Summary
There are a number ofrole-playing gamesthat tend to shift focus to a different cast, setting, and possibly even more as the series progresses. Games can go from 2D to 3D, monochrome to fully colored, and static and silence to high-quality voice acting. As a cache of these different games, settings, and other pieces are built and added to, some companies will put them all into one setting.
This leads to RPGs crossing over with themselves in a way, with characters who have an established degree of separation interacting directly. These are oftentimes done in the Gacha format, but this is far from the only manner in which certain series cross over with themselves.These anthology RPGswill be ranked by the number of series installments as well as how well they integrate their source material.
iOS, Android
Genre
Mobile Gacha RPG
Pokemonis noted for carrying over the majority of its typically ‘playable’ characters to most series installments; those being the titular Pokemon themselves. That said, the human characters of each game typically nod to those of others. Most notably,GoldandSilverallow the player to travel from their native region of Johto to Kanto, allowing them to fully experience the previous game’s region for themselves. While this direct integration is rare as the series expands its scope, there are always more examples of just how interconnected every region is.
These include the Pokemon World Tournament inBlack 2andWhite 2, which allows the player to face off against a number of Gym Leaders and Champions from the series' various regions established at the time, as well as Team Rainbow Rocket fromUltra SunandUltra Moon, an alternate-universe version of the evil team consisting of various established evil team leaders who succeeded in their goals.
This fully came to a head with the Gacha game known asPokemon Masters EX. This game allows the players to team up with and take control of various characters of all sorts from each region, including the Elite Four, Champions, and even all the established playable trainers, with each one of them having a signature Pokemon of their own.
From here, the player effectively participates in 3-on-3 battles against enemy teams, whilst building up their own Pokemon squad. This means the game maintains a high level of fidelity towards its source, even with the simplified format.Masters EXreceived mixed reviews upon release, with some being focused on the lack of content and others on the shallow mechanics. Nonetheless, as it is still in service, the game has continued to grow and expand since its release.
RPG
This fascinating series takes place within a virtual MMORPG, known as “The World,” and has players of the game in their chosen avatars acting as the heroes. It makes the unique choice of having multiple installments dedicated to a single, overarching story. It also had a successor series,.hack//G.U.,which takes place sometime after the first, featuring entirely new characters, and like its predecessor, focuses on a story told across multiple games.
The two series are more directly connected in.hack//Link,a Japan-only PSP release, which features characters from both incarnations alongside a new protagonist named Tokio Kuryuu, fighting against a new evil organization known as Schicksal. The game was praised for its connective nature, linking between the lore of the games and expanded media such as OVAs, manga adaptations, and more. However, the gameplay itself fell under scrutiny, being heavily criticized by reviewers and critics..hackhas since attempted multiple spiritual successors, which ironically were on now-discontinued service-based platforms. However,//Linkremains the final mainline game with the.hacktitle, and the last to focus on the lore of the greater series before it.
A fighting game with a roster once again encompassing the greater series,//Versus, was released sometime later, often bundled with an original movie using .hackas the source material.
Fire Emblemis noted for its many incarnations, and crossovers of a sort tend to happen to varying degrees in the main series as well. An early example of broader self-acknowledgment wasAwakening, where avatars based on characters from previous installations, termed Einherjar, were playable, and could be fought against in DLC maps. A small handful of them, more directly tooled to be based on unique characters, also reappeared inFates.
The series delved into more direct crossover territory withWarriors, which integrated RPG gameplay alongside the beat-em-up format of mostWarriorsgames. Here, characters from many incarnations ofFire Emblemare playable, albeit with some games receiving less or no representation in the spin-off.Engagefocuses on “Emblem” versions of the warriors, who have their powers utilized by the playable characters of this specific installment in the series. There is alsoTokyo Mirage Sessions, which retools characters fromAwakeningandShadow Dragoninto Persona-like beings.
The most broadly accepted crossover, however, isHeroes, a long-running Gacha game that continually updates and has survived concurrently alongside multiple mainlineFire Emblemgames. With its length, it continually succeeds at integrating characters from throughout the series across its updates, ranging from fan favorites and well-known characters to lesser-knowns, some of whom were not previously localized outside of Japan. Although the gameplay is simplified to a great degree (even with continual updates), no otherFire Emblemgame has this many characters from its respective titles working together under one title.
Final Fantasyis something of a metaseries in itself, with a lot of its more popular entries having supplementary material that expands on the greater lore of their specific narratives. That being said, there is a continual series that blends the series' disconnected worlds together, known asDissidia Final Fantasy.
Dissidiaoriginated as a 3D fighting game, but likeFire Emblem Warriors, it ported elements of the series' original genre over to this other incarnation. The result is that some of the gameplay feels more like that of an action RPG rather than a fighting game. There are three incarnations of this game, with the third,NT, focusing on 3v3 combat, with two selected characters being AI-controlled while another is played directly. Heroes and villains from nearly every numberedFinal Fantasyinstallment at the time of release, as well as Ramza Beoulve fromTacticsand Ace fromType-0,are playable.
Dissidiahas a fourth incarnation, although it is not a fighting game, but rather a Gacha game known asOpera Omnia. This installment has far more playable characters from each game, and includes at least two, often more, for each game represented. With service concluding in February 2024, it is unclear what shape or direction, if any,Dissidiawill take from here on out.
TheTalesseries tends to rarely focus on an individual setting for more than a single installment, although some sequels do exist. Additionally, certain games tend to take place in the same general area, despite not being strictly classified as direct sequels. Like many RPGs, the series tends to have a mythologized medieval aesthetic and involves themes of justice and conflict across different races and cultures. TheTalesseries exists in many forms, and various characters from its installments have made appearances elsewhere.
Due to the mixed popularity of the series, only a select number of titles are available in the West, such as the most recent release,Tales of Arise, which came out in 2021. Less commonly available are the spin-off titles, known asTales of the World. This is a somewhat interesting title when one considers that it rarely seems like there is one “world” that encompasses all these “tales.”
Nonetheless, a variety of games that feature characters from the manyTalesinstallments have been released.Radiant Mythology, a rare Western release, is one such example, coming out 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 most recent installment of this series isReve Unitia, which came out in 2014 and was a 3DS port of the mobile gameTactics Union. Roughly a decade later, this series has remained dormant. It is likely that, as newTalesworlds are continually being created, there is less incentive to continually model games around them collectively. Seeing asAriseis the 17th mainline installment, the focus currently seems to be more geared towards the individual worlds themselves.
