7 JRPGs With Customizable Skills & Attack Combos

Summary

RPGs are evolving from turn-based to action, offering unique combat encounters through skill trees and weapon wheels.
Games like Disgaea 7 focus on customization, with heroes learning abilities and upgrading weapons, adding depth to combat.
Xenoblade Chronicles features automated combat with abilities on cooldowns, emphasizing team synergy and character skill upgrades.

The RPG genre began with turn-based gameplay, which dates back to Dungeons & Dragons. Over the years, video games have shifted the turn-based battle system to make it feel less archaic. The Final Fantasy series, for example, has tweaked it so many times that one battle system is almost unrecognizable from another.

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While the idea of turn-based games is still around, action RPGs are seemingly the next wave forward. Some games are content with simple hack-and-slash action while others feel more evolved. They give players skill trees, weapon wheels, and more to make each combat encounter feel unique. Here are some standout examples to get the blood flowing.

7 Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia

Give Them The Old One-Two

Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia

Systems

Released: October 21, 2008

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia was the last game in the series to hit the DS. Instead of another Belmont clan member, players assumed the role of Shanoa who worked for a secret society also tasked with taking down Dracula. Players could equip her with the usual armor and accessories as the other RPG Metroidvania entries but weapon and ability acquisitions were different.

Shanoa could absorb skills and weapons via glyphs and then players could map those to buttons. Weapons, for example, could be mapped to the X and Y buttons on the DS and different weapons could create different combos and they could even sometimes combine into new abilities.

6 Disgaea 7: Vows Of The Virtueless

Dive Deep On Weapons And Skills

Moving on a map in Disgaea 7 Vows Of The Virtueless

Released: October 3, 2023
Developer(s): Nippon Ichi Software
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless is the latest turn-based tactical RPG in the series but any game would suffice. From the start on the PS2, the Disgaea series has been at the forefront of customization. Players will gain hero characters who will learn abilities naturally exclusive to them.

Fighting a battle in Breath Of Fire Dragon Quarter and Fighting Pete in Kingdom Hearts 2

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They can also equip weapons to learn skills from them and upgrade their potency. For example, a basic healing spell can be upgraded on how much it heals for and how many squares it will apply to on the tactical grid. Weapons can also be dived into in mini-dungeons to increase their power. The game and series are a lot, so anyone with a spare thousand hours, Disgaea 7: Vows of the Virtueless will give RPG fans a run for their money.

5 Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels Of The Starry Sky

Multiclass Between Vocations

Promo art featuring characters in Dragon Quest 9

Systems

Released: July 15, 2009
Publisher(s): Nintendo

Dragon Quest 9: Sentinels of the Starry Sky was a big step in the series for many reasons. It was the first mainline Dragon Quest game on a portable, it featured co-op, and players could see enemies running around in the field and dungeons. Players would customize their character and then create three more party members and assign them Vocations which was their class system.

Leveling up earned players skill points and those skill points could level up various attributes in a Vocation and then those skills learned could be transferred into new Vocations. For example, Vocations with an affinity to spears could learn an early skill called Mercurial Thrust which would sometimes allow that user to strike first in battle.

4 Final Fantasy 16

Becoming The Ultimate Eikon

Systems

Released: June 22, 2023
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Final Fantasy 16 continues the non-turn-based route in this beloved franchise by giving players a solid action RPG. Players can control one character, Clive, who is the Dominant of Fire via Ifrit. In this world, people who house Summons within their body, also called Eikons, are named Dominants in Final Fantasy 16. Jill, a comrade, is the Dominant of ice via the Eikon Shiva as another example.

Clive also has the rare ability to absorb other Eikons into his body as he defeats key characters. Titan, is one example, the Eikon of Earth. Players can gain new skills trees the more Eikons they absorb and then equip those skills to their weapon wheel. Different selections of powers will result in new combos in battle.

3 Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

A Fusion Filled Prequel

Action RPG

Fighting

Action-Adventure

Systems

Franchise: Kingdom Hearts
Released: January 9, 2010

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep is a prequel in the series, giving players access to three Keyblade wielders who came before Sora. They can play as each in three separate campaigns via Aqua, Ventus, and Terra. While their Keyblade skills may different, they will all have the ability to experiment with a fusion-based magic system.

Players can get standard spells in the series like Fire and Cure which they can equip and perform in action-based combat. To get the best spells, players will have to fuse several together and it’s a long list. For example, Blizzard+Blizzard will give players Blizzara which is a stronger form of the spell and that’s only the tip of the experimental iceberg.

2 Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver

A Golden Standard For The Series

Promo art featuring Ho-Oh in Pokemon HeartGold

Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver

Systems

Released: March 14, 2010
Publisher(s): Nintendo

The Pokemon series has been about customization from day one like Disgaea. Players can form teams of six and every Pokemon in their roster can learn four moves they can bring into battle. Moves can be forgotten to learn new ones during leveling up or items called TMs and HMs can teach them moves too.

Fighting enemies in Olympus in Kingdom Hearts 3 and Fighting enemies in the forest in Forspoken

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Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver are remakes of the second series of games which was a high point for the series. They are still a good jumping-off point for beginners because they incorporate the original’s map as post-game content, giving players more to do than any other game in the franchise.

1 Xenoblade Chronicles

Break Through Tough Defenses

Fighting enemies in Xenoblade Chronicles

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Systems

Released: May 29, 2020
Publisher(s): Nintendo
OpenCritic Rating: Mighty

Xenoblade Chronicles was Monolith Soft’s third attempt at making a “Xeno” game following the Xenosaga trilogy on the PS2. It’s vastly different from that franchise featuring a huge open world to explore and automated combat like in an MMO. As any party member, players can execute abilities on a toolbar that runs on cooldowns after use.

Using abilities with party members can break enemies and they can create chained team attacks. To get anywhere with bosses, it is important to decipher this combo system quickly. Every character has three skill trees and skills earned can be upgraded in a separate menu to strengthen their effectiveness which can then be equipped to the toolbar.