NeutralDrow said:
I'm curious. Where would a game with all of those things, but with <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhTWx3iA8hQ>separate, realtime combat (not straight action ala KH), fit?
Tales is action rpg 100%. It's not any less actiony as far as the core elements of reflexes mattering are concerned. Sure, KH is even more action-oriented and about jumping around more and has a more mashy gameplay but they're equally reliant on you moving the guys around and mashing X to attack and whatnot.
blastinburn said:
I'm sorry but RPG is originally from Role Playing Game, as in table top role playing. The defining trait of table top role playing was the playing and developing of your character's role from scratch. While I love JRPGs now, both turn based and non, the only remnant of RPG is the level up system, which is very linear. The games feature pre-made character as you play through their story, there is no role-playing. Don't get me wrong, I love this system and everything JRPGs have to offer, they just aren't RPGs (anymore at least). I understand if you want to call them RPGs because that's what you grew up with, but understand that it puts you on par with the people who refused to believe the world was round.
As far as videogames are concerned that's not the case.
When I learned of RPGs I had no awareness of DnD stuff, my only exposure to such a thing was Hero Quest and that was thought of as a board game. I grew up in Greece where they don't have words for such a thing so as I came to know the world of games even hero quest was a board game.
So even though the root of the word is that, the experience I had with what was called rpgs was what I describe above, thus this is what I call them.
As for playing a role, I think they do allow for that, they just do it in a different way. You may have fewer choices and decisions but you DO get to experience being someone else through the game. I believe that this type of expertly planned experience is FAR superior to that provided by any DM in a PnP rpg or the one anyone has playing things like skyrim. True, more people will end up not liking it as well since it is well-defined and nothing is liked by everyone but for me I feel more immersed into the world and more invested in the characters of rpgs than I do in those of any other game. I feel the world is more alive when it is actually doing it's own thing and doesn't expect me to define it, since if it gives me the power of godhood I can instantly tell that everything was just made up, by me, right now, so it's not any more real than playing pretend. A pre-made character already exists, I just get to experience playing his role for the duration of the game.
This is true even in games like persona, I could never put any other name for the main character other than the official one he had or the one in the manga in the case of P4 where there was no official name (in 2009) since it felt "wrong" otherwise.
You may say in the end it allows for more and better fantasy and you can do everything in a PnP game...but the one thing I could never find myself doing is suspend my disbelief long enough to ENJOY it. With RPG games you don't see the 1s and 0s so you're not constantly reminded that it's fake. Unlike Wrpgs you don't see your friend play the same game but with a character of a different species than yours who is evil and has a big axe while your guy is a wizard. These things all serve to remove the authenticity of the experience from my rpging. It makes all my choices utterly meaningless since they could be reversed equally as much and the world wouldn't give a damn, it wouldn't matter, you could still play the game equally as well.
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