Action JRPGs That Should Transition Into Turn-Based Combat

Yakuza was one of the only franchises that kept the brawler genre alive. It was over a decade of sequels and spinoffs that brought raw bloody action to consoles. Then, with Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the seventh mainline title not counting the prequel, Sega turned it into a turn-based RPG.

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Thanks to its success, the mainline Yakuza games are all going to be turn-based now while the spinoffs will be action-based including Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Can these other action games get transformed into turn-based RPGs and be successful too? It’s time to jump in and brainstorm some wild ideas.

6

Castlevania

From Metroidvania To Turn-Based Mania

Castlevania may not be a series that most categorize as a JRPG but their Metroidvania style does include RPG elements which started with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Players can level up their stats, gain new abilities, and get a good amount of loot from monster drops in the Metroidvania entries. Castlevania has never had a traditional turn-based RPG though, but there is one entry in the series that could be converted easily into one.

Castlevania 3: Dracula’s Curse on the NES gave players multiple characters to bounce around with including Trevor Belmont, Sypha Belnades, Grant Danasty, and Alucard. This was before the Metroidvania boom, so it wasn’t an RPG either but it did have a party system. It would make sense then to remake it as a party-based RPG and it’s also fitting because the Netflix adaptation of it was huge a few years ago. It may be past the point of relevance now but diehard fans would surely pop off from this announcement.

5

Custom Robo

Mobilizing Toys To Fight

• Developer: Noise
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Released: December 8, 1999 (Japan)
• Platform: N64

Custom Robo was not a huge franchise for Nintendo outside of Japan but overall it had a good run between several games on the N64, GameCube, and DS. The concept saw children build customizable robot toys to fight them in arena battles sort of like Pokemon but with mechs. It’s a popular medium in Japan referred to often as Gunpla even though that specifically refers to building Gundam models.

Gundams aside, these action games could be turned into turn-based strategy RPGs. They could be like Square Enix’s Front Mission series except with a more appealing art style and tone for kids to fit with the family-friendly brand of Nintendo. Players could customize their robot toys and then send them into tactical battles.

4

Dark Souls

Going Back To Their Roots

FromSoftware has made a lot of action games over the years even way before Demon’s Souls and the whole Soulslike movement began. They have dabbled in turn-based RPGs too like with Enchanted Arms on the Xbox 360. Now that they have seemingly conquered the action RPG realm, FromSoftware should go back to turn-based RPGs and give it another go since Enchanted Arms was not received highly.

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A turn-based Dark Souls RPG could look a lot like Darkest Dungeon, another tough-as-nails series. FromSoftware could do for the turn-based genre what they did for action games by redefining what it means to have a challenging but rewarding experience. There’s never been a better time to give it a go since they’re still white-hot as a developer.

3

Kingdom Hearts

Keyblade Master Tactics

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Kingdom Hearts

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September 17, 2002

The Kingdom Hearts series has had a lot of spinoffs since it began in 2022. However, none of them have featured turn-based combat which is odd since Square Enix practically butters their bread with the turn-based RPGs. There was a mobile attempt via Kingdom Hearts Union but mobile games come and go.

Now, Kingdom Hearts 4 shouldn’t be turn-based but Square Enix could try to make a tactical RPG spinoff. That seems the most logical and perhaps it could be about the infamous Keyblade Wars. Any kind of war is a fitting setting for a strategy game and Square Enix has made some great ones over the years from Final Fantasy Tactics to Triangle Strategy.

2

Samurai Warriors

Fight Thousands Of Turn-Based Battles?

Samurai Warriors is the first major spinoff from Dynasty Warriors and focuses on famous Japanese historical figures. All of these Musou-like games follow a distinct gameplay pattern: slay thousands of enemies. Some find this combat monotonous and it definitely can be, but there are dedicated fans out there who love to just chill and bash away.

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What if a Musou game was turn-based while still keeping that drive to slay thousands? Instead of players facing several enemies in battle, they could fight several hundred. Some games have used one unit to represent many in a strategy game like Yggdra Union or Advance Wars and battles still go by quickly. The concept may seem wild for Samurai Warriors 6 but anything is possible no matter if Koei Tecmo and Omega Force make a traditional or tactical turn-based RPG.

1

Tales Of

Always Ahead Of Its Time

The Tales of series is one of the older action RPGs from Japan. It began on the SNES in 1995 and instead of randomized turn-based battles, players got into randomized battles that then let players take control of their character in real-time. Now, it was a bit clunky in Tales of Phantasia but over the years the developers have smoothed things over, making the combat more fluid, especially with the latest entry: Tales of Arise.

If the Final Fantasy franchise can begin with turn-based mechanics and then move into action, then surely Tales of can try their next mainline game as a traditional turn-based RPG. Maybe they could even split the difference and make the big console versions, like on PS5 and XSX, action-based while the Switch or Switch 2 version is turn-based. That might be the wildest pitch on here and that’s saying something since Samurai Warriors was nominated.

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