flower

the acronym is like a beacon that summons me. for me personally i wouldn't really count mass effect. the term crpg is a super fuzzy one and whilst it implies certain things about the camera, the way you interact with the world, control characters etc. it's largely vibes based. mass effect 1 has a lot of conventions of 90s crpgs, but its also trying really hard to move away from others (the more developed version of this impulse in me2 is illustrative) and to me it just evokes a very different feeling whilst playing than even kotor or dragon age.

to me the point where you hit a trigger and you swing a sword or fire a shot (as opposed to just clicking on a guy and then your character just starts attacking) is a pretty big distinction, as is there not being a mouse cursor bopping around at all times. however, i think a lot of people would say oh yeah obviously mass effect 1 is a crpg. its a super loose category and a lot of it is just if somebody asked me to name 10 crpgs i wouldn't think of mass effect.