Can't it be argued that Nightmare on Elm Street became a comedy as much as a horror movie once Freddy Krueger started doing funny bits and spouting quips?
By Parts 4-6, yes. Almost nothing scary happens in
Freddy's Dead, and it becomes a straight up comedy. Krueger had some quips in 1-3 and were kept relatively minor. Usually done at tense moments where they worked. But we're getting in to semantics.
Trying to boil anything down to a genre is inherently reductive and inexact.
I fully agree.
But unless you want to start answering the question "so what kind of game is it?" with a five-minute summary, genres are the best method of describing something that we have.
Yes. Though I heavily loath the term, "character-action". It describes absolutely nothing and his way too vague. A two word term like that can be anything. At the end of the day, single-player action games in the style of
Devil May Cry,
Ninja Gaiden, or
God of War are beat'em ups/hack n' slash. I don't care much for spectacle fighter either, but it at least makes some sense is more descriptive by comparison.
At any rate, the best description for any Soulslike game is "masochism simulator".
Honestly, I always called
Ninja Gaiden II (2008) a masochism simulator. Most Soulslikes are walk through the tulips by comparison to that game.
Any game that is inspired by either the book or movie version of
The Running Man I either call Running Man games, or Bloodsport games.
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