Action role-playing game
An action role-playing game is a video game genre that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing game genres.
Definition
Action role-playing games emphasize real-time combat that challenge a player's physical coordination or reaction time, as opposed to turn or menu-based combat. These games often use action game combat systems similar to hack and slash or shooter games. Action role-playing games and action-adventure games differ as the former include role-playing game mechanics like player driven characters creation, decision-making regarding player character development, skill trees, or direct control over a customizable team of game characters, usually called a party. The player character's stats determine relative strength, effectiveness or abilities and can increase when a character gains a level. MMORPGs with real-time combat systems are also ARPGs.History
Several games prior to 1984 are considered precursors to the action RPG genre. Allgame cited Temple of Apshai and its sequel Gateway to Apshai, Beneath the Pyramids for the Apple II, Bokosuka Wars, and Sword of Fargoal. Jeremy Parish of USgamer cited Adventure. Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton cited the Intellivision games Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and Treasure of Tarmin. Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade notes that Adventure lacked RPG mechanics such as experience points or permanent character growth, and argues that Gateway to Apshai is "the earliest game I'd feel comfortable calling an action-RPG" but notes that "it doesn't fit neatly into our modern genre classifications", though came closer than Bokosuka Wars released the same year.Mid-1980s
Jeremy Parish of 1UP claims that the action role-playing game genre was established by several Japanese developers in 1984, who combined the role-playing genre with arcadestyle action and action-adventure elements. Shaun Musgrave of TouchArcade also traces the genre's roots to Japan, and notes that the "Western game industry of the time had a tendency to treat action games and RPGs as separate things for separate demographics". Jeremy Parish has reported action RPGs were popularized by The Tower of Druaga in Japan. It was released for arcades in June 1984, and was intended as a "fantasy version of Pac-Man, with puzzles to solve, monsters to battle, and hidden treasure to find". Its success in Japan inspired the development of Dragon Slayer and Hydlide. Dragon Slayer, Hydlide and Courageous Perseus "vie for position as genre precedent" states John Szczepaniak, and there was an ongoing rivalry between the Dragon Slayer and Hydlide series over the years. Falcom's Dragon Slayer, created by Yoshio Kiya, is "the very first action-RPG ever made" as claimed by GameSetWatch. Originally released for the PC-8801 computer in September 1984, it abandoned the command-based battles of earlier role-playing games in favor of real-time hack-and-slash combat that required direct input from the player, alongside puzzle elements. In contrast to earlier turn-based roguelikes, Dragon Slayer was a dungeon-crawl role-playing game with real-time, action-oriented combat, combined with traditional role-playing mechanics. Dragon Slayer's overhead action role-playing formula was used in many later games. The Tower of Druaga, Dragon Slayer and Hydlide were influential in Japan, where they influenced later action RPGs such as Ys, as well as action-adventure games like The Legend of Zelda.T&E Soft's Hydlide, released in December 1984, was created by Tokihiro Naito, who was influenced by The Tower of Druaga. It was the first action RPG with an overworld. The game was immensely popular in Japan, and sold 2 million copies across all platforms. John Szczepaniak claims that it "cannot be overstated how influential Hydlide was on the ARPGs which followed it". The same year, Courageous Perseus was also one of the earliest action RPGs. Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu, released in 1985, was an action role-playing game with many character stats and a large quest. It also incorporated a side-scrolling view for exploration and an overhead view for battle, and an early "Karma" morality system where the character's Karma meter will rise if he sins, which in turn causes the temples to refuse to level him up. Xanadu Scenario II, released in 1986, was an expansion pack, created to expand the content of Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu. Hydlide II: Shine of Darkness also featured a morality system. Eurogamer cites Fairlight as an early action RPG.
Late 1980s
An important influence on the action RPG genre was the 1986 action-adventure The Legend of Zelda, which served as the template for many future action RPGs, even though it does not strictly fit the definition of later action RPGs. In contrast to previous action RPGs, such as Dragon Slayer and Hydlide, which required the player to bump into enemies to attack them, The Legend of Zelda featured an attack button that animates a sword swing or projectile attack on the screen. It was also an early example of open-world, nonlinear gameplay, and introduced new features such as battery backup saving. These elements have been used in many action RPGs since.In 1987, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link implemented a more traditional RPG-esque system, with experience points and levels with action game elements. Unlike its predecessor, Zelda II more closely fits the definition of an action RPG.
Another Metroidvania-style action RPG released that year was System Sacom's Sharp X1 computer game Euphory, which was possibly the only Metroidvania-style multiplayer action RPG produced, with two-player cooperative gameplay. The fifth Dragon Slayer title, Sorcerian, was also released that year. It was a party-based action RPG; the player controls a party of four characters at the same time in a side-scrolling view. The game also featured character creation, highly customizable characters, class-based puzzles, and a new scenario system, players could choose from 15 scenarios, or quests, to play through in the order of their choice. It was also an episodic video game, with expansion disks later released with more scenarios. Falcom also released the first installment of its Ys series in 1987. While not very popular in the West, the long-running Ys series has performed strongly in the Japanese market, with many sequels, remakes and ports in the decades that followed its release. Besides Falcom's own Dragon Slayer series, Ys was also influenced by Hydlide, from which it borrowed certain mechanics such as health-regeneration.
The Faery Tale Adventure offered one of the largest worlds at the time, with over 17,000 computer screens without load times.
In 1988, Telenet Japan's Exile series debuted and was controversial due to its plot, which revolves around a time-travelling Crusades-era Syrian assassin who assassinates various religious/historical figures as well as 20th-century political leaders, The gameplay of Exile included both overhead exploration and side-scrolling combat and featured a heart monitor to represent the player's Attack Power and Armor Class statistics. Another controversial aspect of the game involved drugs that increase/decrease attributes, but with side effects such as heart-rate increase/decrease or death. Origin Systems, the developer of the Ultima series, also released an action RPG in 1988, titled Times of Lore, which was inspired by various NES titles, particularly The Legend of Zelda. Times of Lore inspired several later titles by Origin Systems, such as the 1990 games Bad Blood and Ultima VI: The False Prophet, based on the same interface.
Also in 1989, the enhanced remake Ys I & II was one of the first video games to use CD-ROM, which was utilized to provide enhanced graphics, animated cut scenes, a Red Book CD soundtrack, and voice acting. Its English localization was also one of the first to use voice dubbing. The game received the Game of the Year award from OMNI Magazine in 1990, as well as other prizes. Another 1989 release, Activision's Prophecy: The Fall of Trinadon, attempted to introduce "Nintendo-style" action combat to North American computer role-playing games.
1990s: From console experiments to the Diablo moment
Action RPGs were far more common on consoles than computers, due to better suitability of gamepads to real-time action than the keyboard and mouse. Early-’90s consoles refined the real-time, stat-driven formula. Though there were action-oriented computer RPGs created in the late 1980s and early 1990s, very few saw any success. Times of Lore was one of the more successful attempts in the American computer market, where there was a claimed generally negative attitude from some players towards genres combination and an emphasis on the purity of the RPG genre. For example, a survey in the 1991 issue of Computer Gaming World criticized several computer roleplaying games; including Ys, Sorcerian, ''Times of Lore, and Prophecy, for their resemblance to "arcade" or "Nintendo-style" action combat.In 1991, Square released Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, also known as Final Fantasy Adventure or Mystic Quest in the West, for the Game Boy. Like Crystalis, the action in Seiken Densetsu bore a strong resemblance to that of Legend of Zelda, but added more RPG elements. It was one of the first action RPGs to allow players to kill townspeople, though later Mana games removed this feature. Arcus Odyssey by Wolf Team was an action RPG that featured an isometric perspective and co-operative multiplayer gameplay. In 1993, the second Seiken Densetsu game, Secret of Mana, received considerable acclaim, for its innovative pausable real-time action battle system, and its innovative cooperative multiplayer gameplay, where the second or third players could drop in and out of the game at any time, and did not have to join the game at the same time. The game has remained influential through to the present day, with its ring menu system still used in modern games and its cooperative multiplayer mentioned as an influence on games such as Dungeon Siege III.
On PC, the genre's inflection point was Ultima Underworld which has been cited as the first RPG to feature first-person action in a 3D environment.'' In 1998, PC Gamer declared it the 18th-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "Light-years ahead of their time, and still regarded as some of the best roleplaying games ever created". A poll conducted in May 2023 by GQ among a team of video game journalists listed it as the 95th-best video game of all time. The Elder Scrolls: Arena '', the first game in the Elder Scrolls series, was released for MS-DOS in 1994. Diablo, Blizzard North’s click-to-move, real-time “dungeon crawl” stripped friction from combat and loot, while the launch of Battle.net alongside Diablo brought always-available online co-op. Contemporary reports noted Battle.net's explosive uptake within a week of launch. Diablos effect on the market is significant, inspired many imitators. Its impact was such that some use the term Action RPGs exclusively to Diablo-style games. Other games influenced by Ultima Underworld include Deus Ex, Deus Ex: Invisible War, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, and Half-Life 2.
Some action RPGs used a side-scrolling perspective typical of beat 'em ups, such as the Princess Crown and its spiritual successors, which includes Odin Sphere and Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Princess Crown had a more cartoon-like visual appeal. It still had quality visuals due to the George Kamitani style. LandStalker's 1997 spiritual successor Alundra is considered "one of the finest examples of action/RPG gaming", combined platforming elements and puzzles with an innovative storyline about entering people's dreams and dealt with mature themes.
Right as the decade turned, Diablo II scaled the formula with class variety, seasons-like ladder play, and deeper itemization that moved millions of copies quickly and entrenched the “loot chase” as a genre pillar. Phantasy Star Online'' then brought real-time, instance-based ARPG play to consoles over the internet.