The best RPG series with anthology games

Key things

• Pokemon
  integrates characters and regions across games, culminating in a Gacha crossover
  Pokemon Masters EX.
• .hack//Link
  brings together several series while facing criticism for the gameplay in its final main game.
• Fire Emblem Heroes
  continues to expand with crossovers across the franchise, providing a unique integration of characters.

There are quite a few role playing games which tend to shift the focus to other casts, settings, and perhaps more as the series progresses. Games can go from 2D to 3D, monochrome to full color, and static and silent to high quality voice acting. As these different games, settings, and other parts are cached and added, some companies put them all in one setting.

This leads to RPGs transcending themselves in a way, with characters that have a certain degree of separation interacting directly. These are often done in a Gacha format, but that's far from the only way certain series cross with themselves. These anthology RPGs they will be ranked based on the number of installments of the series as well as how well they integrate their source material.

5 Pokemon

Anthology Game: Pokemon Masters EX

Pokemon is known for carrying most of its typically “playable” characters into most installments of the series; those are the titular Pokémon themselves. This means that each game's human characters are usually nods to each other's characters. Primarily Gold and Silver allowing the player to travel from their home region of Johto to Kanto, allowing them to fully experience the previous game's region first hand. While this direct integration is rare as the series expands its scope, there are always more examples of how the individual regions are connected.

These include the Pokémon World Tournament v Black 2 and White 2which allows the player to face a number of Gym Leaders and Champions from various regions of the series established at the time, as well as Team Rainbow Rocket from Ultra Sun and Ultra Moonan alternate universe version of the evil team consisting of various established evil team leaders who succeeded in their goals.

This fully culminated in the Gacha game known as Pokemon Masters EX. The game allows players to team up and take control of various characters of all kinds from each region, including the elite four, champions, and even all the established playable trainers, each with their own Pokemon.

From there, the player effectively engages in 3v3 battles against opposing teams while building their own Pokémon team. This means that the game maintains a high level of fidelity to its source, even in a simplified format. Masters EX it received mixed reviews upon release, with some focusing on the lack of content and others on the shallow mechanics. However, since it is still in operation, the game has continued to grow and expand since its release.

4 .hack

Anthology Game: .hack//Link

This fascinating series takes place in a virtual MMORPG known as “The World”, and players of the game act as heroes in their chosen avatars. It offers the unique possibility of having multiple parts dedicated to a single, overarching story. He also had a succession of .hack//GU, which takes place sometime after the first installment, features all-new characters and, like its predecessor, focuses on a story told over several games.

The two series are more directly connected .hack//Link, a Japan-only PSP release that features characters from both incarnations alongside a new protagonist named Tokio Kuryuu, fighting against a new evil organization known as Schicksal. The game has been praised for its connective nature, connecting between gaming lore and extended media such as OVAs, manga adaptations, and more. However, the game itself fell under scrutiny and was heavily criticized by reviewers and critics. .hack has since attempted several spiritual successors, which ironically were on service-based platforms that are now defunct. However, //Link remains the last major game with .hack title and the last to focus on the tradition of the larger series before it.

A fighting game with a roster that again includes larger series, //Versuswas released sometime later, often associated with the original film using the .hack as source material.

3 Fire sign

Anthology game: Fire Emblem Heroes

Fire sign he is known for his many incarnations, and species transitions tend to happen to varying degrees in the main series as well. An early example of wider self-recognition was Awakeningwhere playable avatars based on characters from previous installations, called Einherjar, were available to fight against in DLC maps. A small handful of them, more straightforwardly adapted to be based on unique characters, also reappeared Fates.

The series delved into more direct crossover territory with Warriorswhich integrated RPG gameplay alongside the beat-em-up format of the majority Warriors games. Here characters from many incarnations Fire sign they are playable, although some games receive less or no spin-off representation. Get involved focuses on “emblem” versions of the warriors who use their powers as playable characters from that specific installment in the series. There is also Tokyo Mirage Sessionswhich remakes characters from Awakening and Shadow Dragon into Persona-like beings.

However, the most widely accepted crossover is Heroesa long-running Gacha game that is constantly updated and has survived alongside several main series Fire sign games. Due to its length, it consistently manages to integrate characters from across the series into its updates, from fan favorites and well-known characters to lesser-known ones, some of which have not previously been localized outside of Japan. Although the gameplay is greatly simplified (and with constant updates), no different Fire sign the game has so many characters from their respective titles working together under one title.

2 Final Fantasy

Anthology game: Dissidia Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is something of a metaseries unto itself, with many of his more popular entries having supplemental material that expands the larger lore of their specific stories. That being said, there is an ongoing series that ties the separate worlds of the series together known as Dissidia Final Fantasy.

Dissidia originated as a 3D fighting game, but as Fire Emblem Warriorscarried elements of the series' original genre into this next incarnation. As a result, some games feel more like an action RPG than a fighting game. The game has three incarnations, with the third, NTfocusing on 3v3 combat, with two selected characters controlled by AI while the other is played directly. Heroes and villains from almost every issue Final Fantasy installment at the time of issue, as well as Ramza Beoulve of Tactics and Ace of type-0, they are playable.

Dissidia has a fourth incarnation, although it is not a fighting game, but rather a Gacha game known as Opera Omnia. This volume features many more playable characters from each game and includes at least two, often more, for each game represented. With the service ending in February 2024, it's unclear what shape or direction, if any, the Dissidia will continue from there.

1 Tales Of

Anthology Game: Tales Of The World

The Fairy tales the series tends to rarely focus on individual settings for more than one installment, although some sequels do exist. Additionally, some games tend to take place in the same general area, despite not being strictly classified as direct sequels. Like many RPGs, the series leans towards a mythologized medieval aesthetic and includes themes of justice and conflict across different races and cultures. The Fairy tales the series exists in many guises, and various characters from its installments have appeared elsewhere.

Due to the series' mixed popularity, only a select number of titles are available in the West, such as the latest release, Tales of Arisewhich was released in 2021. Less commonly available are spin-off titles, so-called Stories of the world. This is a somewhat interesting title considering that there rarely seems to be one “world” that encompasses all of these “stories”.

However, different games that contain characters from many Fairy tales installments were released. Shining Mythologya rare Western edition, is one such example, released in 2007 worldwide. Other games in the series tend to focus on different genres, including puzzle games, tactical RPGs, and even a board game hybrid. The latest work in this series is Reve Unitiawhich came out in 2014 and was a 3DS port of the mobile game Association of Tactics. Roughly ten years later, the series remained dormant. It's likely like new Fairy tales worlds are constantly being created, there is less incentive to constantly collectively model games around them. See as Get up is the 17th installment of the main series, the focus currently seems to be more on the individual worlds themselves.