The first Final Fantasy game was released in 1987, a whopping 36 years ago, and is still one of the great JRPG franchises of all time. It has seen many main entries, each telling a different story. Some of these received dedicated sequels for being so popular and well-received, such as Final Fantasy X-2 and Final Fantasy XIII-2.
There have also been numerous spin-off games for the series since its initial release. The game started as a turn-based RPG but has been moving more and more towards real-time combat as the series has gone on. Final Fantasy 16 is the most action-orientated release out of any previous game in the series. With 16 now out, here are some games like it that you'll love.
10 God Of War
You won’t find any turn-based combat games on this list; those days are sadly behind Final Fantasy at this point. God Of War and FF16 share a common gameplay factor; you will be upgrading and becoming more powerful, like in any RPG. God Of War, however, focuses much more on action.
Relentlessly hitting smaller enemies while on the lookout for incoming danger can make you unstoppable, while FF16 requires some more strategy to back up its combat and survive its formidable foes. This game has plenty of incredible visuals from its Greek mythology roots and to its new focus on Norse.
9 Bayonetta
Just like in Final Fantasy 16, combat is always in motion. If you just stand around and do nothing, surrounding enemies will keep chiseling away at your health until it is game over. Unlike God Of War, Bayonetta requires some more mobility around the battlefield, as is the case with Final Fantasy 16.
You will be repositioning yourself while watching where enemies are and how they are behaving. When an enemy telegraphs a powerful move, it is more important to be out of that range entirely rather than blocking it.
8 Devil May Cry
Devil May Cry is known for it’s insanely fast-paced combat, and just like Bayonetta, it handles combat with some strategy. You cannot just hammer away at stronger enemies, as a lot of them are still able to attack you while you hit them.
This means you need to shift gears between being on offense and on defense in the same way you will be handling enemies in FF16. This game does focus a lot more on the action side of things with few to no RPG elements.
7 Castlevania: Lords Of Shadows
A greatly overlooked game that garnered some low reviews is Castlevania: Lords of Shadows. This game takes a lot of inspiration from both God of War and Devil May Cry. You would explore and backtrack to find plenty of collectibles and continue to increase your character's stats, all while having fast-paced, reaction-centric combat.
You would need to know which combos best suited the enemies at hand. Thinning out larger groups with Area of Effect attacks, or picking off specific ones first, greatly changed how much of a threat a combat encounter posed.
6 Demon’s Souls
Demon’s Souls walks a very fine line between an Action Game and an RPG game, so much so that it spawned an entire subgenre classification called Soulslike to best compare other games to it. While subsequent games in the genre might rely a bit more heaily on your reflexes, Demon's Souls stressed a more defensive mindset and the importance of understanding your opponents' patterns before you fully engage them.
This is similar to FF16’s approach, but with more of a focus on being defensive and a more intuitive use of RPG elements.
5 Dragons Dogma
Heading more into the RPG side of things comes Dragon’s Dogma. This game was an RPG first and foremost with plenty of exploration, side quests, a main quest plot line, and lots of other random things to do.
You could just go off and become engrossed in an entire side story plot line and at times forget about what was happening in the main quest plot line. The combat was very engaging and had you know where to place yourself to optimize the kit of your character.
4 Fable
Fable is a great example of a classic ARPG. It had a well-thought-out story, lots of side activities to do, lots of secrets to uncover, but with all of that available, you never lost track of the main plot.
It captivated and pulled in the players to get them emotionally invested in the life and struggles of the player character. This created a very healthy balance between the main plot and side plots that a lot of games just could not achieve.
3 Final Fantasy 7 Remake
If you want to compare Final Fantasy 16 to another game, you’ll want to look at another Final Fantasy game. The key difference between the two is that Final Fantasy 7 Remake tried to keep some of the turn-based nostalgia by having time slow down to a crawl while you navigate a menu for some special attacks and spells.
This is mostly to pay homage to the original, though it created an exciting mix of action and turn-based combat. Final Fantasy 16 leans a lot more heavily into its action elements.
2 Final Fantasy 15
Final Fantasy 15 can be seen as the middle ground between 16 and 7 Remake. It is a solid-feeling ARPG game that gives you everything a classic Final Fantasy game would give you outside of its combat — large open areas to explore, lots of side quests to pick up, powerful monsters in secluded areas to discover, and lots of brilliant, surreal vistas to gaze at from ledges.
The game mixes modern world aesthetics and the high fantasy elements of a JRP very well.
1 Kingdom Hearts 3
This is nowhere near as mature as Final Fantasy 16, with a focus on appealing to players of all ages. However, Kingdom Hearts 3 captures the gameplay of Final Fantasy 16 better than any other entry on this list.
This is true for both in combat and outside of it. Final Fantasy 16 is going to be a lot more linear than its predecessor in hopes to give the story more of an impact and have players become more emotionally invested.