What Is The Most Important Element Of An RPG?

I've been thinking about what the vital element of an RPG really is. In this video, I give my thoughts on that but would love to hear what you have to think as well!

Twitter: @resonantarc

[ResonantArc]

What do you think the vital element of an RPG is? I feel pretty confident that it's the character progression system, but I'd love to hear what you guys think!

[SuperDerek]

I think that the two of you are approaching "what makes an RPG" from two different perspectives which makes total sense. The player will see the defining factor as it relates to the playing experience, whereas the creator of an RPG would see it from the perspective of a Dungeon Master, of sorts, from the production-side perspective. And I think that makes complete sense. And I think that the two ideas meld pretty well. You like the idea of character progression and role-playing, and he's coming from the idea of creating the world in which you can enable those experiences. You're talking about what you get out of an RPG, and he's talking about what gets put into a good RPG, if that makes sense. A Super interesting discussion topic for sure!

[soulofahero]

I think the most important element of an RPG is to immerse the player in a world that allows them to assume the role of a character, be it an original one (Dark Souls, Skyrim, etc.) or predetermined one (FF VIII, Kingdom Hearts, etc.), to the point where the player can fall in love with the lore and world of the game.

Edit: After watching the video a second time, I also 100% want to clarify I agree progression might just be the most essential part of RPG’s. Like stated in the video, it’s hard to pinpoint one exact thing, because there are just so many things I think we as fans of them would deem “vital.”

Great video Mike.

[TheSpectacledOwl]

Story is what made me love the RPG genre.
More specifically, character progression and how the character/characters evolve, grow, and interact with the world.
Which is why the original FFVII, Chrono Trigger, and Suikoden II are my three favorite JRPGs, if not favorite games, of all time.

[WalterGirao]

I agree with tetsuya takahashi. I think he means "map" in a broader sense. The process of mapping. Exploring the boundaries and pathways in order to elucidate a grander picture. That of course applies geographicaly but also on exploring/mapping character personality and their archs / cultures and their interactions / skill paths and their classes...
This is also in great part the appeal of metroid-vanias. I believe that's the reason why both genres share so many fans

[SageVallant]

I think I can see the talk of maps being the most important thing, from the perspective that the environments can greatly enhance all other factors of the game. Imagine FE: Three Houses without Garreg Mach for that school environment, that home environment, and all that happens around it. Imagine a game with great character progression, but lame environments that don't make the big fights seem climactic. What good is progression when you don't have that world to challenge and overcome? Much like the music, the maps and environments really help the player get invested in all other elements of the game.

And I get the impression that Takahashi meant something to this extent from the blurb. Everything else falls into place once you have quality environments for the game to take place in. Although maybe he really did just mean the adventure & challenge aspects of the game. Maybe he meant that map design was a big challenge in terms of making a game stand out from the crowd.

[GalacticGod]

Love seeing all these videos about your thoughts on certain games and the genre in general. Great Job!

[gamerprince-tlhg]

I REALLY like Takahashi's opinion on what's vital to an RPG. Map/world design with exploration is what made me fall in love RPGs (specifically JRPGs outside of KH). That feeling of exploring a world and going on a journey where you travel to new places is exciting and never gets old to me. It's why I appreciate the Dragon Quest series so much and also Xenoblade.

[dudemcguy]

Hi Mike, this is a response to the end of the video, specifically the point “What makes an RPG an RPG?” and “What is the most important element of an RPG?”

You said that a good character progression system is the most (but not only!) important element of an RPG because character progression is the defining feature of what makes an RPG what it is. But I actually think that description is not quite specific enough. I’d say an RPG’s defining feature is simply some kind of gameplay system that has a *primary purpose* of showing the player a representation of their character(s) growing and becoming stronger over time.
Giving the player options in how they influence their character(s) growth is ideal (because it is an interactive medium after all), but ultimately secondary to the simpler goal of representing the character’s growth to the player.

This is how FFIV and Chrono Trigger, in my opinion, still have good RPG gameplay mechanics. Because their progression system is very limited in terms of the player’s options, but it’s a stat-based RPG progression system that still shows the characters becoming stronger over time.
They are not the most interactive RPG progression systems, but they still nail the most important aspect of one.

This is an important distinction to make because there are many games with in-depth character progression systems that we don't consider RPGs at all.

For example, in NBA 2K20, I can create a basketball player who starts with low stats and gains experience points by completing specific tasks during the basketball games (3 pointers, layups, rebounding, etc.) I then have the freedom to spend my experience points on a variety of stats of my choosing like shooting, rebounding, etc.

This is technically a more in-depth and “RPG-like” character progression system than what is offered in RPG’s like Final Fantasy IV, Chrono Trigger, or Legend of Dragoon. Those gamessimply increase character stats by predetermined amounts after each Level up. The player doesn’t make any meaningful choices in how to customize Crono’s stats or abilities.

But the difference between NBA2K20's career mode and Chrono Trigger’s character progression systems is that they serve different purposes.

The reward for increasing the basketball player’s stats is so they become more efficient at scoring points, passing, rebounding, and so on. Improving at things that the player could already do from the beginning, just less effectively. The primary purpose of stats in a basketball game is simply to represent how efficient the character is at certain skills relative to other players. But the main point of the game still revolves around scoring points using basketball specific strategies. The stats increasing isn't the reward, they are just a means to an end.

However in games like Chrono Trigger, FFIV, or Pokemon, the stats are meant to portray the more abstract and simple idea of the character(s) becoming stronger over time. The stats serve as an abstraction to communicate that idea to the player. For example, enemies that once took 3 hits for Crono to kill now only take 1 hit. Or in FFVII, leveling up allows Cloud to come back and one shot the Midgar Zolom. The stats in this case are used to show the player that Cloud is now capable of overcoming a challenge that was previously impossible for him. Higher stats are the actual reward for your time investment into the characters. (Customizing those stats is fun and ideal, but not required to communicate the basic concept).

*Conclusion*: I would say that the defining feature of an RPG is not just having a well balanced or engaging character progression system, because many, many genres like Sports titles, Open-world Action games, and MOBA’s now have in-depth, customizable progression systems as a core feature of their gameplay. But RPGs differ from these other genres because they use stat growth for a different purpose; to communicate to the player how a character has grown stronger as a result of the long journey that you’ve experienced with them. And when done well the stat growth is partnered with the story at the right moments to integrate the sense of progression and story together.

[Maxbeedo]

I've always broken it down into 3 choice spectrums:
1. The ability to choose who you play (create your own character, choosing party compositions, etc.).
2. The ability to choose how you play (different styles or classes, progression paths, strategies, etc.).
3. The ability for your choices to direct or change the story. That's not to say the story has to be amazing (although it helps), just that your choices matter.

Table-top RPGs obviously have all of these in spades. Many video game "RPGs" have one or two but not all three. Sometimes the main character is defined for you, sometimes your party members can't be changed or you have to use the same strategy over and over, sometimes the story is so linear your itty-bitty choices don't feel meaningful at all, and those all hurt the RP aspect of RPGs, although that doesn't mean they'll be bad games. The Witcher series is definitely missing #1, and #2 is somewhat limited between swordplay/signs/potions, but #3 is pretty strong in all three games, with entire chapters changing based on your choices. The Elder Scrolls series is pretty strong in #1 and #2, but #3 is lacking because the world barely reacts at all to your exploits. Given infinite time and money video game developers could maximize all 3, but they have to make cuts somewhere, and it's not likely they'll be able to compete fully against "all of our collective imaginations" like what D&D can put forth. The attempt is usually appreciated though.

[acidwizard]

For me the most important aspect is the story. I do like role-playing elements and choice vs consequence, but a strong overall narrative is paramount to my enjoyment. That's why I tend to favor JRPGs over Western RPGs. Most JRPGs have little actual role playing where you make meaningful decisions that affect the direction of the plot. This allows the developers to make more linear stories by not having to devote as much time and energy into branching paths and varying outcomes. They can focus their attention on creating one strong narrative as well as establishing deep and meaningful character interaction. Compare this with the Western style of RPGs featuring stronger role play elements like Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, Mass Effect, or Divinity: Original Sin. In these games you make meaningful choices that affect the direction of the plot, but at the expense of the developers having to expend time energy, and other resources into creating all the different scenarios based on your actions. Like killing a certain character, choosing to side with a certain faction in a given quest, doing quests in a different order, choosing a player race that NPC view differently, all these choices must be taken into account and how they affect the game world. This means the developers have to expend time and resources to create scenarios that reflect those choices, resulting in an overall plot that isn't as focused as the typical JRPG. This is of course a generalization, and my opinion, but if you took the time to read this, I hope you will agree to some extent. If not why? How do you feel about this?

[hian]

I would argue that there's no one essential part of an RPG, an imperfect genre term, that describes a fairly wide pool of games.

RPG is a spectrum term, where multiple facets accumulate into something being more or less "like an RPG" but where no single aspect would make it an RPG on its own.

In that sense, it's like cars.
We don't scratch our heads over what "one part" makes a car, a car.
You don't get a car by simply putting wheels on a plank, nor do you get a car by assembling an engine.
You have multiple non-car parts that at some point become a more car-like object than a non car-like object.

RPGs are the same.
You can put character progression systems in a game and it clearly still not being an RPG.
Devil May Cry 3 has a character progression system. Not a very complicated one, I grant, but it has one all the same.
Conversely, there are table top RPGs without character progression systems. They're still RPGs.

This goes to Takahashi's quote as well. There are RPGs out there that don't feature map navigation at all.
Many table top RPGs can be played with no maps and movement in space being treated as an entirely abstract story-telling by-thought of little consequence (being told "you are in a long hallway" is not a map in any way that reflects his use of the term for the type of games he makes).

Plenty of games have stories but are definitely not RPG-like, and plenty RPG-like games have almost no story to speak of.
Same is true for character writing.
Same is true for pretty much every aspect of any genre in any medium.

This is the problem of reduction as described in philosophy and applies to all acts of categorization of language as exercised by humans.
Categories are social constructs and their delineations are of convenience following broad amalgamatory distinctions.
They're not supposed to stand up to a measurement of a single factor, because that's not what's being measured in the first place - much like asking what single facet of a human makes it a human, or what single facet of a car makes it a car.

It's not linguistically or philosophically functional.

[alaharon]

See, I think of role-playing from a character or personality perspective. So I tend to not like RPGs because they throw a bunch of meaningless numbers at you. To me the games that are the most about role-playing are games like Life is Strange that give you a pre-made character to roleplay as and you kinda decide what version of them you want to play. This video helped me understand why I don't tend to like RPGs. What other people think of as roleplay has incredibly little in common with what I think of as roleplay and is everything I hate about role-playing games. I hate being faced with a character creator and being forced to pick between stats I don't understand. I hate being forced to pick upgrades from an ability tree. I want that stuff to be done for me so I can just focus on the interesting choices surrounding character and personality and interpersonal relationships or whatever

[baconstrip]

I think world-building, of which maps are one component, are the most important element, but story and characters (two separate but related elements) are a close second. For me, world-building is the game's ability to draw me in to a captivating, fantastical, fleshed-out world. This includes map design, but also atmosphere, interconnectivity, memorable NPCs, hidden secrets, and vantage points (like some of the secret areas from Xenoblade), among other things. These all help draw me into the game and make me feel as if I'm actually exploring a real, interesting world.

Like I said, story and characters are a close second. This was my biggest gripe with Breath of the Wild - while it has some of the best world design I've seen in any game, it lacks the captivating story and the memorable characters that I loved about Majora's Mask (my favorite game in the series). While the world-building draws you into the world initially, it is the story and its characters that keeps me invested in said world as my playtime increases. All in all, I'd place story a little above characters in terms of importance, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a good story without a strong cast of characters (on the contrary, I can think of several games that have a strong cast of characters but the story doesn't live up to my expectations).

For me, my final ranking is: world-building > story > gameplay mechanics > art direction & music > graphics (technical specifications).

[differentxminds]

I don't have an answer to your question, but I just wanted to say that I love the format of this video. I remember you said you were considering doing these short, semi-stream of consciousness videos. If this is the initial effort, I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to more.

[kasp]

"Role playing" is just a straight out bad name for it's genre. I "role played" as Jin from Ghost of Tsushima much more than I've "role played" a character in any FF game I've played.

[Artimes.]

Man its content creators like this that really invigorate and open people's eyes to the realization to just how extrodinary this genre is. This is why the mainstream market is now more then ever more accepting of playing rpgs. Then how it was back when I was kid and the genre specifically was targeted towards a more nich audience. These content creators really help break down and analysis the many layers and multifaceted complexities of this amazing genre of gaming. Not just as an artistic form but also as one of the best literary mediums on the planet.

[rga]

Good characters will always be the most important thing for me

[makotoyuki]

To me it’s the ability to create a immersive piece of art that flows together from all its parts, the synergy
Story sets up the background
Characters create potential for growth (both for them and the player)
A battle system that stays consistent with the actions or way of acting for the characters(non-ludonarative dissonance)
And a world just as involved with the conflict of the story

But if I had to absolutely choose the most vital thing...for me it would be the characters, both their intrinsic and extrinsic growth

[LukePasqualeCalarco]

really fun question! usually my answer would be something like "no one element will always be the most important" but if i had to pick i'd say "Player Agency"

basically if an RPG lets the player have a significant measure of control over one or more of the following aspects:
-character/party progression (what class do i wanna pick? what character synergies can i try? ect)
-battle style (do i go all out offensive? do i get creative with status effects? ect)
-story path (what will i do now? where will i go next?)

even if one or two of those three aspects is completely linear, if the player feels like they can express their creativity to a meaningful degree in at least one of those areas, i think they will feel satisfied!