Zelda isnt an rpg? (Its a dungeon crawler isnt it?)

[garrett123]

so what is zelda?

1.fantasy
2. action
3 platformer
4. its own genre?

if you beleive zelda is an rpg comment below
be sure to mention if you think all zelda games arent rpg, or just some.

Did some research, it sounds like most people call it a type of dungeon crawler, or sub genre of a rouge playing game. so its probally an adventure/dungeon crawler combo if that exists, if anyone thinks My theory is wrong comment below.

Nintendo says its an action/adventure in categories on there official site.

- I edited the poll so you can re-vote, if you think its a dungeon crawler.
and this time you can only select one, and its ends in 18 days.

thanks for voting on the first poll
60% thought zelda was not an rpg
25% though zelda was a large combination of many things

[brunoafh]

Zelda is a god damn tease, is what she is.

[Xeogred]

This thread will self destruct in ten seconds!

[ksloth]

BOOM!

[cookie monster]

In before lock

[Zing]

[cookie monster]

I second that.

[J T]

Zelda has an RPG:

[Cronozilla]

To try to give a serious explanation for a moment :3

At the time of the games invention you could have called it anything. Hell even in the early 90s you could argue it one way or another ... but now there are more firm definitions of what RPG means (through all the games that fall into the same category) and one of the requirements is some sort of skill system. Zelda 2 is the only Zelda game that has anything like this fundamental feature.

It doesn't make sense to classify games as RPG or not based on setting, thematic elements, or even story telling, because RPG refers to a specific set of gameplay rules. You have a character of some sort, they have progression through stats (either individual stats or levels), things like this.

Some reflection:

The only reason why people even associate tolkein fantasy with RPG is because of D&D ... but D&D didn't invent the RPG or strategy game it was based on. The original ones were modern military games (modern for 1950s standards). They took these ideas and formed the modern RPG, which pertains to the individual not the army as a whole and introduces the idea of character progression through stats.

Outside of Zelda 2, link does not have stats of any kind. There are elements in Zelda that are reminiscent of jRPGs because they all emerged around the same time and drew off of each other ... but Zelda is not an RPG

I think Zelda is actually a shining example of action-adventure. I know people try to classify everything as action-adventure, which is also incorrect ... but I think Zelda is what made that mold in video games.

We need to get away from genre classifying games based on how they look or settings and more on what actually differentiate them between players: how they play. We've gotten into the habit of defining genres based on camera angles and things like that, and it doesn't make any sense.

If you want to argue that Zelda is an RPG, because you have health and can gain new health, and get new items which is like leveling up and the whole game is a big quest ... then I could use the same argument to say Metroid is an RPG, which I think most people would agree, it is not.

You simply do not have the personal character progression required in Zelda for it to be considered an RPG. The state of the character is entirely dependent on just where you are in the game, not how you've played.

[Anapan]

It's an "Adventure" game, possibly the defining one. While it has equipment and stats sorta (hp, magic, etc), it is not strictly an RPG IMO.