If you’ve played games like Diablo Torchlight, or Nox then you know what it’s like to experience an ARPG or otherwise known as an action role-playing game. What is an Action Role-Playing game more specifically? Well, an ARPG is basically a subcategory of an RPG or role-playing game. In these games, you’re able to take control of an animated character and embark on some type of quest to save or accomplish something. You would also have to fight – which makes the game an action game. Now, what is an Action-adventure game? Well, it’s almost the same exact same thing as an ARPG in that they require players to both adventure and fight enemies. For more on both of these genres look below.
Video overview of the answer
Before we move on, we will first go over what an RPG is in the first place. And RPG or role-playing Game is a storytelling game that has a many of the make-believe factors that children enjoy. The difference between an RPG and the made-up games we played as children is that these games have a specific structure and form, as well as endless possibilities and robust gameplay.
Take, for example, the Dungeons and Dragons RPG, where you are allowed to make a hero, explore a world, team up with others, and destroy monsters (hopefully). In this game the action takes place in your imagination, but dice or other tokens are used to play the game. In this game you have complete freedom to make anything that your imagination will allow, endless special effects, and the required technology to do anything.
The game DND created the RPG category (popularized it) and gives us the definition of RPG that means that it is a storytelling game with structure and form. The fact that these games have endless storytelling possibilities, depend on player interaction, and require players to react to and narrate the consequences of decisions.
To reiterate, an RPG comes from the traditional pen and paper games that used human beings as both players and game masters. In games such as these the input of players, unique thoughts, and choices are an integral part of what makes this game what it is. This input makes the game incredibly dynamic and provides unpredictable game play where players are given an essential role to participate in the story and game that comes about. And the term “role” is what makes a “role-playing” game what it is.
The dynamic between player choices, action, and master-directed outcomes makes what we will call (and is called) a Player Agency. A player agency is the player’s ability to have an impact on the story through gameplay and game-design. This term defines the ability of players to interact with the world of the game. Agency means more than simple feedback/action interactivity – it refers to the knowing actions taken by the player that result in changes inside of the world.
In the video game world, the game master (human game master) is changed out with possible reactions to situations that are scripted, as well as in quests which take a number of paths that turn out in different ways, as well as how they turn out influencing parts of the gaming world.
An example of this is the player agency in Gothic II, when one needs to get inside of Khlorinis. There are a few ways to accomplish this feat but depending on how it’s done there will be a few different impacts made on the gaming world.
Video detailing ways to get into Khlorinis
When there is no player agency in a game, then the game is no longer an RPG. When games that would be RPGs remove the player agency aspect to focus on things such as combat and exploration, they move more-so into the realm of combat or exploration (action and adventure) games. Simply having stats, inventory, character building, or even chances to fight doesn’t necessarily make a game an RPG. However, having those things can contribute to how complex and entropic an arcade game can be.
This explains why games such as Witcher 3 and Skyrim – games that have removed the player agency and streamline questing by using Quest Directive and Markers – are not RPG but rather Action-Adventure games.
A real-time RPG that no longer has a player agency is not an RPG rather it falls into the category of Action-Adventure like the games, Assassin’s Creed, Witcher 3, Skyrim, Fallout’s 3 and 4, and Oblivion.
People who don’t know the history of something (or where it came from) will assume that a game that certain features is an RPG, which isn’t true. The elements that are considered to be supportive elements part of an RPG, have been confused with what the essence of the game is. Those features mentioned above are supportive elements used to aid interactive and collaborative storytelling by adducing players actions and choices, while also having those actions and choices evaluate against game world stats so they can see what the outcome would be – this creates collaborative storytelling.
Now, on to the rest of the article.
What is an ARPG? It’s history and more
Truth be told, Role Playing Games have actually been around for quite some time. To be more specific, the first-ever ARPG came out a few decades ago in the year 1979. The first ARPG to ever be released went by the name of Temple Of Apshai and was released by Automated Simulations or Epyx. This was considered to be one of the first-ever graphical RPGs available for play on personal computers (PC’s).
After the release of this game, there were several other games that were released such as Bokosuka Wars, Gateway To Apshai (sequel to Temple of Apshai), etc. These were all games that added in that adventurous, exploration, and action into a single game. Over the years this form of gaming has changed rapidly – changing from games as old as ToA to games such as Seiken Densetsu, a game that was praised for its real-time action battle system and multi-player game-play.
Before we move on to the genre’s however, we must first gain an understanding of what an ARPG really is. Most Action RPGs are Action games with a focus on fighting much like hack-n-slash games.
When the term ARPG was first created (for the game Diablo), systems such as character building, inventory, and stats – were used exclusively for RPGs. However, nowadays they’re present in a variety of other genres. The inclusion of those systems is not what makes an RPG an RPG – those systems were generally included in RPGs. Action RPGs included those systems and were called Action-RPGs, but in reality, they’re action games with a few systems traditionally associated with RPGs that simply add a bit of character progression and depth to them.
Playing devil’s advocate
While some of the gameplay in an ARPG may be similar to that in a traditional RPG it still doesn’t have the essence of that genre. People occasionally make the argument that the meaning of words or terms change over time (evolve). However, changing the term ARPG from meaning an action game with RPG-esque systems to meaning an RPG with real time combat isn’t evolving the meaning of the term, rather it’s devolving the meaning. It makes the meaning of the term ARPG mean nothing in specific.
Also, changing the meaning of the term RPG from meaning a game that requires player agency to meaning a game that has stats is likewise a sore devolution of the term while also imparting a drastic lowering of depth and complexity in the games that are RPGs. RPGs aren’t supposed to be a paint by numbers, generic, bland experience where you only do what you are told and destroy everything as the game moves on. But that is what these companies who create these games and label them as RPGs are doing. All they are really doing is taking a useful title and turning it into one that means absolutely nothing.
An RPG describes a game where players, with their unique behavior and choices, are an essential component of how the game plays out. Because the RPGs have to account for various outcomes and possibilities, it’s one of the most complex form of game to make, and also one of the deepest and most immersive to experience. Character building is not a requirement for an RPG to be an RPG. The same goes for having (or not having) a combat system.
Action RPG (or ARPG) is used to describe an action focused game that has complexity provided by systems typically associated with RPGs (character building, stats, etc.)
That’s the very, very brief version of the history of ARPG’s. Another thing that you want to make note of when it comes to ARPG’s is that there are also a number of other subgenres to choose from.
Each of these sub-genres is listed below
- Dungeon Crawl: The Dungeon Crawl sub-genre requires that players have the ability to issue orders to the other characters that they’re teamed up with. In this form of game, you’ll battle various different monsters and loot in order to find treasure and develop your character/team.
- Point and Click: In the point and click genre you’re using a mouse on the screen of the game to move your character to various different places on the game’s screen.
- Role-Playing Shooter: A role-playing shooter is essentially a game that requires players to use shooter mechanics to fight in real-time.
What is an Action-Adventure Game? It’s history and more
When you really decide to dig deep into what it actually means to play an action-adventure game you’re finding out that it’s really used as a way to describe the game-play enjoyed in the game and not used to describe the actual game itself. For instance, when you’re playing an action-adventure game you’re playing a game that incorporates both action and adventure into the game itself. Nothing else. In an action-adventure game you’re able to fight (action obviously) but, you’re also able to do things such as a walk around, enjoy a storyline, different character types, conversation with other characters etc. It all depends entirely on the game. A few popular titles in the Action-adventure gaming genre are God of War, Legend of Zelda, and Tomb Raider (among many others).
There is literally no set way to understand when an action game stops being an adventure game – it all depends on you (and the experiences you have in the game). Obviously, if you’re playing a game that requires that you only fight (like Tekken) then you’re playing an action only game. If the game doesn’t require that you fight at all then you’re playing an Adventure game. Anything outside of that really depends on what you consider to be too much or too little. Of course, there are also other ways to tell if an action game is different than an adventure game but, for the most part, that’s what you have to look at.
- an Action-adventure game describes a game that is similar to RPG but, rather than focusing on player agency gameplay and questing is streamlined and players can focus more so on combat exploration rather than on information. An action-adventure game can be said to be a simple RPG that simply doesn’t focus on player-agency. If games have the elements of Action-Adventure games but with emphasis also being made on player agency, then it’s a basic RPG.
Early action/adventure gaming
The first-ever action/adventure game were basically arcade-like games set up in a fantasy setting. A few examples of games set up in this way would be Castlevania, Trojans, and Wizards and Warriors (games that were all made between the 1980s-90s. That’s pretty much it actually. Of course, games were developed a bit more as time went but they still held on to that same concept/idea that action/adventure games tend to be envelope a wide number of different game types.
Subgenres of action/adventure
- First-person action/adventure: These are games that allow players to see things in the first person. They are typically formatted the same way that you would see an FPS (First-person shooter) to be formatted allowing players to basically skip constant action in favor of more problem solving and understanding the plot of the game. An example of this would be Metroid Prime or Half-Life 2.
- Third-person action/adventure: A third-person action-adventure would be one where you see all things in the third person. An example of this would be Legend of Zelda or GTA (Grand theft auto).
- Immersive sim: These are games that are usually played in the first person but also include things such as stealth and role-playing so that players can think a bit more to solve the complex issues that arise during gameplay.
- Platform-adventure games: A platform adventure game is one that basically allows players to both explore and problem-solve to beat the game.
- Isometric platform adventure: These are games that use 3D displays (and isometric projection) to allow players to explore the surrounding areas.
- Stealth games: These are actually the exact opposite of the standard action game in that players are required to avoid detection rather than confront the game’s enemies. This means that the game is more so focused on problem-solving and adventure than it is on the fighting side of things.
- Survival horror: The survival horror subgenre focuses more on inventory management and keeping track of the weaponry and ammunition that they have so they can make it through different levels.
- Survival games: These are games that focus more so on the survival aspect of the genre and lack the supernatural ideas that survival horror games have.
So, how are they similar/different?
So, how are action/adventure and ARPG’s different? Well, as I mentioned at the beginning of the article, they are almost completely the same. ARPG’s can be, by nature, a bit more immersed than others but, are also on par with the gameplay provided by subgenres of action-adventure games such as the Isometric platform adventure or first-person and third-person action-adventure game.
For more on these topics be sure to check out the resources below – they have a bunch of great information and can be extremely useful in helping you understand more about the gameplay of these two genres.
Resources:
https://levelskip.com/consoles/Top-5-Action-Role-Playing-Games-for-the-PC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeon_crawl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_and_click
https://www.giantbomb.com/role-playing-shooter/3015-3938/