is a series of home computer released by Sharp Corporation from 1982 to 1988. It was based on a Z80 CPU.Despite the fact that the Computer Division of Sharp Corporation had released the MZ series, suddenly the Television Division released a new computer series called the X1...
computer game later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo Entertainment System
The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...
in 1985; Nobunaga's Ambition
Nobunaga's Ambition
is a series of turn-based grand strategy role-playing simulation video games, first released in 1983 by the Japanese video game developer Koei.Games in the franchise have been released on a variety of gaming platforms, including the Nintendo Entertainment System, Nintendo Game Boy, Sega Mega Drive,...
(1983), an early strategy RPG that featured a blend of role-playing, turn-based grand strategy
Grand strategy wargame
A grand strategy wargame is a wargame that places focus on grand strategy: military strategy at the level of movement and use of an entire nation state or empire's resources.-Scope of games:...
and management simulation
Construction and management simulation
Construction and management simulation is a type of simulation game in which players build, expand or manage fictional communities or projects with limited resources. Strategy video games sometimes incorporate CMS aspects into their game economy, as players must manage resources while expanding...
elements, originally an MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
computer game that was later ported to the NES in 1987; Fire Emblem: Ankoku Ryu to Hikari no Tsurugi (1990), released and published by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
for the NES, and generally accepted as the first tactical RPG made for consoles, with a highly tactical turn-based
Turn-based tactics
Turn-based tactics , or tactical turn-based , is a computer and video game genre of strategy video games that through stop-action simulates the considerations and circumstances of operational warfare and military tactics in generally small-scale confrontations as opposed to more strategic...
combat system that resembles those of the later 3rd and 4th editions
Editions of Dungeons & Dragons
Several different editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game have been produced since 1974. The current publisher of Dungeons & Dragons , Wizards of the Coast, produces new materials only for the most current edition of the game...
of Dungeons & Dragons; Master of Monsters
Master of Monsters
Master of Monsters is a turn-based strategy game created by Japanese software developer System Soft for the MSX and NEC PC8801 later ported to a variety of consoles and PCs including the PC Engine, NEC PC9801, Sega Mega Drive , Sega Saturn and PlayStation...
(1991), originally released by SystemSoft for the MSX and PC-8801 and later ported to a variety of other platforms; Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's Shining Force
Shining Force
Shining Force, known as in Japan, and otherwise known as Shining Force: The Legacy of Great Intention, is a 1992 turn-based strategy role-playing video game for the Mega Drive/Genesis console...
(1992) for the Sega Genesis (among the first TRPG played among Western audiences); and Tactics Ogre
Tactics Ogre
is a Japanese tactical role-playing game created by Quest. The game was originally released in 1995 on the Super Famicom in Japan and then re-released on the Sega Saturn in 1996 and the PlayStation in 1997...
(1995), originally released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
and later ported to the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
. Examples for fifth- and sixth-generation consoles consoles include Konami's Vandal Hearts
Vandal Hearts
is a turn-based tactical role-playing video game developed by Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo for the PlayStation and later ported to the Sega Saturn by Konami Computer Entertainment Nagoya. The PlayStation version was distributed in Japan, North America, and Europe. The Saturn version was...
(1996), Square's Final Fantasy Tactics
Final Fantasy Tactics
is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Square for the Sony PlayStation video game console. It is the first game of the Final Fantasy Tactics series and was released in Japan in June 1997 and in the United States in January 1998...
(1997), and Square's Front Mission 3
Front Mission 3
is a tactical role-playing game for the PlayStation developed by and published by Square Co., Ltd., and was released in Japan on September 2, 1999, and later in North America on March 22, 2000, and in Europe on August 11, 2000. Front Mission 3 is the third main entry and the fifth entry overall in...
(1999)—all released for the PlayStation. Even more recent examples include Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
's Valkyria Chronicles
Valkyria Chronicles
is a tactical role-playing game developed and published by Sega for the PlayStation 3. The game was released in 2008.The game is set in Europa, loosely based on Europe in 1935...
(2008), a quasi-turn-based/real-time game for the PlayStation 3.
Western PC games have utilized similar mechanics for years, as well, and were largely defined by X-COM: UFO Defense (1994) in much the same way as Eastern console games were by Fire Emblem. Western titles such as the X-COM
X-COM
X-COM is a series of strategy games created by Julian Gollop. In 2010 2K Marin announced the official reboot of the series, entitled simply XCOM. The original game has a cult following.- Original series :...
series have generally allowed greater freedom of movement when interacting with the surrounding environment. Other notable examples include the Jagged Alliance (1994–2009) and Silent Storm
Silent Storm
Silent Storm is a tactical role-playing game for Microsoft Windows, developed by Russian developer Nival Interactive and published by JoWood in 2003. The game is set in World War II Europe. The player commands a team of up to six elite soldiers on the Axis or Allied side, undertaking a variety of...
(2003–2005) series, with many other titles owing considerably to X-COM
X-COM
X-COM is a series of strategy games created by Julian Gollop. In 2010 2K Marin announced the official reboot of the series, entitled simply XCOM. The original game has a cult following.- Original series :...
and its sequels (1994–1997). Other examples for the PC include: Incubation: Time Is Running Out (1997), part of the Battle Isle
Battle Isle series
Battle Isle is a series of turn-based tactics computer games developed in the 1990s by Blue Byte Software. The settings are wars on a fictional planet, Chromos.-Storyline:...
series, and one of the first strategy
Strategy game
A strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
titles to use fully 3D graphics
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
and support hardware acceleration on the 3dfx Voodoo; Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, better known as simply Fallout Tactics, is a turn-based/real-time tactical role-playing game based in the post-apocalyptic Fallout universe. Developed by Micro Forté and published by 14 Degrees East, Fallout Tactics was released on 14 March 2001 for PC...
(2001) a spin-off
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
of the Fallout series of CRPGs; Irrational Games
Irrational Games
Irrational Games is a video game developer founded in 1997 by three former employees of Looking Glass Studios: Ken Levine, Jonathan Chey, and Robert Fermier as Irrational Games...
' super hero comic games, Freedom Force
Freedom Force (computer game)
Freedom Force is a real-time tactical role-playing game developed by Irrational Games and published by Electronic Arts and Crave Entertainment in 2002. The player guides a team of superheroes as they defend Patriot City from a variety of villains, monsters, and other menaces. A sequel, Freedom...
(2002) and Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich
Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich
Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich is a real-time tactical role-playing game developed and published by Irrational Games. In this sequel to Freedom Force, the player guides a team of superheroes as they travel back in time and help overthrow Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II...
(2005); and Russian developer Apeiron
Apeiron
Apeiron is a Greek word meaning unlimited, infinite or indefinite from ἀ- a-, "without" and πεῖραρ peirar, "end, limit"...
's Brigade E5: New Jagged Union
Brigade E5: New Jagged Union
Brigade E5: New Jagged Union is a real-time tactical role-playing game game developed by Russian developer Aperion. It was released in 2005 in Russia, and on 17 October 2006 in North America. It has received poor reviews and has a rating of 41 out of 100 from Metacritic...
(2006) and 7.62 (2008), a real-time tactical series that evokes Jagged Alliance in setting, mechanics and tone. Examples of Western-style tactical RPGs for video game consoles include: Dungeons & Dragons Tactics
Dungeons & Dragons Tactics
Dungeons & Dragons Tactics is a tactical role-playing game released on the PlayStation Portable handheld video game console. It is set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons and uses a strict interpretation of the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 Edition rule set.-Overview:In the campaign storyline, players lead...
(2007) for the PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
, Gladius
Gladius (video game)
The game was rated as one of the "best Xbox games most people never played" by Official Xbox Magazine.-External links:*...
(2003) by LucasArts
LucasArts
LucasArts Entertainment Company, LLC is an American video game developer and publisher. The company was once famous for its innovative line of graphic adventure games, the critical and commercial success of which peaked in the mid 1990s...
, and Rebelstar: Tactical Command
Rebelstar: Tactical Command
Rebelstar: Tactical Command is a Game Boy Advance turn-based tactical video game developed by Codo Technologies in 2005.The game was created by Julian Gollop, who designed the X-COM games...
(2005) by X-COM developers, Julian
Julian Gollop
Julian Gollop is a British designer of strategy video games and founder of the defunct game studios Mythos Games and Codo Technologies.Gollop's career spans over 25 years, during which he has designed games for numerous systems over the years, from the early 8-bit home computers to 32-bit PCs...
and Nick Gollop, for the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
.
Further, there are a number of "full-fledged" CRPGs which could be described as having "tactical" combat. Examples from the classic era of CRPGs include parts of the aforementioned Ultima series; SSI's Wizard's Crown
Wizard's Crown
Wizard's Crown is a 1985 top-down computer role-playing game published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. . It was released for the Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, IBM PC, Apple II and Commodore 64. Its sequel, The Eternal Dagger, was released in 1987....
(1985) and The Eternal Dagger
The Eternal Dagger
The Eternal Dagger is a 1987 top-down computer role-playing game published by Strategic Simulations, Inc. as a sequel to Wizard's Crown, which was released in 1985...
(1987); the Gold Box
Gold Box
Gold Box is the name for a series of computer role-playing games produced by SSI. The company won a license to produce games based on the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game from TSR, Inc...
games of the late '80s and early '90s (many of which were later ported to Japanese video game systems); and Sierra's Betrayal at Krondor
Betrayal at Krondor
Betrayal at Krondor is a DOS-based computer role-playing game developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line in 1993. Betrayal at Krondor takes place largely in Midkemia, the fantasy world developed by Raymond E. Feist in his Riftwar novels...
(1993) and Return to Krondor
Return to Krondor
Return to Krondor is a computer role-playing game set in Raymond Feist's fictional fantasy setting of Midkemia. A sequel to 1993's Betrayal at Krondor, it was released for Windows 95 on the PC in time for the 1998 Christmas season...
(1998) based on Raymond Feist's Midkemia
Midkemia
Midkemia is a fictional world created by a fantasy role-playing group and popularized by Raymond E. Feist where most of the Riftwar books take place...
setting. More recent examples include Troika Games
Troika Games
Troika Games was a video game developer created by the key people behind the first of the critically acclaimed Fallout series of games. The company was focused on role-playing video games between 1998 and 2005, best known for Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura and Vampire: The Masquerade –...
' The Temple of Elemental Evil
The Temple of Elemental Evil (computer game)
The Temple of Elemental Evil is a computer role-playing game by now-defunct Troika Games. It is a re-creation of the classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure of the same name using the 3.5 edition rules. The game was published by Atari, who then held the interactive rights of the Dungeons & Dragons...
(2003), which featured an accurate implementation of the Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons
Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
3.5 edition ruleset; Knights of the Chalice (2009), which implements the D20 Open Game License; and Pyrrhic Tales: Prelude to Darkness (2002). According to some developers, it is becoming increasingly difficult in recent years to develop games of this type for the PC (though several have been developed in Eastern Europe with mixed results); and even Japanese RPG developers are beginning to complain about a supposed bias against turn-based systems. Reasons cited include Western developers' focus on developing real-time and action-oriented games instead.
MMORPGs
Though many of the original RPGs for the PLATO mainframe system in the late 1970s also supported multiple, simultaneous players, the popularity of multiplayer modes in mainstream RPGs did not begin to rise sharply until the early-to-mid 1990s. For instance, Secret of ManaSecret of Mana
Secret of Mana is an action role-playing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System developed and published by Square in 1993. The game was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in 2008, and was ported to Japanese mobile phones in 2009...
(1993), an early action role-playing game
Action role-playing game
Action role-playing games form a loosely defined sub-genre of role-playing video games that incorporate elements of action or action-adventure games, emphasizing real-time action where the player has direct control over characters, instead of turn-based or menu-based combat...
by Square
Square (company)
was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...
, was one of the first commercial RPGs to feature cooperative multiplayer
Cooperative gameplay
Cooperative gameplay is a feature in video games that allows players to work together as teammates. It is distinct from other multiplayer modes, such as competitive multiplayer modes like player versus player or deathmatch...
gameplay, offering two-player and three-player action once the main character had acquired his party members. Later, Diablo (1996) would combine CRPG and action game
Action game
Action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
elements with an Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
multiplayer mode that allowed up to four players to enter the same world and fight monsters, trade items, or fight against each other.
Also during this time period, the MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
genre that had been spawned by MUD1
MUD1
Multi-User Dungeon, or MUD is the first MUD and the oldest virtual world in existence. It was created in 1978 by Roy Trubshaw at Essex University on a DEC PDP-10 in the UK, using the MACRO-10 assembly language...
in 1978 was undergoing a tremendous expansion phase due to the release and spread of LPMud
LPMud
LPMud, abbreviated LP, is a family of MUD server software. Its first instance, the original LPMud game driver, was developed in 1989 by Lars Pensjö...
(1989) and DikuMUD
DikuMUD
DikuMUD is a multiplayer text-based role-playing game, which is a type of MUD. It was written in 1990 and 1991 by Sebastian Hammer, Tom Madsen, Katja Nyboe, Michael Seifert, and Hans Henrik Staerfeldt at DIKU —the department of computer science at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen,...
(1991). Soon, driven by the mainstream adoption of the Internet, these parallel trends merged in the popularization of graphical MUDs, which would soon become known as massively multiplayer online role-playing games or MMORPGs, beginning with games like Meridian 59
Meridian 59
Meridian 59, abbreviated M59, is an online computer role-playing game first published by the now defunct 3DO Company. First launched online in an early form on December 15, 1995 and released commercially on September 27, 1996 with a flat-rate monthly subscription, Meridian 59 is often credited as...
(1995), Ultima Online
Ultima Online
Ultima Online is a graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game , released on September 24, 1997, by Origin Systems. It was instrumental to the development of the genre, and is still running today...
(1997) and EverQuest
EverQuest
EverQuest, often shortened to EQ, is a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that was released on the 16th of March, 1999. The original design is credited to Brad McQuaid, Steve Clover, and Bill Trost...
(1999) and leading to modern phenomena such as Final Fantasy XI
Final Fantasy XI
, also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, is a MMORPG developed and published by Square as part of the Final Fantasy series. It was released in Japan on Sony's PlayStation 2 on May 16, 2002, and was released for Microsoft's Windows-based personal computers in November 2002...
(2003), EVE online
EVE Online
Eve Online is a video game by CCP Games. It is a player-driven, persistent-world MMORPG set in a science fiction space setting. Characters pilot customizable ships through a galaxy of over 7,500 star systems. Most star systems are connected to one or more other star systems by means of stargates...
(2003) and World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
(2004).
Though superficially similar, MMORPGs lend their appeal more to the socializing influences of being online with hundreds or even thousands of other players at a time, and trace their origins more from MUDs than from CRPGs like Ultima and Wizardry. Rather than focusing on the "old school" considerations of memorizing huge numbers of stats and esoterica and battling it out in complex, tactical environments, players instead spend much of their time forming and maintaining guilds and clans
Clan (computer gaming)
In computer and video gaming, a clan or guild is an organised group of players that regularly play together in a particular multiplayer games. These games range from groups of a few friends to 1000-person organizations, with a broad range of structures, goals and members. The lifespan of a clan...
. The distinction between CRPGs and MMORPGs and MUDs can as a result be very sharp, likenable to the difference between "attending a renaissance fair
Renaissance Fair
A Renaissance fair, Renaissance faire, or Renaissance festival is an outdoor weekend gathering, usually held in the United States, open to the public and typically commercial in nature, which emulates a historic period for the amusement of its guests. Some are permanent theme parks, others are...
and reading a good fantasy novel".
Further, MMORPGs have been criticized for diluting the "epic" feeling of single-player RPGs and related media among thousands of concurrent adventurers. Stated simply: every player wants to be "The Hero", slay "The Monster", rescue "The Princess", or obtain "The Magic Sword". But when there are thousands of players all playing the same game, clearly not everyone can be the hero. This problem became obvious to some in the game EverQuest, where groups of players would compete and sometimes harass each other in order to get monsters in the same dungeon to drop valuable items, leading to several undesirable behaviors such as kill stealing
Kill stealing
In online games and especially first-person shooter games, MMORPGs and MUDs, kill stealing is the practice of arranging to get credit for killing an enemy, when it should have clearly been another player's kill. An example is when a player in a first-person shooter whittles an enemy's health down...
, spawn camping, and ninja looting. In response—for instance by Richard Garriott in Tabula Rasa—developers began turning to instance dungeon
Instance dungeon
In massively multiplayer online games, an instance is a special area, typically a dungeon, that generates a new copy of the location for each group, or for certain number of players, that enters the area. Instancing, the general term for the use of this technique, addresses several problems...
s as a means of reducing competition over limited resources, as well as preserving the gaming experience—though this mechanic has its own set of detractors.
Lastly, there exist markets such as Korea and China that, while saturated with MMORPGs, have so far proved relatively unreceptive to single-player RPGs. For instance, Internet-connected personal computers are relatively common in Korea when compared to other regions—particularly in the numerous "PC bang
PC bang
A PC bang is a type of LAN gaming center, where patrons can play multiplayer computer games for a small hourly fee. The typical cost for an hour of play ranges from 500 to 1500 won , but 1000 won per hour is the most common cost in PC bang...
s" scattered around the country where patrons are able to pay to play multiplayer computer games—possibly due to historical bans on Japanese imports, as well as a culture that traditionally sees video games as "frivolous toys" and computers as educational. As a result, some wonder whether the stand-alone, single-player RPG is still viable commercially—especially on the personal computer—when there are competing pressures such as big-name publishers' marketing needs, video game piracy, a change in culture, and the competitive price-point-to-processing-power ratio (at least initially) of modern console systems.
Hybrid genres
Finally, a steadily increasing number of other non-RPG video games have adopted aspects traditionally seen in RPGs, such as experience point systems, equipment management, and choices in dialogue, as developers push to fill the demand for role-playing elements in non-RPGs. The blending of these elements with a number of different game engineGame engine
A game engine is a system designed for the creation and development of video games. There are many game engines that are designed to work on video game consoles and personal computers...
s and gameplay
Gameplay
Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and player's connection with it...
styles have created a myriad of hybrid game categories formed by mixing popular gameplay elements featured in other genres such as first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
s, platformers, and turn-based
Turn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
and real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
games. Examples include first-person shooters such as parts of the Deus Ex (starting in 2000) and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl is a first-person shooter video game by the Ukrainian developer GSC Game World, published in 2007.It features an alternate reality theme, where a second nuclear disaster occurs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Exclusion Zone in the near future and causes...
(starting in 2007) series; real-time strategy games such as SpellForce: The Order of Dawn (2003) and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II is a real-time strategy/tactical role-playing video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ for Microsoft Windows based on the fictional Warhammer 40,000 universe. It is the sequel to the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War video game series...
(2009); puzzle video games such as Castlevania Puzzle (2010) and Puzzle Quest (2007); and turn-based strategy games like the Steel Panthers
Steel Panthers
Steel Panthers is a series of computer wargames, developed and published by several different companies, with various games covering battles from 1930 to 2020. The first game was released in 1995, and the most recent was released in 2006 and is still updated regularly. Players control individual...
(1995–2006) series, which combined tactical military combat with RPG-derived unit advancement. As a group, hybrid games have been both praised and criticized; being referred to by one critic as the "poor man's" RPG for omitting the dialogue choices and story-driven character development of major AAA titles in order to cut costs, and by another critic as "promising" for shedding the tired conventions of more established franchises in an attempt to innovate.
Popularity and notable developers
Notable RPG developers include Don DaglowDon Daglow
Don Daglow is an American computer game and video game designer, programmer and producer. He is best known for designing a series of pioneering simulation games and role-playing games, as well as the first computer baseball game and the first graphical MMORPG, all between 1971 and 1995...
for creating the first computer role-playing game, Dungeon, in 1975; Yuji Horii
Yuji Horii
is a Japanese video game designer and scenario writer best known as the creator of the Dragon Quest series of console role-playing games, as well as the visual novel adventure game Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken.-History:Dragon Quest is recognized as the first role-playing game to posit the idea...
for creating the Dragon Quest series; Hironobu Sakaguchi
Hironobu Sakaguchi
is a Japanese game designer, game director and game producer. He is world famous as the creator of the Final Fantasy series, and has had a long career in gaming with over 100 million units of video games sold worldwide...
for creating the Final Fantasy series; Richard Garriott
Richard Garriott
Richard Allen Garriott is a British-American video game developer and entrepreneur.He is also known as his alter egos Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa...
for creating the Ultima series; and Ray Muzyka
Ray Muzyka
Dr. Ray Muzyka is a Canadian entrepreneur. He is the CEO at BioWare Corp as well as a Senior Vice President and Group General Manager of the BioWare RPG/MMO Group of Electronic Arts at BioWare's parent company Electronic Arts.-Career:Muzyka co-founded BioWare in...
and Greg Zeschuk
Greg Zeschuk
Dr. Gregory P. Zeschuk is a VP and Group Creative Officer at BioWare Corp. and Electronic Arts. He co-founded BioWare in 1995 with BioWare’s other co-founder and Group GM/CEO, Dr...
for founding BioWare
BioWare
BioWare is a Canadian video game developer founded in February 1995 by newly graduated medical doctors Ray Muzyka, Greg Zeschuk, and Augustine Yip. BioWare is currently owned by American company Electronic Arts...
. Ryozo Tsujimoto (Monster Hunter
Monster Hunter
Monster Hunter is an action game for the PlayStation 2. The game was developed and published by Capcom. Monster Hunter was released in North America on September 21, 2004...
series) and Katsura Hashino (Persona
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona, known in Japan as is a series of role-playing video games developed and published by Atlus. The series is a spin-off of the Megami Tensei series which focuses on demon summoners. However, the Persona series centers around groups of teenagers who have the ability to...
series) were also cited as "Japanese Game Developers You Should Know" by 1UP.com
1UP.com
1UP.com is a video game website owned by IGN Entertainment, a division of News Corporation. Previously, the site was owned by Ziff Davis before being sold to UGO Entertainment in 2009....
in 2010.
The best-selling RPG series worldwide is Pokémon, which has sold over 200 million units as of May 2010. The second and third best-selling RPG series worldwide are Square Enix
Square Enix
is a Japanese video game and publishing company best known for its console role-playing game franchises, which include the Final Fantasy series, the Dragon Quest series, and the action-RPG Kingdom Hearts series...
's Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy
is a media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and is developed and owned by Square Enix . The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science-fantasy role-playing video games , but includes motion pictures, anime, printed media, and other merchandise...
and Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest
, published as Dragon Warrior in North America until 2005,Due to the inconsistent usage by sources since Square Enix obtained the naming rights to Dragon Quest in North America. Dragon Quest has been used by sources to refer to games released solely under the Dragon Warrior titles...
series, with over 92 million units and over 50 million units sold as of December 2009 and July 2009, respectively. Pokémon Red, Blue, and Green
Pokémon Red and Blue
Pokémon Red Version and Blue Version, originally released in Japan as , are role-playing games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. They are the first installments to the Pokémon series. They were first released in Japan in 1996 as Red and Green, with Blue being...
alone sold approximately 20.08 million copies (10.23 million in Japan, 9.85 million in US); and all the games in the main Dragon Quest series (as well as many of the spin-off games) have sold over a million copies each, with some games totaling over four million copies.
Among the best-selling PC RPGs overall is World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
with 11.5 million subscribers as of May 2010. Among single player PC RPGs, Diablo II
Diablo II
Diablo II is a dark fantasy/horror-themed hack and slash, with elements of the role playing game and dungeon crawl genres. It was released for Windows and Mac OS in 2000 by Blizzard Entertainment, and was developed by Blizzard North. It is a direct sequel to the 1996 hit PC game, Diablo.Diablo II...
has sold the largest amount, with the most recently cited number being over 4 million copies as of 2001. However, copies of the Diablo: Battle Chest continue to be sold in retail stores, with the compilation appearing on the NPD Group
NPD Group
The NPD Group, Inc. is a leading North American market research company. The NPD Group consistently ranks among the top 25 market research companies in the independent Honomichl Top 50 report, which the media and the research industry acknowledge as a credible source of information on the market...
's top 10 PC games sales list as recently as 2010. Further, Diablo: Battle Chest was the 19th best selling PC game of 2008—a full seven years after the game's initial release; and 11 million users still play Diablo II and StarCraft
StarCraft
StarCraft is a military science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Blizzard Entertainment. The first game of the StarCraft series was released for Microsoft Windows on 31 March 1998. With more than 11 million copies sold worldwide as of February 2009, it is one of the best-selling...
over Battle.net. As a franchise, the Diablo series has sold over 20 million copies.
The Dragon Quest series was awarded with six world records in the 2008 Gamer's Edition
Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition
Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition is a Guinness World Records book dedicated to video games. The first edition was released in February 2008 in association with the video games world records' tracking organization Twin Galaxies. The second edition was released in 2009...
of the Guinness Book of World Records, including "Best Selling Role Playing Game on the Super Famicom", "Fastest Selling Game in Japan", and "First Video Game Series to Inspire a Ballet". Likewise, the Pokémon series received eight records, including "Most Successful RPG Series of All Time", "Game Series With the Most Spin-Off Movies" and "Most Photosensitive Epileptic Seizures Caused by a TV Show". Diablo II was recognized in the 2000 standard edition for being the fastest selling computer game ever sold, with more than 1 million units sold in the first two weeks of availability; though this number has been surpassed several times since. A number of RPGs are also being exhibited in the Barbican Art Gallery's "Game On
Game On (exhibition)
Game On is an exhibition organised and toured by the Barbican Art Gallery. The exhibition displays an historical view of video game development from early arcade games to the present. First featuring at the Barbican Art Gallery in 2002, the exhibition is claimed to have been seen by over 1...
" exhibition (starting in 2002) and the Smithsonian
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...
's "The Art of Video Games
The Art of Video Games
The Art of Video Games is an upcoming exhibition to be displayed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from March 16, 2012 through September 30, 2012. The exhibition is designed to highlight the evolution of art within the video game medium over its forty-year history...
" exhibit (starting in 2012); and video game developers are now finally able to apply for grants from the US National Endowment of the Arts.
According to GameStats and Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, respectively, the highest-rated RPGs of all time are Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VII
is a role-playing video game developed by Square and published by Sony Computer Entertainment as the seventh installment in the Final Fantasy series. It was originally released in 1997 for the Sony PlayStation and was re-released in 1998 for Microsoft Windows-based personal computers and in 2009...
(as of January 2011), with an average GameStats score of 9.4 out of 10, and an average press score of 10.0 out of 10; and the Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
version of Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 2 is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 on January 26, 2010 and for PlayStation 3 on January 18, 2011...
(as of May 2011) with an average metascore of 96 out of 100. According to GameRankings, the four top-rated video game RPGs (as of May 2010) are Mass Effect 2 with an average rating of 95.70% for the Xbox 360 version and 94.24% for the PC version; Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game released by Bethesda Game Studios, and the third major installment in the Fallout series. The game was released in North America, Europe and Australia in October 2008, and in Japan in December 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360...
with an average rating of 95.40% for the PlayStation 3 version; Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1995. Chrono Triggers development team included three designers that Square dubbed the "Dream Team": Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square's Final Fantasy series; Yuji Horii, a...
with an average rating of 95.10%; and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts. It was released for the Xbox on July 15, 2003, for Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2003, and on September 7, 2004 for Mac OS X. The Xbox version is playable on Xbox 360 with its...
with an average rating of 94.18% for the Xbox version. Sales numbers for these five titles are 10 million units sold for Final Fantasy VII as of May 2010; 1.6 million units for Mass Effect 2 as of March 2010, just three months after release; 4.7 million units for Fallout 3 on all three platforms as of November 2008, also only a few months after publication; 3 million units for both the Xbox and PC versions of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic as of November 2004; and more than 2.65 million units for the SNES and PlayStation versions of Chrono Trigger as of March 2003, along with 790,000 copies for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
version as of March 31, 2009. Of these five titles, none were PC-exclusives, three were Western multi-platform titles released for consoles like the Xbox and Xbox 360 within the past decade, and two were Japanese titles released by Square
Square (company)
was a Japanese video game company founded in September 1983 by Masafumi Miyamoto. It merged with Enix in 2003 and became part of Square Enix...
for consoles like the SNES
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
and PlayStation in the 1990s.
Final Fantasy VII also topped GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
's "26 Best RPGs of All Time" list, as well as the GameFAQs
GameFAQs
GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by CBS Interactive. The site has a database of video game information, cheat codes, reviews, game saves,...
"Best Game Ever" audience polls in 2004 and 2005. On IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
's Top 100 Games Of All Time list in 2007, the highest ranking RPG is Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VI
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square , released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a part of the Final Fantasy series. Set in a fantasy world with a technology level equivalent to that of the Second Industrial Revolution, the game's story focuses on a...
at 9th place; and in both the 2006 and 2008 IGN Readers' Choice polls Chrono Trigger is the top ranked RPG, in 2nd place. Final Fantasy VI is also the top ranked RPG in Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
s list of its 200 best games of all time list, in 8th place; and is also one of the eight games to get a cover for the magazine's 200th issue. The 2006 Famitsu
Famitsu
is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Enterbrain, Inc. and Tokuma. Currently, there are five Famitsū magazines: Shūkan Famitsū, Famitsū PS3 + PSP, Famitsū Xbox 360, Famitsū Wii+DS, and Famitsū Wave DVD...
readers' poll is dominated by RPGs, with nearly a dozen titles appearing in the top twenty; while most were Japanese, a few Western titles also made a showing. For the past decade, the Megami Tensei
Megami Tensei
, commonly abbreviated as , is a Japanese console role-playing game metaseries which was originally based on the novel series Digital Devil Story by Aya Nishitani and has gone to become one of the major franchises of the genre in its native country...
series topped several "RPGs of the Decade" lists. RPGFan's "Top 20 RPGs of the Past Decade" list was topped by Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, known in Japan as , is a PlayStation 2 role-playing game developed by Atlus and first released in Japan on July 15, 2004...
& Digital Devil Saga 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2
Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2, known in Japan as , is a direct sequel to the video game Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, directly continuing the story where it left off. The game marks as the final chapter in the series and answers certain questions left from the open-ended prequel...
followed by Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3, while RPGamer
RPGamer
RPGamer is a media and news website dedicated to covering computer and video game RPGs. Its coverage includes North American game news, European game news, Asian game news, gaming industry news, game reviews, game previews, hands-on game impressions, gaming conventions, game merchandise, release...
's "Top RPGs of the Decade" list was topped by Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3.
Lastly, in recent years, Western RPGs have consistently been released on consoles such as the Xbox and Xbox 360. However, systems like the Xbox and Xbox 360 have not shown as much market dominance in Eastern markets such as Japan, and only a few Western RPG titles have been localized to Japanese. Further, RPGs are not the dominant genre on the most popular of the current-generation video consoles, the Nintendo Wii, although their presence among handheld systems such as the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
is considerably greater.
External links
- The History of Computer Role-Playing at GamasutraGamasutraGamasutra is a website founded in 1997 for video game developers. It is owned and operated by UBM TechWeb , a division of United Business Media, and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine Game Developer...