Latest updates: Adventure (A2600, 1980), War of the Dead Part 2 (MSX, 1988), Wrinkle River Story (SAT, 1996), Esper Dream 2 (NES, 1992), Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain (PS1, 1996), Brain Lord (SNES, 1994), Dungeon Explorer II (PCE CD, 1993), Radia Senki (NES, 1991)
This project started as complementary pages to my retro Platform Adventure/Metroidvania quick reference guide, where the original purpose was to briefly list top down and isometric view games based on their overlap with that genre, but it eventually grew into its own thing. The goal is to provide an easy overview of the history of these games and to highlight what I consider to be the best ones for today and the most innovative ones in their day. The reason for grouping the Action Adventure (AA) and Action RPG (ARPG) genres together on one site is that there's a lot of overlap between them and a number of people see Action Adventure games like Zelda as ARPGs as well. That said I am aware of the differences and have noted them for each game’s completed entry. For a brief listing of the ARPGs only, click here (WIP). I'm going with the following games/series as the main codifiers for these genres and comparing each game to them: Zelda 1 and 3, Ys 1-2, Landstalker, Solstice, Soul Blazer (and its spiritual sequels Illusion of Gaia and Terranigma), Soleil/Crusader of Centy, Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain and Alundra for Top Down & Isometric View Games. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Mega Man Legends, Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon and Soul Reaver for First Person & Third Person View Games. The following are considered codifiers for subgenres/spinoffs based on AA & ARPG games: Metal Gear, Secret of Mana/Seiken Densetsu, Zelda II, Ys III, Tales of Phantasia and Diablo for Top Down & Isometric View Games. Quest for Glory, Alone in the Dark, Ultima Underworld, Resident Evil, The Elder Scrolls, System Shock and Shenmue for First Person & Third Person View Games. Going by these games and the wikipedia definitions I have laid out a few criteria that a game should meet all or most of to be included on the main lists. Note that almost no game is a perfect fit for every criteria, if I were to be that strict it would be a very short list of games:
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- Some degree of non-linearity - at the very least within sub areas but preferably in the overarching structure of the game. This includes games with open-ended and meshed areas, branching paths between more linear areas, and games with optional exploration for upgrades or other useful items in an otherwise mostly linear game (for example with backtracking to a previously gated off part of an area)
- Player character growth via permanent upgrades, through experience point leveling, use-based leveling and/or finding or buying them. This has to do with gameplay-related stats and skills rather than changes to the character's personality
- Ability/tool gating, not just key gating (including other items that function like keys such as the three pendants in Zelda 3 giving access to the master sword). These should be persistent, meaning they're not single-use or temporarily kept until you reach the next area or take a hit. See for example the bombs or the stepladder in Zelda 1. ARPGs may have level/stat gating only
- Puzzles and/or tactical combat elements, including resource management and stuff like elemental affinities. Tactical does not include party/squad-based combat here - these are games where one player controls a single player avatar (or at least one avatar at a time if a party is featured, such as in the Mana and Tales of games).
- Some story focus, be it dialogue-driven or environment-driven. AAs and ARPGs generally do not focus on the player interacting with and influencing the story and character relations however, and historically this has been a much bigger focus in "pure" Adventure games and WRPGs/CRPGs.
- Real-time and preferably non tile-based movement in and outside of combat, where the player also controls each attack manually rather than just moving up to or aiming at enemies and having combat be decided by dice rolls and the AI. An example of the latter is Baldur's Gate, a game that seemingly has real-time combat but where there is both a turn system, AI scripts and dice rolls "behind the scenes". Games like Diablo and Secret of Mana blur the line a bit here in that they do have a number of dice roll-based aspects to combat, but focus on the player using their cognitive skills in real-time, generally requiring continuous movement input.
These criteria mean that games such as The Last Ninja, D/Generation and Tomb Raider are not included in the main lists. Instead they are listed in the Outliers section of each one. While a bit controversial, I don't consider these to be proper Action Adventure games; they're level-based games without any backtracking to either a previous level or a hub area, without branching paths between levels, and without permanent character upgrades or gained tools/abilities in the case of the last two (Last Ninja has none (?) but does have one permanent tool in the claw, so it's a bit closer though the claw is underused).
If you have a look at the history of the genres at wikipedia, you can see that the first games considered as AA and ARPG tend to fulfill most of my criteria, and when games like Hydlide, Xanadu, Paradroid, Batman (1986), Legend of Zelda, Starflight, Metal Gear 1-2, Pirates!, Ys 1-2, Midwinter, Quest for Glory, Solstice and Hunter gave them more of a mainstream appeal and redefined them, that's when we got a more solid definition of what they're about so it would seem like a good reference point for the future. Unlike with, say, Platform Adventure/Metroidvania games though, this definition became more washed out around the mid '90s, with some writers referencing AA as in the movie genre and not caring as much about overarching structure, gating and character growth mechanics.
Regarding RPGs, I think a proper RPG should feature player controlled character interaction and choices that affect the story outcome in a substantial way, besides mechanics like experience point leveling, loot and gear upgrades. The player should be able to fully inhabit and shape the role of a character, not just "below the shoulders" aspects. ARPGs tend to only feature the latter.
Furthermore I don't consider turn-based combat, party-based gameplay, the size of the game world or even character creation to be mandatory elements. Yes, they are associated with the genre and I also like seeing them in the mix, but they’re not fundamental in the same way.
I've also divided the main lists into generations or eras as a way of sorting the genres' history into easier to digest parts, and in a way that makes more sense to me since the major releases don't necessarily correlate neatly with the console generations (which aren't neatly organized to begin with).
I've recently added some subcategories to each game entry as well, for easier viewing:
- Subgenre (includes dimensional info). A subgenres key page can be found here.
- Perspective (SV=side view, TD=top down, FP=first person, TP=third person)
- Other (platforming and out of the ordinary movement mechanics like flight or swimming, structural variances such as hub maps/areas or overworlds, separate areas, escape sequences, co-op and other alternate modes, mini-games, time limits, etc.)
The rest should be easy to figure out; Just click on a perspective category and you'll see a list of links to pages sorted chronologically by year, then roughly by quality and how well they fit into the genres, followed by some outlier games for each year. There's also a list format page for each category with all years represented but no info on individual games.
Just one last thing: In listing various features from these games that relate to the genre, some unique aspects are spoiled so if you want to go in blind, use the list format pages (here and here) and check video playthroughs or reviews instead. Now that we have that out of the way, please enjoy the rest of the site!