Best 15 Action-Heavy RPG Games Like Monster Hunter

CAPCOM’s action-RPG games are heavy on action, light on character progression mechanics, and feature a fantasy open world. Games like Monster Hunter should have similar core characteristics.

The Japanese saga debuted in 2004 for PS2 and has become a prominent franchise worldwide after dozens of games and spin-offs. The thrill of the hunt can continue even after finishing Rise, the successful latest series entry.

Finding games like Monster Hunter requires finding titles with a huge arsenal of melee weapons offering various gameplay styles. Alternatively, games offering hours worth of skill-based combat, monster hunting, progression, loot, crafting, parkour traversal, and mounts. 

Elden Ring

The easiest pick is Elden Ring, an action-RPG. Like Monster Hunter, you won’t be playing it for the story, as it’s all about open-world combat. And so, it offers hours of skill-based combat, simple crafting, straightforward progression, hundreds of weapons, and FromSoftware’s classic panic roll. 

Notably, weapons and shields have active skills, and there are hundreds available. You can find weapons with skills, or find these “Ash of War” skills to imbue on your favorite weapons. There’re also various weapons types such as greatswords and daggers offering different move-sets.

Aside from the skills, you level up by investing the runes you loot from fallen enemies into stats. You can build your physical skills or work towards the game’s spells. In any case, Elden Ring is mostly about defeating massive bosses and monsters to advance the story and loot powerful items. 

Dauntless

Many would consider Dauntless as a “free-to-play” Monster Hunter online. It feels smooth, delivers great combat, and uses a cartoony style. Moreover, you can play solo or play at a party with up to 4 people. 

Nevertheless, it has fewer weapons and monsters than a Monster Hunter World. Even so, the enemies are powerful, varied, and smart. Sometimes they flee, evolve, or combat you in phases. Also, there’s a time limit on most boss fights, plus a reward that depends on your performance. 

Then, combat relies on your skill, and stats depending on your gear. You aim, dodge, parry, block, counter, swing, shoot, chain combos, monitor your stamina and HP, and use your skills at your will. Lastly, you can enter arenas instantly from any hub village or area. 

Scarlet Nexus

• Developer: Bandai Namco 
• Publisher: Bandai Namco
• Release Date: June 2021
• Platform: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Windows 

Scarlet Nexus is a third-person action JRPG with a deep story to follow and a stylized combat system. Its highlight is the boss fights, as you have to combine combos, skills, dodges, and the environment to chain hits and critical hits.

The game is quite polished and features a fair selection of creative and terrible bosses. Oftentimes, you have to find ways to stagger the bosses by interacting or destroying things in the arenas. 

Lastly, you play as Kasane Randall or Yuito Sumeragi. These are members of the Other Suppression Force (OSF), and their mission is to defend New Himuka from the Others, nasty creatures. For the task, you have an arsenal of psychokinesis skills, short-range melee weapons, and the “brain map” skill tree. 

God Eater 2: Rage Burst (& the God Eater Series)

God Eater 2 is an action JRPG that feels, looks, and behaves like a Monster Hunter clone. In particular, its weapons (God Arcs) are the biggest draws in the game. There’re many types featuring distinct move-sets, mechanics, and transformations. We’re recommending the second part of the series, but you may play the trilogy if you like this one. 

Then, there’s the Aragami, the monsters you hunt. These are highly challenging and require you to use a mix of dodges, slashes, counters, parries, and skills to defeat. And after their defeat, you can devour corpses to get crafting materials, which is part of the main quest. 

Elsewhere, the game looks and sounds like an anime. Character and monster designs are eccentric, gory, creative, and varied. Similarly, the weapon arsenal is huge, giving you much room to specialize in the type of combat you’d like. There’re daggers, long-range rifles, short blades, maces, axes, spears, etc.

Code Vein

Code Vein is an action RPG that shares the universe with God Eater. The twist is you use a vampiric-like protagonist, and you can mix and match various skills and passive buffs to customize it. 

The title has an anime and combat style identical to God Eater 2. There’re huge monsters, several weapon types, and a post-apocalyptic open world. Your character improves by leveling up, as well as finding new gear, and combat includes dodges, parries, blocks, counters, and skills. 

Then, you can travel with an AI partner or in a co-op party with up to four people. There’s a rich plot to follow, though, plus a story-driven linear plot. You’ll go across a series of biomes, dungeons, and regions to complete the main quest. 

TOUKIDEN 2 (& Toukiden 1)

Toukiden 2 is about slaying huge monsters, the Oni, to protect humankind. The game offers a series of light RPG mechanics to press your character, and a semi-open-world design (you unlock areas by progressing the story).

That said, the map relies on hunting grounds. As you complete the hunting ground, you’ll unlock new ones to keep going on the main story. You’ll also unlock new items and weapons. Meanwhile, you play with a party of four players

Then, character progression relies on various mechanics or systems. In other words, you upgrade your character through multiple challenges, battles, and collectibles. Speaking of which, your weapons and armor also grant you passive and active skills.

Bloodborne

• Developer: FromSoftware
• Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
• Release Date: March 2015
• Platform: PS4 

Bloodborne is another game by Fromsoftware, so it has a complex and skill-based combat system. Compared to others, though, characters can’t block, so you rely on dodge-rolls, parries, and ranged weapons for survival.

The plot has you traveling dark and Gothic streets searching for a cure. Some of the tools you’ve got are leveling up, gems to upgrade gear, weapon skills and transformations, and potions.

Bloodborne is all about hunting horrible werewolf-like monsters. Because of the arsenal’s size, you can tackle the game in many ways -the gameplay ultimately depends on the weapons you’re carrying, and your character’s build. 

Devil May Cry 5

• Developer: Capcom
• Publisher: Capcom
• Release Date: March 2019
• Platform: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Windows

Devil May Cry 5 is a fast-paced third-person action game. Its highlight is its combat, which is fast, fluid, stylized, and arcade-like. So, the game is all about hunting demons through a linear progression full of arenas, bosses, and bonkers cinematic cuts. 

The game is both challenging and entertaining. However, the combat is complex. Leveling up allows you to unlock new skills, which you use with increasingly difficult button combinations. 

Then, while it’s not an RPG, you have a certain freedom to explore and progress your character. That said, the story follows Dante, Nero, and V fighting against demons in Red Grave city. 

Horizon: Forbidden West (& Zero Dawn)

• Developer: Guerilla Games
• Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Release Date: February 2022
• Platform: PS4, PS5

Forbidden West is the sequel to Zero Dawn, and we recommend both for Monster Hunter fans. These games revolve around killing tribal humans and machine creatures with an assortment of arrowheads, tools, and weapons.

You play in a third-person perspective on an open world, and you hunt because you need to loot scrap to craft further arrows. Then, you use melee, shoot, slide, jump, run, and crouch to exploit weaknesses and stay alive. 

The story follows Aloy, a hunter, and explorer from the Nora tribe. You’re on a post-apocalyptic world on a quest to find the truth behind the world-ending catastrophe and the machines roaming the land. 

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen

Capcom has another monster-slaying action RPG, Dragon’s Dogma. It’s an older game that sets you on a quest to retrieve your heart from the dragon that ate it.

You’ll progress with typical character progression systems. Then, its combat is acrobatic, fast, and dynamic. You’ll fight atop griffins, climb dragons’ heads, cut the head out of a hydra, and do what you need to exploit enemy weakness. 

You enter the world by creating a character out of nine vocations. Then, you can train your Pawn in any combat style. Lastly, you can borrow other people’s Pawns or lend your Pawns to other players.

Demon’s Souls (Remake)

Before the Dark Souls trilogy debuted, FromSoftware created Demon’s Souls. It introduced the “soul-like” genre. This means a mix of challenging combat, death & rebirth mechanics and gathering souls for power and currency.

See, Monster Hunter combat is a test of stamina and mental strength. Hunts can go for 10, 20, or 30 minutes. Demon’s Souls is about finesse, perfecting the timing to parry, dodge, block, counter, and attack your enemy. 

Still, moreover, most of the enemies you’ll face are giant and horrible monsters. And that said, PS5 owners can play the remake and follow the original story and levels as one of the available five classes. 

Attack on Titan 2 – A.O.T.2

If you like the Attack on Titan anime or manga, and if you like Monster Hunter games, this action RPG could be the best pick for you. The only reason why it is not at the top of the list is that its visuals are not quite good.

Elsewhere, though, it’s a stellar game. It captures the dread and secrecy of the series (minus its original OST), plus its dynamic and dangerous combat style. Moreover, manga creator Hajime Isayama supervised the game.

The game covers the events up to season 3, but you get to create an avatar and become a soldier for Paradis. Then, you use your dual swords and the 3D mobility gear to swing around buildings and trees. The controlling scheme is tough and includes high-speed maneuvers, dodges, slashes, and skills you can learn.

God of War (& God of War Ragnarok)

• Platform: PS2, PS3, PS4, PS5, PSvista, Windows

If you don’t have a PS5, you can still try 2018’s God of War on PC. Otherwise, continue the story with the saga’s latest entry, which includes more weapons for extra offensive and defensive skills.

You play as Kratos in the Norsen realm. Your quest, alongside Kratos’ son Atreus, is about scattering the ashes of Atreus’ mother on the highest peak. It takes them on a semi-open journey that includes puzzles, platforming, character progression, and top-tier cinematics. 

For combat, Kratos has a shield, fists, and an ax. Each weapon has a skill tree plus offensive and defensive skills. As you play the game, you’ll unlock more abilities that add to new button combinations and expand the game’s arcade combat.

Tales of Arise

Tales of Arise is an action JRPG with anime visuals and music. It’s the seventh entry in the Tales series, but newcomers can follow the story without issue. Notably, its combat feels similar to the Monster Hunter series. 

You play in the world of Dahna on a story of conflict between different realms. The world is fully open, and you travel around by running, climbing, swimming, and jumping. Additionally, you can gather resources to cook, craft, and upgrade the gear. 

You combat in real-time with a blend of slashes and skills. You use a series of systems to chain combos, counter, parry, and block. You can also chain special skills and fight alongside your companions against challenging monsters. 

Warhammer: Vermintide 2

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 is a first-person action RPG. Set within the Warhammer universe, you can go solo or co-op (up to 4 people) against hordes of monsters and bosses. You use a combination of melee weapons, firearms, skills, magical abilities, and more.

The story happens in instances, interconnected areas akin to games like Diablo. Like so, you can loot equipment or gather resources to craft, mod, and upgrade your equipment from enemies and chests.

The combat is bloody and skill-dependent. You aim, block, dodge, counter, parry, etc. Moreover, you create a character with one of the 5 classes and three careers. There’re over 15 talent threes and over 50 weapon types -each weapon type delivers a distinct gameplay mechanic.