It’s hard to deny the utterly pervasive influence that Dark Souls has had on video games as a whole over the last decade. It feels like every Game Awards or Summer Game Fest showcase is filled with a half-dozen or more grimdark Soulslikes, and even games that don’t try to directly ape Dark Souls have tried to adapt some kind of “Souls” element — like the Star Wars Jedi games. And while there are plenty of fantastic Soulslikes out there, an unfortunate side effect of the genre's rise has been the death of character action games, fast-paced combo-focused experiences like the original God of War trilogy or Devil May Cry. But 2025 has provided a spark of hope for fans of those pure action games, not just because of what’s released this year — but because of what’s on the horizon. Action games are back, baby.
The PS2 was arguably the height of both quantity and quality for that specific brand of action game, which you’ll often see called “character action” or “stylish action.” These games focused heavily, almost exclusively, on the actual feel and flow of combat — letting you link together lengthy combos, crazy air combos, and brutal executions. While character action games do often include upgrade systems, they’re usually extremely understated — and more of a way to unlock new combos and moves to use in combat. Souls games, by comparison, are much more about methodically building your character and adapting to enemy movesets, although they unequivocally fall into the action category as well. But there’s a seismic difference between the style and tones of character action and Soulslike, and it’s abundantly clear that one has won out in recent years.
The Dark Souls games hit at just the right time to capitalize on the rise of narrative games and action. Creating a phenomenon in the process.
It’s not entirely hard to see a few reasons why. After the PS2 and early PS3 era, cinematic narrative-heavy games saw a tremendous boom — and while plenty of character action games had good stories, they were more often than not focused on that core arcade-y experience. The Dark Souls games hit the sweet spot between action and narrative, dropping you into a destroyed, enigmatic world filled with bits of lore and a fascinating non-linear narrative to uncover. Souls games perfectly hit some of the biggest trends in video games, while character action just didn’t.
But like all trends, the tides change and shift, and there’s started to be more demand than ever for those “pure” gameplay experiences — for games that really dig into complex mechanics and fuse those with inventive storytelling styles or worlds. We’re seeing so many developers be more creative than ever before with the action genre, and 2025 has been an absolutely smorgasbord of violence.
In particular, we’ve seen a startling amount of revivals for dormant franchises. Ninja Gaiden had not just one, but two reimaginings with Ragebound and Ninja Gaiden 4 — breathing new life into both the 2D sidescroller and 3D games. Both these games hone in on the “feel” of their action, but in different ways. Ragebound is all about getting into a flow state, where you seamlessly eliminate enemies while platforming through the level — the game wants everything to feel so natural that you don’t even think about it. Meanwhile, Ninja Gaiden 4 is all about harnessing the viscerality of combat — letting you revel in the absurd bloodshed that you’re unleashing, and giving you a wide array of combos to do so.
Ninja Gaiden led the charge for action games this year, in more ways than one.
Another revival is Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, a brilliant comeback for one of Sega’s longest dormant franchises, fusing fighting game mechanics with Metroidvanias in a way we’ve never really seen before. Then it layers some of the most gorgeous art you’ve ever seen on top of that.
Hades 2 doubles down on the action of the first game with a copious amount of new options and modifiers, tightening up the feel for one of the most superbly responsive action games you’ll find not just this year, but of all time. In the same vein, Absolum creates a unique fusion of beat ‘em ups and roguelikes that has never been done before. And, of course, I must mention Ghost of Yotei, a gorgeous sequel that really focuses in on the samurai experience and using multiple weapons, requiring you to adjust your strategy on the fly, but still nailing that intense second-to-second action vibe.
All of these are just a handful of what we’ve seen in 2025; there are more games that I could talk about for hours on end — Blade Chimera, South of Midnight, Lost Soul Aside, Eternal Strands, and even Dying Light: The Beast. All of these games put the focus more squarely on action, in some way, and it’s made the entire year feel refreshing in a way the last few simply haven’t. And while, in a vacuum, this year has been incredible on its own, it’s also set the stage for 2026 possibly being even better — as more developers are getting primed to share their vision of the evolution of character action.
Phantom Blaze Zero is perhaps one of the most promising titles coming next year, a Chinese kung-fu-punk experience that embraces tight action, an array of diverse weapons, and gives players that thrilling cinematic experience they’ve been craving. Inverse got an extensive behind-the-scenes look at the game earlier this year, and in many ways, it feels like it's emulating some of the genre's greats, particularly Devil May Cry.
Fascinatingly, the action renaissance isn’t relegated to just Western or Japanese games, but on a truly worldwide scale.
Then you have Crimson Desert, an absurdly ambitious open-world action game that lets you pull off wrestling moves while simultaneously using ancient magic spells. It’s a game so complex that I couldn’t quite wrap my head around the full thing in an hour-long demo, but it left me chomping at the bit to see more.
From PlayStation, Saros looks to embellish on the bullet hell action of Returnal, still one of the PS5’s very best exclusives — and Marvel’s Wolverine looks like one of the goriest games we’ve seen in a while, fitting for one of the angriest superheroes around. Capcom also has two incredibly promising action games, from the puzzle-shooter Pragmata to the long-awaited return of Onimusha with Way of the Sword, which heavily focuses on intense one-on-one duels.
And again, there are more games that I could pine on about here; Square Enix’s first HD-2D action game, The Adventures of Elliot, an adaptation of the bizarre cult classic 1990 anime series Samurai Pizza Cats, and Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation. If even half of the action games coming in 2026 deliver, it’ll be even better than this year — and that’s really saying something.
2026 shows a ton of promise for both new games and the return of long-dormant franchises looking for a new identity.
But the overarching point here is that we’re seeing more developers willing to take chances on both new ideas and bringing back old ones. I’ve listed off over a dozen games that are either doing something entirely new or combining elements from two different genres in ways we haven’t seen before — all while tapping into a real desire from players for more mechanically satisfying action games.
In many ways, the boom of Soulslikes was indicative of the stagnation of the video game industry — a desire to tap into trends and win big with safe bets. And it’s incredibly refreshing to see a set of developers trying to pull out of that. The gaming industry still has a cornucopia of problems to face, from mass layoffs to the encroachment of private equity — but the creativity and ingenuity of the people on the ground making games, especially action games, is not one of them.
