| twesterm said: In 1995 you couldn't have your everyday platformer have the same rich narrative and characters as, say, Final Fantasy IV but today, you have things like Uncharted that has its strong roots in platformers and action games while also outdoing games like Final Fantasy XIII with it's story and characters. |
I'd hardly call Uncharted out-doing FF13, it's just swapping the predictable stereotypes out for predictable douchebags.
Anyway, I think the whole RPG genre label is largely irrelevent and always has been. The roots of what we define the genre as date back to old tabletop games and choose-you-own adventure novels and come from the ideals of letting you play the game how you want to. Pretty much every game lets you do that now, meaning it's impossible to class any one game as an RPG. But back in the old days even most arcade games let players adopt their own style. Admittedly they had about as much freedom as a one-dimensional morality meter that most Bioware games have now, you could still choose to get through the levels or play for points, adapting the player character to the gameplay style, or 'role', that you wanted.
