Best Action JRPGs That Are Not Part Of A Franchise

Summary

• Good action games often spawn sequels, like the Soulsborne franchise.
• Standalone experiences can offer players fresh content.
• Several underrated games like Ever Oasis and Heroes of Ruin deserve more recognition.

A good action game will generally produce a line of sequels. For example, while many didn’t quite understand it at first, Demon’s Souls gave birth to Dark Souls, which then created Bloodborne and Elden Ring. They are all separate entities, but they are sort of related in the same franchise as they share similar vibes.

It’s great that the Soulslike genre blossomed, but other games, and sub-genres, have not been so lucky. With some of these examples, maybe that’s the point though. It’s okay to have standalone experiences if it offers players something fresh to jump into. So, whether these examples deserve sequels or not, they are all great.

7 Beyond The Labyrinth

One Big Escort Mission

• Developer: tri-Ace
• Publisher: Konami
• Release Date: January 19, 2012 (Japan)
• Platform: 3DS

Beyond the Labyrinth was a 3DS game released in Japan. It was a collaboration between tri-Ace, known best for Star Ocean, and Konami. Players escort a mysterious girl through a labyrinth located high in the sky, and can control party members in a hybrid of turn-based tactics and first-person action. Eventually, the girl can also gain powers. It’s ultimately a big escort mission, except less of a hassle.

This is one of the hardest games on the system though, thanks to the few ways players can heal or save. Also, it can be challenging to decipher the color-based weaknesses of enemies. But as difficult as the game is, Beyond the Labyrinth is alluring, especially since it never left Japan.

6 Code Vein

A Vampiric Soulslike

Code Vein was developed within Bandai Namco, the same developer/publisher that also puts out a majority of the FromSoftware Soulslikes. It takes place in the post-apocalypse, wherein humanity has been morphed into vampiric-like creatures called Revenants.

Thanks to elixirs, Revenants can still control their humanity, while another part of the population goes unfiltered and mutates into monsters. Players can customize their character and gain a variety of weapons and powers as they level up to take on these mutants. There is online co-op, but players can also hire NPCs to accompany them on hunts.

Breaking The Fourth Wall

Contact is one of the strangest RPGs on the DS, especially with how it breaks the fourth wall. There is a pixel Professor living inside the literal DS, and players are presumably thrown into a foreign world and take up a more abstract art style when they encounter him.

The core adventure begins on a beach in a very Zelda-like manner with added RPG elements mixed with the odd humor of the Mother series. It’s a surreal game that kind of takes a few tries to get the hang of it. It was experimental, but that’s what a lot of fans loved about Contact at the time, way before Undertale came around to pay homage to the Mother series.

4 Ever Oasis

A Sandy World Builder

The developer Grezzo is getting the recognition they so rightly deserve thanks to The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. One game that didn’t get the praise it needed was Ever Oasis, a 3DS action RPG that was released after the Switch had come out. Many 3DS games suffered in a post-Switch world without a port, and this was one of them.

Players explore a vast desert region with multiple party members who grant them Metroid-like abilities to get past restrictions. By building their town, or oasis, players receive more ways to interact with the dungeons. The combat and gameplay loop was simple but solid, and it would likely have done better on the Switch if it had been given the chance.

3 Heroes Of Ruin

Diablo For The 3DS

• Developer: n-Space
• Publisher: Square Enix
• Release Date: July 17, 2012 (NA)
• Platform: 3DS

Heroes of Ruin was an early 3DS title that offered players a good Diablo clone on the go. Players could connect to friends for four-player co-op sessionsm which is when the RPG really cooked. Players could choose from four premade characters, like a Gunslinger who obviously used guns in their attacks, or the more battle-ready Vindicator, which was a lion knight.

The game wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but for a Square Enix-published game, it deserves better than a one-off. The same is true for the Dungeon Siege series which Square Enix took over publishing, starting and ending with Dungeon Siege 3, which is also an overlooked Diablo-like action RPG with good co-op.

2 Infinite Undiscovery

Undiscovered Is Right

• Developers: tri-Ace, Xbox Game Studios, G-Style
• Publishers: Square Enix, Xbox Game Studios
• Release Date: September 2, 2008
• Platform: Xbox 360

Infinite Undiscovery is par for the course when it comes to weird names in RPGs published or made by Square Enix. It was a collaboration with tri-Ace again. This is also an action RPG wherein players can traverse dungeons with fairly large parties.

Music played a big role in the game, as the protagonist, Capell, could use a flute to discover hidden areas. It was a big RPG made exclusively for the Xbox 360, and it never left the console with an enhanced port. However, it can still be played on modern Xbox consoles via backwards compatibility.

1 Soma Bringer

Before The Xenoblade Chronicles

• Developer: Monolith Soft
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Release Date: February 28, 2008 (Japan)
• Platform: DS

Soma Bringer was made by Monolith Soft games, which most may know from the various “Xeno” games like Xenoblade Chronicles. Players can create a character, choose a class, and a weapon, and then head out on an adventure. Monsters appear in real time, and combat is action-based without any transitions.

Players can recruit two AI-based party members, and they will attack randomly to aid in battle. There is also multiplayer if players wish to create three-player co-op sessions wirelessly on the DS. This game never got a sequel, and it never left Japan, but there is an English fan patch for it.