Game Genres - Help List & Categorize

[Jade]

I'd say Secret of Mana is action-rpg and Brave Fencer Musashi is adventure. Of course, that's certainly debateable

I don't actually acknowledge the term action adventure. To me ALL adventure games have at least some combat so the action part isn't necessary.

I'm surprised you say that Musashi is less RPG than Mana. About ALL adventure games having combat. From a console only POV that is largely the case but if you consider PC games too then that's where the non-combat adventure comes in.

[Gamerforlife]

I'd say Secret of Mana is action-rpg and Brave Fencer Musashi is adventure. Of course, that's certainly debateable

I don't actually acknowledge the term action adventure. To me ALL adventure games have at least some combat so the action part isn't necessary.

I'm surprised you say that Musashi is less RPG than Mana. About ALL adventure games having combat. From a console only POV that is largely the case but if you consider PC games too then that's where the non-combat adventure comes in.

I guess I'm thinking along the lines of how the game's are laid out. I've only played each of them in small doses though, so take this with a grain of salt. However, I remember Musashi being Zelda-ish(adventure game) while Mana had some more traditional rpg elements, but with a not so traditional, more action oriented combat system(action rpg)

So I categorized them the way I did based on how I view action rpgs and adventure games. It's all opinion I guess.

[NebachadnezzaR]

As for Resdient Evil 4. It's not a third person action game. That's something like Devil May Cry or the Xbox Ninja Gaiden. It's closer to a third person shooter, but it isn't because most enemies don't shoot at you and you can't strafe. The fact that you can die VERY quickly at many points of the game from surprise enemy encounters or through the Dragon's Lair inspired moments makes RE 4 still very much a survival horror game.

Of course, RE 4 is more generous with ammo than most survival horror games, which makes it something completely different. "Action" Horror, silly as it sounds may be an accurate description. A sub-genre of survival horror I guess. This might be the most accurate description of games like Eternal Darkness and Dino Crisis 2 as well since they give you more offensive options than a survival horror game should

Man, classifying genres is hard

For me both Resident Evil 4 and Dino Crisis 2 are just action-games, nothing more, nothing less. People just like to call them survival-horror, or "action" horror, because they are sequels to well-known survival-horror games. I bet that if RE4 had another name, one that had nothing to do with Resident Evil or any other survival-horror game, no one would talk about its so-called "horror" aspects.

Come on, I was more afraid of the last boss in Gears of War (it's a really though one, makes you feel really tiny) than of all the bosses of RE4 put together.

It's the same thing with fantasy settings and RPGs. Just because a game has a fantasy setting everyone calls it an RPG, even if it is a pure action game like Demon Stone or an FPS-esque game like Dark Messiah...

[Gamerforlife]

As for Resdient Evil 4. It's not a third person action game. That's something like Devil May Cry or the Xbox Ninja Gaiden. It's closer to a third person shooter, but it isn't because most enemies don't shoot at you and you can't strafe. The fact that you can die VERY quickly at many points of the game from surprise enemy encounters or through the Dragon's Lair inspired moments makes RE 4 still very much a survival horror game.

Of course, RE 4 is more generous with ammo than most survival horror games, which makes it something completely different. "Action" Horror, silly as it sounds may be an accurate description. A sub-genre of survival horror I guess. This might be the most accurate description of games like Eternal Darkness and Dino Crisis 2 as well since they give you more offensive options than a survival horror game should

Man, classifying genres is hard

For me both Resident Evil 4 and Dino Crisis 2 are just action-games, nothing more, nothing less. People just like to call them survival-horror, or "action" horror, because they are sequels to well-known survival-horror games. I bet that if RE4 had another name, one that had nothing to do with Resident Evil or any other survival-horror game, no one would talk about its so-called "horror" aspects.

Come on, I was more afraid of the last boss in Gears of War (it's a really though one, makes you feel really tiny) than of all the bosses of RE4 put together.

It's the same thing with fantasy settings and RPGs. Just because a game has a fantasy setting everyone calls it an RPG, even if it is a pure action game like Demon Stone or an FPS-esque game like Dark Messiah...

I don't go with settings, just gameplay mechanics. To me the many easy ways you can die in RE 4, plus the fact that Leon has limited capabalities(no strafing)and a somewhat awkward camera view(directly behind the shoulder)which allows enemies and attacks to hit you off screen makes it a survival horror game, though one that is a bit more liberal with the formula than others. There are other survival horror elements too, like the little clues you find lying around everywhere, or the claustrophobic design of many areas where enemies can quickly get close to you, or simply pop up out of nowhere to surprise you.

That's where I differ from a lot of gamers. I don't categorize a game by how it "feels". It doesn't matter whether you think a game is scary or not, if it has survival horror gameplay elements, then it's survival horror. It's as simple as that. I'm very technical about these things. You can't get anywhere when classifying games if you just say, "well, it FEELS like this type of game". You have to look at specific things. I think people are being too general when discussing genres.

[Funk, E]

"Survival Horror" simply means "Monsters Will Come In Through The Windows". Really, that's it.

[Jubal]

Main Genre: Shooters
Sub: Side-scrolling shmup
Sub: Vertical shmup
Sub: Run-N-Gun
Sub: First Person shooter
Sub: Simulation shooter

ok I'm gonna open the "Shooter" can of worms

I find the 'Genre' Shooters ridiculous. any game that has your avatar sending a projectile from it is in the same category. by that logic there should be a genre "punchers" with a subcategory of sword swingers.

it feels as absurd to put Gradius III and Half-Life 2 in the same category.

I think Shmups should be its own genre, FPS should be there own genre... etc each can easily be subdivided further.

wikipedia does an ok job of subdividing shmups into categories
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoot_'em_up

Types

Fixed shooter
Tube shooters
Multidirectional shooter
Scrolling shooters
Rail shooter
Competitive shooters
Run-and-gun

Manic vs. methodical

I think the manic(bullet hell) vs. methodical is an essential part of the defining a shmup

=Jubal=

[racketboy]

Good point!
Not sure why I didn't think of that....

[Gamerforlife]

Shooters seems pretty easy to categorize to me. I do believe that everything should fall under the category "Shooters" because that's what you do in these games, you shoot things. Nobody would call beat'em ups punchers as you said, because there has never been a beat'em up where all you use is your fists. You use your feet, your fists, your entire body(Mike Hagger's jumping body splash), your shoulders(Max's tackle in Streets of Rage 2), different weapons, etc, etc. One thing always remains the same though, you are beating people up. For those games where you are using weapons exclusively(usually of the sharp variety), we have the subgenre, Hack'n Slashers, which does a good job of getting across the idea that these games are a bit more violent in nature as there is no doubt that you are killing each and every enemy you fight. I have a tendency to refer to most hack'n slashers as beat'em ups though

As I see it, all types of shooters are sub categories of the main genre, "Shooters". You have run'n guns like Contra, Metal Slug and Gunstar Heroes which consist of a character ON FOOT moving in a horizontal direction and shooting everything. You have vertical shooters like Radiant Silvergun and Ikaruga, which is just ships(or in some cases people) flying to the top of the screen(vertical motion). You have horizontal shooters like Gradius and Parodius, which is ships(or again people) flying from left to right or vice versa(horizontal motion). You have third person shooters, which are like run'n guns except your character is not restricted to just horizontal movement. You have first person shooters which are the same as third person shooters except you can't see your character since your perspective is from his/her eyes. You have rail shooters which are generally games where your avatar is moving forward into the screen on a fixed path, or sometimes moving towards you, the player(Panzer Dragoon Orta does this). There is a sense of constant FORCED movement through the level. Sort of like horizontal and vertical shooters in that way, but the perspective is different as your path through the level is not horizontal or vertical.

In my eyes manic and methodical are not genres, just styles. A vertical shooter is a vertical shooter regardless of whether it is manic or methodical.

These are the basics, but you have to take into consideration other things. One could easily look at survival horror games like Resident Evil and call them third person shooters, but there are many ways in which they differ from third person shooters, thus putting them into the survival horror category. Probably, the most notable difference being that you so rarely get to actually shoot anything due to the low supplies of ammo in these games. It's more about running, item collecting and puzzle solving

Ugh, tired. Too much typing.

[ott0bot]

Wow this gets complicated. This is the same problem almost all game sites with a database have. I do agree with much of what Gamerforlife wrote about how to categorize.

I was wondering more about the layout and search methods....

For example: If you want to find all of the RPGs on the PS1, but there are too many sub-catagories you end up either getting a bunch unrelated titles or it doesn't even show half of the titles that know were released. Plus some games have so many overlapping genres it's too know where to put it.

My suggestion, make it even more simple. Adding too many sub-categories makes it a too complicated, who cares if it's "survival horror" that does describe the game a bit, but just something Capcom made up to sell the game. You can have that kind of info on the game page. It would be easy to sift through the games if you initial search navigation is simple with small avatar pics of the cover that you can click on game it brings up the page for that game. If you don't have a bunch of advertisements and "news" on the game like Gamespot, 1up or IGN does it should load rather quickly.

Also allowing you to add searches on the Companies that designed or released the games would be nice. For example: Searching for all Treasure desinged games or all releases by Working Designs reguardless of genre or plaform.

You can fight over genre classiflying endlessly. But i think if you make it a little more general it will be easier to find the game, and isn't that the point of a database.

Thats just my 2 cents....well i guess more like 4 cents.