Sekiro is the hardest Game.
Yes but your youtube are OLD before Elden ring patch 1,08, elden ring patch 1,07, elden ring patch 1,06, Patch 1.05, Patch 1.04, Patch 1.03 etc.
I am still playing Elden Ring. You seem to be under impression that there were some sweeping difficulty changes. I don't think so, at least not ones I would would notice. Sekiro is considered the hardest, as it is the most narrow title. As Niara eloquently wrote, ER can be as easy or as hard as one wishes to make it.
People seem to have decided that closed rpgs are somehow not rpgs, despite them actually being the more common form of rpg. Any game that has you assume control of a character that has a name, a role in the narrative of the game, either pre-made or not, and contains some form of character development (leveling), is an rpg.
A closed rpg is one where you basically have no choices, your character is predetermined and the story is predetermined, you are along for the ride, but not in control. Most of the Final Fantasy games are all closed rpgs.
An open rpg gives you choices, you create your own character within the role, and/or are given choices that have an effect on the story. This is your Elder Scrolls and most Dragon Age games.
I have never encountered open/closed RPG categorisation. Final Fantasy are jRPG, and yes, traditionally they are linear story driven adventrure with vertical progressions.
I am not a fan of "closed RPG" definition you use, as it could be used to describe a wide range of titles, and as such isn't particuarly helpful. Almost any game has some kind of vertical progression nowadays, and some games will have choices, or branching paths but I don't think that makes them RPGs. As I see it it is not enough for a game to have elements of an RPG, but for them to be a main focus of the game. For example, Deus Ex has shooting mechanic, but I wouldn't call it a first person shooter because that's not the game's focus. Or having driving, doesn't make you a driving game.
Recently a rather reknown RPG studio released Pentiment - a game with a lot of choices, skill checks and customisable character and they very reasonably called it "narrative adventure" - because that is the focus of the game, and all the other elements serve that core.
I don't think an RPG HAS to have fully customisable character - Disco Elysium and Planescape torment come to mind - as long as game's focus still is to allow players to define their character and roleplay and, well in those cases, him.
Big open world action adventures with RPG elements aren't new evolution of RPG game - they are just a mass product using every popular hook to reel in as big of an audience as possible. At this point they are neither action or adventure or RPG games. I like Yahtzee term "
Jiminy Cockthroat" - at least when I hear it, I know what it is. Speaking of Dragon Age, I am slogging through Inquisition, and I would absolutely categorise it as Jiminy Cockthroat. A really, really crappy one, but it is hardly an RPG at this point - they couldn't even bother to come up with a story this time around. And people complained that Deadfire had short "story", bah. Witcher3 definitely borrows from Jiminy Cockthroat designs, but thankfully is for the most part a well written narrative action game.
