List of Games in the Genre

The point of this list is to catalogue each and every game in the genre, where they stand, and if they are worth playing compared to the rest. This genre is really big, so I feel this will help players (even ones like me) to consider which to play before moving on to the next. It is open for debate as always.


STARTER PACK

• Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition
  
• Ninja Gaiden Black
  
• God of War 2
  
• Genma Onimusha/ Onimusha Warlords
  
• God Hand
  
• Viewtiful Joe
  
  

FOLLOW UP TITLES, WHAT TO PLAY NOW

• Devil May Cry 4
  
• Devil May Cry 1
  
• Shinobi
  
• Transformers Devastation
  
• Bayonetta
  
• Ninja Gaiden 2/ Sigma 2 (each one has its qualities, read here)
  
• Ninja Gaiden 2004
  
• Ninja Gaiden Hurricane Packs
  
• God of War 1
  
• Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
  
• Onimusha 2
  
• Bloodborne
  
• Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within
  
• Wonderful 101
  
  

TIME FOR SOME GAMES THAT SWITCH IT UP A BIT

• Chaos Legion
  
• Okami
  
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
  
• OZ (Over Zenith)
  
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade
  
  
• Kunoichi/Nightshade
  
• Bayonetta 2
  
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
  
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
  
• Killer is Dead
  
• Nioh
  
• Onimusha Dawn of Dreams
  
• Demon's Souls & Dark Souls Trilogy
  
• Nier: Automata
  
• Yakuza Zero
  
• Furi
  
• Viewtiful Joe 2
  
• Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
  
• Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
  
• El Shaddai
  
• Remember Me
  
  

STILL NOT TIRED OF THE GENRE? TRY THESE!

• Aztec
  
• Otogi: Myth of Demons
  
• Otogi 2: Immortal Warriors
  
• Nanobreaker
  
• Absolver
  
• Rainblood Prequel--Mirage
  
• Knack 2
  
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma
  
• Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2
  
• God of War 3
  
• God of War Ghost of Sparta
  
• God of War Chains of Olympus
  
• Dante's Inferno
  
• Lollipop Chainsaw
  
• Sword of Destiny
  
• Galarians Ash
  
• Blood will Tell
  
• Dodoro
  
• Transformers Tataki
  
• Genji: Dawn of the Samurai
  
  

YOU REALLY ARE OPEN TO ALL SORTS OF NEW THINGS HUH? GOOD MAN!

• Yakuza Kiwami
  
• Genji: Days of the Blade
  
• Gungrave 1
  
• Gungrave 2
  
• Cursed Crusade
  
• Batman Arkham, whole series (Knight has the best combat, others excel at other things)
  
• Onimusha 3
  
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus
  
• Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus
  
• Legend of Korra
  
• Marlow Briggs and the Mask of Death
  
• Death by Degrees
  
• Ghost Rider (PS2)
  
• Magatama (Xbox)
  
• Pandora's Tower
  
• Nightmare before Christmas (PS2)
  
  

ONLY THE BIGGEST FANS WILL APPRECIATE THESE

• Ninja Blade
  
• Heavenly Sword
  
• Devil May Cry 2
  
• Resident Evil 6
  
• TMNT
  
• Ninja Gaiden 3
  
• God of War Ascension
  
• Infamous
  
• Bullet Witch
  
• Wet
  
• Ryse: Son of Rome
  
• Knight's Contract
  
• Darksiders
  
• Devil's Third
  
• Crimson Sea
  
• Bouncer
  
• Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
  
• Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
  
• Tsukiyo ni Saraba (10.000 Bullets)
  
  

NOT BELONGING TO THE GENRE, BUT IMPORTANT IN IT

• Resident Evil 4
  
• Vanquish
  
  

HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT

• Rising Zan: The Samurai Gunman (DMC1 is heavily based on this, read here
  
• Rygar: The Legendary Adventure (GoW is heavily based on this, lots of other action games are too)
  
• Ninja Gaiden NES & Ninja Gaiden Arcade
  
  

Good idea, though I don't feel great about ranking them. There will always be disagreement on where one stands.

Birdman wrote:Good idea, though I don't feel great about ranking them.  There will always be disagreement on where one stands.

How about putting them in orders then? Like in what order you should play them? Because that's what I was going for. 
Like, you can say what you want, but I wouldn't recommend starting this genre with Ninja Blade or Devil May Cry 2 for example.

EDIT: changed the names a bit.

That does make sense. There are definitely some games that I wouldn't recommend as an entry point into the genre. That said, I'm not sure what I'd actually recommend first.

Do you think it would be better to always start with the first entry of a series? But my brain is probably programmed like that because that's what I did. Though looking at your 'if you like this, try this' system, that might be better because it allows players to get to exactly what they're after.

Either way, looks fine to me. I'll add some games I know of and you can add them if they suit.

Gungrave 1&2
Tsukiyo ni saraba
Genji
Genji 2
Okami
OZ (Over Zenith)
Nanobreaker
Castlevania Lament of Innocence
Castlevania Curse of Darkness
Transformers Tataki
El Shaddai
Otogi 1&2
Magatama

Gungrave and Tsukiyo ni saraba are possibly more shooter, so it's up to you if you want to add them. Okami is a super long game, but combat-wise it's easily action.

I got some others like Crimson Sea and Pandora's Tower, but not entirely sure of your view on those. CS is sorta like DW in a sense, but with guns and way better gameplay. PT has the combat, but a lot of RPG elements, though nothing grindy, just upgrades and maintaining the curse progress on the princess.

That's all I can think of without getting all my boxes out.

Damn, was gonna say gungrave 1/2, 2 is better but both qualify as action to me. Junji(1 of 3 playable characters in 2) is primarily melee based, so he counts more so. You have dodges(which doubles as a shoot-dodge), super moves and basic melee strings too.

Vanquish is equally action(or more so) as re6, bullet witch, gungrave or Furi. If you put even wet in action then I think Vanquish deserves higher billing :p.

Furi is mostly a shoot em up actually, some of the bosses overdo that side, 1 boss is pure melee, the best bosses in Furi balance shmup and melee.

Sursprised you put infamous there, I like 1-2 a lot.

Best consult the library we've made thus far too haha. Maybe order the list differently, you list a lot of entries from the same series, but I think some series can be compiled together, the standouts being highlighted and/or placed elsewhere as you've done with GoW2 in the starter pack.

For the list:

No more Heroes 1-2.

Streets of rage 1-3 and Final Fight 1-3; these games preceded action as we know it and show great influence in God Hand(as well as Yakuza)

Final Fantasy 15; better than you may think, has some tech.

Breakdown; unique 1st person brawling that deserves a spot even if melee is one facet of gameplay(others being jank shooting and platforming near the end).

Onechanbara series, namely Z2:Chaos which has the most depth.

Sengoku Basara series, namely 3 and 4.

Dynasty Warriors series(someone had to acknowledge it).

Dragons Dogma.

Star Wars: Forced Unleashed 1-2

Wolverine Origins: Uncaged Edition

Afro Samurai(need to replay this, don't think it's very good even if I played it to death as a kid)

Prince of Persia series, namely Warrior Within. Any knowledge of the Prince of Persia reboot? The one that's cell shaded and has a female NPC companion.

Double Dragon Neon

Jojo's Bizarre Adventure:Golden Wind(PS2 Japan only)

Samurai Western(Way of the Samurai spinoff funnily enough)

Way of the Samurai series

Red Steel 2: amazing 1st person sword combat with gunslinger gunplay for the Wii(requires Wii motion plus, its that good). In name only sequel to Red Steel, a jank Wii FPS with shallow jank melee duals that are completely separate from gunplay.

Mad world

Anarchy Reigns/Max Anarchy

Urban reign

EOE: Age of Extinction

Sword of the Berserk: Gut's Rage

Berserk: Millennium Falcon(PS2 Japan only)



Maybe make an action-shooter side list, include stuff like:

Gungrave1-2, there's a VR remake of 1 recently, for real!
Vanquish
Wet
Sin&Punishment 1-2
Alien Soldier
Gunstar Heroes
Furi
Astebreed

Can't believe I missed Berserk!

Gravity Rush 1&2
Z.O.E 1&2
Bujingai
Beatdown Fists of Vengeance

If you want super obscure, Seven Samurai 20XX, 7 Blades, and Vampire Panic.

Oh boy I started building a list a couple of weeks ago. I'll browse this and add to it.

Add these two tho:
Heart&Slash
Dead Cells

Large lack of indie games I see. Probably fair as it isn't super huge, but it is growing a lot and producing some of the best the genre offers in experiences. Well, sometimes at least.

Metroidvania titles mostly fit into the genre with how largely combat has grown in the sub genre. I'll list what I got.

Hollow Knight
Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae
Hyper Light Drifter (play this, it is incredible)
Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning
Alice: Madness Returns
X-Blades
Blades of Time
Brutal Legend
Dust: An Elysian Tail
God Eater 1&2
Guacamelee
Necropolis
Outland
Overgrowth
Salt and Sanctuary
Valdis Story: Abyssal City
ICEY
Senran Kagura Series
Fate: Extella

I'm sure there is more that I'm not thinking of, but I can't really check my PC so see the categories.

Also, on the subject of Sub Genres, I do wonder how deep that should reach. Metroidvania, Hunter games, Musou, and Action MMO titles are growing constantly and rapidly, and almost all of them take some sort of inspiration from the roots of the Action genre. Just in the past few years alone, Musou games have gotten insanely good combat flow and removed a ton of clunkiness, and Action MMO games have shifted to become the standard, with BDO and Tera leading the way. There has definitely been an amazing evolution the past few years alone

Cheers for the input, I added up to Gabriel's list (partially) and will add the rest later. It takes a while since I want to check each game and see where it belongs.

If anyone has a recommendation for the listen (and titles of the listings) let me know. I'm not going to go by sub-genre as that's a bit too out there right now (some switching, while remaining true to the core) and while it is a bit unfair right now (it's obviously a good to bad list), it is more clear I feel.

End goals is to have each name be clickable and go to a YT-video that shows some good gameplay in action to get a feel for it. But that's a long way's away.

EDIT: the 2008 reb00t of Prince of Persia is not getting in there, barely any combat. More a platformer.

If anything, I can go ahead and assemble a database, and we can try to set up tables on here for it. I do believe the text here uses HTML format so we should be able to fairly easily set up tables and make it look as clean as possible. I myself am hunting these games so I can keep myself busy as I patiently await DMCV and Dragon's Dogma Online, the latter of which may never happen so glad I'm learning japanese haha.

Make a small test first if you can, the HTML on this site is...weird. I cannot get it to work propperly myself to be honest. If it works, go nuts!

Did anyone say Afro Samurai yet? I didn't find it that good but it had some interesting mechanics.

How come you put Onimusha 3 way down the list? I know it's not a true ranking list, but is Oni 3 generally considered the lesser of the series?

I listed Afro Samurai, yeh it has straight up blade mode, pretty rad.

Onimusha 3 is considered by most to be the worst of the series while also being the 'closing' story, so it should always be played last no matter what.

I'll see if I can update the list a bit more today. Thanks for all the inputs!

I must have missed that. How the hell did it get classed as worst?

Less content, lots of reused assets for whatever reason, less fun level design, gameplay got nerfed bad compared to 2, escort missions, the whole game just felt a lot more phoned in compared to the original and the sequel.

I felt it did well in the gameplay department. The only thing I didn't care for was the ten point slash. It had no real use and I only ever used it just to look at it. Totally tacked on. Jacque's gameplay was cool though.

Cant beat Oni2's branching pathways though. That was a lot of fun getting everything and finding all those different scenarios with each character. I think it took me like 4 playthroughs to 100% and see everything and it was different each time outside of main storyline events.

To this day I still see DoD trashed but I loved that one as well. Definitely some points I don't love about it though but overall it's fine.

Dawn of Dreams was way ahead of its time, basically a more basic Nioh. Really great game, and felt very refreshing. Haven't seen a lot of hate about it personally though.

Samurai Champloo game(by Grasshopper manufacture AND directed/written by Suda51 himself, perfect devs for this).

Nier(as in Nier Replicant/Gestalt, NOT Automata)

Drakengard 1-2-3

Oni(by bungie, the Halo devs, pretty much a ghost in the shell game)

Aces wild

NeverDead

Shank 1-2

The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai and The Dishwasher: Vampire Smile

WET

Fuck I really need to grab one day and just churn through this list...

Maximo: Ghosts to Glory(3D Ghosts n Goblins Spinoff, focuses on sword/shield combat and platforming)

Maximo vs Army of Zin(sequel and final entry for this short lived series, greatly expands combat move set and focuses significantly on combat)

BloodRayne(3rd person shooter with vampiric powers and core melee component)

BloodRayne 2(focuses mostly on revamped melee mechanics with RAGDOLL!as a core feature, it came out 05 go figure)

BloodRayne Betrayal(2D action platformer spin-off by Wayforward)

Batman the brave and the bold(wii sidescrolling beat em up platformer by Wayforward)

SplatterHouse 1-3 and Splatterhouse reboot

Van Hellsing Movie Game(Honorary DMC game)

Silent Bomber(PS1 title that’s pretty much edgy bomber man with TACTICAL BOMB BASED ACTION)

DragonBall Xenoverse 1-2

Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes(still in development)

DIE HARD ARCADE/DYNAMITE DEKA and DYNAMITE COP 2-3(Notably the first beat 'em up to use texture-mapped polygonal graphics)

Gundam Breaker 1-3 and New Gundam Breaker

Hulk Ultimate Destruction

Prototype 1-2(same team and same/similar mechanics as Hulk above, 2 is much better in every facet)

Attack on Titan 1-2 games

Extinction(practically AoT Titan combat/mobility with typical 3D hack n slash/beat em up combat)

Sengoku Basara series

Nelo(3D Action/Bullet Hell hybrid, kickstarted, now in early access)

Uppers

Mr Shifty(Top-down beat em up)

This list is going to be the end of me haha. Never should've started it (though it does help me out a lot).

Also saw Nelo btw, looks sweet.

I see that Muramasa is on this list, so I'd add in Odin Sphere Leifthrasir.

Also this list is quite varied, but it's also filled with individual games. What exactly makes a game qualified? Because I think the Tales Of series fits right in on this list (though the individual games do their own things, so they'd have various places).

Tales games I'd add:

Besides that, I'd also add a more obscure example: The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King on Gamecube and PS2. Not a diamond by any means, but definitely an example of a good movie tie-in, the game is *entirely* combat and is actually pretty deep and challenging.

I agree, the Tales Of games should be in there. I really should re-edit this list and make it different in terms of setup. Maybe put it into catagories. Like "Classics", "different take", "deep", "complex", "action RPG" etc. One hell of a job haha.

Not sure about LOTR, wasn't that more in line with slashers like Diablo and Gauntlet?

I've looked through the list and didn't see these, but I may have missed them.

Spikeout Battle Street (Arcade/OG Xbox)
Grabbed by the Ghoulies

I really to update this fucking list...hahaha.

You know I wonder where Devil May Cry 5 will be on that list. I think Infamous 2 should be on that list. It has been a very long time since I played it but I do know that there is a lot more to work with in terms of gameplay. Perhaps add Dynasty Warriors 8XLCE.

I'd say every Musou game could probably go on this list.

Yeah I'm still a bit split on how to 'sort' the list. I'd like to make this list so give people a starting point, like what games to start with first to get a 'taste' of the genre, then what style they might like. Kind of like a road map. Like it starts with NG, DMC, GoW, Musou or something, and then okay you like Musou? Then you might like these games. Loved GoW? Try these! Etc.

Makes sense to me. I'd also try sorting them out based on difficulty. Unless they're prepared, I personally don't suggest, say, Ninja Gaiden to a newcomer of these types of games, because the difficulty might turn them off. So start them off with something easier, while in a similar type of gameplay (In NG's case, efficiency and reflexes), and then escalate.

I was thinking on that as well. There was a recent Reddit post on this as well. People had to name a genre they'd like and then 3 good games to begin with, 3 good games for more experienced players and 3 good games for experts. Might be a good to try something like that.