We have a Steam curator now. You should be following it. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44994899-RPGHQ/
Chat client updated, if you have issues using chat press CTRL + SHIFT + R to force a hard refresh.

Best mounted/vehicular combat in RPGs

For discussing role-playing video games, you know, the ones with combat.
Ignore Topic
User avatar
WaterMage
Posts: 2168
Joined: Sep 30, '23

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Best mounted/vehicular combat in RPGs

Post by WaterMage »

Very few RPGs allow you to use vehicles or mounts in combat. Outside of combat, wow and its billion clones, and some SP RPGs allow it. But in combat, I can only think in :
  • Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Even has a cavalier class. The Azata mythic path allows you to mount a Havoc Dragon in the late game.
  • Mount & Blade: Warband / Fire & Sword + Mods. Mods like Warsword Conquest allow you to have "crewed" vehicles and ride creatures like demigryphs. But no flying creatures.
  • Mount & Blade: Bannerlord + Mods. Mods like The Old Realms allow you to ride creatures like demigryphs, but not flying creatures.
  • Elden Ring: With Torrent. You can cast spells and melee strike on horseback.
  • LOTRO: Riders of Rohan: Never played. Only have heard about it.
Two screenshots from Warsword Conquest wrote:
ImageImage
Now, with vehicles, I know very few. There is ship combat in 40k Rogue Trader, but it is bad; there is ship combat in Deadfire, but it is atrociously bad, and honestly, the unique RPG with great vehicle combat is, imo, UnderRail. I fail to remember any other game.

Tags:
User avatar
Val the Moofia Boss
Turtle
Turtle
Posts: 4198
Joined: Jun 3, '23

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by Val the Moofia Boss »

Sadly, vehicle sections in WoW are rare because apparently players bitched about not being able to control their own character. It also doesn't help that vehicle sections are often associated with "playing as another POV character" quests like Illidan, Arthas, that Arrakoa in WoD, etc, but WoW's mediocre presentation of its story via tiny walls of quest text has inoculated many players against the story and thus against that experience.

TWW has a couple quests that combined the new dragonflying mechanics/control scheme with you fighting a giant mech. Pressing spacebar launches a volley of magick missiles, pressing another button to barrel roll grants you a shield. There is another quest where you can use any mount you want and fly through light glyphs in the sky to temporarily acquire light magick missiles that will then fire forwards if you press a button (IIRC spacebar to ascend), which you use to blow up hanging mines to clear space for an airship.

Image


In Trails of Cold Steel, the protagonist (and later, his apprentices) acquire magitek mechs called Soldats, to which their martial swordsmanship training is applicable. The mechs are only used during certain story fights when necessary (no repeatable battles) and when appropriate (ie, the heroes are fighting a large monster or an enemy mech and it would be preposterous to fight on foot. And their mech is nearby and not chained up or out of power). The mechs used a slightly different battle system where there is no positioning, and you can target three different areas of the mech (head, arms, body). The mechs change stances so their weak part changes in the different stances. The mechs can also cast spells in combat.

Image
Image
Image


In Xenoblade Chronicles X, you start the game out on foot but can later acquire mechs for you and your party to use to fight against huge enemies like the brachiosaurs.

In Sakura Wars, the heroes pilot magitek mechs called Spirit Armors to fight against demons. The combat gameplay exclusively uses the mechs, with no on foot combat sections, though the heroes sometimes fight on foot in the VN segments or in the animes.

In Valkyria Chronicles 1 & 4 (developed by the same team that made Sakura Wars), the protagonist squad captain and at least one other character drive tanks or armored cars. They have tank controls and cannot spin on a dime.

Image


In ARMA 1, the singleplayer campaign has you alternate POVs between different characters. In one mission, you are playing an infantry squad captain, ordering people into trucks and escorting convoys along the highways. In another mission, you are playing as a couple saboteurs running around the woods in the back line, shooting drivers to steal their cars in the dead of night, etc. One of the POVs has you play as a tank squad captain. I thought it was very immersive to order your driver and the other tanks in your unit to move around while you are peering out into the world via your periscope or viewing window.
Last edited by Val the Moofia Boss on August 2nd, 2025, 04:50, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Cipher
Posts: 988
Joined: Jan 6, '24

Geolocation

Post by Cipher »

Val the Moofia Boss wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 04:49


In Xenoblade Chronicles X, you start the game out on foot but can later acquire mechs for you and your party to use to fight against huge enemies like the brachiosaurs.
One of the only examples I can remember where you can use a giant robot that transforms to traverse in an open world.
User avatar
Val the Moofia Boss
Turtle
Turtle
Posts: 4198
Joined: Jun 3, '23

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by Val the Moofia Boss »

Another game I forgot about is Space Cowboy Online/ACE Online/Air Rivals. It was my first MMORPG. You play as a fighter pilot on an alien world colonized by humans. At the beginning of the game, you select which one of the four classes of aircraft you will fly. I-Gears (interceptors, fastest and good for shooting and missiling other flying targets). B-Gear (bomber, almost as fast as the I-Gear, has missiles but what you really want to do is to switch to bombing mode to drop your payload on ground targets, namely the A-gears). The M-gear (healer and buffer, slower than the I and B-gears, can fly backwards, can scan the map for enemies and port in allies). And then the A-Gear (flying tank, is the slowest, can land on the ground and move faster along the ground, and then enter a stationary siege mode where they deal very heavy damage). The MMO had your usual combination of character levels and allocating stat points into agility and such, and acquiring better gear/equipment for your aircraft.

Image
User avatar
Tweed
Turtle
Turtle
Posts: 6837
Joined: Feb 2, '23

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by Tweed »

Nothing comes close to Interstate 76 for car combat.
User avatar
mercerxiv
Posts: 534
Joined: Mar 6, '25
Location: Dixie

Geolocation

Post by mercerxiv »

WaterMage wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 04:16
Very few RPGs allow you to use vehicles or mounts in combat. Outside of combat, wow and its billion clones, and some SP RPGs allow it. But in combat, I can only think in :
  • Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous - Even has a cavalier class. The Azata mythic path allows you to mount a Havoc Dragon in the late game.
  • Mount & Blade: Warband / Fire & Sword + Mods. Mods like Warsword Conquest allow you to have "crewed" vehicles and ride creatures like demigryphs. But no flying creatures.
  • Mount & Blade: Bannerlord + Mods. Mods like The Old Realms allow you to ride creatures like demigryphs, but not flying creatures.
  • Elden Ring: With Torrent. You can cast spells and melee strike on horseback.
  • LOTRO: Riders of Rohan: Never played. Only have heard about it.
Two screenshots from Warsword Conquest wrote:
ImageImage
Now, with vehicles, I know very few. There is ship combat in 40k Rogue Trader, but it is bad; there is ship combat in Deadfire, but it is atrociously bad, and honestly, the unique RPG with great vehicle combat is, imo, UnderRail. I fail to remember any other game.
Mass Effect had vehicular combat too :)
Also stuff I can think of - Terraria if you count it as an RPG (a biiiiit of a stretch), Divinity 2: Ego Draconis (dragon form), Skyrim (iirc you can shoot bow and spells off the horse, also RPG with a bit of a stretch).
I like sugar, and I like tea.
User avatar
WaterMage
Posts: 2168
Joined: Sep 30, '23

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by WaterMage »

Val the Moofia Boss wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 04:49
In Trails of Cold Steel, the protagonist (and later, his apprentices) acquire magitek mechs called Soldats, ]
Hot take. I don't like many mechas. I don't see why we should have a gigantic humanoid ultra-expensive robot firing a 120 mm cannon when we could fire it from a much faster, cheaper, and more reliable tank. Also, with drone proliferation, one USD300 drone dropping a IED would have a much easier time disabling an Mecha than an tank. And flying? The drag would be a nightmare. I prefer more creative and believable vehicles like UnderRail Devastator in sci fi.

Now, Ace Combats, I played a bit and liked a bit.
Val the Moofia Boss wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 04:49
apparently players bitched about not being able to control their own character.
In wow, I don't think that mounted combat would work because how much range does the abilities have? 30m? That would make impossible to hit anything in ranged combat. Now, pick Bannerlord - The old world, you can fire spells and repeater firearms across the map, hundreds of meters away with relative good accuracy, so you can have for eg, cavalry with repeaters hitting and running or mounted archers being devastating forces.
Last edited by WaterMage on August 2nd, 2025, 05:48, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
Val the Moofia Boss
Turtle
Turtle
Posts: 4198
Joined: Jun 3, '23

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by Val the Moofia Boss »

WaterMage wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 05:48
Hot take. I don't like many mechas. I don't see why we should have a gigantic humanoid ultra-expensive robot firing a 120 mm cannon when we could fire it from a much faster, cheaper, and more reliable tank. Also, with drone proliferation, one USD300 drone dropping a IED would have a much easier time disabling an Mecha than an tank. And flying? The drag would be a nightmare. I prefer more creative and believable vehicles like UnderRail Devastator in sci fi.
Mechs are just a cool fantasy visual. You get to return to an age where the outcome of conflicts are decided by a few knights in shining armor in the spotlight, rather than gigantic blobs of soldiers where no one soldier stands out. Or in today's world, wars decided by invisible radio control operators in some shed or shipping container somewhere. And the mech towers over all and it just looks cool. Mechs taking damage and losing limbs in place of the fragile flesh and blood human is also a much more coherent way for the hero to get into a lot of fights but still be uninjured and look handsome.
User avatar
TKVNC
Posts: 3081
Joined: Feb 25, '24

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by TKVNC »

I don't strictly consider them RPG's but KCD and Witcher 3 have mounted combat. It is appropriately overpowered.

I remember that the Conan MMO, Age of Conan, had mounted combat.

Beyond that, there are mods like FONV' notorious Frontier.
User avatar
Tweed
Turtle
Turtle
Posts: 6837
Joined: Feb 2, '23

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by Tweed »

WaterMage wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 05:48
Hot take. I don't like many mechas. I don't see why we should have a gigantic humanoid ultra-expensive robot firing a 120 mm cannon when we could fire it from a much faster, cheaper, and more reliable tank. Also, with drone proliferation, one USD300 drone dropping a IED would have a much easier time disabling an Mecha than an tank. And flying? The drag would be a nightmare. I prefer more creative and believable vehicles like UnderRail Devastator in sci fi.
Depends on how the media is treating the mech. Is it a complex piece of machinery that requires careful operation (Cyberstorm, Mechwarrior, Steel Battalion)? Or is it merely an extension of the pilot (Shogo: MAD, Leynos, Valken)?
User avatar
WaterMage
Posts: 2168
Joined: Sep 30, '23

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by WaterMage »

Val the Moofia Boss wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 05:55
Mechs are just a cool fantasy visual.

Yep. And there is nothing wrong with that. I just wish that we had more "feasible" vehicles too. That we had more UnderRail Devastator-style vehicles, fitting the setting well, instead of over 99.9% of the settings being humanoid knights with swords. As much as people hate Age of Sigmar, at least Age of Sigmar avoids having humanoid knights everywhere, and its magitek is more "practical"—tanks", ships, airships, stuff like that. 

About more modern wars, it is possible to "stand out"; Simo Hayha, for example, killed hundreds. But not in melee with a greatsword. On the range, with stealth, marksmanship, and patience. About knights, many people underestimate plate armor thinking that any sword can pierce it. Others believe that even the heaviest arbalest with bodkin arrowhead and poison, wouldn't penetrate even hitting the less armored areas.
User avatar
TKVNC
Posts: 3081
Joined: Feb 25, '24

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by TKVNC »

WaterMage wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 06:41
Val the Moofia Boss wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 05:55
Mechs are just a cool fantasy visual.

Yep. And there is nothing wrong with that. I just wish that we had more "feasible" vehicles too. That we had more UnderRail Devastator-style vehicles, fitting the setting well, instead of over 99.9% of the settings being humanoid knights with swords. As much as people hate Age of Sigmar, at least Age of Sigmar avoids having humanoid knights everywhere, and its magitek is more "practical"—tanks", ships, airships, stuff like that. 

About more modern wars, it is possible to "stand out"; Simo Hayha, for example, killed hundreds. But not in melee with a greatsword. On the range, with stealth, marksmanship, and patience. About knights, many people underestimate plate armor thinking that any sword can pierce it. Others believe that even the heaviest arbalest with bodkin arrowhead and poison, wouldn't penetrate even hitting the less armored areas.
Well for what it's worth, plate became effectively ubiquitous because it was the supreme form of body armour. Quality differences do matter, but that's a different matter.

Even during the High Middle-Ages, you never had a single knight who would win a battle by himself. Heavy cavalry fulfilled a similar role too, I suppose, modern fighter aircraft; the purpose was area supremacy, and tactical flexibility. It's hard to really equate it, as being able to fly almost completely invalidates all ground based resistance.

I honestly think it's hard to add mounted or vehicular combat to RPG's because outside of magic (and even then), in a 'sword and sorcery' setting vehicles (even horses) become so outrageously powerful, it's hard to balance them. Not without reason, that was how they were in our own history.
Last edited by TKVNC on August 2nd, 2025, 07:44, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar
WaterMage
Posts: 2168
Joined: Sep 30, '23

Geolocation

Adventurer's Guild

Post by WaterMage »

TKVNC wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 07:44
plate became effectively ubiquitous because it was the supreme form of body armour.
Yes, it was incredibly effective. But people debate armor in a very simplistic way, like "can pierce" or "can't pierce," when it is a more complex topic. People who want to portray armor as invincible pick the best armor and the "average" bow and average bodkin. People who want to side with projectiles will pick a siege where a Genoese crossbowman with a very heavy arbalest pierced poor-quality armor. It's like armor in modern times vs. firearms. A rifle can be chambered in .22 LR or in 14.5x114 mm, and the best body armor can stop a .30-06, but I don't know any material capable of stopping a .338 LM armor-piercing round or stronger rounds. Same thing in medieval times. The armor material, thickness, impact angle, distance, the bow poundage, there are so many things to consider that is stupid to say "armor defeat arrows" or "arrows defeat armor". Is it better to say, "How likely is this arrow at this distance, fired by this specific weapon, hitting at X angle, in a specific armor part, to pierce the armor?
TKVNC wrote: August 2nd, 2025, 07:44
because outside of magic (and even then), in a 'sword and sorcery' setting vehicles (even horses) become so outrageously powerful, it's hard to balance them. Not without reason, that was how they were in our own history.
IMO Balance cultism is as bad for RPGs as equality cultism for IRL societies. Riding a beast is cool, but "muh balance" removes such cool stuff...
User avatar
weaselus
Posts: 159
Joined: Jul 17, '25

Geolocation

Post by weaselus »

Metal Max and Metal Saga series. Both open-world JRPGs with multiple endings, where the main character is a tank driver who is a monster hunter.