Best Retro Action RPGs

Retro Action RPGs: Real-Time Combat Meets Role-Playing Depth

The action RPG genre occupied a contested space between action games and turn-based RPGs throughout the 1990s. Pure action game fans found action RPGs too dependent on character statistics rather than player skill. Pure RPG fans found them too reliant on reflexes rather than strategic planning. The action RPG’s audience was the intersection: players who wanted the narrative and character progression of RPGs with moment-to-moment engagement that turned-based systems couldn’t provide.

The genre’s 1990s output is remarkable: Secret of Mana’s cooperative multiplayer RPG, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night’s Metroidvania RPG, the Ys series’ momentum-based bump combat, A Link to the Past’s item-gated exploration. Each solved the action/RPG balance problem differently.

Secret of Mana — Cooperative Action RPG

Secret of Mana (1993) was the first major cooperative multiplayer action RPG: up to three players could play simultaneously using a multitap adapter, each controlling a different character (boy, girl, sprite) with distinct combat roles. The ring menu system — pausing the game to open circular menus for items, magic, and equipment — allowed real-time combat management without requiring button combinations the SNES couldn’t accommodate.

The weapon-leveling system (eight weapons each with eight levels, each unlocked through use) incentivized using weapons the player was comfortable avoiding. The magic system’s eight schools — Sylphid, Lumina, Shade, Luna, Dryad, Salamander, Gnome, Undine — gave the girl and sprite characters breadth that pure physical combat couldn’t provide. Secret of Mana’s cooperative mode influenced multiplayer RPG design for years after its release.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night — The Metroidvania Template

Symphony of the Night (1997) is the most important action RPG of the PlayStation era and the game that defined the “Metroidvania” genre retroactively. Alucard’s inverted castle, the RPG progression system (levels, equipment, magic), and the exploration-gated movement abilities (mist form, bat form, wolf form) combined exploration design from Metroid with RPG mechanics in a way no previous Castlevania game had attempted.

The game’s famous line (“What is a man?”) became one of gaming’s most-quoted pieces of dialogue. Its inverted castle — a second complete castle map that appeared after defeating Dracula — doubled the game’s content in a reveal that players who hadn’t been spoiled found genuinely surprising. Symphony of the Night’s combination of exploration depth, combat variety (over 100 different weapons), and visual richness makes it one of the most-recommended classic games in any genre.

Ys I & II — The Bump Combat System

The Ys series, beginning with Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished (1987 PC/1989 TurboGrafx-CD) through Ys Book I & II, used a “bump combat” system where protagonist Adol Christin attacked enemies by colliding with them from non-facing angles. Colliding front-to-front damaged Adol; approaching from the side or behind dealt damage to enemies. The system sounds simple but produced tactical positioning decisions in crowded enemy formations.

Ys Book I & II’s TurboGrafx-CD version is the canonical version of the early games: CD-quality orchestral music (Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa’s soundtracks are among gaming’s finest), animated cutscenes with voice acting, and the two-game structure without a save interruption. The Ys series continued producing excellent action RPGs (Ys III, Ys: The Oath in Felghana, Ys Origin) through the following decades, but the original two games remain the genre’s most significant early examples.

Landstalker — Isometric Action RPG

Landstalker (1992) by Climax Entertainment was an isometric action RPG for the Genesis that combined treasure hunting, puzzle platforming, and real-time combat in an isometric perspective. The hero, Nigel, sought legendary treasures through dungeons where the isometric view created jump timing challenges that standard platformers didn’t have — the visual alignment between Nigel and platform edges was deliberately ambiguous.

Landstalker’s dialogue — wry, self-aware, with a female companion (Friday) whose witty commentary on Nigel’s greed distinguished the game’s tone from typical RPG earnestness — was exceptional for the Genesis era. The game’s scope (dungeons, villages, an overworld, a full narrative) exceeded most contemporary Genesis action games. Landstalker is one of the strongest arguments for the Genesis as a platform for creative RPG work.