Action RPG

A video game genre that combines core elements of action games and role-playing games. Action RPGs emphasise real-time combat that tests the player's coordination or reaction time, as opposed to turn-based or menu-based combat, while keeping RPG progression such as levels, stats, skills and better equipment. MMORPGs with real-time combat also count as action RPGs. Blizzard North's Diablo (1997), a click-to-move, real-time dungeon crawl, set the template for the loot-focused isometric branch, which continued with Titan Quest (2006), Torchlight (2009) and Path of Exile (2013). Another branch puts the camera behind the character in larger worlds: The Witcher series, which began in 2007 and concluded with 2015's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and FromSoftware's games from Demon's Souls (2009), built around hard enemies and limited checkpoints, to Elden Ring (2022), which mixed open-world exploration with Soulslike combat. Because your character build and your own execution both matter, the same encounter can play out very differently for two players.