Glossary

Acronyms

AU: Australia

EU: Europe

JRPG: Japanese Role-Playing Game

JP: Japan

NA: North America

PAL: Refers to a region of countries once covered by a television publication. It included most of Europe and Africa, as well as some parts of Asia, Oceania, and South America. For a full list of these, click here

RPG: Role-Playing Game

WW: Worldwide

Definitions

Action-Role Playing Game: A subgenre of Role-Playing games, usually means that the combat will be real-time and the game will paced a little faster than most RPGs

Grid System: This refers to the view the player will have of the battlefield when in combat. A grid system will place all controlled characters and opponents on a grided board, where each individual "piece" may take up one or multiple spaces. It is similar to grided board games in that the characters/creatures will then move across the grid a certain amount of spaces to advance and do battle, the amount and type of movement often dependent on things such as character class.

Japanese Role-Playing Game: One of two main forms of RPG. The Japanese style RPG usually has the player in the role of an already created main character, who travels with a band of other party members that are met gradually along the way. The narrative of the game is set in stone and any choices the play makes have minimal to no effect on it outside perhaps dialog differences in character interactions.

Monster Raising: A niche genre in which the player character will collect or befriend creatures that then become accessible to use in battle, sometimes first after having encountered them in a battle. Often the creatures will function similarly to party members of other RPGs in that they will also require gaining levels and experience. Additional features may include caring for the creatures such as feeding or playing with them.

Real-Time: This refers to the main battle system of the video game. In a real-time battle system, all actions between the player and the computer are happening instantaneously. The actions the player choses will be acted upon in the game immediately, and the computer opponents are programmed with certain sequences and even specific responses to these actions depending on the complexity of the coding.

Role-Playing Game: One of two main forms of RPG. This usually refers to more western styles of RPG, where players may have the option to create a character to play as or make visual adjustments to a predetermined main character. These RPGs may or may not also have branching storylines based on the players decisions

Tactical RPG: Also called strategy RPG or simulation RPG in Japan. This subgenre often requires the player to be keeping track of many more characters than a usual RPG, but an even greater number of opponents that must be defeated, as well as other factors such as weather or terrain. Very often these are games in which the play controls squadrons or armies.

Turn-Based: This refers to the main battle system of the video game. In a turn-based system each character/creature/object on the field of battle will "take turns" completing their actions until the battle is over. How the turn order is decided differs between systems, but often relies on stat related to speed of movement. Most turn-based systems also often freeze time between turns, allowing the player as much time to decide on their actions as they please, but there are some exceptions.