Bethesda alone.
Wizardry, Ultima… Rogue?
The entire genre of RPGs exists because of geek-ass weirdos on American mainframes in the late 1970s. I got nerd-sniped wondering what could’ve come out on Channel F, and every trope was established and waiting before literally the first proper games console.
Give me like 15 years.
Wasn’t Gary Gygax American?
Intentionally lists RPGs not made in US
“Why doesn’t my list have RPGs made in the US?!?”
ಠ_ŕ˛
Elder scrolls, Fallout, Red Dead Redemption, and Mass Effect would all like a word
RDR isn’t an RPG, it’s an action-adventure game.
I concur on the rest.
Isn’t RDR exactly as much of an RPG as Mass Effect. Neither gives you any real control over the main story, though I guess Mass Effect makes you think you do better. The sidequests are about as open, and neither do you get to choose your character.
I don’t know if I do actually think RDR is an RPG, but that opinion is shared for Mass Effect, The Witcher, and so many others. They’ve taken the ability point systems from RPGs, but they’re still action adventure games with RPG mechanics.
I consider Mass Effect and The Witcher to be action RPGs, more similar to games like Ys and Diablo than games like Elder Scrolls or Final Fantasy. The focus of those games are less on your character development (stats and whatnot) and more on the action, but the character development does matter quite a bit.
However, in RDR, your character development really doesn’t matter at all, at least in the first, and I’m guessing the second as well.
So:
- Mass Effect - ARPG
- The Witcher - ARPG
- RDR - action-adventure
I don’t think those genres are mutually exclusive. I haven’t played RDR1 but RDR2 is definitely an Action-Adventure RPG. You level up Arthur’s stats throughout the game and can choose different moral paths that affect the ending. That’s playing a role.
Likewise, I haven’t played RDR2 (started, but never got past the first 30 min or so), but RDR1 is pretty much just GTA in the wild west. You can buy stuff (like GTA), but I don’t recall any stats to speak of, it’s very much an action-adventure. Wikipedia claims RDR2 is an action-adventure, so I assume it’s closer to the Yakuza series in terms of character customization than RPGs, and Yakuza games are very much action-adventure (despite having some skills to level up).