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Game » consists of 12 releases. Released June 1984
Void Stranger is a Sokoban-style puzzle game with a wealth of cryptic secrets hidden just beneath the surface.
In this unique downloadable "tower offense" game, the player takes the role of God trying to prevent the Babylonians from building the Tower of Babel.
A quasi-sequel to From Software's action-RPG Demon's Souls, set in a new universe while retaining most of the basic gameplay and the high level of challenge. It features a less-linear world, a new checkpoint system in the form of bonfires, and the unique Humanity system.
Demon's Souls is an action-RPG developed by From Software and released in 2009. It quickly became popular within hardcore circles for its relentlessly steep difficulty level, deep combat system, and unique multiplayer integration.
A martial arts fighting game released in 1997. It was the most realistic fighting game of its time. The game's "high-damage", nearly-one-hit-kill combat system won it many commendations and a fan following, but it has rarely been featured in other games.
An isometric action RPG that takes place in and below the town of Tristram. Gothic fantasy weapons and spells are used to defeat hordes of monsters from hell through randomized dungeon levels, continuously gaining experience points, gold, and a variety of equipment to bolster the hero's monster-killing potency along the way.
This Gauntlet sequel was developed specifically for home computers and doesn't have much in common with the original arcade games.
An action RPG designed by Yu Suzuki for the Sega Genesis. The original advertising for this game claimed that it had "over 300 hours of gameplay".
Dungeon Explorer is a top-down action-adventure RPG developed by Atlus and published by Hudson Soft in 1989. Up to five players can join in the quest to recover the Ora stone from the mighty Natas.
Action-adventure-RPG released in 1987 by Konami only in Japan. It features both side-scrolling and "3D" (third-person, behind-the-shoulder) segments, open-world exploration, and hack & slash combat, including the earliest third-person hack & slash combat.
The first game in the Ys series. The player controls Adol Christin who is on a quest to retrieve the six books of Ys which he will use to destroy the evil forces.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the second entry in the ground-breaking Zelda franchise. This controversial follow-up ditches the original's top-down perspective for 2D side-scrolling exploration and combat. The 2D towns, dungeons and combat arenas are tied together by a top-down overworld.
This 1986 sequel added more enemies with better AI, new treasures, harder levels, and the ability for each player to choose the character they wanted.
Rescue the princess and defeat the evil Dragonlord in this landmark RPG from Enix.
A young boy explores a huge overworld filled with enemies and dungeons to find and rescue Princess Zelda from the evil Ganon.
A top-down fantasy action Arcade game from the 80s in which up to four players fended off hordes of enemies while navigating treacherous mazes. Its difficulty is legendary; players can still hear the cry "Wizard needs food, badly!" in their nightmares.
Adventure Construction Set (ACS) is a program that is used to construct tile-based graphical adventure games.
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.
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.
Released in 1984, Hydlide was the first open-world action RPG. It was the first on-foot, fully-scaled, open-world game, and introduced innovations such as a health-regeneration mechanic. It influenced the action RPG genre as well as The Legend of Zelda franchise.
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.
Kidou Senshi Gundam Part 1: Gundam Daishi ni Tatsu!! (機動戦士ガンダム PART 1 ガンダム大地に立つ!! "Mobile Suit Gundam Part 1: Gundam Stands on the Ground!!") is an adventure/shooter/RPG from 1983, based on the popular Mobile Suit Gundam anime television series.
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.
A treasure-hunting maze game where Sindbad (also known as Sinbad the Sailor) must search for treasure in multi-layered, isometric-like, levels. While doing so, he must avoid enemies, which Sindbad can hold-up by digging holes or using the environment.
An Egyptian themed arcade game released in 1982 from Konami, where players control an explorer/treasure hunter raiding the ancient catacombs of King Tut's tomb. It was the first maze-shooter action-adventure, predating games such as Gauntlet and Time Bandit.
Samurai is the first known hack & slash brawler, released by Sega in 1980. The player character is armed with a sword and simultaneously faces multiple opponents in an arena before facing a boss opponent.
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