What is an RPG?

[HoloDust]

Bofferbrauer2 said:

HoloDust said:

Well, Zelda II has actual experience and 3 stats (Attack, Magic, Life), and it could be argued that BotW/TotK have 2 stats (Health/Stamina), though they are gained by orbs and not XP, so those (especially Zelda II) might be considered action-RPGs, though yeah, for the most of its existence Zelda was action-adventure.

RPGs without combat are fairly common in its tabletop variety, especially if you take into account that pretty much any system that has unified resolution (that is, treats combat just as any other skill check) can just ignore combat all together if that's what a particular campaign is not about. In VG space, Disco Elysium is a good example of that.

I wonder if CRPG Addict will ever get to even the end of 90s, given there are some really long games from 1994 onward.

Yeah, Zelda II is the most RPG of the Zelda titles, and Botw/TotK are arguably also RPGs due to their progression.

And yes, several RPGs allow for pacifist runs, but most of them do have combat as a mechanic. Like you said, Disco Elysium is a good example of this. Age of Decadence is one where you can do this too if you know what you're doing. Graveyard Keeper also could be considered as an RPG without combat, though quantifying Graveyard Keeper as just one genre is pretty difficult...

Yeah, AoD is such a wonderful gem, though quite rough around the edges.

Pity that more devs don't try for non-combat video game RPGs - when you look at TTRPG market, you only need to move one step aside from D&D (and by extension Pathfinder) to immediately bump into Call of Cthulhu, where fighting is something that you really don't want to do.