Define "RPG elements".
I'm pretty sure "role-playing" could be an essential part of the experience, and when you're role-playing as a hero out on adventures with people s-/he potentially grows close with... Yeah.
And, really, visual novels--in my limited experience--tend to be fairly stripped-down RPGs, mechanically, so it's not like those mechanics have no place in an RPG.
Thank you, captain obvious.