glad you enjoyed it, thank you for the read.

aw really? I thought the picture was cute and funny. Not like Zelda not being an RPG makes it worse or anything, it's just its genre.

Base stats means numbers, Link starts with lower health and damage but those are the results of base stats and not the base stats themselves. God of War has the same set up and actually uses an experience like system to increase his skills, but it's no more an RPG than Zelda is.

I can't agree with your definition of RPG because I've never not played a role in a game. You're always playing some kind of role explicitly or not so you can't use that to define a genre that isn't supposed to include every single game ever.

I think the example shows that you can't just look at the skin of a game and call it an RPG. That's why I love the example, if all you did was glance at Zelda you'd see a lot of what you're used to seeing in RPGs but none in Tokyo Jungle, but when you look at the mechanics, which is how genres are/should be defined then you'll see that Tokyo Jungle fits all the criteria while Zelda doesn't really fit any.

I grew up playing table-top RPGs, in addition to playing video game RPGs, the latter of which all borrowed from table-top systems (like Dungeons & Dragons) for the inspiration of their creation. I have to agree with Torillian's assessment that stats are a fundamental characteristic of a RPG. Sure, link gains abilities and strengths as he progresses through the game, but as Torillian pointed out, so does Kratos, and God of War isn't an RPG, but both have RPG elements.

I think the identifier RPG can be a bit misleading, considering in every game from Final Fantasy to Mario, you are assuming and playing out the role of a character, and they are all games. RPGs also have other identifying characteristics, though, like exploration, quests, items, inventory, and so on. Zelda has many of these, but lacks experience and stats in their truest form. Link gains life through acquiring "hearts" during his journey, but the rest of his ability boosts come from the acquisition of items, instead of an evolution of his base skill or attributes.

It's what most IP holders do.