The 26 Best RPGs according to Gamepro

[rocketpig]

Comrade Tovya said:

triplebph said:
"Sorry, but the Zelda series games are RPGs. They are a different form of an RPG, but definitely fit into the category somewhere. The Zelda games are just like Oblivion or Fable, and most people would agree to call them RPGs."

The Zelda games are action adventure games. Oblivion and Fable both have some form of character customization. You don't really have any control over what Link does in the main quest other than trying to find the next item that will allow you to progress to the next part of the game.

 

I agree when it comes to 'character customization', but as for having 'no control over what Link does' that's completely bogus.

Even the old Zelda games on the original NES were almost as much of an RPG as the self declared ones like "Dragon Warrior" (BTW, I think this series should have made the list)

Anyway, starting with a Link to the Past, you had pretty much free reign to do what you wanted to do with Link.  The games don't force you to go from A to Z on a designated path... they start you at A, and give you free reign to decide how and when you get yourself to Z.

Are the RPGs in the traditional sense?  No, of course not.  But very few games that we called RPGs back in the 80s to mid 90s would be considered such today if they were released new on a console in this generation.

If you consider Zelda to be an RPG, then games like Dead Rising suddenly become even more RPG-ish than Zelda. Bioshock has more RPG elements to it than Zelda does. So do most other shooters and so does every sandbox game I can think of.

Suddenly, you're in a situation where 50% of all games released are RPGs by that definition.

Zelda is an action adventure game. Let's just leave it at that.