Genre is getting a little pointless, as so many games today are hybrids anyway. There may be some grand genre definitions (Action, Adventure, RPG, Platformer) but even then in many cases they are useless. There are pure genre games, and this is fine, but it should not need to be forced on everything.

What is Brutal Legend? What is The Cave? Why can not Yakuza be both a beat-em-up and a JRPG - why does it need to be either?

Why not accept the games just as they are?

:slowclap.gif:

Hey, I loved F117A! >:O The sound of the PC Speaker as you cranked up the engines, lol. That was my first flight sim, i think. May have been Jetfighter, I don't remember now.

The beat em up part of yakuza is just the fighting system. There is no timers, no character select screen and all that stuff. It isn't a beat em up. Well it isn't what I think a beat em up is... Street fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tekken.

We could do that thing that modern gamers like to do and label everything in the game and call it a genre. So it could be a casual bowling arcade karaoke go to a brothel beat em up japanese RPG!

Doesn't quite work does it.

*sigh*

*sigh* to you too.

Most new games are a mix of different genres. Take Tomb Raider. First it was a mix ofaction game and jump and run.
Now with the next one comming they added some RPG. If the game can't fit into a genre....maybe a new genre is
created .... like action adventure....real time strategy.
I don't care what they call it if that its interesting and fun to play.

I asked "why" not "what" - In other words - why do you need to compartmentalise Yakuza? What is the point. It has elements of many different genres...

so in this case, yes "casual bowling arcade karaoke go to a brothel beat em up japanese RPG! " may be a better way of doing it then trying to shoehorn it into a pre-defined category where it may or may not fit...

Scrap genres unless it is a genre specific games, just let them be whatever they are. Why not call it for example a "game with elements of JRPG and beat-em-up mechanics"? it does have elements of both, but is not purely either - so why do you have the need to make it fit into either?

What about Double Dragon? Is that one a beat 'em up or is it something else?

Game genres are anything but clear cut.

In the modern gaming industry they slap labels on games that.. barely begin to really cover them.
Deus Ex is called a shooter.
Diablo is called an RPG.

Deus Ex is a cyberpunk action/adventure with character development aspects and a solid story.. yet it becomes a shooter because.. you shoot things.
Diablo is an action hack and slash.. it's got no story to speak of, yet it becomes an RPG by way of.. you leveling up.

Genres are blurred together, and this is magnified by everyone also having slightly different definitions of what X genre is..as such, the industry will never really label games "right".

simulation/building/managerial

Oh stop being soooo serious. Killing my good mood.

I was just playing about... no time for fun this morning it seems.

Sorry but yoy have no idea about what you are talking about. SF, MK, Tekken are not Beat em up games. Final Fight, Punisher, Fatal force Golden Axe, Punisher and Yakuza are.
Yakuza has RPG elements but saying its JRPG and not Beat em up while the brawiling is core part od the game is just a joke.

Of course we accept them, we just use genres as a tool to guide purchases. Someone that isn't interested in first person shooters but likes rpgs might still enjoy Deus Ex, but because it is placed on a shelf next to Call of Duty or Battlefield, not because of the experience it provides but solely due to its camera, that person might never play it.

I don't mean to pigeonhole games, just to better inform the people buying it.
It is a big part of the game, just as any other fighting system in other JRPGs. What I'm saying is that pure Beat'em Up games serve a single purpose: action, but Yakuza puts just as much focus into exploring, sidequesting and presenting a linear story and that means it shares more of the same priorities as JRPGs than Beat'em Ups.