Article: The Wii's Promising RPG Future - Agree or Disagree?

[Torillian]

Khuutra said:

Torillian said:

Khuutra said:

I'm going to cross the parts that aren't always in RPGs.

You're right about stats, but even that probably isn't universal.

I would argue that the management and gradual increase of stats are what make an RPG an RPG.  They're what differentiate a game like GoW or Zelda where you increase in power but there are not specific stats, from games like Kingdom Hearts and Dark Cloud.

When in the devil do you use stat management in Kingdom Hearts?

 

You don't directly manage them, but they are there, and they gradually increase as you level up.  This is what dictates how much damage you do as well as how much damage you take.  Perhaps putting "and" in between management and gradual increase in stats was a misnomer, though I bet I could argue that the gradual changing of equipment combined with the choice for what type of player you want to be could constitute stat management.  But the basics are that your character must have some kind of stats, and these must be what determine your characters attributes in battle.  Otherwise it is just an action or adventure game with a nice story.