Genre name for a specific game

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Pokun
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Re: Genre name for a specific game

Post by Pokun »

Hmm I can't really think of too many games that doesn't fall into any of the usual genres and also isn't unique enough to make up it's own genre. You are right that these Zelda-style bird-view sword-fighting features are typically associated with action-RPGs, but at the same time they are not what makes an RPG.
I think that's one of the problems here. I guess Zelda basically invented the concept by building onto Hydelide, which in turn was an attempt at making a real-time variant of Black Onyx (a conventional RPG), and marrying it with the bird-view sword-fighting in Tower of Druaga but also improving it further. The concept was then used by many other action-RPGs but not much outside that thanks to the fantasy-RPG-theme basically used in all these mentioned games.


It sounds like your game is kind of similar to Ikki, Ninja Princess, Valkyria no Densetsu, Fray and perhaps even Murasame-jou, though these games are leaning to being hybrid shooting and hack-'n'-slash (shoot-'em-slash? hack-'em-up?), and some of them features platform jumping (from a bird-view) or spells instead of weapons in the case of Fray.

The Zelda: Four Swords series might be closer yet? They all basically plays like A Link to the Past as far as controls goes, but they replaced the RPG elements with linear arcade action.


So far I can only say that hack-'n'-slash will probably be the closest thing to a sub-genre for your game, not because elements of that genre are prominent but rather more because it lacks prominent elements of other genres.
But if there are not a ton of enemies attacking you like in a conventional hack-'n'-slash or shooting game, no focused fights like in a fighting game, no mind-boggling puzzle solving like in a puzzle game and no exploration like in an RPG I think the question is where the challenge in the game lies? What kind of problems do the player have to solve to get good at the game and beat it?
It's maybe not something that can be answered before the game has started to shape up, but I think that might be the key to figuring out what genre it belongs to.
Oziphantom
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Re: Genre name for a specific game

Post by Oziphantom »

seems "Brave fencer musashi" has some levels that match this, although it is an action RPG.
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DRW
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Re: Genre name for a specific game

Post by DRW »

Oziphantom wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 3:35 am vertical scrolling - action - hack'n'slash type game play with a liner level and boss at the end. "Arcade Action "
Quite simple, but maybe the word "arcade" actually accomplishes that people don't think of an action-RPG.

Pokun wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 4:05 pm It sounds like your game is kind of similar to Ikki
I don't know. It looks like this guy has to walk back and forth to find some stuff to get to the next level. In my game, it's about getting to the end of the level.
Pokun wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 4:05 pm Ninja Princess, Valkyria no Densetsu, Fray
Yes, they already come pretty close to what I have in mind for my game. Except for the towns and NPCs standing around.
Pokun wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 4:05 pm and perhaps even Murasame-jou
Definitely not. If this is like my game, I could compare my game to "Zelda 1" directly.
Pokun wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 4:05 pm and some of them features platform jumping (from a bird-view)
Yeah, I explicitly do not want the characters in my game to jump.
Pokun wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 4:05 pm or spells instead of weapons in the case of Fray.
We also have this. We have sword/axe as the primary weapon, but you can also collect some secondary weapons where some of them are magical: Fireballs, arrows, boomerangs, homing weapons. Then some items who act immediately (screen clear, enemy freezing) and some other stuff.
But you can just carry one secondary weapon at once. And you lose it with certain conditions. (I.e. similar to the item handling in "Contra".)
Pokun wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 4:05 pm The Zelda: Four Swords series might be closer yet? They all basically plays like A Link to the Past as far as controls goes, but they replaced the RPG elements with linear arcade action.
Which game do you mean? In the video I saw, I still see pretty much an open world, towns, NPCs etc.
Pokun wrote: Tue May 31, 2022 4:05 pm But if there are not a ton of enemies attacking you like in a conventional hack-'n'-slash or shooting game, no focused fights like in a fighting game, no mind-boggling puzzle solving like in a puzzle game and no exploration like in an RPG I think the question is where the challenge in the game lies? What kind of problems do the player have to solve to get good at the game and beat it?
It depends what you mean with "ton of enemies"? In "Commando", there are often six characters on the screen at once plus a good bunch of projectiles, constantly respawning if you defeat the current ones. I guess we'll have this as well. So, the primary challenge is indeed the fighting stuff.

But when I think of hack'n'slash, I think of 20 and more opponents. Whole armies that gang up on you. And probably also a collision detection where you don't take simple touch damage, but where only the actual attacks hurt you (like in beat'em ups), so that you can rush into the midst of the enemy army without their mere presence having you lose energy.
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Pokun
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Re: Genre name for a specific game

Post by Pokun »

I've only played the first Four Swords (a multiplayer mini-game in the GBA port of A Link to the Past) and Four Swords+ for Gamecube. The latter one does indeed feature talkable NPCs and towns (or more like urban areas as part of the levels), but that doesn't mean much. It still plays like the first Four Swords which means linear arcade action levels and with limited to no backtracking possible, there is no open-world. It's mainly made for multiplayer where you compete for a high-score though.

Yeah Ikki features backtracking (and you go around the level picking up certain items to proceed) but is otherwise quite similar to Ninja Princess and with less hectic shooting to the point that I'm not sure I want to call it a shooting game.

It sounds more and more like your game is a hack-'n'-slash to me, although that is a problematic genre name and I don't really like it. Shooting games and hack-'n'-slash games tends to be hectic, but there are some less hectic ones that I still wouldn't call anything but a shooting game. Pippols for MSX comes to mind, and old systems like these could hardly handle 20 enemies. Commando is definitely a shooting game.

Your description of hack-'n'-slash sounds like a beat-'em-up with medieval weapons to me, like Golden Axe, Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom or Guardian Heroes. I said earlier that fighting games usually uses nunchaku, bou and knuckle dusters, but thinking about it some more that can't be right. I think it's things like the focused and typically unskippable fights and the lack of touch-damage that makes up the fighting game genre (including both the beat-'em-up and VS-fighting sub-genres). It has been there since Takashi Nishiyama invented the genre with Spartan X. Melee weapons are important for the theme, but medieval weapons can't be excluded and even pistols and other ranged weapons sometimes appears.

I recognize that hack-'n'-slash is sometimes used for the Golden Axe type of beat-'em-ups, but I've also heard the term for about any game where you fight a lot with a sword, including traditional turn-based RPGs, so I feel it should possibly only be used with games that plays like a shooting game but the bullets are replaced by sharp melee weapons. It's still a bit of a problematic genre name though, because that would exclude any game where you use blunt weapons or fight unarmed but otherwise plays the same way as a hack-'n'-slash. The problems of defining this genre is why I don't like the name much. :(
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