Okay, first things first: what is <b>role-playing</b> in the context of game des

ign? Does it just mean pretending to be a character?

A crucial concept to understand is that (pencil and paper) RPGs grew out of tabl
etop wargames - turn-based simulations of battles between armies - and a lot of
the early terminology is informed by a contrast between those genres. One of the
main features that differentiated early PnP RPGs from wargames was the rule tha
t each player takes on the <b>role</b> of an individual unit rather than command
ing entire armies. Each role in the players' party was given unique skills, defi
ned by differing statistics and abilities: a fighter is strong and can take heav
y damage, a thief is stealthy and skilled at disarming traps, a cleric can cast
recovery spells, etc. Players were required to work together to overcome their c
haracters' individual weaknesses, enabling the party to progress through a campa
ign.
While in many cases computer RPGs are single-player games that give some control
over all party members to one individual, the concept of role-playing lives on
in this tactical division of abilities between characters or classes. So, yes, F
inal Fantasy 13 features a strong role-playing component: Lightning takes the ro
le of an attacker with some recovery abilities, Vanille mainly focuses on buffin
g and debuffing, and Fang is suited to defense and recovery.
To avoid misconceptions, it's helpful to define role-playing by what it is <i>no
t</i> in addition to what it is. Dialogue choices and wider branching story path
s are not (in themselves) examples of role-playing. This is because unless the b
ranches are locked by stat checks, these choices aren't an expression of a chara
cter's role. In Mass Effect, for example, only the very occasional blue/red dial
ogue choice represent any form of role-playing, by checking that your character
has been developed in the sub-role of a paragon or renegade diplomat (and even t
hese two options are virtually symmetrical). Pretending that your character has
a particular personality that controls their behaviour beyond what the rules mod
el is frequently mistaken as role-playing in the RPG sense, because it is called
'role-playing' in the different domain of drama. In the context of RPGs, this c
oncept is usually called live-action role-playing, or <b>LARPing</b>.
Combat of course needn't necessarily be an expression of role-playing either, bu
t in an abstracted form it provides a density of stat checks that a handful of s
cripted dialogue options can never match. For example, Mass Effect's combat offe
rs constant consequences for a character's offensive, defensive, moveset, etc, a
ll of which depend on the skill trees selected within a particular class.
In spite of its titular prominence, the inclusion of role-playing is not a suffi
cient or primary condition for a videogame to be an RPG. Arguably, it may not ev
en be necessary. Street Fighter 2 can be said to feature role-playing, in the se
nse that each player chooses a character with different abilities. Even the warg
ames that RPGs were defined by their divergence from are much like most computer
RPGs to the extent that the player controls a group of units with differing att
ributes. Moreover, there exist videogames such as Final Fantasy 8 that while gen
erally agreed to be RPGs do not feature any substantial role-playing, as each pa
rty member's stats and abilities are almost identical to those of the others.
There are many others ways in which earlier RPGs differentiated themselves from
wargames. Some, such as elements of <b>exploration</b>, placing individual battl
es in the context of a larger world and influencing the order and conditions und
er which they are fought, represented a significant change in game mechanics. Ot
hers, such as the use of a heroic fantasy setting to justify the magical abiliti
es of spellcasters or superhuman character races, were merely cosmetic. But the
most important was the concept of <b>character advancement</b>.
Character advancement is the idea that party members are not static, but by gain
ing <b>experience</b> though overcoming challenges are eventually able to <b>lev
el-up</b>, or permanently improve their stats and abilities. This binds together
individual battles into a coherent campaign or narrative in which choices made
during a previous session of play have persistent consequences. In a computer RP
G, where control over every character is given to a single player, character adv
ancement, unlike the overcomplex red herring of role-playing, is what differenti
ates party members from units, and hence RPGs from wargames (or strategy games,
as we call them on computers). I think this is the principle we apply when we ma
ke intuitive judgements like 'Famicom Wars = strategy' but 'Fire Emblem = RPG'.
Okay, so what about <b>Action RPGs</b>? An argument sometimes given against the
legitimacy of this as a subgenre is that the player's own manual dexterity shoul
d never be tested in an RPG; instead, his character's dexterity should be modell
ed as a stat. But demanding that physical abilities are represented exclusively
as character stats seems utterly arbitrary when tactical combat decisions are m
ade using the player's own judgement, not a roll against her character's INT. In
deed, the very process of allocating stat points in the first place is a test of
the player's mental attributes. A 'pure' role-playing program that decides a ch
aracter's fate without testing the abilities of a player could not be interactiv
e, except perhaps for offering branches between strictly-balanced paths that can
not 'advantage' or 'disadvantage' the character. It would be a kind of procedura
lly-generated movie.
A better argument against the concept of Action RPGs might be that PnP RPGs are
purely tactical games that don't involve any tests of player skill (unless you c
ount trying to manipulate dice rolls), and therefore computer games that feature
these can't accurately be called RPGs. I don't know of anybody conservative eno
ugh to hold this opinion, but it is much more logically consistent than claiming
the existence of a type of game in which outcomes aren't in any way determined
by the ability of its players.
<b>Borderline Cases</b>
Some Action-Adventure games seem to have very marginal RPG elements. Metal Gear
Solid 1, for example, while lacking any secondary features such as role-playing
or currency seems to have a basic character advancement system. After a boss is
defeated, the player character permanently gains a small amount of additional he
alth. This could be rephrased in these terms: Snake levels up and increases his
HP stat.
However, MGS's apparent character advancement has no function because both its c
onditions and effects are scripted. The 'scripted effect' part is easily explain
ed: Snake always gains a constant amount of HP rather than any other kind of sta
t; neither player choice nor any kind of random effect has any influence on the
size or type of the stat gain. 'Scripted condition' is also a simple concept by
itself: Snake always gains stats after beating a boss, the same point at which t
he next section of the campaign is unlocked; the player cannot attempt to clear
sections or gain stat increases out of a single set order. The slightly less obv
ious result of these two properties in combination is that the player character'
s stats remain fixed relative to the point in the campaign he is at*. This is ch
aracter advancement in name only, as the exact same game balance could be repres
ented without global stat changes by placing enemies with proportionally less-da
maging ammunition in the sections of the game after bosses, or closely approxima
ted by any number of other minor rebalances.
How could we bring MGS up to the 'minimum standard' to qualify as an RPG? Well,
if a game's character advancement system has <i>either</i> non-scripted conditio
ns <i>or</i> non-scripted effects, it begins to have a meaningful effect on game
play.
Vagrant Story is an example of a system with scripted conditions but non-scripte
d effects. As in MGS, the player character only levels up after defeating a boss
**, but the type and quantity of stat improvement depends on player choice and s
kill, with possibilities ranging from a small increase in HP to a major Strength
boost. Even though the campaign is linear, gameplay outcomes at any particular
point differs depending on the type of character that the player has built up.
For the Frog, the Bell Tolls is an example of a character advancement system wit
h scripted effects but non-scripted conditions. Like MGS, the player character's
health increases by a fixed amount after levelling up. However, quests can be t
ackled in different orders, with some requiring more resources or being impossib
le to beat with different amounts of HP. The player's ability to progress again
depends on the character built up through earlier choices.
Another means of implementing non-scripted conditions is to make some experience
rewards repeatable. In Final Fantasy 4, characters' stats increase by scripted
amounts when they level up, and the structure is mainly linear. However, experie
nce can be farmed indefinitely by repeatedly defeating enemies, meaning that cha
racter abilities can differ at a specific point during the campaign, again makin
g character advancement meaningful.
So, to make character advancement matter in MGS - to make it an RPG - we could e
ither give the player a choice of stats to advance on level up (e.g. you could c
hoose to increase running speed or punch damage rather than health) or allow bos
ses to fought out of order, so that each player's Snake fights each with differi
ng levels of maximum health depending on his past choices.
To take the TC's example of Symphony of the Night, I don't think there's any amb
iguity about its Action RPG status. There are multiple character advancement sys
tems, and while their effects are scripted, they remain meaningful because their
conditions are not, due to both a non-linear structure and repeatable experienc
e opportunities. Backing this up, there are also secondary RPG elements such as
equipment, exploration and (IIRC) currency.
* This is a very slight exaggeration: occasionally you have the option to return
to the previous room with your health increased. But there is no real applicati
on for this.
** I am over-simplifying: a few bosses can be fought out of order or skipped, an
d there are very rare items that boost stats.