One note I like to point out with an RPG, is everytime you play it, your characters will not be identical at the end of it... unless you cap everything of course.

But try playing through FFIV, get your characters to level 50, then play through again. Their stats will not be identical. Similar yes, but not identical. If you play Zelda, you'll be the same everytime. I guess the idea behind an RPG is there are hidden RNG's in the game. Zelda doesn't really have that. Everytime you do something in an RPG, it's like a dice being rolled. Stat gains, enemy drops etc. In Zelda, everything is predetermined.

So I suppose the difference is, RPG's determine as you go, while non RPG's everything is pre-determined.

THE JACKEL