Playstation one action rpg games

Taking up with a resistance group, players are on a battle of revenge and service to the future of your land. Likewise, there is a ton of dialogue here so expect a bit of a slow burn as you go through the campaign. Now your life has been dedicated to fighting off dragons and helping those in need. Phantasy Star Online was a massive hit when it first launched and it helped move Sega Dreamcast consoles into the marketplace. Fortunately, the franchise had a new installment released into the marketplace with Phantasy Star Online 2.

The problem was this game launched in exclusively within Japan and it took several years before it finally found its way to Western markets. Now that the game is available, players can go through this new Phantasy Star Online 2 game, which is broken down into season chapters for the storyline.

Here players are recruits of ARKS a task force that monitors different planets for signs of corrupted force seeking to destroy the universe. The Tales franchise has been around for years and one of the most recent releases for the IP had gained some newfound notoriety with players. Tales of Berseria is an action RPG that follows a young woman named Velvet Crowe who went from a reserved and quiet individual to a vessel filled with nothing more than anger. After a traumatic event that forced Velvet into dark imprisonment, our protagonist escapes and begins her revenge.

Along the way, players will meet up with a unique cast of characters to aid Velvet. Meanwhile, the combat for the series has remained the same as what most fans of the Tales franchise are used to.

Middle-earth: Shadow of War is the sequel to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and honestly the first installment is a thrilling game to try out as well. I would encourage you to give that game a go first, but with that said on our list I went with Middle-earth: Shadow of War.

The game once again puts players into the role of the ranger Talion along with the spirited Elf Lord Celebrimbor. Here players are fighting off a slew of hostile forces across the open-world like orcs. It was a really interesting concept after the developers first introduced it in Shadow of Mordor and fortunately they brought it back with the latest installment, Shadow of War.

Fortunately, the developers opted to bring the game series back with a few remakes under the Kiwami name. This game not only veterans a chance to replay the storylines once again but also provided modern gameplay mechanics for newcomers as well.

It sparked a new resurgence to the Yakuza franchise as we were going through the storyline of the series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, a member of a high-ranking Yakuza family. When Kazuma Kiryu was falsely accused of murder of a family boss, Kiryu ends up in prison. Players are then going through a quest to figure out what has happened since he left along with tracking down Yumi.

In Ys Origin players are following the knights of Ys who live in this land above the clouds. The series typically had a very stealthy approach to the gameplay while each installment followed a fictional historical event. Meanwhile, the protagonists were always members of the Assassins, which were a group that fought for peace and freedom, whereas the antagonist was always Templars, a group that demanded control.

Here we were following Bayek of Siwa and his battle with The Order of the Ancients which was the precursor to what would be considered the Templar Order. Genshin Impact was a game that took immediate attention online as it was a title that visually was comparable to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. On top of that, it was a game that was available for a wide range of platforms, from PC, consoles to even smartphones.

This is a fantasy game that has players taking the role of a traveler that becomes separated from their sibling and trapping them into the new world.

Now players will embark on a big journey as they attempt to track down their sibling. Best of all, this is a completely free-to-play game so why not give it a chance today? Torchlight 2 might not have an in-depth narrative or tons of lore but it does provide a fun thrilling action RPG gameplay.

Again, much like Diablo and some of the other isometric style action RPG titles, players can dive into this game with cooperative multiplayer. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 throws players into a fight of their life as they battle against Skaven. This is a combat-focused game with an assortment of melee weapons and abilities. Meanwhile, players can pick from a few different characters that can be tweaked towards a certain playstyle or class.

This was an MMO game that followed an agency that essentially acted as the last stand for the nation. Again, this is an MMO title that will require players to connect online to go through it. Overall, players are starting the game out in Washington D.

Players can unlock new gear and weapons to use as their loadout while being able to freely explore the open city along with battling against the hostile forces that will appear throughout the map. In this game, players are put into BC where players can pick between two characters, Kassandra and Alexios. Reluctantly, your family abides by their demands as they toss you aside of a cliff where you manage to survive.

Washing up on the shore of a new world, our protagonist grows up to become a ruthless mercenary that eventually forces you to confront your old family once again. Instead, you have a bigger world to explore, quests to uncover, and even the ability to roam the open sea on a boat to reach certain landmasses. Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights throws players into a dark atmospheric world where you play the role of a girl named Lily.

Taking place within medieval times, the game opens up with a supernatural storm. This storm has cursed a kingdom and turned all of the living into hostile creatures.

Fortunately, Lily awakens safely at the kingdom cathedral only to discover the horrors that await outside. Players will go through this Metroidvania platformer, battling against the hostile beasts and seeking out the source of this rain. This game is often described as Hollow Knight, just with less platforming involved. As a result, there was plenty of attention to their next big video game release which was Transistor. Within this game, players step into the role of Red, a lounge singer that had her voice stolen although in its place she wields a strong and large sword-like weapon called the Transistor.

This is quite the action RPG, where players can make upgrades to their character whether it be aimed towards delivering powerful attacks or defensive measures to keep Red a bit safer in a fight. Within the game, players find that humanity is nearing extinction thanks to a horrific war between two supernatural forces that both see humanity as either a resource or simply a target to cleansing from the world.

Players are essentially tossed into this world to see just how they will survive or potentially shape this new reality for the human race. Nier Replicant Ver 1. Nier might have gained some enormous worldwide attention with Nier: Automata. That game blew up and is constantly gaining new fans. Nier: Replicant was a prequel to Nier: Automata, and initially, it was only available in Japan. Assassin's Creed Valhalla PS4.

Tales of Hearts R Vita. Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth1 Vita. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Dragon's Dogma. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Dust: An Elysian Tail. Drakengard 3. Sword Art Online: Lost Song. Tales of Zestiria. Secret of Mana. Freedom Wars Vita. Remnant: From the Ashes. Cyberpunk Mass Effect: Andromeda. Final Fantasy Type-0 HD. Warframe PS4.

Just an absolutely beautiful hand-drawn game, especially the backgrounds, SaGa Frontier 2 is known for its incredibly complex combat system and a story that stretches over many years. Part of the now hugely popular series focusing on a group of high school students in which Persona 4 was the first really true "hit". Persona 2 was the first game in the series that first caught attention, and was discernably better improving on the first entry in the series.

Vandal Hearts II received complaints for its storytelling and its combat, but there is something to be said for just being very direct in entering and clearing a dungeon of all of its enemies. Released at the height of the digital pet craze of the late s, Jade Cocoon also features solid RPG mechanics centering on a elemental basis, where each of the proverbial earth, wind and fire have strengths and weaknesses and featuring a similar art style to the Studio Ghibli movies.

Parasite Eve was a terrific hybrid of survival horror and RPG. The combat is pausable and uses an Active Time Bar to designate the next attack, However, while the Active Time Bar fills, the player can still move around the field defensively, dodging enemy attacks. It also featured a female protagonist, one to rival Lara Croft of the era, but sadly the series didn't continue after two sequels one on PS1, the other on the PSP. It was relatively short, and the gameplay, while good, was also repetitive.

Legend of Legaia's combat interface was by far the most interesting thing it had going for it. Attack damage is based on the usual traits; equipment, strength, speed, etc.

But initiating the attacks are done much more tactically, choosing where to attack an opponent based on the aforementioned traits. It's essentially a button combo, almost as you'd see in a rhythm game, that is the biggest determinate of success. The bigger and more complicated the combo, the more damage that would be dealt. This was a big differentiator in the time of turn-based combat and helped set Legend of Legaia apart.

There's no denying that Legend of Dragoon was influenced heavily by Final Fantasy, some may even say it was more than "influenced. Similar to Legend of Legaia, Legend of Dragoon featured timed button presses that helped to break up the monotony of the turn-based combat and keep players engaged. Unfortunately, one of the reasons for this is that the combat wouldn't be nearly as engaging without it, so in that respect it is a bit of a gimmick. However, the story is grand, the graphics, particularly during battle, are nice albeit a bit bland and for all intents and purposes it feels like you are playing the FF series, in a good way.

Alundra is an action RPG, that at first glance has some Zelda in it. And while there is definitely some Zelda influence, as the action is viewed in a similar, top-down perspective, Alundra is more about solving puzzles than it is about traversing the landscape and exploring dungeons.

The puzzles in Alundra are remarkably difficult, especially by today's standards, yet the game was received incredibly well by critics. The action and controls are not great by today's standards, and while the sprite-based art style is nice is nice, it doesn't stand out. It comes down to the mature, dark plot about nightmares with the proverbial good and evil and the back-breaking puzzles, that makes Alundra stand out as one of the top RPGs on the PlayStation.

With an original setting for video games at least in Norse mythology, Valkyrie Profile also has an original combat system. Alternating turns, as the entire party shares one turn and able to attack, defend as well as other statuses, simultaneously. Enemies, however are given their own turn and do not combine attacks with one another. To streamline the one turn, team-based attacks, each character is assigned one of four buttons. It's an intuitive system that really works to differentiate Valkyrie Profile from other RPGs on the PS1 and as the system grows throughout the playthrough, it becomes deeper and deeper.

The game is good at slowly building up the system as you progress, never feeling overwhelming, and combined with the wonderful story, Valkyrie Profile gives weight to progression. Grandia is another PlayStation role-playing game that moves away from the traditional turn-based style of so many others. Grandia's battles play out on a 3D battlefield where free movement in between choosing your actions is possible.

Grandia is still "turn-based" when deciding your action, but because your character positioning is what determines not only your attacking success and choices, but also of the enemies, there is more strategy in the free movement.

Despite existing on a three-dimensional battlefield, Grandia's graphics are sprite-based, played from an isometric-like perspective not quite top-down.

Another way in which Grandia was ahead of its time was that there were several characters that have voice actors, a rarity for not only PS1 role-playing games, but the PS1 in general. Dragon Warrior VII is definitely not the most aesthetically pleasing of the list, even despite the sprite-based graphics.

Dragon Warrior is known for its pedigree in a similar vein as the Final Fantasy series, and like that series, the games are similar in gameplay style. It has turn-based, simple battles, massive exploration and an epic story where an unlikely hero must save the world. It sounds generic, but it is all done so well, and has been mimicked so well, it's important to remember why.

Breath of Fire III continues the series before it, where as IV is a completely new experiences with only slight nods to the previous games and that is where the heart of the argument lies. Regardless, most of the trappings found in the best games in the role-playing genre are found here and they are done well.

It definitely has more of an colorful but antiquated look, hardly standing out from an artistic design perspective and combined with good characters but only an adequate story it's all fairly generic, but every thing is done well enough. The Secret of Mana for the Super Nintendo is one of the most beloved role-playing games of all-time and much was expected of the follow up, Legend of Mana.

Legend of Mana was received well, but it couldn't quite match the critical acclaim as its predecessor.

Legend of Mana was no doubt a beautiful game and kept maybe of the same gameplay conventions as the Secrets of Mana, however there was an overreliance on side quests which did little to buoy the main story and offered little relevance to the characters. The innovative, yet cumbersome "Land Make" system, in which the player generates the structure of the game world by placing artifacts on points of a map is where the secondary or side quests were created.

With gameplay being action-oriented and tight controls these side quests were manageable but eventually feel like a chore. It's a terrific game that should still be experienced but is not quite at the top tier of entries for the PlayStation. Those tactical elements are still heavily present but with a deeper RPG system behind it.