FINALE
Blight Club
Fallout: New Vegas | 002
Giant Bomb Plays
837: Bombcast Revengeance
Giant Bombcast
#237 - Clive Rosfield's Rising Tide
GameSpot After Dark
The Community Spotlight 2024.04.20
The Community Spotlight 2024.04.13
Community Endurance Run XIV - April 12-14
Game » consists of 12 releases. Released Dec 13, 1984
Link dons a talking hat named Ezlo as he sets out on a quest to save Princess Zelda and defeat the evil wizard, Vaati.
A Game Boy Advance remake of the SNES classic featuring an all new Four Swords multiplayer component.
Legend of Legaia is a Japanese role-playing game for the PlayStation that follows the story of Vahn, a young man out to rid the world of a deadly mist.
The two original Dragon Quest RPGs remade with a graphical upgrade and compiled into a single package for SNES and Game Boy Color.
The third installment in the Zelda series makes a return to the top-down 2D gameplay of the original. Link must travel between the Light and Dark Worlds in order to set things right in the kingdom of Hyrule.
Ultima VI is the final entry in the Age of Enlightenment. Its icon- and text-based interface was new to computer RPGs at the time.
A fantasy non-linear puzzle/platformer with RPG elements developed by Athena. The hero Lutter must save six damsels from a diabolical maze.
Final Fantasy II follows four heroes who join a resistance group and try to stop an empire from taking over the world. Its gameplay deviates greatly from the first game by utilizing a usage-based growth system.
An action RPG for the Famicom Disk System and MSX, developed by Pack-In-Video. It was never released outside of Japan.
An early JRPG developed by Systemsoft for the NES. It was never released outside of Japan.
RPG developed by Xtalsoft in 1986. It was developed for home computers and later ported to the Famicom Disk System.
The third release of the Dragon Warrior franchise saw the story take a trip back in time before one and two, taking up the sword of the warrior of legend, Loto. In this game the hero sets out to destroy Baramos after his/her late father Ortega fails.
Sorcerian, also known as Dragon Slayer V: Sorcerian, is an action RPG released by Nihon Falcom in 1987. It was considered unique for its party-based action combat, magic combination system, and open-ended multi-scenario system that could be extended with expansion packs.
An early NES JRPG developed by Random House and published by Taito. It is the precursor to the Silva Saga games. It was never released outside of Japan.
An RPG developed by Xtalsoft and published by Square. It was available for the Famicom Disk System and never released outside of Japan.
Gandhara (ガンダーラ), also known as Crusade of Gandhara Buddha (ガンダーラ仏陀の聖戦), is an action-adventure-RPG that was released by Enix in 1987, for home computers exclusively in Japan.
Super Rambo Special is a stealth-action-RPG based on the movie Rambo: First Blood Part 2. It was released for the MSX in 1986 and featured some early stealth elements anticipating Metal Gear.
Rescue the princess and defeat the evil Dragonlord in this landmark RPG from Enix.
The very first video game based on the Rambo film series, an action-RPG released exclusively in Japan for the MSX.
An action RPG released by Nihon Falcom in 1985 that was the company's first blockbuster success, becoming one of the best selling Japanese PC games of all time.
Tritorn is an action RPG developed by Sein Soft and released in 1985. It was one of the first action RPGs, improving on Dragon Slayer and Hydlide with the use of an action button to attack enemies, and one of the first Metroidvania-style games.
Ultima IV is a seminal role playing game focused on the protagonist's moral journey rather than defeating a nemesis.
The Screamer is a 1985 cyberpunk-horror action RPG taking place in a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi setting. It was released by Magical Zoo, for the PC-8801 in 1985 and for the PC-9801 and X1 in 1986. An English fan translation was released in January 2015.
Dragon Buster is a dungeon-crawling, arcade platformer with RPG elements, released by Namco in 1985. It was later ported to various home systems. It featured several firsts in gaming history: the double-jump, the life meter, and the hub world map. It was also one of the first action games with RPG elements.
One of the first action RPGs, released in 1984. It was also the first fully-scaled open-world video game.
Dragon Slayer is an action RPG designed by Yoshio Kiya and developed by Nihon Falcom. The title helped to pioneer the action RPG genre in Japan and spawned many sequels that would spin-off into their own franchises over time.
Players climb the tower, defeat Druaga and rescue Princess Ki in this maze-style, action role-playing game. Originally released by Namco for arcades in 1984, its combination of hack & slash combat and RPG elements laid the foundations for the action RPG genre.
Designed by Yoshio Kiya and released by Nihon Falcom in 1983, this was possibly the first action RPG. It introduced real-time combat, sci-fi elements, a persistent open world with day-night cycle, and survival mechanics. This was a precursor to Falcom's seminal action RPG franchise, Dragon Slayer.
The first Ultima game to be published by Origin Systems Inc.
The second game in Richard Garriott's seminal Ultima role-playing series.
This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:
Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.
Use your keyboard!
Log in to comment
Log in to comment