RPGs

      Rocket propelled grenades are... eh. Wrong RPG. Let's start again.

      Role-playing games are exactly what it sounds like: a game in which the player assumes roles. Any game that has the player take on the role of fulfilling a specific duty qualifies it as an RPG. By this logic, all games are RPGs. You're playing a game about a treasure hunter who follows clues around the world to find something that may or may not actually be real? Uncharted has you playing the role of a treasure hunter. Are you taking control of an airplane that moves vertically and horizontally across a horizontally revolving screen? That means you are playing as a pilot in Resogun.

      However, the term RPG generally refers to games that have the player controlling characters of multiple roles. Most of these games happen to take place in a fantasy universe such as Dragon Age or Final Fantasy. The most common roles played involve some basic archetypes such as the Warrior, the Mage, the Archer, or even the Cleric. Many RPGs have branched from these archetypes to make their own character classes, but the base formula is present in all existing RPGs. 

 

      The thing about classes in most RPGs is to see which characters the player feels most suited for. Let's say you are the kind of person who feels like you could take on the world. If someone looks at you funny, you just want to sock them in the face and let them know that you keep your hair messy on purpose! That is the personality of the Warrior. Warriors typically rush into the heat of battle, can take as much damage as they can deal, and are just so intimidating and unstoppable. Or maybe you like to fight from a distance and want to dispatch your enemies without causing too much of a ruckus. Archers are great at that. You like to deal damage from afar and can run away when things get too hectic.

 

      That's the great thing about these kinds of games. Any role you want to try and fulfill, the character classes allow you to do just that. Granted, not every RPG branches far beyond the base four types, but if you play enough, you can find your niche. I personally like the guy who is extremely hard to kill. I do not mind not being able to deal monstrous amounts of damage. I just want to make the enemy focus on me whilst the rest of the team slips on by and completes the objective. That's why I play a Prot Paladin in WoW. Very hard to kill, draws in the animosity of the enemies, lets the damage dealers bring extreme prejudice upon the colossal abominations that are raid bosses, and I feel as if I control the tide of the fight. But hey, if anyone dies, it was that stupid Shaman's fault. 

 

      RPGs usually limit a player to choosing one class and sticking with it. There are several games that allow the changing of roles in the middle of the game. Any strategy game such as Final Fantasy Tactics has characters with numerous class options. The characters themselves may be stuck with one class, but you as the player can control all of these people. Dislike all those Squires? Consider training one of them to be a Knight. If Knight is more to your liking, make all of those Squires into Knights! Maybe even let one be a Monk and see how that works out.

      Another good example is Team Fortress 2. This game has nine total classes categorized by primary role: Assault, Defense, and Support. Scouts, Soldiers, and Pyros are all Offense. Let's say you want to try the Soldier. Big commander looking dude with a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and a shovel for good measure. However, he feels slow to you. You keep dying to everybody. Fortunately, you are not stuck with the Soldier forever. Once you die, you can select a new class to try. You pick the Scout, notice he runs insanely fast, has a double jump, a shotgun, a pistol, and a metal baseball bat! This guy feels more your style. Tired of the Scout? Try the Heavy and see how long it takes for everyone to take you down!

      Roles are the most important aspect of a role-playing game, but another essential to the genre is stats and progressions. Stats (also known as “attributes”) affect the parameters of your character. The higher your stats, the more effective you are. Most common stats include Attack, Defense, Health, Mana, Speed, and Luck. These branch out and get complex in some games such as Dark Souls, but they all stem from these common base stats. Attack governs damage done against an enemy. Defense affects how resistance the player is to damage taken from foes. Health governs how much damage the player can take before they die. Mana is usually an energy source for special attacks. Speed can affect movement speed or attack speed. Luck is the most ambiguous, but it most commonly represents chances of success with critical damage. 

 

      As for progression, this works differently for RPGs. Traditional progression in games is done through levels. In almost every other genre, these levels are literally brand new maps and stages. In RPGs, these levels are given to characters themselves. Players will start at level 1. Sometimes it's higher and sometimes they start at level 0, but level 1 is the most common starting point. As the player gains experience points they gain levels. Experience points (EXP or XP) is frequently acquired by killing enemy monsters. Sometimes experience can be gained through exploring a new area. Once enough XP is gained, the character gains a level. Gaining a level gives stat boosts to all of the character's parameters. 

 

      Some systems get creative such as with Chrono Cross. Chrono Cross has no levels, but there is still stat progression. When a boss is killed, players gain a Growth Star. Players can then kill more monsters to earn more stat gains. As more monsters are killed, the bonuses gained from each fight suffer diminishing returns until no more stat gains are made. This encourages players to grind a little bit after a boss fight, but it also does not punish players who don't bother to grind at all. I think XP might be too focused on monster killing. It should be allowed to branch out into other activities such as exploration or story progression. Which brings me to the most vital aspect of RPGs: the story.

      RPGs have gained a reputation for having excellent stories. Games such as Final Fantasy, Valkyrie Profile, Chrono Trigger, and even Borderlands have well executed storylines. Most are to the point that they are all the game focuses on. Some of these stories are so long they require multiple discs to hold everything! The average playtime invested in an RPG stands at 40 hours. The story will usually take up to 12 of those hours. The rest is side quests, exploration, and grinding. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I think I would make the story a bit longer and have the grinding take up less time.

      There's a lot more to RPGs than I can list here, but hopefully this gives you all some idea of what I think of this genre. It's my favorite genre of all games. It's kind of getting melded into other game genres, so finding a good standalone RPG is hard right now. Hopefully I can make my own RPG someday. Until then, somebody better make a really good one soon!