One of my favorite type of games is character action games like Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, Classic God of War, and The Legend of Spyro. After a fast abundance in the early 2000s, they are sadly on the decline in favor of Dark Souls-esque strategy based action RPGs. God of War and Spyro have both abondoned this direction and I see very few new projects in this style. Are there still any modern games like this that I’ve missed? Is there anywhere I can turn to for my combo heavy action fix. Before DMC5 and Bayonetta 3 that is.
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I wouldn’t call Spyro a character action game, tbh.
That said, you’re not wrong. The genre hasn’t been all that popular for a long time.
Though I like the direction God of War has taken, it is indeed not as combo-stylish as it was.
DmC was an attempt to revive a franchise that was limping, but it had a lot of problems.
Though not as complex as other games in the genre, I do think Darksiders 3 is a good new addition to it! And now with the recent patch, it’s fixed A LOT of the issues it had on launch. I’m going to play it all over again because of it.
There might be others out there, but not on the triple A list. There could be some gems hiding amongst the indie titles, but to be honest, I haven’t looked.
Edit:
OH WAIT!!! Nier: Automata! Yes, it has some RPG elements in it, but it is first and foremost a character action game!
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The Legend of Spyro trilogy was more of a platforming/action game hybrid. I loved that trilogy despite what others may say.
I’ve been hesitant to try Nier. Thought it was an RPG. I’ll look into it and Darksiders.
That I can agree on. But Character Action game as a genre is something a bit different.
Fair. Totally fair.
Man I wish more companies still made these. Especially sense most of the existing franchises are mostly supernatural based, a sci-fi themed one would be cool. Nier looks like it fits that but… I don’t know. It’s not quite what I’d be expecting from a sci-fi theme.
The action part is great and the story is very good, imo…
It’s the thousands upon thousands of big red balls flying towards me I’m not all that fond of about Nier. XD
It’s inspired by those chaotic shooter games (which I can’t remember the genre name of), and I just can’t play those games.
Also, I’m more into fantasy than sci-fi, hence why Darksiders appeal more to me.
How about the upcoming (and more so with) Ori and the Will of the Wisps? 
Does that actually apply to the discussion, or are you just being a ■■■■ again
That’s… not a character action game.
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- The first one.
- I was actually being very serious with my post/response.
- So I take it you’re not a fan of the (now) Ori series and overall not an Ori fan then?
But Ori is a CHARACTER and at the same time the TITULAR CHARACTER for Ori and the Will of the Wisps most particularly AND much more so too.
Still not a Character Action game. It’s a certain genre of games. Like fighting games, first person shooters, platformer, etc.
Just because there’s a game with fighting in doesn’t make it a fighting game, for example.
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Ori is more of a Metroidvania in terms of gameplay TBH.
Not really, the only thing they really did was put it on a over the shoulder perspective. It has little to no real RPG elements (GoW games always had upgrades, all the new game did de-couple the upgrades to allow better control of your build) and while it did ground the combat a lot of the Dark Souls comparisons fall apart when you get certain upgrades.
Keep in mind I say this as someone who has played all the FromSoft Souls games, The Surge, and even made the horrible mistake of supporting Nioh. God of War 2018 plays very little like those games.
With all of that said, if you have an Xbox did you try the DMC5 demo? It’s short but still shows off a good amount of things Nero can do (Gerbera is a really fun weapon to fly around with). If you don’t have an Xbox Capcom has been implying a different demo will reach PS4 in the future, so if that does happen you can try that out.
Most things PlatinumGames are involved with besides Bayonetta are CAGs, or at least have strong shades of them even as they’re branching out into Action RPGs. Metal Gear Rising, Wonderful 101, Madworld, Vanquish.
I’d recommend a few others as well like Kid Icarus: Uprising, Guacamelee! 1 and 2, Furi, and Ninja Gaiden Black.
You may look up a little game on Steam called Assault Spy. It’s character action in its roots, gameplay is alright, don’t expect much of story/cutscenes. Don’t try, if you’re annoyed by Japanese (anime) style.