What I mean to ask is whether a game has to be of the visual novel/interactive fiction genre, or if it can more akin to a character driven RPG where dialogue between characters is a major part of the game, but not the game's sole focus. I was thinking it would be fun to make a game where the dialogue between characters is handled not in the standard 4 choice system, but as something more akin to a turn based battle.

Hi there,

The game needs to be of the Interactive Fiction genre, though we take the wide definition of the concept (needs to be interactive and focus on the text).
Because of the theme/restriction of the jam, dialogue/conversion has to be the game's focus. Though you can choose how text is displayed on the screen or how player can interact with the text (as long as the work can still be considered IF).
Formatting player's options for the conversation to feel like a "turn-based battle" could be interesting indeed.