Action RPG makes the emphasis on 'action' part
Precisely, action gameplay mechanics tied to a character progression system (i.e. the role play part)
A component which Dragon's Dogma has always been to superior to From's Souls series
As in DD your chacter's progression is not just an improvement of the mathematical elements (i.e. Stats), but also an improvement of his capabilities, his range of actions
From's Soulsborne games however, are solely limited to the mathematical aspect, there's no evolution for the action component of the game
So, while a sword and shield figther in Dark Souls or even Elden Ring will play almost the same in high level as he did in low level, the same won't be true for a sword and shield figther in Dragon's Dogma at any of his vocation's levels
In fact, Dragon's Dogma is so much superior to Souls in this regard, that even within a single character class there can exist distinct playstyles - because of the versitile, yet finite, selection of active skills a figther can be more suited for a defensive playstyle rather than an offensive one, more focused on crowd control rather than 1v1, more dependant on combination attacks rather than few deliberate ones
And this is to say nothing of the fact that, the range of actions of Souls games is poor and lacks even simple depth that you can find in basic figthing games
In short, the action component of Souls games is simple, it was adequate but nothing special
Which was fine as DeS, DS1 and DS2 were primarly dungeon-crawlers - their focus wasn't combat, which itself wasn't the most important element of gameplay
which involves fighting monsters
Which DD 1 and 2 have plenty of
and here you are, people pretending that fighting 5 unique regular enemies for 60h+ is completely fine, fun and not boring at all.
You know what is one of the best 3D Hack 'n' Slash games of all time?
Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma
You know how many enemies, aside from bosses, the game approximately has?
Around 40 give or take
Of that roster, you know how many of them are actually well designed and cool to fight?
4
The vigoor police, the ninjas, the shadow fiends and the cat girl fiends
The remaining enemies are either mediocre or annoying dogshit
Each playtrough is either 10 or 20 hours depending on the player's pace
There's about 40 hours worth of extra mode challenges
In all these hours, the game survives on 4 good enemies and plus a handful of decent bosses
Yet, it is one of the best games of its genre
It's combat in both complexity and fun btfo of Souls games and Sekiro
What I am trying to say is: Quality > Quantity
And the majority of Elden Ring's enemies are less versatile in combat than even DD2 goblins
And I see that 12 years were not enough to improve upon this.
Elden Ring - 140+ enemy types (!)
Of which 80+% are actual fucking reskins of enemies going back at least to Bloodborne, though I wouldn't be surprised if it went all the way back to DS1
Honestly, these constant "ER vs DD2" flamewars are such knee-jerk reactions
They are entirely different types of open-world jRPGs
One is a combination of ADnD with classic party based jRPGs and beat 'em ups
The other is 7 copies of Dark Souls 3 grafted together and with addition of horses