Whilst the majority of RPGs nowadays seem to take the Bethesda or BioWare route and either present the player with a giant, living world full of adventure, exploration and travel time, or a tight, moving, character based yet action packed scripted experience that will cause forum users to argue its eligibility as an RPG for years to come, there is one style of RPG that always trundles along – action RPGs. Here are four of the more interesting, a less known upcoming titles I've come across.

Grim Dawn


Titan Quest is one of the best Diablo clones to have come around, so when a bunch of former TQ devs decide to up sticks, start their own development house and begin work on their own action RPG set in a quasi-Victorian era world, it's time to sit up and take notice. The team is bringing all their Titan Quest experience to the table, building most of the mechanics around the existing systems, but tweaking them to bring them up to date, with such tasty morsels as location specific damage, dismemberment and, if the trailer is anything to go by, a whole craptonne of gibbing. One of the more interesting revisions is the quest system. All quest givers in Grim Dawn will belong to factions. Increasing your reputation with a faction will result in better quests and rewards, a low reputation can cut you off from quest lines altogether. The game is also set to have a crafting system, allowing players to create their own gear.

Of course, just after I gave away my Wii after having no real use for it other than a handy indicator of when I had to dust, along come two very promising looking Japanese action RPGs.

Pandora's Tower


Stop me if you've heard this age old plot before. You're at a party having a bit of fun when suddenly monsters attack and tattoo your back with a curse that slowly mutates you into a giant purple slug, forcing you to go on the run with a random dude and a (presumable, from the skeleton in a pot it carries on its back) cannibalistic dwarf who looks like what you would get if you left Zelda Rubinstein in a microwave for a little too long. That's the premise of Pandora's Tower and it gets a little stranger after that. You see, to cure Ceres of her slugification, the random dude, Ende, has to fight his way up 12 levels of Pandora's Tower, ripping meaty bits off the monsters you find to feed to the ailing proto-gastropod/woman. The offal of normal monsters only slows down Ceres' transformation for a short while, whereas boss monsters help put a stop to the curse. To add an extra little wrinkle to the flesh munching madness, Ceres is actually a vegetarian, so throughout the game, Ende will have to bring her presents (of the non-fleshy kind) to act as a panacea for her carnivorous cure.

Xenoblade Chronicles


Xenoblade Chronicles revolves around the two things I like most in an action RPG – exploration and combat. Players take the role of the rather horrible named, Shulk, the only person capable of wielding the “destined weapon, the Monado” a high tech energy blade he uses to hunt monsters, giant robots and giant robot monsters. The combat system sounds generally interesting, with Shulk attacking automatically, a-la Final Fantasy XII but having special abilities, here called “Arts” he can weave into the normal attacks. These Arts rely on positioning, so combat is more concerned with clever movement and timing than it is mashing buttons. Shulk's also has vision that enable him to see into the future. From what we understand these visions are always rather dire, so it's up to Shulk's to try and change the sequence of events to stop the grim future of the vision from coming to pass. The game also features a full day/night cycle, with the inhabitants of the world, both human(oid) and monster behaving differently depending on the time of the day. Thankfully, rather than just having to wait for the time to change to complete certain quests, talk to NPCs or hunt monsters, the player will be able to “wind the clock” to whatever time they desire.

And finally, a game on a platform I haven't really touched on before.

Emissary of War


Yes, it's an iPhone/iPad game, but it's one with an interesting pedigree and oodles of potential. Emissary of War is being developed by new development house, Cedar Hill Games, under the auspices of founder, Tobyn Manthorpe, a 10 year BioWare veteran. The story follows a barbarian named Ghent, sent on a diplomatic mission that, surprisingly, goes horribly wrong. Honestly, who would have thought that an uncouth, axe wielding, loincloth clad savage would make a bad diplomat? You learn something new everyday. Ghent is accompanied by Hassock, an alchemist. Hassock is also available as a player character. Other details are pretty scant at the moment but the trailer hints at a fair amount of irreverence. At the proposed price point of $2.99 it's definitely worth a look.