The Anatomy of the Console RPG

The road to success for RPGs has been long and painstaking, but within the past decade (more so the past five years) fans of the genre can say that it is firmly established in the fabric of gaming. The standard RPG and its derivatives appeal to millions of gamers, most notably with some franchises as Final Fantasy and now World of Warcraft. However, as the games become more and more complicated gamers that are new to the genre don't full realize what makes up an RPG, thus a clearcut anatomy needs to be laid out for those learn and others to discuss what truly makes up a good role-playing game.

Story The backbone of every role-playing game is its story. The majority of fans will agree that the story is the most important aspect of any RPG, as it serves to keep the gamer playing. Growing attached to characters is one of the common effects of a good story, as many players that become involved in the game generally care about what happens to the character. The attachment is along the lines of people who watch television dramas or movies growing attached to the character in the production. While it is possible for other features to support a game that has a weak story, it generally won't get very far in the genre, critically or otherwise. The epic storyline, which is the most popular, is commonly done incorrectly resulting in a cast of characters that aren't compelling and story twists that are noticeably confusing rather than complex and most of the time are inherently convoluted. With storylines becoming more and more serious, humor has began to surface after an absence from RPGs. The result is a much more crude or dirty humor than previously seen, which has become a favorite amongst many different RPG fans. A good storyline quite simply is the one thing an RPG can't do without.