Why Zelda is not an RPG

2009-10-28T08:41:21-07:00

Over the past 15 years or so, the gaming industry has seen the decline of platforming games and the rise of RPGs and FPS games. Some gamers who grew up during this rise of the RPG genre began to identify themselves as "role playing gamers" as a quick way of summing up their taste in video games. This has sadly led to many people tacking the RPG genre onto any game that vaguely resembles an RPG. Such victims include Metroid, Castlevania, and -- you guessed it -- the Legend of Zelda series.

I've been the audience and a performer in many arguments regarding the attribution of role-playing to non-RPGs. Specifically with the Zelda games. Before anyone fires away at me and mentions Zelda II: The Adventure of Link: yes, I am aware that Zelda 2 is indeed an RPG. It's a pretty good one if you like challenge and action, too. With that out of the way, let's begin with a logical starting point: the definition of RPG...

You call that an RPG? Where are the pencils and paper?

Ah, yes. Anyone who grew up in the 70s probably recalls Dungeons and Dragons, one of the first true RPGs; and it took the definition literally. You created a character and fleshed out their backstory, personality, class, and statistics. Then you proceeded to go on quests with your fellow tabletop gamers with one goal in mind: play the role of your character as well as you could and avoid death. Purists will tell you that every video game that's dubbed an RPG is a misnomer. To a degree, they're right! Tabletop style RPGs were the first, so logically they created the definition.

However, language has a way of evolving. As the popularity of tabletop RPGs waned in favor of video games, so too did the definition of RPG. In video game form, RPGs lost the connection between player and character. The statistics systems translated very well, however, and hundreds of different systems, now dubbed "battle systems", came into the picture. They became the "hook" that got you into an RPG and kept you there. The storylines, while not very dynamic, also served as a means to keep the player interested.

Today, the RPG genre has branched out into many different styles. Strategy RPG, Japanese-styled RPG, Western RPG, MMORPG, and Action RPG are the primary styles. All of them offer wildly different types of gameplay, but have some core traits in common that set them apart from other genres.

A quick note before I begin: if we take "role playing" too literally, we find ourselves labeling everything an RPG. I've heard people argue the case "In Halo, you're playing the role of Master Chief so it has to be an RPG!" Let's not stoop to such ignorance.

Enough of the history lesson, pops...

Genres, as a general rule, exist to categorize things. In movies we see drama, comedy, action, chick-flick, "indie"-style, etc. In music we see rap, hip-hop, country, metal, classical, chiptune, and myriad other labels. So naturally, we will see a natural division of video game types: a few of the big-players include Action, Adventure, Shooter, Fighting, RPG, Simulation, Puzzle, and Sports. Just like with genres in other media, there is further categorization, as witnessed a few paragraphs ago with RPGs. Among all of this separation, however, is the intrinsic knowledge that everything is similar and grouped together (how Taoist of me :P). What this means with our definition of RPG is that we need to make a set of criteria that sets RPGs apart from other genres while still including a wide variety of games that are considered RPGs such as Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy, Elder Scrolls, Kingdom Hearts, World of Warcraft, etc.

Okay, what makes an RPG?

I managed to sum it up in one sentence: RPGs are games that have a (very) strong focus on visible, buildable statistics, and use battle as the primary means of stat building. Think about it for a moment and you'll agree. Take your favorite RPG and analyze the way it plays. Are there levels? Skills? Are there ratings on your skill mastery? How do you become stronger? Can you see the stats? Which has more influence over beating the enemy; stats or player skill? Do you control more than one character? The list of questions could go on for quite a while... The more you end up answering "yes" or "stats", the closer the game is to an RPG.

So what about Zelda?

I'll sum this up with a list of answers to typical questions you might ask yourself about Zelda's status as an RPG:

There are no (visible) stats; everything is represented as ammo, hearts, and a magic meter.
There are no experience points; fighting more monsters does not make you stronger.
There are skills (in some of them), but they do not improve with use.
The games can be beaten without upgrading anything; player skill trumps raw numbers (hearts, ammo, etc)
You only control one character at a time.
Status improvements (such as the Blue and Red Rings, Iron Boots, etc) are acquired through storyline, puzzles, or quests instead of battle.
There are no random equipment drops (only hearts, rupees, ammo, and in later installments, bottle-ables).

Given these 7 answers to common questions, we can safely say that while the Zelda games do have a few features commonly attributed to RPGs (NPC interaction, quests, a fantasy setting), it does not fit into the definition because its gameplay is too different. Zelda is an Action/Adventure game series, while Zelda 2 is Action/RPG.

Z Space Blog - Genres

Why Zelda is not an RPG

You call that an RPG? Where are the pencils and paper?

Enough of the history lesson, pops...

Okay, what makes an RPG?

So what about Zelda?