The BlazBlue series has a surprisingly complex story for a fighting game. The story mode feels more like a visual novel type game, interrupted by the occasional fight. :P

The Independence War games are very story centric.

I generally do not consider such games to be RPGs (though it makes sense to treat them as such for purposes of this topic).

Well, it doesn't matter what you think here, 'cause it's not up for debate.

RPG stands for Role-Playing Game, i.e. a game in which you get to determine for yourself, and play, a role, to one extent or another. Nowhere does it require the combat to be turn-based for it to be a RPG.

If anything, a story focus would be more important for a RPG than any one combat system, since it allows the player to exercise the role chosen.

Actually, as originally used, the term RPG really did only refer to turn-based games. The earliest computer games that were referred to as RPGs were definitely turn based, and RPGs before that (like early D&D, for example) were also turn based.

To me, a story focus in an RPG actually detracts from the game, as it forces the user to watch cutscenes rather than exercise the role. There is no exercising a role in story sequences.

Because of technical limitations, it was never a requirement for the genre. Just because old shooters were top down doesn't mean that first person games aren't shooters also. Technology improves, and new possibilities become available.

Of course there's exercising a role in story sequences. Every time you choose your dialoque you are exercising your role during a story sequence. Every time two characters force you to choose between them, and you choose by attacking one instead of another initiating a fight, you are exercising a role in a story sequence, by using gameplay.

The technical reason argument is non-sense; games like Super Mario Bros. and Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished were real-time at a time when RPGs like Ultima, Wizardry, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy were turn based.

I consider the game being at least approximately turn-based as much of a requirement for the RPG genre as being real-time is for the action genre. Would you ever use the term "action" to refer to a turn-based game?

As for your comment on story sequences, quite often story sequences don't involve any choices of dialogue, or any choice about whether to attack one or the other. Even when you do get a choice, it often doesn't actually matter; a choice between two options with the same effect might as well not exist.

It was a technical reason at the dawn of gaming, and in tabletop RPGs, because no one could compute every choice in real time. Later, it was possible to calculate hits, misses and percentages in real time, allowing for real time RPGs.

Such as games like Ys. But then you say games like that don't count because they're not RPGs since they're not turn-based, then after you've excluded all of those you say that all RPGs just so happen to be turn based. It's circular reasoning.

Again, it doesn't matter if you consider that, because the only stipulation for something to be a RPG is that it's a game about role-playing. It's right there in the name. Maybe you like turn-based RPGs more than Action-RPGs, but to say that the latter doesn't count as a real RPG is just crying "No True Scotsman".

Cool, and many other times it does involve dialogue choices, and all manner of other impactful choices that change the plot significantly, so what?

And to say that if the result is the same there might as well not be an option is remarkably shortsighted. A quest is to kill a NPC, being able to chose between kicking down the door and beating him up, and sneaking through the window and stabbing him in the back, being able to be sympathetic to him or a dick during the dialogue, it's the very essence of choosing and playing a role, even if the character ends up dead regardless.

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West is a story heavy action-platformer. It's also lore-heavy if you've read the Chinese classics.

World of Warcraft has something like 500 hours of story content, along with potentially thousands more hours of lore content. It ends up being pretty grindy, as most all MMOs do, but if you don't care about endgame, then there's a lot of story in the levelling quests. Or there was. I haven't played it lately.

Deus Ex is a story heavy FPS. Everyone knows about it.

Any of the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Infinity_Engine_games]Infinity Engine games[/url] (though of course especially Planescape and Baldur's Gate) are story-heavy. Planescape in particular is a lot like playing a book. Since these aren't turn-based, you won't consider them RPGs.

Witcher 3 is story-heavy, and also not what you would call an RPG.

And of course many if not all of the other games listed thus far in this thread. But, to be frank, your definition of RPG is laughably narrow. Thus it's hard to tell what you'd consider story-heavy, since you're hauling a pretty rigid set of custom definitions.

The Secret World is a story heavy MMORPG, a genre not usually known for concentrating on narrative

Yes and yes! I would also add BioShock 1. If you have the consoles, I would also add Heavy Rain, and any of the Metal Gear Solid games.