The RPG allows the player to embody a character that he will evolve himself throughout a great quest. The RPG, which is a historical genre in the world of gaming, is still very successful today by having known how to reinvent itself.
Where does the RPG come from?
RPG stands for “role-playing game” in English or “role play” in VF. This genre stems directly from tabletop role-playing games born in the 1970s, such as Dungeons and Dragons. The player embodies a character, which he creates and personalizes himself, or who is a unique hero, depending on the game. The player leads his character through a quest and puts himself in his shoes.
An RPG includes several other characteristics, such as a large world, but also the evolution of the embodied character, often through points and experience trees. The character is also provided with an inventory. The goal of the player is to make his avatar evolve as well as possible to make it more powerful and lead it to succeed in quests. There are several types of RPGs, Western RPGs such as Skyrim or Fallout, and J-RPGs (Japanese Role Playing Games) such as Final Fantasy. Generally, RPGs tend to take place in fantasy, fantasy, or sci-fi universes. Action RPG (Dark Souls, The Witcher, etc.) differs mainly by its gameplay: it is more dynamic, and the fights will be done in real-time.
How does an RPG work?
The RPG and action RPG genres cover a wide selection of very varied games, as much on consoles (PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch) as on PC. While in the 1990s, turn-based combat was all the rage, recently, real-time combat has been more widely used. Some RPGs allow the player to play as a single character, as in Zelda or Skyrim, while others allows you to have a team or follow several characters. Play an RPG is to immerse yourself in a long and fascinating story with many ramifications (the “side” quests), and where it is sometimes possible to decide on the choices of your character and, therefore, the end of the game (as in The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt or Cyberpunk 2077).
Most Iconic RPG / Action RPG Video Games
The RPG meet with great success since the early 1990s genre was born in Japan: the series The Legend of Zelda was one of the most popular, not including Final Fantasy, which popularized the fight turn-based, or Secret of Mana. The RPG is a genre in which Nintendo excels: the Japanese firm is at the origin of many famous RPG franchises, like Pokémon, Xenoblade Chronicles, Chrono Trigger or even Fire Emblem. This series of video games are in perpetual evolution over the opus. The company Enix has been renowned for decades for its RPGs that have marked generations, from Final Fantasy to Dragon Quest through Kingdom Hearts. On the western side, some RPG action games have enjoyed worldwide success: Fable, but above all, two immense representatives who marked the 2010s, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Free to play RPGs
Just like any other game genre, free to play RPG games have on the rise in recent years. Most famous ones that you might have come across are RuneScape, Paladins, Guild Wars, Star Wars: The Old Republic and my favorite Path of Exile. Some are solely available on PC but most are available on cross platform. Now you may wonder how these games make any money if they are free to play. The answer to that is they sell various in-game items and virtual currencies which run game’s economy. For example with Path of Exile you can buy plethora of poe items either in game or from various websites and stores which sell virtual items for real money.
