Is ME-A a RPG or action/shooter?

Uncharted 4 is also very much story and character focused and it's not an RPG. I wouldn't really classify Mass Effect 3 an RPG either. It was a 3rd person action shooter with dialogue trees and a really shallow progression system.

ME:A will have RPG elements.  Slightly more than Horizon Zero Dawn with dialogue trees, progression system, crafting, collecting, side quests, etc, but so far from the footage shown, it's very much more of an action shooter until they prove otherwise

Action-RPG.

Mass Effect has been an action-RPG from the very beginning. The "action" part was kinda clunky, but it still qualifies. I looked at the ME:A website, and the game description lists storytelling and emotion as elements of the game along with being a third-person shooter with squad mechanics.

They've also released plenty of story snippets and information, talking about how the events of the game get started and a series of videos about the Andromeda Initiative that touch upon the characters of the game.

As for someone complaining that they think there's too much focus on gameplay, keep in mind that every story-focused video they've released for ME:A has people complaining that there's not enough gameplay footage...and every gameplay-focused video has people complaining that there's not enough story content. (And even some people who bounce between the two, because they just want to complain.)

I think you worry too much, story and character is a BioWare stable. Mechanically, it's certainly in the action rpg genre, but that doesn't exclude role playing any more than being isometric and turn based. It's not the mechanics, it's what you do with them.

You worry too much.

RPG is such a nebulous term that it's pointless to worry about whether something is or isn't one.

Probably more like a little from Column A, and a lot more from Column B

I wasn't specifically addressing what you had said, so I'm a little confused as to why you're quoting me.  Labeling games, movies, etc. in a particular sub-genre is a very subjective thing... based on individual opinions about how much of "this" or "that" tips the scales enough for them to slap a particular label on it.  It doesn't have very much to do with "if Bioware knew better how to make one" because their intent it probably just to make a good game that's fun and will sell... and let the "world of critics" throw the labels on it.

In the scheme of things, it doesn't matter a tap what they label it as... what matters is if it interests me enough for me to buy it... and then what matters most is if I enjoy it enough to play it through.  I have plenty of "truer RPGs" than Mass Effect that I've never gotten interested in enough to even finish.  The Mass Effect Trilogy, though, I've played through in it's entirety more than 30 times.  Obviously, I think ME:T is a pretty darned good game and that Bioware is quite capable of writing a pretty darned good game.

I agree.  It's a semantics argument at best and not even a good one.  Some will say, well RPG in the realm of games denotes certain system like inventory, leveling, skills and abilities etc etc.  Others will actually look at what the acronym means and say that Role Playing is the more important feature.  Fact is people will play it (or not) then label it whatever mostly closely relates to their outlook on the game.  

If I like I will play it.

Though for my own personal definition, as a pen and paper veteran it's just as much RPG as it's action.  The rules in those games always served as way to deliver a story.  Same for video game based RPGs.  So the "rules" aren't as intricate here and instead we go for action instead.  Basically it's a LARP rather than a couch side role playing.

Just making conversation, tbh. What you said vaguely related to what I said, so I decided to follow up. 

That's what forums are for, lol. 

Anyway, I agree that labels aren't all that important. I just think that things like "Where did the RPG go" when talking about Mass Effect is a little disingenuous sometimes. It was always an ARPG, by intent, at least in my honest opinion. I do see how people can get annoyed by how shallow the RPG systems got in ME2 and 3, but a lot of people seem to put ME1 on this pedestal when it also had it's fair share of problems.

I just like to point out the irony, tbh. 

Vaguely related... hmmm.  What you said is that Bioware doesn't know how to write an ARPG:




Conversely, I'm saying people just don't know how to go about labeling the games that Bioware writes... which are very good games, IMO.

"I just like to point out the irony, tbh"

it's third person shooter with some rpg elments