project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html
To those annoying modern anime fans aged 22 and under… take a gander at this.
Thank god for Lord of the Rings The Third Age, Everquest and World of Warcraft.
It’s all true.
192 is ESPECIALLY funny when you’ve played SoA.
Haha… In defense of Skies of Arcadia (which gets mentioned a lot in these kinds of lists), it was actually intentionally done that way. It was meant to be an homage to old school Japanese RPGs 
Which is kind of strange, because now, Skies is considered a bit “old school” in and of itself.
But yeah… most of those cliches piss me off because they appear in every. single. game. And they don’t even attempt to do anything different with them.
That’s because it’s more fun when you predict what’s coming next.
Come on…The Bellena thing is Skies of Arcadia was HILARIOUS when they were all “I can’t believe we fell for that!”.
When it’s done well, sure. All the Greek comedies/tragedies were very similar stories, but were done so to show irony (the audience knew what was going on when the characters didn’t). But, that sort of thing is hard to pull off. Skies was done half tongue-in-cheek, and half seriously, which ended up working very well. Most Japanese RPGs are 90% cliche, and take themselves completely seriously. 
Hehe, both funny and true. Sadly, one of the ideas I had for an RPG a few years ago managed to fall into 4 of those cliches in the first line of the script. Whoops…guess I played too many RPGs back then. I think that’s one of the reasons I like PDS so much: it usually stayed away from most cliches associated with RPGs.
Though…why is this for the 22-and-under modern anime fans? I think this pretty much applies to any RPG player.
Because it also applies to many variations of Japanese animation. Mainly the ones that are popular with high school students and college freshman.
Very true… it doesn’t just apply to Japanese RPGs. Any Japanese anime, manga, or game (non-RPG games as well). It’s frustrating, I tell you. Many writers in the game industry’s idea of “character depth” is having a single tragic moment in a character’s history that completely and utterly defines their character, but only insomuch that it complicates the plot at a critical point, and is resolved about 2/3 of the way through the story, only never to be touched on again.
Made up example: Londaro is a rogue government agent hunting terrorists. He hunts terrorists because terrorists killed his father when he was 6. Now, he dedicates his life to hunting terrorists because terrorists are wrong. He is bitter, narrow-minded, and hates the main character because the main character gets the chicks. But, 2/3 of the way through the game, the main character and Londaro get into a fight or have a big argument after which he realizes that his life has been wasted, and now devotes himself to the main character with a dedication that is borderline homoerotic.
Actually… nevermind. That pretty much describes most characters in videogames in general 
Heck, some of those even apply to Baldur’s Gate! And why, some of those even apply to modern day Hollywood productions.
And as an aside, I refuse to thank LotR: The Third Age as it breaks Tolkien continuity like a bull in a porcelainshop.
Then he discovers his father is alive and well, and now the mastermind behind the terrorist group he has been hunting for the last 10 years.
Blimey! I think we’ve just crafted the storyline to the next big Hollywood blockbuster/million seller game!!!
And ditto on the LOTR: 3rd Age 
LotR was Final Fantsy-lite, which considering Final Fantasy is RPG-lite (or crap…) says something.
It’s strange, though… I have a friend who hates FF with the passion of a 1000 burning nuns, but he has been strangely enthralled by LORT: 3rd Age. Perhaps he enjoys the gameplay, but since there is a lack of insipid, heavy-handed storytelling, he could enjoy it in its (simple) purity?
Bah. I grew bored of it an hour in 
I saw him fight the Balrog, and I knew it was over the moment I saw Gandalf fighting along side his party.
[quote=“Abadd”]It’s strange, though… I have a friend who hates FF with the passion of a 1000 burning nuns, but he has been strangely enthralled by LORT: 3rd Age. Perhaps he enjoys the gameplay, but since there is a lack of insipid, heavy-handed storytelling, he could enjoy it in its (simple) purity?
Bah. I grew bored of it an hour in
I saw him fight the Balrog, and I knew it was over the moment I saw Gandalf fighting along side his party.[/quote]
I think EA could learn the lesson of KOTOR, console RPGs may have killed of old style computer rpgs, but the “neo-computer” RPG is the way forward in the future, some of my favoutie games have been in this “genre”, such as KOTOR, PS: T, BG 1 +2, Deus Ex etc. etc.
A PC mag was recently bold enough to state that the best RPG eperience was on the PC now (can you imag the absurdity of that statement 5 years a go). Just thank Bioware I say,
If there’s one fake genre out there it’s gotta be the RPG one.I don’t even like using the RPG phrase anymore.
Maybe, the RPG genre is used to discribe alot, and its features have been put onto a lot of games. But a pure RPG can be seen a mile away, at least I think it does any way…
Either every game is a RPG or no game is a RPG.
I mean you play the role of someone in almost every game but you can’t really make substancial choices in any game.Choices affecting the core of the game anyways.
[quote=“GehnTheBerserker”]Either every game is a RPG or no game is a RPG.
I mean you play the role of someone in almost every game but you can’t really make substancial choices in any game.Choices affecting the core of the game anyways.[/quote]
True, if you take the role playing literally, but I think its generally taken to mean stle of game, more statistics, tactics and stoyr/charecter driven, so RPG is probaly a misnomer your right.
Actually, technically, puzzle games and such wouldn’t be RPGs
Not to nitpick or anything… 
But yeah, I dislike the use of genre names, anyway. They were applicable once upon a time, but the lines are so blurred now that it doesn’t make sense. Why is Zelda an action-RPG, but Onimusha is an action-adventure game?
Someone once said that Tetris was an RPG because you’re put into the role of a godly figure with the ability to manipulate bricks.