RPGs With the Best Combat Systems

For as much importance as players place on an RPG’s story, characters, and worldbuilding, it’s important to remember that the actual gameplay and combat take up the other half of the experience. Accordingly, the greatest games in the genre are ones whose combat systems and encounter design give players plenty of incentive to play for dozens if not hundreds of hours, and the RPGs with the best combat systems are ones that have subsequently gone on to influence the genre in some profound way. Whether turn-based, real-time, or a blend that sits somewhere between the two, the following RPGs are ones that perfectly balance their compelling narratives with gripping and strategically deep combat.

• Release Date — January 26, 2010
• Developer — BioWare
• Publisher — Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios
• Combat Type — Real-time
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

The entire Mass Effect trilogy has excellent combat, merging the elements of a BioWare RPG with the gameplay of a third-person cover shooter. But where the first Mass Effect incorporated its RPG elements with a heavier hand and the third Mass Effect erred on the side of playing more like an action game, Mass Effect 2 strikes a perfect balance between its disparate halves. It tones down the customization and RPG minutiae of its predecessor slightly while making the shooting more responsive and fluid, and it ends up standing out as the highlight of the entire series for its combat as much as its obvious place as the peak of the Mass Effect story.

• Release Date — November 2, 2023
• Developer — tri-Ace, Gemdrops
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Combat Type — Real-time
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch

The Star Ocean series has always stood out among Enix’s games thanks to its real-time combat. It makes perfect sense once you learn that developer tri-Ace was started by several key staff who had worked on the first game in Bandai Namco’s Tales of… series. But Star Ocean‘s combat is a bit more visceral and tactile than a Tales game’s, acting more like a hack-and-slash ARPG-meets-JRPG than most other games in the genre. The best one in the series is Star Ocean: The Second Story, and the best version of that game is the recent remake, Star Ocean: The Second Story R. In the remake, players have greater agency to unlock Talents earlier, which can be seemingly endlessly customized to tailor combat exactly how you’d want based on your party composition.

• Release Date — February 23, 2022
• Developer — Square Enix
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Combat Type — Turn-based
• Platforms — Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S

When it comes to the Final Fantasy series, there are plenty of titles to choose from with fantastic combat systems. But among the franchise’s games utilizing the original turn-based combat mode, none can really compare to Final Fantasy VI, which enhances its “ensemble cast” approach to the game’s playable characters and main heroes by allowing each of them to have equal potential for power and progression. Thanks to the Espers and Magicite, players can min/max each character’s stats, controlling how they develop as they level up and tailoring their progression to be melee fighters, magic users, or a hybrid of the two.

• Release Date — March 11, 1995
• Developer — Square Enix
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Combat Type — Turn-based
• Platforms — Android, iOS, PC, PlayStation, SNES, Nintendo DS

Around the same time as Final Fantasy VI‘s release and near-perfect refinement of the series’ turn-based combat model, Square and Enix’s “Dream Team” collaboration on Chrono Trigger would present another title with a groundbreaking combat system. On the surface, it might appear that Chrono Trigger is just your standard turn-based RPG, but the subtle ways that party composition matters and factors into the different combo attacks players can learn add a layer of strategy to each dungeon, and even each encounter within.

• Release Date — April 12, 2016
• Developer — FromSoftware
• Publisher — Bandai Namco
• Combat Type — Real-time
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Truthfully, any of FromSoftware’s modern titles could be included on a list of RPGs with the best combat systems, especially when you consider how influential Dark Souls has been on the gaming industry as a whole. If it comes down to just one game, though, the honor should arguably go to Dark Souls III, which takes the original Dark Souls combat model of methodical, stamina-governed combat and tweaks the speed and precision a bit to make it feel more fluid and responsive. It’s not as slow as Dark Souls, nor is it as fast and frenetic as Bloodborne. Dark Souls III is a perfect middle ground between the two.

• Release Date — February 14, 2025
• Developer — Nihon Falcom
• Publisher — NIS America
• Combat Type — Turn-based
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch

Say what you will about the issues that the most recent Legend of Heroes game has with moving the series’ narrative toward its upcoming conclusion, the combat in Trails Through Daybreak II is second-to-none. It still uses the same system that all Legend of Heroes games have since Trails in the Sky, where players have to balance tactical positioning and use of status effects to “Break” enemies can turn the tide of battle. Coming from other RPG franchises, it can take a bit of an adjustment to get used to Trails Through Daybreak II‘s combat. But once you do, it’ll be hard to look at other turn-based games the same.

• Release Date — July 29, 2017
• Developer — Square Enix
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Combat Type — Turn-based
• Platforms — Nintendo 3DS, PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Players come into a Dragon Quest game hoping to get a serving of RPG comfort food, and Dragon Quest XI perfectly delivers in terms of both its story and its combat. The traditional turn-based combat that’s synonymous with the Dragon Quest series returns in XI, but it’s simply refined and polished to a degree where it feels snappier and more satisfying than some of the older games in the franchise. Dragon Quest XI strikes a careful balance between tradition and modernity, and its decision to keep the series’ trademark combat intact while subtly improving it is one of its greatest.

• Release Date — February 29, 2024
• Developer — Square Enix Creative Business Unit I
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Combat Type — Real-time
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 5

The initial reveal that the Final Fantasy VII remake project would be a real-time action game instead of a traditional turn-based RPG turned some players off, but getting to experience Square Enix’s unique “hybrid” approach to that combat model ended up being a near-perfect middle ground between the series’ past and its future. Battles play out in real-time, but the ability to pause, switch characters, issue commands, and perform all the standard actions you would normally relegate to a menu, all in dynamic real-time, proved to be the perfect solution to appease players old and new. And it’s arguably the foundation on which all future Final Fantasy games should build their combat.

• Release Date — September 14, 2017
• Developer — Larian Studios
• Publisher — Larian Studios
• Combat Type — Turn-based
• Platforms — PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

It could honestly be a toss-up between Larian Studios’ Divinity: Original Sin II and Baldur’s Gate 3 for the studio’s game with the best combat. Ultimately, though, Divinity: Original Sin II wins out thanks to it not being beholden to the Dungeons & Dragons rule set. The turn-based tactical combat in the second Original Sin is some of the best in the entire genre, with players able to use the environment to their advantage and get incredibly creative with how they approach each encounter.

• Release Date — October 11, 2024
• Developer — Studio Zero, Atlus
• Publisher — Sega
• Combat Type — Turn-based
• Platforms — PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Similar to the Legend of Heroes series, the Shin Megami Tensei lineage of games and its “Press Turn” battle system are all worthy contenders for some of the RPGs with the best combat systems, but Metaphor: ReFantazio took things to a whole new level. By combining the general flow of the “Press Turn” system with the flexibility and creativity afforded by the game’s Archetype system (a stand-in for the traditional JRPG Job system), allowing for some game-breaking synergies that give you a fighting chance against some of the game’s substantial challenges.