If anyone is fan of old Fire Emblem games. You should check out. Vestaria Saga I: War of Scions, it’s from the original Fire Emblem creator and plays like old school Fire Emblem. It’s on GOG and Steam. Looks like early 16 bit sprite game but it’s Fire Emblem in everything but the name.
Those are 95% of the games in the genre we got this generation. 
DMCV for me…but I do want to say Yakuza 0 and Judgement are very close to raw action games with how awesome the combat is those titles. You can do real funky stuff, like stance switching/cancels and in Judgement the wall becomes more of a factor…you have off the the wall moves boiii with a chunk of options and it leaves a blue trail of your character behind like Shinobi/Ninja Gaiden or supers in old man fighters. 
Remember the games Platinum made for Activision? Sure the game’s after Korra were trash but they exist.
So a bunch of games that may as well never exist as far as I am concerned.
Also its the Verge, so I take what ever they have to say with a grain of salt.
Have there been any good western-developed stylish action games, not counting ones where the Japanese publisher were heavily involved?
The first Force Unleashed game.
Yakuza/Judgement walk an invisible razor thin rope between being stylish action, modern beat em ups descend from River City/Kunio and action JRPG.
These last two generations have been hard for any genre that is not a FPS or RPG or Mario related.
I need to do another playthrough. I got all the endings and never got to mess with its Angel Slayer mode. It’s customizable too, which is what I was looking forward to, then I got ending E. Worth it, since i didn’t do everything in the game.
Loved it more than I though I would. 2B’s default design will always be stupid as fuck though.
RE: Which gen the Wii U belong too? It’s this one. Switch was the mid-gen upgrade.
W101, Bayonetta 2, Astral Chain in no particular order…maybe…
Nier:A and DMC V runners up.
EDIT: Actually Bayo2, DMC V and Nier:A can swap places depending on my mood that day. Bayo 2 stays actually because I can play that on TV or handheld(again).
Judgment has the juggles that Yakuza never really had. Yakuza 3 came close with it’s wall game and bounds though. Judgments stance swtiching and being able to use the speed potions in the middle for either style is the good stuff.
I need that Y7/LAD to release soon.
W101 didn’t make my list becsuse I only just got it and haven’t even finishing my first run through of it. So far it’s fucking awesome tho.
sheeeeitttt, I was just remembering how great a moment it was when you fight the person who was “Lumen Sage” in Bayonetta 2…that last time you fight… with the epic music blasting in the background, and they yell out “…he will not be forgiven…he will NEVER be forgiven!!!” as they clash weapons… that goddamn Bayonetta, man… I will love that franchise forever. *Banderas.gif
Other games wish they could be on that level, man.
edit—I have DMC5 but surprisingly still haven’t finished it… I keep getting sidetracked by other games all the time, so I’m only in the 2nd area, I think.
Alot of ppl didn’t but I Nier Automata was one of my favorite action games last Gen. Bayonetta-lite combat, and great music
X-men Origins by Raven, Force Unleashed II, Splatterhouse PS3/3shitty, God of War series.
The secret missions are probably my favorite parts of the game. Some were just trying to survive, that made it hard, but it was so worth it. Then when comfortable enough, I started to think about being stylish and it just made the game more awesome.
I wish the Kakoo-regah’s were customizable ala Nier:A’s, though. It would’ve made an awesome game that much more awesome.
I wouldn’t call any of those stylish, personally.
But in naming games like those I will say Darksiders II combo system has a decent amount of stylish meat to it if you dig into it.
Random article, but it only took 10 seconds to find.
Personally, the story is what got me. I want to play through it again, but the gameplay wasn’t as interesting as I thought it was going to be. Maybe in a couple years. That said, Nier: Automata and HZD were two of my favorite games that year.
Playing Astral Chain now
I bought a Wii U for Bayonetta 2. I am still happy with that decision. DMC V is also great.
If a game is boring I just stop playing it lol.
There’s a difference between getting through a lull period for the purpose of build up or filler to buffer the story that’s done for pacing purposes and actually boring.
If I find a game flat out boring I’m just going to stop playing it. If I can tell it’s boring but ultimately leading to something of significance I have no issues playing through that.
Which is which is up to the player.
The same thing goes for gameplay. If say the main appeal of the game is boring to me as well, in this case let’s say for arguments sake it’s a platinum games gameplay. I’m going to stop playing. Some people find those games incredibly engrossing, immersive, challenging and rewardIng. Again though, It’s up to the player to decide which it is.
@purbeast Check BestBuy’s site. The special edition for GoT is up for both shipping and instore pickup.
