Rockin' Ranger
Member
The more these comparisons crop up, the more I think classifying Soulsian games as "RPGs" is a mistake. They've seriously got more in common with ARPGs (Diablo) than they do proper RPGs (Witcher); the former are all about exploration, builds, progression, and loot, with the barest focus on storytelling or roleplaying. That split is basically the yin and yang of the broadly-defined genre called "RPG."
I was thinking about this earlier after seeing Rock, Paper, Shotgun had tweeted out their top RPG list from last year that had Dark Souls #1. It felt weird to me even though I wouldn't necessarily argue with someone who says Dark Souls is better than the other games on the list. But if someone were to ask me what my favorite RPGs Dark Souls isn't one that would really come to mind. Obviously having role playing elements to it, I personally consider it more of an action game.
The same kind of goes for System Shock 2 with how it is an FPS/RPG/Horror/Adventure game that doesn't sit quite in a single one of those categories for me.