Summary
Popularized by Capcom with the originalDevil May Cry,hack and slash gamesdiffer from other third-person action-adventure games by being all about combat;Batman: Arkham City,Spider-Man,andThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Timedon’t rank players by how well they can pummel their foes in between platform challenges.
The genre has spawned some classic series, though they haven’t always been gold. So, this list isn’t about rating which hack and slash game is the best of the bunch. It’s about which hack and slash franchise (minimum 3 games) has themost consistent high-end combat gameplay. The ones where players are least likely to come across its lowest lights and more likely to find its solid hitters. So, which ones have the best hits?
8Torchlight
Delving Into Dungeons
Torchlighthas moreDiabloin its DNA thanDMCorNinja Gaiden. The series is all aboutexploring randomized dungeonsin search of items, gold, and other loot to get by while defending oneself from whatever’s lurking in its dark corridors. Yet, unlikeDiablo, it had the hack and slash genre’s nippy combat in it from the start.
Torchlight 2improved things by adding classic-specific items and armor, which helped mix up the gameplay and encouraged creativity. Alas,Torchlight 3toned down the creative approach for something more linear and basic.Torchlight: Infinitebuilt onTL3’s foundations to lean more towards the hack and slash side of things, but that and its fee-to-pay customization mechanics made it less than palatable.
7Ninja Gaiden
Shinobi Slasher
The side-scrolling arcade beat ‘em up was a stodgy affair, while the story-driven NES trilogy were great but difficult action-platformers. Team Ninja just combined the two in 2003 to reviveNinja Gaidenas a hack and slash series that was so hard it madeDevil May Crylook like a Sesame Street game. Each game added something inventive to the series, likeNG2’s dismemberment affecting the enemies’ mobility.
Unfortunately, things fell apart for the series fromNG3onward. That game reduced Hayabusa’s ninpo abilities and removed items. Its update,Razor’s Edge, brought back some ofNG2’s features, but it did little to impress the base gameplay. Both are still better thanYaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, where its edgy zombie snoozefest story wasn’t helped by its basic slicing and dicing.
6No More Heroes
Beam Katanas and Wrestling: Together At Last
Suda 51’s games are rarely straightforward. Compared toKiller7andFlowers, Sun and Rain,No More Heroesgames are perhaps as conventional as they get, and even then, they have quirks.NMH1’s quirky combat worked out great for the Wii, though the player had to earn the action stages by riding around Santa Destroy in search of odd job-based minigames. Those lawns aren’t going to mow themselves.
NMH2gave the player more action stages, removing the overworld in favor of a hub to access 8-bit style minigames to earn cash. Then, beyond ports, that was it for the series untilTravis Strikes Againcame out and put lead Travis Touchdown in a top-down hack and slasher inspired by platformers and RPGs.NMH3went back toNMH1’s system, alongsideTSA’s ‘Death Glove’, and some fun mech shooting on the side.
5Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Trilogy
The Platforming Pinnacle Learns to Fight
ThePrince of Persiagames have spanned multiple genres across multiple decades. The original games were cinematic platformers with smooth, rotoscoped animation.Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, the latest game in the series, is more of a Metroidvania where new abilities open new parts of the level. But the series hit a boom period with itsSands of Timetrilogy.
The first game focused more on platforming than combat, though players still had to use careful jumps, dodges, and the Prince’s time-warping powers to strike foes accurately. The sequel,Warrior Within, built up the combat by adding extra weapons to pick up and fight with. ButThe Two Thronesexpanded on both games by making the Prince more nimble and giving him the ability to dual-wield weapons to take foes down.
4Onimusha
Sengoku Slasher
TheOnimushagames are a different beast from other hack and slashers, given it came from an idea Capcom producer Keiji Inafune pitched as ‘SengokuBiohazard(Resident Evil)’. The series hasRE’s fixed camera, pre-rendered backgrounds, and puzzles. Yet, like hack and slashers, its leads are encouraged to cut up their foes to gain different souls to build up magic, elemental power, and gain in-game currency.
The original game was improved withGenma Onimusha, which added green souls to fuel a Devil Trigger-like state called Oni Mode.O2went further by letting players chain instant kill ‘Issen’ hits if they timed them correctly.O3mixed things up with multiple weapons and characters.O: Dawn of Dreamsused multiple protagonists to explore different parts of the level. As fun as it was, it was considered a step down fromO3andput the series to sleep.
3Devil May Cry
The Originator Still Stands Strong
Considering it introduced nearly all the genre’s hallmarks, one would expectDevil May Cryto be here. It has the in-game currency for new moves and upgrades (red orbs), a grading system to reward high-class gameplay (D to S), and varied, swappable weapons. Kind of.DMC1is quite clunky compared to later games, where players must go to the pause menu to swap between weapons.
DMC2added quick swap weapons, but made everything else worse, from the weapon variety to the boss fights. By comparison, the malignedDmcreboot is a grand old time. Yet die-hard fans felt its simpler, color-matching combat was weak next to the deeper display inDMC3andDMC4. It led to their return inDMC5, which is arguably the pinnacle of the series by offering depth and accessibility in even measure.
2Bayonetta
Making Players Work for It
DMCmay have been created by Hideki Kamiya, yet he never got to work on any of the game’s sequels. He just got Dante and co going before the powers-that-be at Capcom put someone else at its helm while he tinkered about withViewtiful JoeandOkami. By contrast, he was involved in everyBayonettagame until his departure from PlatinumGames in October 2023.
The games essentially continuedDMC’s formula but with some spicy additions, like Witch Time (slows down time with a quick dodge) and Umbran Climax (more summons and attacks at the cost of magic meter).B3is only considered the weak link combat-wise because its Demon Slave mechanic didn’t click with everyone, andnew character Violahas the worst Slave, as well as only being able to access Witch Time via parrying.
1God of War
A High Hit Rate of Burning Rage
Those weaned on the more technical likes ofDMC3orBayonettamay find them being placed lower thanGod of Warblasphemy. They’re more about brutality and setpieces than intense combos and tricky techniques like shotgun jump cancels. Yet they’re the best at consistency. Beforethe 2018 reboot, it produced 7 games with the same style of gameplay that are each worth the player’s time.
Its mix of long-range whip-blade combat, magic, and rage powerups was enough to spawn its own imitators, even includingSonic Unleashed’s Werehog stages, yet they never outdid the main series’ smooth brutality and spectacle. OnlyGoW: Ascensionlets it down by altering its Rage and combo mechanics, fixing what didn’t need fixing, but for a lowlight, it still shines bright compared toYaibaandDMC2.
