So, I’ve played a lot of rpgs in my life, western, japanese, Crpg’s, tactical rpgs….etc it seemed like for a long time if it wasn’t turn based it just wasn’t an rpg. Now it’s like every game is rpg-lite, even god of war could really be considered an RPG if you wanted.
Now witcher 3, great game, epic sprawling adventure. But what really makes it an RPG? You have a set character, mostly a set story with some choices here and there, (the big choices don’t come until the last 5 hours of the game), you get your magic, your melee, your gear…etc almost the same as Horizon. Both games almost follow the same gameplay loop. Main quest, side quest, hunts, level up, gear up, rinse and repeat.
I bring this up because i saw a post of Parris xbox games refer to it as an rpg and people lose their minds.
It’s almost the same level of stat customization between games. I almost feel like the fact that horizon has better combat and enemies than the witcher is what keeps people from wanting to call it an rpg. I also never hear anyone say, “witcher isn’t really an rpg is an action rpg or adventure game with lite rpg mechanics”, like they do the former.
Assassins Creed Valhalla won best RPG at PCGamer in 2020. Is that an rpg?