Games of the Year

RPGFan Games of the Year 2022: Best Combat

GOTY 2022 Best Combat Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Winner: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

With each entry, the Xenoblade Chronicles series has been expanding upon its core battle system. The first game started with a system akin to an MMORPG with auto attacks and cooldowns for special moves. Xenoblade Chronicles X increased the scale with giant robots (please bring back the playable giant robots, Monolith Soft!). However, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 barraged players with new mechanics with little to no explanation to fully take advantage of them.

Now enters Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Instead of simplifying the battle system, Monolith Soft took great care to merge elements of Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2, providing players with a better opportunity to understand the layered systems. Chain attacks clearly tell you the benefits of choosing specific characters. We even get (kinda) giant robots back with Ouroboros fusion forms! While it all sounds overwhelming at first, the battle mechanics become second nature. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a thrill to play from start to finish.

by Tyler Trosper


Runner-Up: Elden Ring

Even if you haven’t played Elden Ring (shame on you), you probably have a good idea of what the combat entails: relatively slow-paced, position-focused medieval armaments with a gratuitous amount of human-based barrel-rolling. Hyphens. But what fans of the Souls-like sub-genre may know more than anyone else is that FromSoftware has done away with the garbage “haha, tricked you” tricks they once relied on in their first few outings into the Souls universe. Here, we see lessons learned and refinement that made the already exquisite combat the best the industry has to offer. Almost every encounter requires focus, and few things in gaming are as satisfying as toppling a bully in Elden Ring.

by Bob Richardson


Readers’ Choice: Best Combat

Winner: Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Runner-Up: Elden Ring

Tyler Trosper

Tyler Trosper

Tyler Trosper is a news writer for RPGFan. He has an unhealthy obsession with the Xeno franchise, especially Xenosaga. He runs a podcast about the series in his free time and sometimes works on fan projects. Tyler would die happy if Xenosaga Episode IV was announced. Besides Xeno, Tyler enjoys watching anime, his favorite being Neon Genesis Evangelion.