Is this really a RPG? I've only see some stories and a video of game play but can't figure out why it's listed as RPG. Steam has it listed as RPG too, so I'm not talking about GOG. I would love to hear there's a constantly shifting story based on dialog choices! :)

Thanks

There's no constantly shifting story based on dialog choices. There's skill selection, character power progression, focus on statistics and their interactions, thus the game being listed as RPG.

Thanks for the reply!

Aren't those all included in Tactical Battle games, i.e. Skill and Statistic progressions?

Anyway, I was looking for an real RPG with C&C, nothing against Tactical Battle games!


Thanks and good luck! :)

RPG doesn't mean story focused game with dialogue choices. RPG is the broadest term in videogames you could ever come across. It doesn't actually mean anything. You made a good call to ask first, because as was said, this game probably won't give you what you're looking for.

RPG is actually well defined but the game industry did a horrible thing to the core of this game type. When you look on the classic RPG games (Ultima, wizardry, Baldurs Gate, NWN) and then you see hack&slash like diablo is also called RPG you get confused. Darkest dungeon is not RPG. There is no story per se, no influence on stats and all quests are complete random. It is a typical rogue game like FTL (the later is actually an excellent game, the former one well....)

No definition ever says RPG should be story-heavy. If you want to describe a genre, use one of the much better defined sub-categories. Like Baldur's gate actually being cRPG.

I guest it depends what does RPG mean to you. I was starting with pen and paper RPG and there the game is a story, or better to say an active creation of a story. On PC the meaning moved towards "nice looking but not necessarily much story behind" but there are exceptions. It is sad but hard to avoid given the capability of modern computers and players' expectations. At the end games are defined after the trending directions that just bring new sub classes and more chaos and purely academic discussions like this one.

It actually sort of depends on which group you ask. I think that that's sort of at the root of incredibly ambiguity of RPG genre - I have played with groups which considered pen and paper campaigns an epic adventure, often even breaking the rules to help the narrative. On the other hand, I have also played with groups for whom the best adventure was a set of traps, arenas and puzzles with only minor story component - and you'll find specialized PnP rulesets focused on both. That's why, when these rules were being translated into emerging dungeon crawler and later RPG genre, there's never really been a particular focus on story or combat.

Exactly what I'm saying. RPG isn't a well defined term. It's what you want it to be. BTW if wikipedia is anything to be believed, the term "Hack and slash" is originally a pen and paper RPG playstyle.

I do understand the arguments from two of you and to some extent I also agree. The idea of RPG games is so old (I guess sport, card and drinking games are the only older games than RPG) that it became somewhat ambiguous. Majority of games do have some elements of RPG even first person shooters, flight simulators or hack & slash. The question is when it is a separate gender and when just an evolution step.

I prefer the story telling definition because it engages the imagination much more than D&D-like dungeon crawlers. It is also the closes to the old entertainment of "bard stories". I was playing pen&paper RPG games mostly in this wariant. Dungeon crawlers were more a backup option for drinking evenings ;)

IMHO, no...it's closer to a hack 'n slash platform game with rpg elements. There is no story (the narration, while interesting is not an rpg story line/plot). There are no dialogue options. No one ever said an rpg needs to be "story-heavy"; it should, however, contain a story: a beginning, some development, and a climax.

DD simply has missions, half of which contain the same 'monsters' with modified stats (a bigger rat for leveled pc). If Baldur's Gate were simply a set of fetch missions, it would not be considered an rpg (think of Hillsfar...at most that is a training ground for pc characters)

Elsewhere I said something to the effect that DD was Mario Bros with bells and whistles, and it is. It is not an RPG. It is well done and I sincerely wish that the devs had used their ideas and efforts to create a true RPG. They could have even kept the cannon fodder concept (though somewhat less) since death (Planescape), even permanent death (Ultima 4), is not unheard of in RPGs

Of course, Darkest Dungeon does contain a story. It has a beginning, it has some development and it has an end. The development is just not thrown in your face - it's contained in some of the random narrator's commentaries and in his narration for boss encounters. We get to know the estate, its surroundings and what occured to them more and more intimately, you just have to listen.

If you insist on putting it in a box, it's a turn-based tactical rogue-lite (or rogue-like-like or whatever). It's most definitely neither Mario (because... I don't know ... Lack of precision platforming? The defining part of Mario? Have you played Mario? Ever?) nor hack'n'slash (it's neither similar to Devil May Cry (action-based, direct control) nor Diablo (real-time, focused on item progression))

"platform" game? Do you mean platformer? There is 0 platforming in DD. You're also factually wrong about there being no story.

You don't need dialogue options for a game to be an RPG (nor to have a good story). And you don't need to have a proper story either - read the rest of the thread.

And how is this a Mario game? Just, what? I couldn't think of a game that's more apart from being that and not just thematically, but also mechanically.

And of course you had to say something isn't a "true RPG" aka "my definition of RPG".

Insofar as "my definition", you're right...we all see the world from our own perspective, experience.

platform/platformer ... I'm probably as old as your grandparents... the only platform game I remember playing was the original LodeRunner, which programmatically, thematically, and experientially is one and the same with Mario Bros, and to a good degree DD. As I said, DD has no story (let alone 'good') -- a story would only get in its way.

I'm sorry to say, but yes, you do need dialogue options for a game to be an RPG. This is true in both, pen and pencil and cRPGs.... In both cases, the DM asks "you see blah blah; what will you do?" or "you learn blah blah, what do you say?" Where is that in DD?

remember: RPG stands for Role playing game. Without dialogue, how do you role play? By slashing/hacking? By equipping different weapons/belts/trinkets/hair styles? (actually, that last one may be role playing) :D

Definitions exist so that we can agree on something instead of it being a subjective opinion. Then you come here saying "no, it's what I say it is".

I don't understand what you're even trying to say with the platformers. DD isn't a platformer. Again, you're factually wrong saying DD has no story.

How do you role play without dialogue? For example Dark Souls. You choose your race origins, your class, your background can be anything you want. And in the game, your actions speak for who you are, not words. And yes, in that game, even your different equipment can tell more of your PC as the items themselves often have a history or associations of their own.

BTW you said it needs to have dialogue options before, now you're saying dialogue itself. You also don't need these options for a game to be called an RPG or have a good story. Some of the Final Fantasy games are a good example of this (6 IIRC doesn't have any dialogue options and it is still an RPG and it is still a hell of a good story).