Um... Are we talking about the same games here? Ys 3 and 6 are action RPG's, origin is a dungeon based action RPG, 4 and 7 are open world RPG's and 8 is a really big open world RPG. Have not played 9 yet. They are definitely RPG's.

The action part is enough for me to disqualify the Ys games from being RPG.

An action RPG is a type of RPG. Quit being a purist about this. They're called ARPG's. Just like SRPG's are strategy role-playing games. You're splitting hairs for the hell of it and it isn't amusing nor funny.

Ah, so Snatcher it is. (I suppose you are familiar with this game too? After all, it's an adventure game, made in Japan, by none other than Hideo Kodjima)

One of Kurokami's screenshots shows an in-game menu with "Ingredients". So, you don't use those directly?

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Judging by the dev's answers this game has enough interactivity and exploration to be considered an adventure game.

Unlike certain Telltale games. XD

To me, an essential defining feature of the RPG genre is that the outcome of an action is determined by the character's abilities, not the player's. In particular, hitting the enemy or avoiding the enemy's attack is dependent on the character's abilities (and typically on a random dice roll), not the player's.

The games generally called "action RPGs" are not like this, and are therefore not RPGs by my definition.

Also. as for a couple of the Ys games you mentioned:
* Ys 3 is similar to Zelda 2, a game which I don't consider to be an RPG either. (XP, a world map, and towns, are not enough to make a game an RPG, and Ys 3 only has like 1.5 of these features.)
* "Ys 4" does not uniquely specify a game, as there were 2 games released with that title. (And that's not counting that Memories game, which is supposedly a retelling of that, much like Felghana is a retelling of 3.)

"... I don't consider..."

Ahem. I have to inform you that 1) You do not represent all RPG fans on the planet and 2) You do not get to make that call and speak for them. Falcom is a very popular company for their RPG games and you might even get into fucking fights with some of these people (and I do mean fist fights as they are kinda ravenous about these games) if you try to say any of what you just said to them. Regardless of whether or not you think Ys 3 Wanderers is an RPG or not, the new breed of Falcom gamers feel a bit different. You know, the people who started with Cold Steel. Those games got stupidly popular in the genre and you would have a hard time convincing legions of loyal fans that they're not playing an RPG because you said so. Last I've checked, your opinion does not represent the majority of people who love these games and rack up hours playing them. Tales Of Arise is quickly being considered the best JRPG of the year by these people and regardless of the fact that it is an ARPG, there are people who would probably put you in the hospital for saying otherwise.

It sounds like a threat, but this is from observation. You have no idea how crazy the Falcom community gets. Jesus, the waifu fights. It can get really rough. These people talk about these games almost in a religious aspect. I've never seen anything like it before. You're free to have your own opinion on games, but don't rock the Falcom apple cart. Don't get me wrong, some are pretty cool, but others are ravenous about these games. If you dare tried to tell them they weren't playing an RPG, they might get a bit irate.

The behavior in there makes me not get into such a hurry to finish Trails In The Sky FC.

By "Cold Steel", do you mean "Trails of Cold Steel"? If so, than that game might actually meet my definition of an RPG, even if the Ys games do not.

Also, whether or not a game is an RPG has no bearing on whether the game is good or not. There are some horrible RPGs out there (Hoshi wo Miru Hito comes to mind, as does the NES adaptation of Ultima 5), and there are some great non-RPGs as well (Celeste comes to mind, but there's many other examples, like many of the Mario games).

(Note that there are RPGs that I consider bad, like Final Fantasy 7 and the Baldur's Gate series, that other people like, but at least those games are *playable* to a decent extent, whereas the RPGs I mentioned in the last paragraph arguably aren't really playable, and are pretty much universally considered bad by *everyone* who has played them; one of them even got into AGDQ's Awful Games block one year.)

After reading your post and thinking about this, I did some digging and was happy to find this video that gets into the history of VNs and adventure games in Japan, specifically at the timestamp I've linked:

https://youtu.be/7wOtv-J7tOI?t=185

He also talks about the distinctions between western vs Japanese RPGs.

So yeah, thanks for prompting the history lesson. Nice to broaden my understanding of one of my favorite genres.
Hope this enlightens others too :D

It might be a "visual novel adventure" but it's plain ridiculous to try and sell it as an "adventure game". I know what an adventure game is, thank you.

It would be nice if the game was multi-platform. Just saying.

In addition to Snatcher, Hideo also made Policenauts. That one takes place in space, where the protagonist and his buddy cop try to disarm an explosive in a amusingly tense fashion. Unfortunately, Snatcher (Eng) is exclusive to the Genesis CD, while Policenauts only received unofficial translations for the PS1 and Sega Saturn. You can watch the videos below for some trivia, and to get a grasp of the aesthetic of the games.


Region Locked - Policenauts

Policenauts - Censored Gaming

Should you happen to enjoy these games, it might be worth looking into making a deal with Konami to release official ports - JAST can use Hideo Kojima's name as promotional material, along with having a solid pair of VNs to offer. These games feel abandoned, it might be possible to pry them out of Konami's paws in one fashion or another.