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A good related example would be Destiny. Bungie created a shooter empire with Halo and their next idea was to take that shooter formula and turn it into an RPG. That’s almost an example of a series gradually turning from one genre to another, but the following entries are even better examples.

7 Assassin’s Creed

Assassin’s Creed redefined the stealth genre in 2007. Things were rough with the first game but the sequel seemingly figured things out. The world was bigger, the news hero Ezio Auditore was more charismatic and likable, and the gameplay was tighter. It was a blast to go through centuries assassinating high-profile targets and rubbing elbows with key figures in history like George Washington.

That changed in 2017 with Assassin’s Creed Origins which became a full RPG with experience points, leveling up, a skill tree, loot, and many more RPG elements. The series has not gone back since and probably never will although fans should never say never. Call of Duty went back to World War 2 evetually, which is a close analogy.

6 Call Of Duty

Call of Duty jumped on the World War 2 shooter bandwagon in 2003. Medal of Honor was the gold standard on consoles for nearly a decade but Call of Duty soon ate its lunch. It was a straight first-person shooter series until the original Modern Warfare hit in 2007 and redefined multiplayer for all shooters.

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RPG elements were introduced such as gaining experience points and leveling up. Players could customize their weapon loadouts to a greater degree too and things have only ballooned from here. The campaigns still aren’t RPGs, but maybe someday they will be. So, Call of Duty is still only half of an RPG but the genre is still a big influence.

5 Castlevania

Castlevania was an action platform series for a full decade starting in 1986 in Japan. There were some light RPG elements such as some minimal upgrades to health but the systems were more akin to The Legend of Zelda than something like Final Fantasy. The series went full RPG in 1997 with Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as Alucard, the protagonist, could level up.

Players could also equip items and learn spells from monsters. This game helped create the Metroidvania genre alongside Super Metroid. Even though the series is all but dead, most entries past this were Metroidvanias but the 3D games are a small exception like Lords of Shadow.

4 God Of War

God of War began in 2005 as a Greek epic with Kratos trying to take revenge on gods like Zeus and Ares. Players could collect souls which allowed them to upgrade weapons. Certain items could grant Kratos more health or magic points too, so RPG-like elements were around from the start.

With the reboot series in 2018, the RPG elements became more prevalent. Leveling up Kratos would grant him ability points to spend on skill trees. Enemies dropped loot which could be upgraded too. It’s not the wildest transformation on here, but God of War is still a series worth noting.

3 Ratchet And Clank

Ratchet and Clank is another series that started with some light RPG characteristics in 2002. Players could upgrade Ratchet’s weaponry but there wasn’t much to it in the first game. Going Commando, the first sequel in 2003, expanded the idea of the original exponentially beyond the RPG stuff. Clank had more of a role and the starship battles were mor refined.

Ratchet earned experience points to level up health and weapons. From here, the RPG elements only increased with the weapon systems getting complex skill trees. It’s amazing that things changed this quickly, making this series a big step up for platformers in the 2000s and beyond.

2 Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy began as a brand of tactical shooters in 1998. Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon were the two biggest sub-series within this franchise and then came along Splinter Cell and many other series and spinoffs. Ubisoft has been slowly transitioning many of its brands into more RPG-like territories besides Assassin’s Creed.

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The Division was their answer to Destiny in 2016 and this was a full-on RPG shooter with leveling up and loot. Tom Clancy games beyond this, like Ghost Recon Breakpoint, even introduced some RPG elements but they are light. The Division series then will presumably be Ubisoft’s main RPG focus for the Tom Clancy brand though.

1 Yakuza

Yakuza has been like an RPG from the start in 2005 in Japan. The first six main Yakuza games were brawlers, but Kazuma, and the other playable characters, could level up and there were skill trees too. It borrowed a lot from River City Ransom which combined RPGs and brawlers on the NES way ahead of its time.

One couldn’t imagine Sega could the Yakuza series and make it even more like an RPG but then along came Yakuza: Like a Dragon in 2020. It was a turn-based RPG with a class system with tons of variety. The series leveled up, as it were, into a more classic JRPG.

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