Any game that makes you play a predefined character is not a traditional RPG to begin with.
It is an important distinction, and necessary, because absolutely everything can be considered a RPG if you make the argument of "playing a role", it's ambiguous, and unnecessary, we have had a definition of a RPG for decades now such as with tabletop RPGs, and TTRPGs is where video game RPGs originate from too.
At bare minimum you must be able to create and define over time a character, and that defined character has an impact on the world because the world is reactive to your character.
To give an example, one cannot call Fallout 4 an RPG, because it has a predefined character and history, and the world always has the same, static, reactivity to that predefined character's history (i.e your son, that you're a father/mother). There is absolutely nothing as a player you can do to change this, and this is why it's not a RPG.
And this similarity with Fallout 4 for example is a shared with so many so called RPGs, and an issue with JRPGs being called RPGs as well.
The extent of how well and in-depth you can roleplay is determined by the design of the game. An RPG is a sum of its parts from this point on, but a game cannot be an RPG by taking one or a few of these parts, like progression, but leaving out the important role/character definition by the player. It is a prerequisite.
Regarding JRPGs, Makoto Yoshizumi (Tales series)
said this their JRPGs, which I think is true and it helps answer what a RPG is, a JRPG is, and a "RPG" is.
I don't think of the games we make as role-playing games (RPGs). You don't enjoy a role, but rather a character. In other words, the protagonist isn't a stand-in for yourself, but is a character with his or her own personality, so I think of the games as character-playing games.
This is why I don't think Mass Effect is a RPG, it is along the lines of Uncharted for me, character action games. Same goes for The Witcher. While Mass Effect and Witcher have more RPG elements than Horizon for example, they're still not RPGs to me, and why also some people think the first Mass Effect is the best, because later games in the series eroded more and more RPG elements, and people wanted Mass Effect to be a RPG.
People have a hard time understanding what a RPG is because it has been so muddied in games by misuse, there are games being made because they want to make RPGs and they are RPGs, such as Obsidian's games for example. The definition of RPG has been clear and been in use for a long time, it's not ambiguous so I don't know why people try and make it so.
This is also why there is the CRPG revival right now, because real RPGs are being made again because people want RPGs, they always wanted them. I think "CRPG" now should mean "Classic" RPG, not "Computer" RPG, because we're once again getting classic video game RPGs (which originated on computers, taken from table top RPGs)
