10 Open-World RPGs With the Best Combat, Ranked

For most people, open-world RPGs are all about exploration and storytelling. After all, it's a massive world that's meant for players to get lost in. What else would they need? However, some people look beyond the exploration for something more: combat. Given most open-world RPGs can last dozens of hours, it makes sense that people would want one of the main gameplay elements to be amazing.

Fortunately, there are a ton of open-world RPGs with great combat. Sometimes that combat is turn-based, other times it's straightforward action. Either way, each game offers combat that players can spend plenty of hours mastering, finding new ways to take on enemies and eventually embarrass bosses.

Elden Ring's biggest selling points have always been exploration, build variety, and combat. That was honestly the expectation when the game was first announced. FromSoftware games have always made combat a major part of the experience, and it's a large part of how they've become such a major studio.

Elden Ring doesn't disappoint, and honestly might surpass nearly every other open-world game out there. Its combat is punishing and unforgiving, and players can easily get wrecked by random enemies when they're not paying attention. However, it's never unfair, and the build variety means every player can find a play style that works for them.

The oldest of all the successful gacha RPGs, Genshin Impact is one of the best-developed of the bunch. Sure, pulling 5-star characters can be a real pain, and the monetization system is utterly terrible. But players who look past that will find a game well worth hundreds of hours.

What makes Genshin Impact worth the time is how solid the combat is. It seems simplistic at first, but it becomes more complex as players learn how elemental interactions work. From there, they have to create the right parties and know when to switch between characters to deal the big damage. Still, the variety present here doesn't match some of the other games.

As far as great free-to-play games go, Where Winds Meet came out of nowhere and immediately established itself as one that gamers had to notice. Unlike most, it's not a gacha game; instead, it monetizes through cosmetics. That alone was noteworthy, but the next thing gamers noticed was how enjoyable the combat was.

Where Winds Meet allows players to live out their dreams of being a wuxia hero. The game starts players out with the basics, but quickly encourages them to discover new techniques to continue improving their abilities. Thanks to a well-done difficulty system, every player can find just the right challenge to enjoy WWM's satisfying combat.

After two years in Early Access, Enshrouded is about to finally enter 1.0. Naturally, it's a long way from the game people played when it first released. Originally, Enshrouded offered good but not great combat that was serviceable for a game mostly about seeing what sort of crazy castles players could make.

However, the game has undergone several combat upgrades, and now it's far beyond serviceable. Years in development have allowed Keen Games to create vastly different playstyles for players based on whether they choose to be warriors, mages, or the usual rogue archetype. With a ton of satisfying combos to unleash on an increasingly large variety of enemies, Enshrouded has turned into one of the most satisfying open-world RPGs around.

In 2017, Ubisoft gave the Assassin's Creed franchise a soft reboot that had been keeping it going for a decade. Suddenly, they were no longer just open-world action games, but basically The Witcher-inspired RPGs. They've released four of these so far, but with Assassin's Creed Odyssey, they basically perfected the formula.

While the game's leveling system makes it impossible to insta-kill characters, the trade-off is well worth it. There are few experiences quite like taking on an entire platoon of soldiers, balancing between dodging their blows and building up enough adrenaline for the heavy hitter attacks. Surprisingly, Odyssey allows a ton of build variety through its weapons and armor sets, so players can be invisible assassins or invincible tanks against their enemies.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is one of those forgotten RPGs these days. It's been a long time since the PS3 days, and sadly it never continued as a franchise. It's truly a shame, as the game offered one of the most well-developed worlds from a lore perspective, and literally dozens of quests to play.

Of course, the best part about Amalur: Reckoning was the game's incredible combat. While it's not the most challenging combat, few things make players feel like invincible warriors like being able to teleport around the field while chucking spells at the enemy. Even now, the feel of Amalur's combat is still great, and proof that the game could easily come back.

Honestly, the best part about Dragon's Dogma 2 really is the combat. Of course, that's to be expected of a company like Capcom, which has always made fantastic games with even better combat. In Dragon's Dogma 2, players traverse the world to track down a powerful dragon, fighting dangerous enemies along the way.

What makes Dragon's Dogma 2 feel so refreshing is its approach to fighting monsters. It's got no shortage of giant enemies in the game, yet players don't have to spend time slashing at a monster's hands and feet. Instead, they're able to climb atop monsters even as they're moving, attacking their vulnerable spots while avoiding being thrown off.

In 2025, Obsidian Entertainment released not one, but three massive video games. The first was Avowed, the latest game set in the Pillars of Eternity universe. Within Avowed, players got to experience Obsidian's own version of a major AAA Western RPG, which drew mixed opinions from fans.

Yet one thing wasn't mixed: the combat. Avowed has some of the most satisfying combat of any open-world RPG of the last decade. The two-hand system lets players handle opponents however they want, whether that means the classic sword-and-shield, a wand and a spellbook, or just pulling out guns and unloading on opponents. It all feels great, and the ability to respec easily will have players swapping between playstyles to figure out what fits them best.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was universally hailed as the greatest game of 2025, and it wasn't particularly close. Yet underneath the game's Belle Époque art style was a love letter to JRPGs. Rather than going the easy route and being another action game, Expedition 33 was instead a turn-based game.

However, Expedition 33's combat is unlike most turn-based games. Sandfall Interactive has a timing-based dodge and parry system, and enemies deal such massive damage that players are forced to learn the timing of attacks if they want to survive. However, a robust customization system ensures that whether players master the timing or need a little help, they have multiple paths forward.