Genre is getting a little pointless, as so many games today are hybrids anyway. There may be some grand genre definitions (Action, Adventure, RPG, Platformer) but even then in many cases they are useless. There are pure genre games, and this is fine, but it should not need to be forced on everything.
What is Brutal Legend? What is The Cave? Why can not Yakuza be both a beat-em-up and a JRPG - why does it need to be either?
Why not accept the games just as they are?
Of course we accept them, we just use genres as a tool to guide purchases. Someone that isn't interested in first person shooters but likes rpgs might still enjoy Deus Ex, but because it is placed on a shelf next to Call of Duty or Battlefield, not because of the experience it provides but solely due to its camera, that person might never play it.
I don't mean to pigeonhole games, just to better inform the people buying it.
Sorry but yoy have no idea about what you are talking about. SF, MK, Tekken are not Beat em up games. Final Fight, Punisher, Fatal force Golden Axe, Punisher and Yakuza are.
Yakuza has RPG elements but saying its JRPG and not Beat em up while the brawiling is core part od the game is just a joke.
It is a big part of the game, just as any other fighting system in other JRPGs. What I'm saying is that pure Beat'em Up games serve a single purpose: action, but Yakuza puts just as much focus into exploring, sidequesting and presenting a linear story and that means it shares more of the same priorities as JRPGs than Beat'em Ups.