I'll have to say, the 100% true old fashioned RPG description just doesn't do the genre justice these days.

RPGs are incorporating more and more different features to compliment the core aspects of an RPG. Even non-RPGs are incorporating RPG aspects into games. You have leveling so to speak and character customization in some shooting games now. You have shooting and first person, realtime combat in some RPGs.

Innovation implies that you're breaking away from a standard or norm. So yes, Lionhead is changing some things up for the sake of being different, but that is what innovation is all about. Bringing a fresh new concept to or improving significantly an old idea.

I've played games for over 15 years. I've owned nearly every major console since the original NES except for a Sega Saturn(Yes, I've owned a Dreamcast). I've also played PC games that entire time as well. I remember games coming on the old 5.5" floppy discs. So I would say I'm a hardcore gamer. In my opinion an RPG is a story driven game with the purpose of fully immersing the player into the character's role and the world in which the story takes place.

So while Lionhead is changing some things, at its heart its still an RPG. I don't know what you're opinion on the "hardcore RPG concept" is though.

I would say nostalgia has a large impact on every gamer who's been playing for a long time. No game will ever replace the classics simply because they have such a personal connection to the player because of the period in time in which the player played it, what was happening in your life at the time, or even what made a great game back then. There will always be a longing for those games to return, but its unlikely any game will match the experience those games delivered.

As far as boats and horses, Lionhead will make the decision based on if the feature fits the game world. They have stopped the addition of bows because it simply didn't fit. If the game takes place primarily on a large land mass and the player has no need to travel the seas, why would there be a boat? As for horses, I think the dog prevents horses from being in the game. Your dog can't simply be stored in your backpack, and making your dog run a high speed endurance race with a horse is unfair.

Lionheart is going to nail immersion and for the first time(hopefully) create real, strong emotional ties to an in-game character(the dog). I can hardly see anything un-RPG about it.