I agree, honestly. I also like specifications, but I don’t like the game to be inaccurately specified. I feel that it’s better if an umbrella term is used in the title instead of a more specific fake one, and then a short description describes how the game is played or what kind of experience I should expect in several words, instead of a single term. That, alongside screenshots, let’s plays, and all sort of resources are plenty help to decide if I should buy a game or not.

RPG is used for games where you take the role of a character, and it should somewhat tell the story of either the character or the world around it. That alone differentiates some games from others like rocket league or fifa, where there’s no story, you don’t take the role of nobody that matters, what matters is the gameplay.

Hack&slash was a term used for games where you killed tons of monsters with weapons, and then Diablo started using the ARPG term to say that besides killing tons of monsters, you also get to enjoy a story in a particular ambiance. Dark Souls games also fit the description where it’s more about the action than reading, but feel like a completely different genre, right? no isometric, itemisation is vastly different, the gameplay loop is completely different… This is why just reading ARPG means nothing to me nowadays, I have to dig into the description anyway.

Another example, is “Ys origins” an ARPG or a JRPG? both? It has fast paced combat where you kill tons of mobs and a story, but it has a very japanese style, however, JRPGs are being known for having to manage a party and usually turn based combat, sooo? idk, a 3 line paragraph and 3 5 second clips would be much better than just a term for me.