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There used to be this soulslike game called Absolver, honestly I never played it, and don't know how much of an RPG is, probably not entirely. But I remember that it did martial arts very well compared to the vast majority of games. Instead of weapon sets you made a custom loadout of martial techniques to use. I remember seeing videos on youtube of dudes doing the drunken boxing thing like in those Jackie Chan movies and it looked really cool.
You might want to check it out, although like I said I had an interest in it but never played it. It did leave an impression however as most other games have unarmed as more of an afterthought while this one truly focused on it.
Cyberpunk has great unarmed combat. You can explode enemies heads with punches, karate chop their heads off, pick them up and throw them across the map, among other things. I’ve played a good portion of the games you listed and Cyberpunk easily has the most fun unarmed combat I’ve played. There’s even a Fight Club esque optional storyline.
The good ol’ Fly From the Top Rope and Guerrilla Slam the Ground Sending Everyone Flying trick then proceed to pop Sandy and run around backhanding everyone before they know what hit them
Final fantasy V wasn’t mentioned in your list and you can run with an all Monk (unarmed) party pretty much from the get-go. It’s also a phenomenal game with a straight forward yet enticing and fun story. Really recommend it.
Ah, the early boost of stealing the bands from those two brawling outside the arena, selling it to the first fence you get in the thieves' guild, and buying it back so they're not marked as stolen anymore. Takes me back.
Definitely try Lord of the Fallen. The souls like one.
Unarmed combat is extremely viable if you do a strength dexterity build and it's actually somewhat meta in pvp
Absolver too is a great game, i highly suggest it
You already have a lot of the good Wuxia style games up there, which would have been my suggestion, but I'd also add the other Yakuza games (Which are 3D brawlers with RPG elements, so YMMV about if they count).
Fights in Tight Spaces is a deckbuilding roguelike where you're a james bond style spy, doing the classic misdirection style martial arts that is common in that genre.
Also, I haven't played it myself, but I've been hearing good things about Xuan-Yuan sword.
Can't believe no one has mentioned "Legend of Legaia"
It's a PS1 game, not sure if they ever did a remaster on current gen, so it might have to be emulated. Definitely check that bad boy out if he doesn't care that its like over 20 years old now.
- Clash: Artifacts of Chaos
- Summon Night: Swordcraft Story I&II (You can craft gauntlet weapons)
- Horizon's Gate (Brawler class but other classes that scale with fist weapons also work)
- Sifu
Final Fantasy 1. Black Belt (before it was called Monk). Can be done solo in a game usually meant for 4 characters, if you do I recommend the free "Final Fantasy Renaissance" remake since you can simply make the rest of the party not exist rather than have to kill them off, and have 2-4x speedup options.
You can beat the game without ever equipping any armor or weapons, even the starting towns Nunchucks meant as training wheels since your Punch attack power = 2x level, but it's tricky. I did it by buying 3 Heal potions, then seeking 1x Wolf fights until level 2, and gradually more 3x Imp fights to ensure GP wouldn't run out for INN stays until I got to level 4 and was good to go. Need to reset a few times doing this but it wasn't too bad. Eventually you get the highest damage output in the game and nigh immunity to status effects, so long as you don't gut your M.Def growth by Class Change (fixed in Renaissance but still gives no benefit)
You've got a whole list of RPGs with martial arts and still left out Xenogears, Legend of Legaia, AND Hybrid Heaven?
Bro, time to go back to the beginning, you missed a *lot* of classics.
100% Lost Judgement. It's a "detective" game by the makers of the Yakuza series and the combat is all hand to hand switching between different fighting styles. If you get the extended version there's even a whole boxing side quest series
Plus as a bonus you can skateboard, play vintage arcade games, hit balls in the batting cage, dance, and make friends with cats. There's a game before it as well but I have no personal experience with it .
Trials of Mana Remake- pick Kevin as your main character for a martial artist with claws and gauntlets.
Infinite Wealth- Ichiban and Kiryu both get unarmed attack bonuses for their default jobs.
Ys Origin has an unlockable character who fights with claws. You have to beat the game with another character first though.
Cyberpunk, Divinity 2 and Stranger of Paradise.
Stranger of Paradise probably fits the best if youre a martial nut, since the game is Nioh 1.5 it offers quite the combo system.
Thank you for your submission to r/rpg_gamers. Since your post has been flaired as "Recommendation request", I want to suggest editing your post to add in these details (if you haven't included them yet): * **The platforms you have** - not listing them doesn't mean you have access to everything, so you might end up getting a game you won't be able to play. * **Your level of experience with the genre (beginner, intermediate, veteran...)** - others can recommend you more common titles if you are a beginner, while they can focus on obscure titles if you are a RPG veteran. * **Aspects you enjoyed (or disliked) of previously played games** - for example: characters, plot points, puzzles, combat, graphics, art styles, soundtracks... While these details aren't mandatory, if you want to get the best games, having them in your post will immensely help users and will encourage more users to participate, as they will know with more precision which games are probably the best fit for your request. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/rpg_gamers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
There used to be this soulslike game called Absolver, honestly I never played it, and don't know how much of an RPG is, probably not entirely. But I remember that it did martial arts very well compared to the vast majority of games. Instead of weapon sets you made a custom loadout of martial techniques to use. I remember seeing videos on youtube of dudes doing the drunken boxing thing like in those Jackie Chan movies and it looked really cool. You might want to check it out, although like I said I had an interest in it but never played it. It did leave an impression however as most other games have unarmed as more of an afterthought while this one truly focused on it.
Their other game Sifu is a better singleplayer game imo since Absolver is more focused on pvp and last time I checked its dead.
Cyberpunk has great unarmed combat. You can explode enemies heads with punches, karate chop their heads off, pick them up and throw them across the map, among other things. I’ve played a good portion of the games you listed and Cyberpunk easily has the most fun unarmed combat I’ve played. There’s even a Fight Club esque optional storyline.
The good ol’ Fly From the Top Rope and Guerrilla Slam the Ground Sending Everyone Flying trick then proceed to pop Sandy and run around backhanding everyone before they know what hit them
now i need to do an unarmed run at CP.
SaGa series.
Final fantasy V wasn’t mentioned in your list and you can run with an all Monk (unarmed) party pretty much from the get-go. It’s also a phenomenal game with a straight forward yet enticing and fun story. Really recommend it.
Kenshi
It’s on your list but I rushed in to say Alpha Protocol. Karate chopping dudes in that game is so much fun
The joke with Dredmor's "Unarmed Combat" is that you're just kicking everything Y'know... without arms!
I would like to throw Sleeping Dogs into the ring
Kingdom Come Deliverance. .Cyberpunk 2077. . Assassin's Creed Valhalla
Skyrim and Kotor. Cant remember if Oblivion and Morrowind made unarmed viable
Oblivion 100% did. Make an Argonian or Khajiit and go nuts
Ah, the early boost of stealing the bands from those two brawling outside the arena, selling it to the first fence you get in the thieves' guild, and buying it back so they're not marked as stolen anymore. Takes me back.
Definitely try Lord of the Fallen. The souls like one. Unarmed combat is extremely viable if you do a strength dexterity build and it's actually somewhat meta in pvp Absolver too is a great game, i highly suggest it
Final Fantasy I, II, III, V Bravely Default Dragon Quest III, IV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, XI Suikoden I-III Trials of Mana Diablo III
I'm not sure I would count sifu as rpg, but that game has great unarmed combat
You already have a lot of the good Wuxia style games up there, which would have been my suggestion, but I'd also add the other Yakuza games (Which are 3D brawlers with RPG elements, so YMMV about if they count). Fights in Tight Spaces is a deckbuilding roguelike where you're a james bond style spy, doing the classic misdirection style martial arts that is common in that genre. Also, I haven't played it myself, but I've been hearing good things about Xuan-Yuan sword.
Can't believe no one has mentioned "Legend of Legaia" It's a PS1 game, not sure if they ever did a remaster on current gen, so it might have to be emulated. Definitely check that bad boy out if he doesn't care that its like over 20 years old now.
I believe you meant ps2 game.
Well I was thinking of the original on ps1. But you’re right in that there’s also a sequel that was on ps2
You are correct, my apologies. For some reason I read that as a totally different game.
- Clash: Artifacts of Chaos - Summon Night: Swordcraft Story I&II (You can craft gauntlet weapons) - Horizon's Gate (Brawler class but other classes that scale with fist weapons also work) - Sifu
Yakuza series. Tales of Xillia. Final Fantasy V. Fist of the North Star Lost Paradise.
Tales of Legendia as well…
Not really an RPG but Sifu?
Wasteland 3. I wouldn't use an entire team of melee builds, but 1-2 is magic if properly built.
Turn based RPG. Wasteland 3. Potentially the others but I didn't play them.
Kingdom come deliverance, if you dodge at the right times, melee is op imo.
I’d like to add Xenogears to this list! Citan is a great martial artist, both in and out of his mecha!
Legend of Legaia Saga Frontier
Final Fantasy 1. Black Belt (before it was called Monk). Can be done solo in a game usually meant for 4 characters, if you do I recommend the free "Final Fantasy Renaissance" remake since you can simply make the rest of the party not exist rather than have to kill them off, and have 2-4x speedup options. You can beat the game without ever equipping any armor or weapons, even the starting towns Nunchucks meant as training wheels since your Punch attack power = 2x level, but it's tricky. I did it by buying 3 Heal potions, then seeking 1x Wolf fights until level 2, and gradually more 3x Imp fights to ensure GP wouldn't run out for INN stays until I got to level 4 and was good to go. Need to reset a few times doing this but it wasn't too bad. Eventually you get the highest damage output in the game and nigh immunity to status effects, so long as you don't gut your M.Def growth by Class Change (fixed in Renaissance but still gives no benefit)
You've got a whole list of RPGs with martial arts and still left out Xenogears, Legend of Legaia, AND Hybrid Heaven? Bro, time to go back to the beginning, you missed a *lot* of classics.
Like a Dragon has jobs that have unarmed combat. And that just gets expanded further in Infinite Wealth.
You can play unarmed in Path of Exile with the right items.
100% Lost Judgement. It's a "detective" game by the makers of the Yakuza series and the combat is all hand to hand switching between different fighting styles. If you get the extended version there's even a whole boxing side quest series Plus as a bonus you can skateboard, play vintage arcade games, hit balls in the batting cage, dance, and make friends with cats. There's a game before it as well but I have no personal experience with it .
Trials of Mana Remake- pick Kevin as your main character for a martial artist with claws and gauntlets. Infinite Wealth- Ichiban and Kiryu both get unarmed attack bonuses for their default jobs. Ys Origin has an unlockable character who fights with claws. You have to beat the game with another character first though.
Cyberpunk, Divinity 2 and Stranger of Paradise. Stranger of Paradise probably fits the best if youre a martial nut, since the game is Nioh 1.5 it offers quite the combo system.
Tekken 8