What is an RPG?

If you love odysseys, drawing on the codes and principles of tabletop role-playing games. If you feel capable of embodying one or more characters that you will develop, grow and improve over the course of a quest. If there is a genre of game that invites travel, it is indeed role-playing games, also called RPGs (from English Role Playing Game).
These games let you experience epic adventures through stories full of twists.

But you need to have time!

What sets them apart, indeed, from the story mode of a shooter, is the time it takes to finish these games. An RPG typically takes dozens of hours to complete; some even exceed a hundred hours of play. These games are very close to “the books you are the hero of.”

The only playable mode in an RPG is its story mode.

You must complete a main quest. It may involve proving your innocence as in Blackguards or simply saving your skin against hordes of monsters as in Victor Vran.

In these games, you’ll also find side quests. These quests are much shorter than the main quest, but there are many more of them. These quests usually amount to killing brigands or bringing sausages to the cousin in the neighboring village. They aren’t always mandatory but completing them guarantees a reward or upgrade if you succeed.

Thus during your adventure, your equipment will evolve, but it won’t come without a fight. At best, a blacksmith will happily upgrade your weapon and armor in exchange for a few petty coins. At worst, you’ll have to go fetch your own weapon, and it is usually guarded by an army of monsters that have nothing better to do with their days than attack you as soon as you poke your head out.

Into fantasy, but not only…

If many RPGs generally take place in fantastical worlds like [Victor Vran] which hunts monsters, you can also dive into medieval Japan like [Shadow Tactics], or into interstellar space in [The long journey home]. There’s something for every taste.

RPGs are games that have appealed to players across generations; you may even already have a few at home. The only constraint remains the investment needed to finish the game. But if you have time, dive into one of these worlds. RPGs are above all invitations to travel; some, like Evoland, even take you through the history of RPGs (and the development studio is French). You are immersed in a fantastical world for the duration of your gaming session, and you forget daily worries.

So, ready to experience the greatest adventures of your life?

A small detail to help you choose :

If some RPGs let you vent with a heavy dose of Hack 'n' Slash, combat in some other RPGs unfolds “turn-based.”
This is something particular to the so-called Japanese RPGs (JRPGs); your party lines up in a row, facing the enemy. The members of your party bob on the spot and wait politely their turn to attack (the enemy does the same, don’t worry). It’s a little static, but it was popularized by the mythical Final Fantasy and Pokémon series. Some people hate it, others love it. This combat style had tended to fade in recent years in favor of more dynamic battles, but it is making a comeback, as in [For The King].

Little anecdote: In Japan, on the release of Dragon Quest 3 (in 1988), RPGs were so popular in the country that a record absenteeism rate was recorded in schools. The Japanese government had to pass a law prohibiting game developers from releasing new installments on weekdays!

That shows how much this type of game can carry you away...