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15 Video Games That Borrowed Ideas From Completely Different Genres

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Genre mashup magic.

Nazarii Verbitskiy

Gaming - September 16th 2026, 02:00 GMT+2

Cropped Bastila Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2003 — 15. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003)
BioWare built Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic around real-time combat that quietly runs on the same logic as a turn-based strategy game. Pause the action and you can queue up attacks, powers, and item use one at a time. James Ohlen led development at a studio that had made its name on turn-based D&D games just years before. The 2003 release let players ease into that system without ever calling it what it was. | © LucasArts

Far Cry 3 — 14. Far Cry 3 (2012)
A skill tree, crafting stations, and experience points sit inside Far Cry 3, a game that is otherwise a first-person shooter about hunting pirates on a tropical island. Jason Brody levels up by tattooing his arm, one piece of ink per unlocked ability. Ubisoft released the game in 2012 and its progression systems became a template the studio reused across nearly every open world game after it. None of it needed to be there, and all of it stuck. | © Ubisoft

Cropped Assassins Creed IV Black Flag — 13. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013)
Edward Kenway spends more time on the deck of the Jackdaw than he does on land in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. Ship upgrades, cannon battles, and boarding enemy vessels take over what is supposedly an action-adventure game about assassins. Ubisoft released it in 2013, and the naval combat proved popular enough that it got spun into its own standalone game, Assassin's Creed Rogue. A series about hidden blades ended up remembered for its ships. | © Ubisoft

Mass Effect 2 — 12. Mass Effect 2 (2010)
Commander Shepard can sit across from a teammate and just talk in Mass Effect 2, no mission attached. BioWare released the game in 2010 and built loyalty missions around conversations that function much like a dating sim's affection meter. Get close enough to a squadmate and a locked door on their quarters opens for good. The studio never called it romance mechanics in interviews, but players mapped every relationship anyway. | © Electronic Arts

Resident Evil 4 — 11. Resident Evil 4 (2005)
Leon Kennedy's over-the-shoulder camera in Resident Evil 4 changed what a survival horror game was allowed to look like. Capcom released it in 2005, trading fixed camera angles and tank controls for aiming that borrowed straight from third-person shooters. Shinji Mikami directed the game after reportedly scrapping earlier versions of it entirely. The shift toward action was so complete that later entries in the series had to fight their way back to horror. | © Capcom

XCOM Enemy Unknown — 10. XCOM: Enemy Unknown (2012)
Every soldier in XCOM: Enemy Unknown starts as a rookie with a name, a nationality, and no guarantee of surviving the next mission. Firaxis built the game around permadeath, so losing a colonel you leveled up for ten hours actually stings. That's straight out of RPG design, complete with class specializations and gear upgrades. Losing the game's best sniper to a bad flanking call feels worse than any cutscene death. | © 2K Games

The Last of Us — 9. The Last of Us (2013)
Joel spends most of The Last of Us crouched behind furniture, listening for footsteps before he decides whether to fight or run. Naughty Dog gave clickers hearing but no sight, borrowing the sound-based detection systems that stealth games had refined for years. Ammo stays scarce enough that most encounters get solved by sneaking past rather than shooting through. It plays like a horror game that just happens to let you fight back. | © Sony Computer Entertainment

Vampire Survivors — 8. Vampire Survivors (2022)
Thirty minutes into a run of Vampire Survivors, the screen fills with so many projectiles it looks lifted straight from a bullet-hell shooter. Luca Galante built the game in 2022 with a twist though, the character auto-attacks and the player only steers. That single change turns bullet-hell chaos into something closer to a puzzle about positioning. It sold millions of copies for a price under five dollars. | © poncle

Dark Souls — 7. Dark Souls (2011)
A knight in Dark Souls raises its shield the instant you swing too early, and that single frame teaches you more than any tutorial. Hidetaka Miyazaki has said in interviews he wanted players to learn through failure rather than text boxes. Stamina bars, careful spacing, and punishing openings all echo fighting game fundamentals more than typical RPG combat. Winning a fight here feels like reading an opponent, not grinding a stat. | © Namco Bandai Games

Persona 5 — 6. Persona 5 (2016)
Skipping a study session in Persona 5 to hang out with a friend actually changes how strong your team becomes in battle. Atlus tied social stats like Knowledge and Guts directly to combat performance, borrowing the daily scheduling loop from life-sim games. Confidants level up through conversation choices the same way a dating sim tracks affection. A calendar became just as important as a weapon loadout. | © Atlus

Doom Eternal — 5. Doom Eternal (2020)
Ammo runs dry fast in Doom Eternal, and that scarcity is the whole point. Glory kills, chainsaw fuel, and flame belches all sit on cooldown timers that push players into a loop closer to a metronome than a shooting gallery. id Software built the 2020 sequel around constant switching rather than sustained fire. Standing still to aim is the fastest way to lose. | © Bethesda Softworks

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild — 4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017)
Cooking a meal in Breath of the Wild can matter more than any weapon in the inventory. Nintendo's 2017 release tracks temperature, weather, and food spoilage the way a survival game would, right down to weapons that snap after a few dozen swings. Climbing a cliff in the rain sends Link sliding back down every time. Hyrule punishes players who ignore the elements as much as any enemy camp does. | © Nintendo

Hi Fi RUSH — 3. Hi-Fi Rush (2023)
Chai swings his guitar-sword on the beat, and missing that beat in Hi-Fi Rush means missing the hit entirely. Tango Gameworks released the game in 2023 as a surprise launch on Xbox and PC, with the entire combat system synced to a licensed soundtrack. Enemies, platforms, and even background explosions pulse in time with the music. It plays like a rhythm game wearing an action game's clothes. | © Xbox Game Studios

Death Stranding — 2. Death Stranding (2019)
Nobody else's playthrough of Death Stranding looks quite like anyone else's, yet strangers still leave their fingerprints on it. Hideo Kojima's 2019 game lets ladders, bridges, and signposts built by other players appear in your own world, asynchronously and without direct contact. A ladder dropped across a canyon by a stranger can save twenty minutes of climbing. That quiet cooperation, borrowed from games like Dark Souls' messaging system, turns delivery routes into something communal. | © Sony Interactive Entertainment / 505 Games

Baldurs Gate 3 — 1. Baldur's Gate 3 (2023)
Setting a barrel of oil alight under a sleeping ogre in Baldur's Gate 3 counts as a legitimate strategy, not a glitch. Larian Studios released the game in 2023 after years of early access feedback, and it treats physics and environment as seriously as any immersive sim would. Water conducts electricity, grease ignites, and NPCs remember what they saw players do. Few CRPGs let you win a fight before initiative even rolls. | © Larian Studios

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The best innovations often come from stealing smart, and these games lifted ideas from wildly different genres to create something fresh. Here are 15 video games that borrowed ideas from completely different genres.

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The best innovations often come from stealing smart, and these games lifted ideas from wildly different genres to create something fresh. Here are 15 video games that borrowed ideas from completely different genres.