RPGs with the best combat systems

[Chris Tian]

I stand by Gothic II having the best combat system in an RPG. It's so enjoyable to use, and with the right amount of skill, you can defeat more or less anything even at level one with shitty equipment. It takes some practice, and time, to master it but when you do, it makes you feel very accomplished. Melee combat, at least. The ranged combat is rather terrible, and was fixed in the third game, but melee - Gothic II for me, is unmatched. I even like it more than Mount & Blade.

Ah, I would certainly hate to fight a shadowbeast at level 1 though.

With the right timing you could just swing your sword from left to right in such a manner that every beast gets stuck in a loop.

It charges - gets hit - backs off - charges - gets hit - ....

I liked most about Gothic that there was no level scaling. Exploring was alot more intense than in Skyrim for example, because with some bad luck there was something waiting for you that would just eat you for breakfast. Thats sort of part of the combat too, no?

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

Ah, I would certainly hate to fight a shadowbeast at level 1 though.

Aye, would be tough indeed. But it's possible. With no armour, and with just a wooden branch. It is possible. That's one of the cool things about it. With patience, and with skill, what you can accomplish in that game at any point is almost limitless.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well that is the hardest thing to pin down because RPGs always borrow combat from other genres, my personal favorite is the Baldur's Gate approach which is basically a complex condensed RTS, but anyone not into RTS will absolutely hate that.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

Dark Souls by a mile. I literally couldn't play through Skyrim after because the combat, by comparison, is just crap. DS gives you so many completely different yet entirely viable options for melee. If they dedicated even half as much attention to the archery and magic systems in that game, you'd have pretty much the perfect action rpg engine.

Honorable mention for Kingdoms of Amalur, which combines legitimate character building with God of War-quality responsiveness and flow. Shame the story and game world feel so "built".

 

[Chris Tian]

For other games, I... still really like Baldur's Gate (2, mostly) for older style top-down combat. I find that kind of frequent pausing top-down view combat *way* more tactically intensive than more recent games it influenced. If Dragon Age was even 1/10th as complex and engaging as BG, I would have liked it - but it was just a poor man's mockery of a once-great combat system, and the frequent pausing felt very out of place in Kotor/Mass Effect (the latter in particular), and the smaller party size/reduced party options threw complexity/neat team builds out the window. IMO a party of 6 is that sweet spot - enough for meatshield, melee damage, support caster, damage caster, thief, etc.

The AD&D mechanics are pretty arcane and definitely feel dated (I hope you love reading pages-long spell descriptions!) but even despite that, BG2's combat remains one of the most complex, engaging and rewarding turn-based RPGs have to offer.

It's probably a matter of opinion, but i have to ask: Where do you see the big difference between Dragon Age: Origins and Baldurs Gate/any of the old AD&D combat?
For me DA:O felt like the modern recreation of the AD&D based combat systems. You have your Warriors who can take a hit and dish out pretty good, Spellcasters who can deal damage or use utility spells and Rogues who deal damage with critical hits and the like and lockpick/disarm traps for you.
The only big differneces were that BG had this hybrid classes like Bards, who combined some rogue stuff with some spells and the Clerics, who have no equivalent in DA:O.
DA:O did instead the whole threat mangament better, with the abilities that let a Warrior force the mobs to face him instead of the squishies.

 

[A Weakgeek]

For other games, I... still really like Baldur's Gate (2, mostly) for older style top-down combat. I find that kind of frequent pausing top-down view combat *way* more tactically intensive than more recent games it influenced. If Dragon Age was even 1/10th as complex and engaging as BG, I would have liked it - but it was just a poor man's mockery of a once-great combat system, and the frequent pausing felt very out of place in Kotor/Mass Effect (the latter in particular), and the smaller party size/reduced party options threw complexity/neat team builds out the window. IMO a party of 6 is that sweet spot - enough for meatshield, melee damage, support caster, damage caster, thief, etc.

The AD&D mechanics are pretty arcane and definitely feel dated (I hope you love reading pages-long spell descriptions!) but even despite that, BG2's combat remains one of the most complex, engaging and rewarding turn-based RPGs have to offer.

It's probably a matter of opinion, but i have to ask: Where do you see the big difference between Dragon Age: Origins and Baldurs Gate/any of the old AD&D combat?
For me DA:O felt like the modern recreation of the AD&D based combat systems. You have your Warriors who can take a hit and dish out pretty good, Spellcasters who can deal damage or use utility spells and Rogues who deal damage with critical hits and the like and lockpick/disarm traps for you.
The only big differneces were that BG had this hybrid classes like Bards, who combined some rogue stuff with some spells and the Clerics, who have no equivalent in DA:O.
DA:O did instead the whole threat mangament better, with the abilities that let a Warrior force the mobs to face him instead of the squishies.

Spells per day.

One of the things I love about D&D is that magic is actually powerful, because theres a cap how many times you can cast it per day. Unlike DA where you throw ice and fire like they were darts or something.

 

[Chris Tian]

Spells per day.

One of the things I love about D&D is that magic is actually powerful, because theres a cap how many times you can cast it per day. Unlike DA where you throw ice and fire like they were darts or something.

I dont really get your statment "I love that magic is actually powerfull". Is it less powerfull if you can cast it more often?
I'm probably understanding that wrong, because if you found magic in DA:O to be not powerfull you definitely skilled your casters wrong.

That spells are limited by casts per day instead of a manapool makes the combat so much deeper for you?
For me that just meant I had to rest every few encounters.

 

[88chaz88]

No Mount & Blade? I'm disappointed.

I like the support for Dark Souls though, and I'd rate it as a better RPG in general, but the combat alone in Mount & Blade is by far the best imo.

 

[A Weakgeek]

Spells per day.

One of the things I love about D&D is that magic is actually powerful, because theres a cap how many times you can cast it per day. Unlike DA where you throw ice and fire like they were darts or something.

I dont really get your statment "I love that magic is actually powerfull". Is it less powerfull if you can cast it more often?
I'm probably understanding that wrong, because if you found magic in DA:O to be not powerfull you definitely skilled your casters wrong.

That spells are limited by casts per day instead of a manapool makes the combat so much deeper for you?
For me that just meant I had to rest every few encounters.

Spells per day makes it so that spells can be more powerfull without being OP. For example, your mage in baldurs gate can have Sleep first level, which absolutely wrecks any encounter in the start. Thats because its literally the only thing a LVL1 wizard has. Compare that with an average videogame starter mage. You have some spammy recolor of magic missile that you boringly toss around.

On the topic of DA:O magic: Yeah it was powerful, but for all the wrong reasons, and probably not intentional. Magic is OP in DA:O because of huge AOEs with stacking status effects, and yet even the power of those spells was dependant on their spammability (Essentially you can stack all the last level elemental spells, and once the enemies finally crawl out of the ridiculous Freeze>Fall prone>Catch on fire>Freeze again... etc. you can already cast it again.

Something is wrong with the game if 3 mages is the optimal way to play...

 

[Ushiromiya Battler]

Also, I am still to see anything close to Jade Empire battle system. That shit was rad.

Hah, yeah that combat system was the shit, sadly the story was pretty boring, but totally worth playing just for the combat system.

OT:
Valkyria Chronicles have, in my opinion, the best combat system of all rpg's. Got everything you need for a fun experience and I kinda chuckled when I noticed Combat Points where shortened to CP

 

[The Madman]

No Mount & Blade? I'm disappointed.

I'd completely overlooked it since generally speaking I don't really think of Mount & Blade as an rpg, although in retrospect that's exactly what it is.

That said Mount & Blade has by far the best 3rd person combat in an rpg. Might not be the most flashy or pretty, but it's by far the most fun and satisfying combat system out there for melee and mounted combat.

 

[dimmkexa]

I really enjoyed Eternal Sonata amd Grandia 2.

 

[A Weakgeek]

No Mount & Blade? I'm disappointed.

I'd completely overlooked it since generally speaking I don't really think of Mount & Blade as an rpg, although in retrospect that's exactly what it is.

That said Mount & Blade has by far the best 3rd person combat in an rpg. Might not be the most flashy or pretty, but it's by far the most fun and satisfying combat system out there for melee and mounted combat.

I'm going to say M&B too.

Chivalry beats it in Melee, but since it doesnt have mounted combat I can't in good faith call Chivalry better.

 

[The_Echo]

I too might sing a verse of praises for the Dark Souls combat.

But I'll apparently be the first to say the same for the combat in Kingdom Hearts. Not vastly complicated, no, but sincerely fun and each installment does something different with it (some more than others[footnote]I'm still terrible at Chain of Memories.[/footnote]).

The most major of which, the shift from Command Menu to Command Deck, completely changed the landscape of the franchise's combat. You were given a much wider variety of attacks to use at your leisure, and appropriate cooldowns to give an element of strategic timing (or shit-yourself frantic running waiting for Curaga to come back).

More than anything, though, it's just fun as hell, and I've grinded (ground?) up to LV99 on multiple occasions without it feeling like much of a slog.

 

[88chaz88]

I'd completely overlooked it since generally speaking I don't really think of Mount & Blade as an rpg, although in retrospect that's exactly what it is.

That said Mount & Blade has by far the best 3rd person combat in an rpg. Might not be the most flashy or pretty, but it's by far the most fun and satisfying combat system out there for melee and mounted combat.

I'm going to say M&B too.

Chivalry beats it in Melee, but since it doesnt have mounted combat I can't in good faith call Chivalry better.

I'm glad I could remind people that Mount & Blade is an RPG. I admit it does seem easy to forget, perhaps because the focus is on the combat and the singleplayer isn't as refined.

Chivalry has arguably better combat but I can't really call it an RPG. There's practically no singleplayer and no real avatar creation or expression in multiplayer.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

My favorite RPG's battle system is the one used in Tales of Phantasia:


It's in Japanese but it should speak for itself. Mostly real-time battles with a level-up system on a 2D plane where you literally have to make contact to make your attacks count. This may not be the best but it's my favorite.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

Also gonna throw my vote out there for the Conditional ATB-system from FF X-2. The gameplay was the only damn reason I finished that game (twice).

As for other RPGs in that same genre, I'm gonna pick Resonance of Fate, Shadow Hearts and Legend of Legaia.
And it looks like I've been ninja'd on two out of three.

(Also, not gonna put SMT or any of the Persona titles here, because even though I love the games, it's not like the combat system did something new. Except for the Press Turn System, which does make things a bit more interesting, but that's it.)

 

[Eduku]

I love TW2 combat too, especially the combination of swordplay, bombs, traps, and magic, and how you can mix that up however you like.
But that is as far from realistic as its gets. I mean even aside the bombs, traps and magic, which is nowhere near realism as you will surely agree.

Well by 'realism' I meant things like the importance of positioning and not getting flanked and that kind of stuff. In hindsight realism probably wasn't the best word but I can't think of the right one. In truth, a 'realistic' fight between knights would probably be incredibly slow and boring. I guess the most 'realistic' combat system in the true sense of the word would be Mount and Blade.

For other games, I... still really like Baldur's Gate (2, mostly) for older style top-down combat. I find that kind of frequent pausing top-down view combat *way* more tactically intensive than more recent games it influenced. If Dragon Age was even 1/10th as complex and engaging as BG, I would have liked it - but it was just a poor man's mockery of a once-great combat system, and the frequent pausing felt very out of place in Kotor/Mass Effect (the latter in particular), and the smaller party size/reduced party options threw complexity/neat team builds out the window. IMO a party of 6 is that sweet spot - enough for meatshield, melee damage, support caster, damage caster, thief, etc.

The AD&D mechanics are pretty arcane and definitely feel dated (I hope you love reading pages-long spell descriptions!) but even despite that, BG2's combat remains one of the most complex, engaging and rewarding turn-based RPGs have to offer.

It's probably a matter of opinion, but i have to ask: Where do you see the big difference between Dragon Age: Origins and Baldurs Gate/any of the old AD&D combat?
For me DA:O felt like the modern recreation of the AD&D based combat systems. You have your Warriors who can take a hit and dish out pretty good, Spellcasters who can deal damage or use utility spells and Rogues who deal damage with critical hits and the like and lockpick/disarm traps for you.
The only big differneces were that BG had this hybrid classes like Bards, who combined some rogue stuff with some spells and the Clerics, who have no equivalent in DA:O.
DA:O did instead the whole threat mangament better, with the abilities that let a Warrior force the mobs to face him instead of the squishies.

For me, combat in games like Baldur's Gate was so much better than Dragon Age: Origins because of the variety in the class system as well as the fact that you traditionally had six members in your party instead of the limited four. AD&D wasn't just a case of 'warriors hit things, spellcasters blast things, rogues unlock things', there were tons of different classes, each with their own characteristics and nuances. For example, maybe the man on the front line was a heavily armored war cleric, supporting themselves with healing and destructive holy spells. Or maybe they were a kensai, a fighter subclass who gains bonuses for not wearing armor and relies on dodging and pure offense. There was also the ability to multi-class, so you could create countless combinations of classes for a hybrid character - perhaps as a level 8 druid you were to take some levels in fighter for some martial combat prowess, you could do that.

And then there is the fact that you could mix the party up if you wanted. You could run with a group of six martial combat classes, with fighters, paladins, barbarians or whatever. You maybe you'd like to go with a party of spellcasters - druids, clerics, wizards, sorcerers. The game gave you a lot more freedom and choice into how you could build characters and tailor them to your exact liking. Of course in my opinion, Dragon Age: Origins, despite being a very good game, is still a very shallow imitation of Baldur's Gate 2.

 

[s0p0g]

Jade Empire! (interwebbz y u no mention JE evar?!) and Gothic 2, of course

finally RPGs that let you fight yourself in a fun way ^^