Is Shogun 2 an RPG? What is an RPG? Are you an RPG?

[MrBoBo1]

You know, I was just thinking. what is an rpg . Is Skyrim really an RPG? Or is it really an action/adventure game? What about Batman Arkham City? That has lots of elements from RPG's barring the narrative changing.

I was thinking about it, and Shogun 2 actually has more options than most RPG's. If you look at Skyrim, it nearly always comes down to combat. Mass Effect as well, it says "make your own story". But really, you are just following the very linear path of an existing preconceived story, that practically always results in combat gluring yourself to a wall on the same levels. In both Bethesda games and Biowares, there are times when you can totally bypass combat but these are very rare, the over-welming majority of the time, you will be pew! pew! or swishy swashy.

In Shogun 2, you can marry to strengthen relations. exchange hostages. Cause rebellion. Sent in agents like a Shirabyoshi to seduce targets. Junsatsushi to request the allegiance of towns and pay off other agents. Win by spreading influence. Use monks to incite revolts. Send in Assassins to damage property, open gates, assassinate targets. You can damage land and properly to reduce income and incite revolved with an unhappy populous. You can kill off the populous, burn and ****, taking more loot. But increase the chance of rebellion. Set up peacefully with less income but a more happy populous. Become vassel, protecting the clan but dragging them and them dragging you into a war. Set up on trade lines taking all the enemy loot.

I'm sure I'm still forgetting alot of stuff here but I'm sure you get the point, the game has many variables, it also has a progression tree. Thats far more balanced than Skyrims, which is ridiculously unbalancaed. So aside from being the best strategy game, I would say it's also the best RPG of the year. I'd say the RPG elements in Arkham City tend to be better implimented than Skyrim as well, if only, in that it's a far more balanced game.

[saint242]

Role-playing is in your head.

Some games - notably a lot of Bioware and Obsidian games - are good RPGs, in that you can often create your character, and really define not only their appearance, but their personalities. You have choices and options that really affect the way in which the game proceeds.

Skyrim, as much as I love it, is a very linear RPG. There is a wide open world, and a lot to explore, but when it comes to making choices in quests, there often aren't any options.

Shogun 2 is not an RPG in the traditional sense, because most RPGs have a single protagonist which the player can identify with, and say, "That's me in the game." You definitely have a lot more choices than in some RPGs, for sure. But I would hesitate to call it an RPG. Still, as I said, role-playing is in your head. If you want to play a game of Shogun 2 and 'role-play' your decisions, putting yourself in the head of your daimyo and trying to make decisions as if you were actually him... nothing's stopping you. In fact, I often find myself doing just that. But then again, I've also been playing traditional pen-and-paper RPGs since I was 14, so I have a lot of practice.

[grumhie]

shogun 2 is like that. if you want to win, you'll eventually have to go to war and conquer kyoto and provinces.

[daelin4]

RPG is just a game genre. Technically every game you can role play as something, whether it be the game's intent or your own. Most of the time it's just to classify and organize certain games. Games like Fallout are RPG and FPS for the reasons that you play as a specific character and uses a first person shooter view. Company of Heroes is an RTS like Starcraft where you buidl thing,s train units and kill other units. You can role play the character of an Allied/Axis commander or a Zerg Cerebrate in either case, but that's not as relevant to the game experience.

[easytarget]

This is just for me personally, but lately when I've played games like Shogun 2 and Skyrim, while the latter is officially designated as the RPG between the two, I find the RPG elements of Shogun 2 more compelling because the 4th wall is harder to break.

Whereas in any Bethesda RPG I can really rather easily break this wall and lose immersion rather quickly (i.e. how many times do I the savior of the known world have to get treated like some lowly fed-ex errand boy? or how often do I have to hear the same 2 lines from an NPC in the main city I trade with? or better still why can I merrily steal people blind in front of them in their homes? or kill the maid and have everyone else act like nothing happened, but I digress).

In Shogun 2, with a mere dusting of RPG goodness, you get magic. The same magic I felt long ago in another game called X-Com: UFO Defense. And it's for the same reason. I grow attached to my agents, my generals, and my troops. We've gone through hell together, we few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

[spicykorean]

Shogun 2 is not a rocket propelled grenade. End of thread.

[easytarget]

If you mean end of thread based on what usually happens when someone wanders into a thread and throws in a random non-sequitur, then yes, you may of succeeded, but then again, may be not...

Because the discussion of what makes an RPG is an interesting topic. Besides, the point the OP makes that Shogun 2 is in some ways a better RPG than the so called best RPG of the year is not half bad either.

[StevenO]

Shogun 2 is a role playing game but that role is somewhat limited. Your primary role is as the leader of your clan who is making strategic decisions that will affect the course of play. The reason you will not see TWSG2 classified as an RPG is because you also take on other roles that can be widely seperated; by this I mean any time you personally take command of a battle you are giving up your overall leadership position and becoming the commander of that engagement. If you want the game to feel more like an RPG then you'd basically need to autoresolve any fights that do not involve you leader (you) because you aren't there to personally command the fight.