Best Fantasy Games Beyond RPGs: Action, Strategy & More to Play

Last Updated: October 22, 2025

In an era dominated by the phenomenal success of RPG titans like Baldur's Gate 3 and Elden Ring, it’s easy to equate the fantasy genre with deep character sheets, branching dialogues, and intricate stat allocation. These masterpieces have defined a generation's perception of what a fantasy game is: an epic saga where progression is measured in experience points and loot tables. But the realm of fantasy is a vast and varied landscape, extending far beyond the traditional frameworks of the role-playing game.

A wealth of captivating titles leverages the rich tapestry of magic, myth, and heroic quests to deliver exhilarating experiences across a myriad of genres. These games prove that a fantasy setting can thrive without a conventional leveling system, offering unforgettable journeys into worlds of wonder and peril. This is our definitive guide to the best fantasy games that let you leave the character sheet behind and focus on action, strategy, and pure adventure.

The Action-Adventure Epic: A Different Kind of Hero’s Journey

When we strip away stat allocation and extensive dialogue choices, what remains is a pure focus on player skill, environmental interaction, and visceral storytelling. Action-adventure games masterfully deliver fantasy epics driven by exploration, challenging combat, and powerful narratives.

The modern standard-bearer for this is Santa Monica Studio's God of War (2018) and its sequel, God of War Ragnarök. These titles plunge players into the brutal, beautiful world of Norse mythology. While Kratos gains new abilities, the core experience is a masterclass in skill-based, third-person combat and cinematic storytelling. The journey is about a father and son, their relationship tested against gods and monsters, not about min-maxing a character build.

Similarly, the beloved The Legend of Zelda series, particularly Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, redefines open-world fantasy. The allure isn't in leveling up, but in mastering the physics-based world, solving intricate shrine puzzles, and overcoming formidable foes through cleverness and reflexes. They embody a heroic fantasy where the journey is about discovery and mastery of the world itself. For a darker, more intimate experience, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice uses its mythological Celtic and Norse setting to tell a profound story about trauma and psychosis, with its combat serving as a tense, desperate struggle for survival rather than a power fantasy.

Strategic Command: Forging Empires in Mythical Conflicts

Fantasy isn't solely about the individual hero; it's also about the clash of nations, the rise of empires, and grand-scale conflicts. This is where strategy games carve their niche, shifting the focus from a single protagonist to the command of entire armies and kingdoms.

The undisputed champion in this space is the Total War: Warhammer trilogy. Now a complete saga, it perfectly blends the grand, turn-based campaign management of the Total War franchise with the rich, dark fantasy world of Warhammer. Players command legendary lords, raise armies of daemons, dragons, and rat-men, and engage in spectacular real-time tactical battles. It is a peerless fantasy experience centered on strategic foresight and empire-building.

For those who prefer a 4X (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate) approach, Age of Wonders 4 allows you to forge your own fantasy race—from arcane toad-men to cannibalistic halflings—and guide them to magical supremacy. And proving strategy can be both grand and intimate, the breakout indie hit Against the Storm is a dark fantasy city-builder where you must build settlements to survive a magical, apocalyptic rain. Each of these games delivers a powerful sense of leading a fantastical realm, where victory is decided by intellect and planning.

The Artful Leap: Platforming Through Enchanted Worlds

Even the platformer genre has embraced fantasy with spectacular results, proving that powerful narratives and atmospheric worlds can be conveyed through precise movement and environmental storytelling.

The Ori series (Ori and the Blind Forest and Ori and the Will of the Wisps) remains a benchmark. These games are interactive works of art, transporting players to breathtaking, hand-painted worlds. While they feature light combat and ability progression, the core is fluid, demanding platforming that feels like a dance. Their emotional stories are woven into the very fabric of the world, offering a deeply personal and visually stunning fantasy adventure.

On the other end of the spectrum, Hollow Knight presents a darker, more intricate fantasy world, blending challenging Metroidvania exploration with precise, punishing combat. More recently, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has revitalized the genre with its slick, acrobatic gameplay and a world steeped in Persian mythology, proving that a compelling fantasy journey can be built on the foundations of pure, exhilarating movement and discovery.

New Realms, New Rules: Survival and Roguelikes

The versatility of fantasy truly shines when it’s applied to genres that thrive on procedural generation and emergent gameplay. The roguelike genre, for example, has been a perfect vessel for mythological tales. Supergiant Games' masterpiece Hades casts you as the son of the Greek god of the dead, fighting your way out of the underworld. Each escape attempt is a new, frantic action experience, with the overarching narrative unfolding brilliantly through each success and failure. There are no experience points, only the player's growing skill and understanding of the game's intricate systems.

Meanwhile, the survival genre found a new champion in Valheim. Blending Viking mythology with crafting, exploration, and brutal boss encounters, it offers a co-op fantasy adventure where your progression is tied directly to the resources you can gather and the gear you can craft. Your saga is written not by quest-givers, but by the emergent stories you and your friends create while building a longhouse or braving the open sea.

The Ever-Expanding Tapestry of Fantasy

From the strategic battlefields of Total War: Warhammer III to the mythic brawls of God of War Ragnarök, the fantasy genre is more vibrant and diverse than ever. While role-playing games will always be pillars of this thematic space, it's crucial to celebrate the vast array of other experiences that prove fantasy's magic is truly universal.

By venturing beyond the character sheet, players can discover action-packed epics, strategic masterpieces, and artful platformers that offer fresh, compelling perspectives. These games expand our understanding of what it means to embark on a quest in a world brimming with wonder and peril, proving that the greatest fantasy is often the one you forge yourself through pure skill, strategy, and a sense of adventure.