Quote Originally Posted by Bolivar View Post
Some people say that the statistical basis for the characters is the glue that holds the genre together, so while Zelda, on its face, seems no less an RPG than, say, Demon's Souls, it still doesn't meet this criteria.
Sure it does. Take A Link to the Past. You increase Health (pieces of Heart), damage (4 upgrades to his sword), magic (first when you get the latern and then through the "curse"), and defense (his various tunics). Those are stats. Maybe Link's character sheet is less convoluted or pure-number based than some, but they are still stats, and you are still upgrading them.