What Makes a Great RPG?

There’s no silver bullet, but there are some key ingredients that all great RPGs share

Role playing games put players in the shoes of one or more characters as they face all sorts of larger-than-life challenges. Many of the early RPGs — at least on console — were developed in Japan. Over time though, two dominant “styles” of RPG have emerged and they are roughly based on their region of origin: Japanese RPGs (JRPGs) and Western RPGs (WRPGs).

Dragon Quest was known as “Dragon Warrior” in western markets.

As a genre, the RPG has been through quite a journey, evolving from rather elaborate tabletop experiences to some of the greatest multimedia productions ever made. In fact, their influence has been so great, that they have gone on to impact the development of other genres. Action-adventure games, for example, tend to “borrow” their character growth systems from RPGs. It is quite common to see “RPG elements” in a wide range of games, even in genres that are traditionally far-removed from RPGs (for example, first-person shooters like Destiny feature significant RPG elements).

Just think about the vast breadth of the RPG genre. It encompasses everything from Dragon Quest in the late 1980s…