Street Fighter 6 is blowing up the fighting game scene right now thanks to its solid-as-ever gameplay. The addition of its story mode, World Tour, has also helped it find success. It’s not quite an RPG brawler in the sense of something modern like River City Girls, but it is close. Players can create a character and square off against random NPCs, level up, and then challenge classic characters like Chun-Li and Ryu.
It’s a shame Capcom has never made a pure Street Fighter brawler before this or an RPG. On the opposite side of the spectrum, these eight RPG franchises have made fighting game spinoffs. Some of them have been forgotten to time, so it's time to rekindle some love for them.
8 Digimon Battle Spirit
Digimon started as a toy line in 1997 with digital pets people could buy to take care of. Soon the empire rose and included anime, cards, and a whole plethora of RPGs. Soon after the games started, some fighting games came out as well. Digimon Battle Spirit was the first fighting game spinoff and it was released on the Game Boy Advance.
In that same year, 2001, Digimon Rumble Arena was released on the PS1. Both games are more or less the same, featuring gameplay similar to the Super Smash Bros. series.
7 Dissidia: Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy is one of the biggest RPG brands on the market. So, it stands to reason that Square Enix would eventually make at least one fighting game spinoff. Dissidia: Final Fantasy would be that spinoff series and it began on the PSP.
There are three games in this sub-series, so far, and they feature villains and heroes from across the franchise. Ever wonder who would win in a fight between Cloud and Squall? Now, players can live out those rivalries in real-time combat.
6 Granblue Fantasy Versus
Granblue Fantasy is a brand that is not huge in the West. That’s because the series started as a mobile game in 2014 in Japan. Mobile games generally do much better over there, especially RPGs.
Recently, there has been an effort to bring more attention to this franchise via spinoffs. The first was Granblue Fantasy Versus, a 2D fighter made by the masters at Arc System Works. It wasn’t as big as their other games, like Guilty Gear, but it was enjoyed by fighting game enthusiasts.
5 Persona 4 Arena
Persona 4 Arena is the first big non-RPG spinoff in the Persona franchise and it got the ball rolling. Now there are dancing games along with action RPGs spun off from Dynasty Warriors. The coolest part about Persona 4 Arena and most of these spinoffs is that they are considered canon, or at least they are derived from canonical material.
The game featured the entire playable cast of the original game along with guest heroes from Persona 3 who aged. Ken, for example, was no longer a little boy.
4 Pokken Tournament
Pokemon has been featured in fighting games since Super Smash Bros. debuted in 1999 on the N64. Decades later, they would get a more pure fighting game experience via Pokken Tournament on the Wii U. It made sense to make it given that one of the elemental types in the games is Fighting.
However, Fighting-type Pokemon were not the only ones featured in the game as Pikachu also made an effort to grapple with the best of them. It wasn’t anywhere near as popular as Super Smash Bros., but it was interesting to see Nintendo and Game Freak branch out more to other developers and genres.
3 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the latest in the aforementioned fighting game series. It features characters from across Nintendo’s many brands but there is third-party support as well. Even though this may be a cheat to say, it could be considered a spinoff to Fire Emblem.
Eight characters, not including alternates or costumes, from the series are featured in the game and that is a staggering amount. So, it’s as much a fighting game spinoff to Fire Emblem as it is any other franchise in Nintendo’s portfolio.
2 Tales Of VS
Tales of VS is a game that never came out in the West. It was released in 2009 for the PSP. Tales of VS featured four-player matches with characters across the Tales of series up to that point which did include Tales of Vesperia.
Even though it cannot be enjoyed fully in English, as a fighting game, there’s not much of a barrier to entry with text. Also, there has been some effort online regarding an English fan patch.
1 Ys VS. Sora No Kiseki: Alternative Saga
Ys VS. Sora no Kiseki: Alternative Saga is another PSP spinoff not to one, but two epic franchises. It clashed characters together from the entire Ys series along with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky.
It made sense why Nihon Falcom never posted the game to the West after its initial release in 2010 in Japan as both franchises are not as well-known overseas. The gameplay is in a top-down area kind of like Power Stone. Like Tales of VS, it too has some English fan patches online.