I am in the same boat as Aifos on this.
In my experience the term ‘action’ RPG is loosely used to refer to any action game that has heavy RPG elements, or any RPG that doesn’t use the mechanics of turn-based combat.
If I want a fast paced game I will play a hack n slash, not an RPG. For me an RPG is supposed to be played slowly (at least the first time around) because the emphasis is on immersion, choice, and exploration. Regardless of how the combat works. Spreadsheets of ‘the best’ character builds are for MMOs and -blam!- that attitude.
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Weirdly enough only recently I've found people calling other games arpgs than the classic diablo-likes. Like five years ago I didn't hear anyone call Skyrim or Dark Souls arpg games, it was strictly a label for Diablo/PoE/Titan Quest etc.
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I'm with Aifos and Cultmeister. I remember [i]Secret of Mana[/i] being called an "ARPG" to differentiate it from the turn-based RPGs of the time. I'd always heard [i]Diablo[/i] and its ilk referred to as "dungeon crawlers".
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But Secret of Mana is a real time isometric game with rpg mechanics which is what my understanding of arpg means even if it's more in the style of a jrpg and not a western style game. Dungeon Crawl is what I attribute to Might and Magic, Orcs and Elves and similar possible isometric games with crossing to Roguelikes etc. Honestly dungeon crawl has been way too broad of a term to ever describe a genre completely.
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[i]Secret of Mana[/i] was top-down. That said, third person would have been impossible on a console back in 1993. Heck, regular RPGs such as Final Fantasy and Phantasy Star were also top down, but we still consider their modern 3D counterparts in the same genre, despite the perspective change. I remember games like [i]Ocarina of Time[/i] and [i]Alundra 2[/i] being called ARPGs when they came out, as they were the successors to games like [i]Secret of Mana[/i]. And honestly, "'dungeon crawler' is too broad a term" seems an odd claim to make while trying to very strictly define what it means to be an "action role-playing game" .