The Wonderful World of the Role-Playing games

Role-playing game (Game Interpretation of roles, often abbreviated as RPG), is a game of imagination, creativity and strategy, in which players play different characters in different worlds, adventures and overcome challenges.

The first electronic RPG appeared in 1975, in the giant computers PDP-10 and Unix. The first RPG available for PC was Akalabeth (later known as Ultima) and Wizardry for the Apple II.The playable RPG's began in 1982 with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin for the Intellivision. But the genre really began its huge success with the release of Dragon Quest in 1986 (Dragon Warrior in the U.S.), produced by Enix for the NES. This was followed by the PC versions of Wizardry and Ultima III and the release of Final Fantasy in 1987, produced by Square. Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series started two successful franchises, the first on the way to Chapter 13 and more popular in the U.S., and the second on the way to the 9th chapter and more popular in Japan.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Treasure of Tarmin

In 1996, Diablo marked the debut of the multiplayer, where players could cooperate between them. Diablo was later to lead the MMORPG genre (Massively Multiplayer Online RPG), where Ultima Online was the pioneer.

Diablo brought the multiplayer to the RPG genre

An interesting entry in the RPG universe was Pokemon, where our aim is focused on finding hundreds of small creatures, capture them and train them for fighting. In this series the novelty factor is that in addition to terms of capturing the creatures, they will receive the experience points and evolved over the adventure, not our character.

Pokemon

In an RPG the playable characters have attributes characteristic as HP (hit points - health points), MP (magic points) and levels. These attributes are displayed as numbers instead of graphics.

The typical story involves a group of heroes that join forces to fulfill a mission, which usually consists of rescuing a kingdom or save the world, going so many challenges along the way, as enemies and monsters, and they are the vast majority being inspired by the mythological or science fiction.

Today, RPG's are classified in two ways:

Oriental RPG - Generally takes place in a world of fantasy, in a parallel universe. Rare are the references to Western culture. One of the biggest inspirations are the anime (cartoons) and manga (comics). Also common is a mix between fantasy and science fiction, as in Star Ocean, Phantasy Star and Final Fantasy.

The story usually has a very epic tone, with great battles between good and evil. Usually the people who we control have a human form, and we rarely have the possibility to choose the race, and they are rarely Tolkien's style like dwarves and elves.

Chrono Trigger, for many the best Oriental RPG

 

Western RPG - Here the games are more gothic. The characters are more realistic, and the weapons and equipment are based on real objects from the Middle Age.

In terms of characters, they are inspired by Dungeons & Dragons and J. R. R. Tolkien, with dragons, elves, dwarves, etc.. Also the fighting system is based on Dungeons & Dragons. The increase in levels is not as fast as the Oriental RPG's, due to low experience achieved in combat, and some games tend to have only a 6-8 limit.

Baldur's Gate is one of the major references of the Western RPG.

But one of the main characteristics of the RPG's, if not the principal, is its combat system. Today, there are three types of systems that are used more in the genre:

Turn Based RPG - In this kind of RPG reigns the random encounters, or as we moving trought the map from time to time into a kind of scene where your characters and our enemies appears. Here are two different S.tyles:

- Typical game, in which the characters (or our enemy) attack one at a time: Final Fantasy;

- Active Time Battle system, where each character waits a period in a pseudo-real time to attack. Each character has a bar in which to be filled, our character is automatically able to attack. After the attack, the bar is empty again and the cycle is repeated until the end of combat. (Final Fantasy IV introduced the Active Time Battle system).

The Turn Based RPG's has evolved over the years. There are Turn Based RPG's that instead of using the system for random encounters, uses a system in which we see our enemies in the scenario, and only when the enemy hit us, we enter the combat scene.

In Super Mario RPG we just fight if the enemy hit us.

Tactical/Strategy RPG -This type usually have an isometric view of the scenario, and we see it represented our characters and enemies. Unlike other types of RPG's, this will not go to the scenarios for this, we have to wait for our turn to play. The movements are done through as a board game where each player can walk up to square "X", in front, back or sides. The physical attacks may be performed only when our characters are the front / rear / side of the enemies. However, there are characters that still can attack due to long-distance weapons like bows or spears. This type of RPG is very strategic, reminds a bit like a chess game, where we have to play certain pieces and then attack.

In Fire Emblem you will have to think very carefully before attacking.

Action RPG - Unlike the two styles mentioned above, there is no fighting here in shifts, or do not have to wait to attack. Basically we walk in the scenarios by our will and attack any enemy that appears in our way. This is a style that has gained many fans, and which has lately appeared in various RPG's.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles is one of the great examples of an Action RPG.

Despite the different fighting styles, they have some equal characteristics, like HP points (which increases the level), money and sometimes items, after we win the battles. In addition there are the unavoidable boss fights, usually in the dungeons, and the game ends with a "final battle".

Do you think the RPG genre still needs to evolve?Which ones are your favorites,Ocidental or Oriental RPG's? What kind of combat do you like more?

Marco Cecilio, NoobFeed