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Games that break genre definitions

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eternalNoob Ded from yer mum Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
Ded
#1: Dec 27th 2011 at 8:00:45 PM

Do any of you guys know about games that destroy genre conventions?

Games like Portal, and such

edited 27th Dec '11 8:01:25 PM by eternalNoob

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feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#2: Dec 27th 2011 at 8:23:00 PM

Dreamfall is an unwieldy hybrid of adventure, stealth, and beat-em-up, unfortunately too ambitious for its time and its budget. Batman Arkham Asylum is the same combination, but it actually works (possibly because it emphasized the stealth and combat, while Dreamfall emphasized the adventure elements.)

Overlord and Pikmin seem to be the same genre, but I'm not sure what genre exactly that would be. (Perhaps they're a form of real-time strategy, like Brutal Legend with less resource management?)

edited 27th Dec '11 8:23:12 PM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
TheatricalAndProud Since: Nov, 2011
#3: Dec 27th 2011 at 8:46:52 PM

I like to call it Zerg-spammers. Its simple and tells you everything you need to know.

Gravity Daze. I've seen it called everything from an RPG to a platformer, and yet it doesn;'t fit in anything.

edited 27th Dec '11 9:05:36 PM by TheatricalAndProud

SparkyLurkdragon Sophisticated as Hell from Southeastern Oregon, USA Since: Jun, 2009 Relationship Status: Get out of here, STALKER
#4: Dec 27th 2011 at 8:58:57 PM

Nanaaa na na na na na nana na na Katamari Damacy...

edited 27th Dec '11 9:00:00 PM by SparkyLurkdragon

CTM Only Sane Man from Connecticut Since: Jan, 2010
#5: Dec 27th 2011 at 9:16:56 PM

Flower. Just Flower. I wish I could add some sort of explanation, but I really just can't.

Easy street has no parking signs.
Tropernovan A Peanut Professor Since: Nov, 2010
A Peanut Professor
#6: Dec 27th 2011 at 9:36:36 PM

Most puzzle games employ long single-player sessions, strategic block placement and keeping the screen as empty of blocks as possible.

Meteos, despite being a puzzle game, does none of those things.

edited 27th Dec '11 9:36:57 PM by Tropernovan

Hey, buddy! Play this game!
Sabertooth1000000000 Sabertooth from Land of the Livid Dead Since: Jul, 2010
Sabertooth
#7: Dec 27th 2011 at 9:40:33 PM

What exactly is The Legend of Zelda? And please don't say "action-adventure". That applies to tons of things.

edited 27th Dec '11 9:41:04 PM by Sabertooth1000000000

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INUH Since: Jul, 2009
#8: Dec 27th 2011 at 9:53:47 PM

It's a game in which the primary mechanics are fighting stuff and collecting items that let you advance. That's what "action-adventure" means.

Infinite Tree: an experimental story
Kostya from Everywhere Since: Apr, 2011 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#9: Dec 27th 2011 at 10:18:21 PM

[up][up] A Metroidvania with puzzle elements? That's the best I can come up with and it still doesn't fit.

AweStriker RM/8 from a moving point. Since: Jul, 2010
RM/8
#10: Dec 27th 2011 at 10:33:13 PM

Knights In The Nightmare.

It's a turn-based real-time Bullet Hell Strategy RPG.

"Only now, after being besieged by a flock of talking ponies, did he really understand what he'd lost. "
Zeromaeus Mighty No. 51345 from Neo Arcadia Since: May, 2010
Mighty No. 51345
#11: Dec 27th 2011 at 10:45:16 PM

Most games defy strict genre definitions.
Call of Duty has become a First Person Shooter/RPG mix

.
A number of games mix platforming into their game-play, but there are few strict platformers anymore.
What the hell are games like Katamari Damacy?

You actually kind of have to look for strict genre adherence.

Mega Man fanatic extraordinaire
NamelessFragger Since: Sep, 2010
#12: Dec 27th 2011 at 10:48:21 PM

Rocket Jockey. We decided on Vehicular Combat, which it does fit in a sense, but most people think of Weaponized Cars and such in that genre, not...rocket bikes with grappling cables rife with Videogame Cruelty Potential.

Oh, and come to think of it, we have a trope for this.

edited 27th Dec '11 10:49:25 PM by NamelessFragger

TheatricalAndProud Since: Nov, 2011
#13: Dec 28th 2011 at 1:44:20 AM

What exactly is The Legend of Zelda? And please don't say "action-adventure". That applies to tons of things.
Yahtzee called it a hybrid Sandbox-Metroidvania.

Of course, he also called Skyward Sword so bad it made him question his sense of reality, so you likely won't follow the link.

Falco Since: Mar, 2011
#14: Dec 28th 2011 at 6:08:34 AM

Is Mass Effect a RPG or merely a TPS? No one knows!

"You want to see how a human dies? At ramming speed." - Emily Wong.
JonnasN from Porto, Portugal Since: Jul, 2012
#15: Dec 28th 2011 at 7:40:17 AM

Zelda is an adventure game. If you don't want to call it an "action-adventure" game, fine, but adventure games are abundant, and a valid genre ("RPG" should be a simple variant of this genre, but that's a can of worms that's best left closed)

Ghost Trick fits this thread much more.

honorius from The Netherlands Since: Jun, 2010
#16: Dec 28th 2011 at 4:19:53 PM

LA Noire. It would be a detective tv series if it wasn't a game. I'd say a mix of sandbox (its rockstar afterall), puzzle game with some rpg elements.

If any question why we died/ Tell them, because our fathers lied -Rudyard Kipling
metaphysician Since: Oct, 2010
#17: Dec 29th 2011 at 8:39:45 AM

[up][up][up][up][up] No it hasn't. Just because the multiplayer has a rank system that grants benefits does not make it an RPG. Its single player mode has precisely zero features that would even qualify as "RPG elements."

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DragonGeyser The Chew Toy of Gaming from a computer, DUH. Since: Dec, 2010
The Chew Toy of Gaming
#18: Dec 29th 2011 at 11:07:55 AM

There's Little Big Planet, where there are lots of Genre-Busting user-created levels like, say, a Shoot 'Em Up, while the main story is usually a 2.5D platformer.

Lampshade Hanging: It's a lifestyle.
NamelessFragger Since: Sep, 2010
#19: Dec 29th 2011 at 1:49:51 PM

[up][up][up][up] I actually considered Ghost Trick to be more of a Puzzle Game about Rube Goldberging your way toward preventing someone's death, complete with a really damn good plot and vaguely point-and-click adventure-ish navigation to further said plot. (Seriously, play it already if you haven't, and try not to spoil yourself. It actually made me go back and play through the whole Ace Attorney series just to see how good Shu Takumi is at writing video game plots.)

Oh, yeah, another game that hasn't been mentioned yet: LSD Dream Emulator. Exactly What It Says on the Tin, and certainly no typical game genre I know of.

KuroFox Forum lurking fox from under a rock Since: Jun, 2010
Forum lurking fox
#20: Jan 8th 2012 at 1:45:43 AM

The N-Gage sleeper hit Reset Generation was an "online 4 player strategy puzzle game" or advertised as one.

Oh, and it was avaialble to play on the games website for free on PC and both PC and mobile phones could connect to the same game. Matches had 2 to 4 players.

You picked a hero, all with a special ability that could be used after a certain time. The heores were all homages to known video games. Such as The Plumber, The Hedgehog, Dr. Lovebomber, The Level 50 Elf, The Agressor and so on. Yeah, it's a bit of a weird game, very light hearted and doesn't take itself seriously.

Each round had 3 phases: dropping blocks, firing cannons and moving the hero. The objective is to capture other players princesses, while defending your own. So it was sort of a mix of Turn-Based Strategy and DOTA.

Blocks are dropped simultaniously after everyone selects where they drop it (but if you took to long to choose you get skipped) and acted as "turf" which gave the player advantages on their own and disadvantages on anothers. Overlaying blocks between 2 or more players get destroyed, which can be used as a defensive tactic to restric others control of the field. The blocks are shaped like the ones in Tetris.

Cannons can be used to destroy blocks and items, but not harm players. Much like dropping blocks, all players pick two spots to fire at and all cannons fire simultaniously. Conflicting cannon balls or ones that drop on heroes get rebounced into a random spot, up to three rebounces when they fall off the map. It was also possible to shoot both your own cannon balls into the same spot to preserve an item you had your eyes on!

Movement phase had you move your hero and everyone took their turn in a clockwise order. They could move farther and had stronger attack and defense on their own turf. They could use an item on the field by picking it up (you cannot carry items, only use them and they disappeared from the map after 2 rounds of un-use), attack other characters and of course run to other players castles to steal the princess! You needed to get her to your own castle to eliminate the other player, of course. And players could only move and then do another action, so no killing the other player first and running home with their princess.

edited 8th Jan '12 1:46:58 AM by KuroFox

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rrw Since: Jun, 2010
onyhow Too much adorableness from Land of the headpats Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Squeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Too much adorableness
#22: Jan 8th 2012 at 4:44:22 AM

AI War Fleet Command...best Guess is 4x RTS Tower Defense...

edited 8th Jan '12 4:45:12 AM by onyhow

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honorius from The Netherlands Since: Jun, 2010
#23: Jan 8th 2012 at 4:47:32 AM

[up][up] You can't break genre definitions if there weren't any genre definitions at the time of release.

If any question why we died/ Tell them, because our fathers lied -Rudyard Kipling
Firebert That One Guy from Somewhere in Illinois Since: Jan, 2001
That One Guy
#24: Jan 9th 2012 at 10:48:50 PM

Knights In The Nightmare is a fun little blend of RPG and Shoot 'Em Up.

And I'm not sure whether Trenched is more TPS or tower defence.

edited 9th Jan '12 10:49:01 PM by Firebert

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Hydronix I'm an Irene! from TV Tropes Since: Apr, 2010
I'm an Irene!
#25: Jan 9th 2012 at 10:52:17 PM

I'd say Quest 64 does something no other rpg does. No equipment, money, no way to replenish items outside of enemies/getting one at a time, turn-based where you can move around completely, and an utter lack of a huge amount of cutscenes.

Quest 64 thread

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