E3 2015: Horizon: Zero Dawn's incredible balance of action and RPG

[Torillian]

Acevil said:

Torillian said:

Agree to disagree, to me if you can level up the character's base stats (meaning strength instead of just "increased damage" or vitality instead of "increased health") based on experience gained through battle I gotta call it an RPG.  

Well I just consider that a key element, I think the problem is Destiny, and it caused me reevaluate what it means to call something a rpg game. I consider that more of a shooter with RPG elements, not RPG Shooter.  One could easily argue that it is RPG Shooter, but to me it doesn't really fit it. Given a lot of genres aren't just one thing anymore.

However I do need ask why does it becomes different when you do it with armor?

That's simply the line I've drawn that includes everything I intuitively consider an RPG and discludes everything I think isn't.  Had a lot of discussions with Naznatips about how you define what is and isn't an RPG and that one rule seems to work for just about everything.  If your character is getting better throughout the game because they gain new abilities or gain new equpment that goes against the core concept of RPG which is that you gain experience through battle and that experience is used to increase your characters' abilities.  If the equipment gained experience that would be one thing, but there is no such thing as experience in things like MH or Zelda and thus this seems like a good line to draw for an RPG definition.