Why Zelda Still Rules the Action RPG

[robometal cowboy]

Why Zelda Still Rules the Action RPG
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There are a bunch of action RPGs out there, but there's one granddaddy that they pay tribute to, whether they realize it or not. There's a reason why The Legend of Zelda series has lasted so long and continues to be inspiration for developers to this very day.

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[HylianHeroLOZ]

Action Adventure, lets just get that straight right now.

[LegendofSantiago]

Zelda was and is still one of the greatest franchises of all time. I can't wait to see whatnintendo has in store for us next gen

[Shaanyboi]

Hard to rule a genre you're not even a part of... Zelda is not an RPG. I'm not talking from a perspective of there being no stats, or grinding or whatever. But from the perspective that there's very little player agency, atleast within the newer games. There is VERY little that separates one player's experience from another's. I mean Skyward Sword tried adding some more of this, but it was barely meaningful.

That said, I would like them to embrace a more RPG side. Dialogue choices that...y'know... actually matter. The ability to make my Link more capable in one aspect compared to another. Right now, it's as much of an RPG than Assassin's Creed... which also, not an RPG, but simply an action adventure game.

[Battlestriker123]

Uh oh... here's the Zelda RPG thing again.

I think Zelda is an RPG. The only thing Zelda doesn't have that most other RPG's have are EXP points. The original and its sequel were very RPG-like, the the recent Skyward Sword (with its crafting and customization) has kinda returned to that. It's an RPG.

The battle begins!

[bound_for_earthbound]

Zelda hasn't been an action game since the N64 games.

[LegendofSantiago]

@bound_for_earthboundwut?

[bptboy]

Zelda is an action adventure game with rpg elements sprinkled about.


That is what Zelda is.

[IxisNaugus]

Going on a bit of a tangent here, but you'd think there'd be more Zelda-likes than there currently are. I mean, it's a popular enough genre, the audience is there, and competition isn't exactly plentiful. In one of the first few paragraphs the article writer mentions similar games like Darksiders and Okami giving Zelda a run. I feel they should be able to name more than just those two other franchises though. In hindsight it's quite surprising how not many people at all have actually gone and emulated a Zelda game.

Other popular genres, recently first-person shooters, open world RPG's and side-scrolling platformers have ambitious projects coming out what seems to be fairly frequently. Hell even some less popular genre's like fighting games see quite a lot of releases.

I understand a Zelda game, specifically the recent ones, aren't something that's all too easy to just copy/paste. What particular genre it belongs in is forever under question because it incorporates so many mechanics from different genre's. Still though, I wouldn't imagine this would be enough the deter developers. The only upcoming Zelda-like I can think of is Darksiders II. Hmm...

[internet]

1:1 sword fighting , heck even complex fight nowadays is still leagues better than the press a button to win those action (non rpg) game . Seriously i don't even there are games made close to the zelda model anymore , not even sure that was ever a thing . Rpg sure , but let's say last story and monster hunter tri are a bit different than zelda .
zelda might be its own thing , the same way smash bros is .

[motherbra1n]

zelda is just as much of an action rpg as super metroid.

[auragar]

...I hate when people call Zelda and RPG. It is NOT an RPG. Gawd! When will people learn.

[BasementofNerds]

Defining RPG again...let the war begin!

[Hamr]

articles like this demonstrate why 'RPG' is such an annoying, catch-all term. We should call things by their proper genres: Skyrim and Demon's Souls are hack-and-slash. Mass Effect is a third-person shooter. Fallout and Bioshock are first-person shooters. Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, et cetera are turn-based strategy. Starcraft is real-time strategy.

Modern Zeldas are puzzle games with awkward action sequences and tons of filler shoved in.

"There's a 95.3% chance you'll detest the nagging companions"

[NF]

Man, I've been playing RPG's since the original Ultima series back in the early 80's. We also had text and graphical adventure games back then (lots of Aztec type of games, which I miss). Anyhow, the notion of an RPG seems to change with the years. To me, if Metroid is an Action Adventure, then Zelda is an Action RPG. The simple difference is that Zelda is a game that has an established world with people in it which you interact with. Further, there is a built in economy, character building amongst the IP's, and some other basic elements. The game is still somewhat turn-based in that you have so many moves you can make before the enemy makes its move (sometimes you get the first move, sometimes not). You still get to select what you're going to do (use bow, sling, sword, equipment, etc) as well. The difference, however, is that your choices are based on action-related gestures as opposed to selecting a bunch of options each time you want to do something.

If you really think about it, many modern "RPG"'s are all action based in that you can control your character's movements and actions completely with the joypad. In this sense, they can be classified as Action RPG's. Stuff like Final Fantasy would fit this category. A purist who thinks of RPG's as turn-based would have to include movement as a turn (ie: moving up is a turn, moving down is a turn, etc). If movement itself is not considered a turn, then, perhaps, it's not quite the RPG you may think it is. Movement does, after all, have its consequences. Oh, and you don't need spells and all that crap to be an RPG.

I almost forgot, the one thing that may go against zelda as being an RPG is that it's quite linear in story. But then again, many RPG's hid their linearity too.

[ninjablaze]

@Shaanyboi

Well said.

It's not the lack of exp bars and stats, it's the more important idea; that you're actually playing a role in the in game world and that my character won't be the same as and won't make the same decisions as yours that makes an RPG an RPG, imo.

[8bit101]

Zelda = Action Adventure with RPG elements.
That's it. it is NOT an RPG as a whole.

[Vic Vinegar]

Action Adventure

Legend of Zelda series
Batman Arkham series
Darksiders
Beyond Good and Evil

Action RPG

Secret of Mana
Star Ocean
Xenoblade Chronicles

[TheKeeseEffect]

T o be honest, Zelda isn't an RPG, and it's not a Action/Adventure either. Zelda is a mash-up of nearly every genre.

[Entity]

Zelda rules the ruins with passion and pain!

[Cubical]

Secret of mana pwns every zelda game ever made. and it pwns them even more since they started that 3d zelda crap when zelda started to blow hard.

[thorn-rock]

@Cubical

no it doesn't.
it's not the same gere. That's the point you don't get the same feeling from playing Zelda than ANY other action-rpg from the SNES era.

Here's an explanation. Zelda started the whole action rpg trend and was very much inspired by D&D. They created an unprecedented mix between D&D and japanese rpg culture. And they very much creatd a unique style that has never seen any competition since then.

At some point, Square and Enix were like: "hey look at these guys going after the international market. We should do the same". And they tried. But what they did was J-rpg translated in action rpg style. SoMana, Seiken Densetsu 1 (or Mistyc Quest in Europe or FF Adventures me thinks in the US) & 3, SoEvermore (that one was an American game but still made with J-rpg standards in mind, or the Enix trilogy Soul Blazer, Illusion of Time (or Gaia in the US) and Terranigma. They all are awesome games. Absolutely brilliant. But none of them ever captured the feeling of a Zelda game.

Zelda went further than any of those games whent it comes to borrowing things from D&D and another culture's RPGs.There is no equivalent, still nowadays. Maybe Soleil, Alundra and Thor went a little closer, but are still very different.


@NF

Yeah I totally agree.
The whole Zelda is / is not an RPG is getting boring. Some people say RE4 is an action adventure game. Or even the original PoP trilogy on the GC. Or even Metroid as you said. Well if these games are action adventure, then Zelda is an RPG. It has everything an RPG is supposed to have. If Kingdom Hearts for example is called an action RPG, then I don't see how Zelda could not.

People who argue about that are usually: RPG haters who don't want to admit they are playing an RPG because RPGs are for nerdzzzz OR RPG purists who refuse to admit that Nintendo is capable of doing something that awesome in their favorite genre OR another kind of RPG purists who like their RPGs to have numbers and complicated tables and menus and think it's annoying to admit there ARE other ways to make a great RPG and it's not going to ruin how deep the experience can be.

The truth is, it's the term RPG that should not be used anymore, because let's face it there are so many subgenre of that category, and it has been mixed so much with other genre over the years that it doesn't mean anything anymore.

But still, if we are to use this term in our day and age, then I don't see how Zelda could be seen as being anything else than an RPG.

[LegendofSantiago]

@Cubical that's your nostalgia taking. secret of mana kind of sucks

[NeroSuferoth]

Action Aventure... And elda may have started it but personally, Demon's Souls and Dark Souls do it better to me than elda.

[Jirachi]

Name one rpg that doesn't have 2 or more of these things
1.A story that can't be summed up in one sentance
2.Two or more playable characters
3.Voice acting
4.Experience
5.Turn based combat
6.Character Appearence Customization(In fact pokemon is the only modern rpg that doesn't have this)
Zelda doesn't have any of those six elements and every rpg ever made has at least two of these elements,so...