I love the action RPG genre. I’ll pour dozens of hours into even its most middling releases. I deeply enjoy running around a land, collecting loot and leveling up, all while engaging in action-based combat against monsters of ever-increasing power.
What started out decades ago as a quirky hybrid of two seemingly incompatible genres is now a dominant market force, with enough notable new entries every year to merit its own numbered list.
I wasn’t paid or asked by anyone featured below to mention their game. This is my real actual opinion in this moment in time based on the stuff I’ve played. If your personal favorite isn’t listed here, please leave a reply and tell me about it. I’ll check it out in the next week or two. I’m not even joking.
Before I dive in, please know that you won’t see Shadow of the Erdtree or Dragon Age: The Veilguard listed here. As to the former, it’s not because I have any meaningful hangups about including a DLC expansion on my list, but rather because I haven’t played enough of it. It’s clearly a winner and would probably be on this list somewhere near the top had I actually managed to fit it into my schedule.
