Summary
RPGs are often open-ended in the ways that they let the player approach combat. Frommagical powersto modern weapons, there are many RPG games that let players experiment with a variety of combat tactics. Not every RPG gets its variety from exotic powers though, and some choose a far more grounded approach to combat.
Open-handed “Monk” style characters are often appealing to players. The power fantasy of defeating all enemies with bare hands is a common one. Whether they focus on martial arts, brawling, boxing, or mix-and-match disciplines with some fantasy flair, these RPGs all focus on hand-to-hand combat and do a good job of it, too. The games are ranked both by the quality of the hand-to-hand combat and the overall quality of the game, weighted towards how much it focuses on said combat.
Games with some RPG-like features, such as character progression, will also be considered.
God Handmay have had a mixed reception on launch back in 2006, but it’s since gone on to be regarded as a forgotten Capcom classic. The game focuses on the story of a martial artist with a legendary divine arm known as theGod Hand. It’s a fairly generic tale of defeating demons to save the world, but the martial arts-based combat system is anything but generic.
God Handhas over 100 martial arts-inspired moves that can be learned and equipped to any of the face buttons. That means that the player is free to mix and match abilities from various fighting styles to create their own combos. This leads to a fun anddynamic combat systemthat can be changed on the fly throughout the game. It’s further aided by the dynamic difficulty system, which increases the difficulty the better the player does in combat, rewarding the player more in return.
Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio might be better known for itsYakuzaseries, butFist Of The North Star: Lost Paradisetakes a similar approach to its brawler gameplay and applies it to the over-the-top martial arts world ofFist of the North Star. Thus, the player is free to explode their enemies like fleshy balloons with nothing more than the power of their fists.
Thematically, and gameplay-wise, the game takesa similar approach to theYakuza/Like A Dragongames, but everything is dialed up to 10. Combat is delightfully gorey, thanks to the aforementioned explosive martial arts, and even the mini-games have some additional flair. Like the baseball mini-game, which essentially recreates itsYakuzacounterpart, except that the player is using a steel beam to whack enemy motorcycles instead of a bat and ball.
The 2005 Xbox exclusiveJade Empireis one of Bioware’s less well-known RPGs, but its focus onChinese martial artsmakes it a unique game even now. Bioware at the time was known for its turn-based combat in games likeKnights of the Old Republic,so the decision to make a martial arts-focused, real-time combat system forJade Empirewas a bold one.
While the game also features some melee weapon styles, as well as magic, it features a number of martial arts disciplines that are each based on real-world styles. The team used styles like Aikido, Karate, and Capoeira as the basis for their movesets, and refined animations using motion capture. While the early 2000s era visuals haven’t aged well, the game is well worth revisiting thanks to its unique and innovative combat system.
Judgmenttells a fundamentally different type of story to theLike A Dragongames, placing players in the shoes of private detective and former lawyer Takayuki Yagami. The gameplay, however, borrows a lot from the brawler style of the formerYakuzafranchise.Judgmentadds enoughunique personalityto Yagami’s moves to give the combat its own feel, though.
Yagami will deftly leapfrog enemies, kick off walls, and use improvised weapons in combat, and there’s a mild slapstick edge to a lot of the animations and attitude of the protagonist that makes Judgment’s brawling a little more akin to a Jackie Chan movie. Similar to theYakuzasystem, players can switch between hand-to-hand combat styles at will and perform context-based special moves with weapons, their fists, and the environment. Thanks to a lackluster follow-up,Judgmentmay be sidelined as a franchise for now, but the original is well worth playing for fans of hand-to-hand combat.
Developer United Front Games may be gone, butSleeping Dogsremains one of the strongest open-world games of its time, and definitely the one that focused the most on hand-to-hand combat. Set in Hong Kong, the game follows the story of undercover police officer Wei Shen and his infiltration of the Sun On Yee Triad.
Wei Shen is an adept martial artist, and the game emphasizes melee combat over gunplay in the majority of situations. The hand-to-hand combat is intuitive, withBatman:Arkham-style multi-directional blocking and countering. This leads to a fluid and adaptive melee system that still feels fun to play, and there are multiple unique moves and combos that the player can unlock as they progress in the game.
The game used aninteresting progression system, dividing experience between Triad, Face, and Police XP, each helping advance different aspects of Shen’s character. Guns play their part in the gameplay, as do many other open-world mechanics like driving, parkour, and police wanted ratings, but the melee combat remains one ofSleeping Dogs’strongest points.
There aren’t many games that focus purely on hand-to-hand combat in the way thatAbsolverdoes. The entire game involves martial arts fighting and only martial arts fighting. The story, such as it is, has players competing to prove their worthiness to join the Absolver peacekeepers. To show this, they’re dumped into a large open-world map and wander around fighting other contenders, both AI and human.
There’s a huge selection of offensive moves to unlock, which come in the form of cards that can be equipped by the player. Players can have two moves for each stance and a total of four stances that can be switched between in combat. This lets players build a versatile set of moves that can help deal with defensive techniques like blocking and absorption. The game’s total focus on martial arts combat may not be to every player’s taste, but it’s a rare and deep example of a melee combat system that any action fan should try.
Of all the games on this list,Yakuza 0might have the best balance between its brawling hand-to-hand gameplay and the RPG game that surrounds it. There’s depth to the games' multiple brawling styles that thedual protagonistshave access to, but there’s also depth to the characters, world, and side activities that players will encounter.
As one of the strongest entries in theYakuzaseries,Yakuza 0’s story is equally engaging. It manages to tell the parallel stories of both protagonists well, while slowly revealing how their stories are going to collide before it eventually happens. The mature themes and tone are unique enough among contemporary RPGs and are interspersed with moments of comedy and nonsense in typicalYakuzafashion. There’s much more here than a good hand-to-hand combat system, but that’s still one of the best reasons to revisit the game.
The punishing hand-to-hand gameplay ofSifumight be the best interpretation of martial arts combat in a game. It may be a difficult combat system to master, but the difference in feeling between walking up to opponents hoping to win, and walking up knowing exactly how to take them down, is unmatched.
The story is a bit of a martial arts trope, which sees the player seeking vengeance on the gang that destroyed his martial arts school and murdered his sifu and father. That said, it makes an excellent framing for the players' progressive journey inSifu. This let Sloclap set each level as a hunt for a different gang member, culminating in a boss fight against them.
The boss fights inSifuare sublime, thematically matching their antagonists and with each feeling different to fight and focusing on different aspects of the combat system. In contrast to many games, which allow bosses to ignore pre-established rules of combat,Sifu’s bosses demand that the player is intimately familiar with their offensive and defensive options. This makes for some satisfying, learnable fights.
