A Role-Playing Adventure

Different games are classified into different genres. Doom is a first person shooter (fps). Mario Kart is a racing game. Star Fox is a flight simulator. And Zelda…is controversial. Some people, including the omniscient Nintendo, claim that Zelda is a Role-Playing Game (RPG). Despite the obvious problems in telling Nintendo they don't know about their own game, I am going to say their wrong. I am going to say that the Zelda series, for the most part, is not an RPG. Some people say that it is because you play the role of Link, the legendary hero. So? In Doom, you play the role of the alien killer dude (Like I would know his name…). In Star Fox you play the role of Fox. In Mario, well…I don't need to go on, you get the picture. So what does make a Role-Playing Game? Well, I was once told by a friend of mine, Booyakasha, that two things classify RPG's. If I remember correctly, they were:

1. Multiple Party Members

2. Gaining strength by earning experience

This is a near-perfect description. Look at Chrono Trigger, the Final Fantasy series, SaGa Frontier; they all fight into this category. However, there are exceptions. Just take a look at Vagrant Story, with only one party member. However, I don't know of any RPG that breaks both of these rules. As you can see, Zelda does not fit these rules. The only party member is Link, and he only gets stronger by finding better items/spells. Well, this stands for most of the series. In Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Link actually does gain strength by earning experience. However, I speak of the series in general when I say it is not an RPG series.

Well, if it isn't an RPG series, then what is it? I would label it as Action/Adventure. It has a combination of fighting and questing, which are the two characteristics of this genre. Now, I will prepare myself for the loads of hate/support mail which come with every article. Remember, if you have any ideas for an article that you want me to write, just tell me!

~Daniel Rendleman