I'm pretty all-inclusive in my definition of an RPG. The genre was founded on two principles: stats and player choice (I'm basing this off of D&D, the first "RPG"). As such, games built around at least one of those two concepts can be considered RPGs, but I heavily stress the "built around" part. Stats and/or player choice must be an integral part of the game, not ancillary, and must be used directly. I do not count "invisible stats" or health bars. The game also must allow for stat management in some form.
Now, when I look at The Walking Dead or Heavy Rain, I see RPGs in the player choice sense. Character development is interactive, and is pretty much the games' key element. However, they fall in line with traditional adventure games in some ways so I can, by my definition, consider them to be adventure/RPG hybrids.
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