Video game genres are one of the few fields in which I’m not a prescriptivist. But survivorlikes only aren’t called RPGs because Vampire Survivor is embossed on the whole subgenre. The suite of mechanics rose to high prominence on the back of one game (or franchise, in the case of Soulslikes) rather than refined through years of experimentation.

We aren’t going to get more, simple names unless they’re similarly derived from a single, famous ancestor like your “Soulslike”. But you can always just be descriptive. Diablo/PoE are “top-down gear-grind RPGs”; it’s jargony but all subgenres are.

I’ve never seen Horizon Zero Dawn called an ARPG but that does seem to be the consensus. I’ve always considered games like that or new God of War to be “adventure games”.

Don’t tempt them. Or they’ll keep releasing Deltarune(-derivative clones) for the next 5 years

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