A pretty essential part of any medium is variety. If we keep doing the same thing over and over again, we get bored. There are lots of ways to counter this, like fight scenes that get the blood pumping, unexpected twists and turns, and the like. For games, it usually comes by way of extra interactivity.

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New tools can be thrown at you, or a level can receive a brand-new design unlike anything else. A pretty common feature that games use a lot, however, is skill trees. They can give you the potential to build your character how you want and let you plan ahead. A lot of the time, they can be pretty boring to look at, so these games add a little bit more flair to the experience.

Updated July 7th, 2023 by Hilton Webster: Games sometimes struggle to think up unique ways to encourage progression and pacing out new content. A lot of the time, the solution ends up being skill trees, and even though many of them can feel a bit rudimentary, at least they're pretty to look at. We've added a few more games with exceptionally fun skill trees to the list.

13 Xenoblade Chronicles

Xenoblade Chronicles Skill Trees and Skill Links of Dunban and Shulk

If you're a fan of existentialism and inextricably complex UI, then Xenoblade Chronicles is the perfect series for you. When you're not admiring the gargantuan vistas, you'll be trying to make sense of the UI, an aspect that forms part of the game's core identity.

Take its skill trees. In terms of pure appearance, they're unique, if a bit simple. But all those simple little shapes have a gameplay implement, as each skill has an associated shape. Skills can be shared between characters, so if you can play the most unusual game of Tetris, you can have a truly killer party.

12 Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Buster Sword skill tree, with many other nodes glowing in different colours

Final Fantasy 7 Remake achieved the seemingly impossible task of, despite being a game stuck in development hell, keeping its original themes of corporate control. It was an effectual remake and was also somehow a reboot/continuation. And on top of all that, it has an immaculate style, too.

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While Final Fantasy 7 Remake doesn't strictly have Skill Trees for each character, it does for each and every weapon. Diving into their cores, you're greeted with colorful balls that look like Materia orbiting the core like celestial bodies. The more you upgrade, the more it expands. It's a unique approach and looks great doing it, too.

11 Yakuza 0

Yakuza 0 Skill Tree of the Legend Battle Style fully complete

Ah, Yakuza (or Like A Dragon, if you prefer). It is a series that can manage to use the same protagonist and cities over and over again and always show a fresh side to them. Yakuza 0 was a real winner in that regard, giving amazing depth to Kiryu and Majima, and boasting one of the most well-written, incredibly acted stories in gaming.

While brawling has always been at the core of the series, Yakuza 0 adds an extra layer to it - economic inflation. Upgrading is a relatively simple process, with you literally investing in yourself. You just throw money at the upgrade nodes until you're stronger. It achieves the fantasy of the era perfectly.

10 Sekiro

Sekiro SKill Scroll showing the Ashina arts with Breath of Nature highlighted

Sekiro is something of a departure from FromSoftware's usual fare. After a decade of being defined by Souls games, Sekiro showed they could go somewhere different. It was a much more precise experience, with only a single weapon available but a wonderful arsenal of tools at your disposal.

A major change from the Souls series was skill trees. It almost feels oppositional to the organic nature of their combat, but Sekiro handles it great. The various trees are actually martial arts scrolls that you learn techniques from, but they have to be found first. Even better, you can actually see enemies use many of the techniques from these scrolls, too, such as the bare-fisted combat of Senpou monks.

9 Salt And Sanctuary

Full skill tree in Salt And Sanctuary

Salt and Sanctuary is a notable game, being one of the early adopters of the Souls-like genre, though in a dramatically altered format. It was a side-scrolling game with a very dark and moody art style, though it featured that same grueling combat and freedom of character builds that Dark Souls excelled in.

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Though in a major difference, Salt and Sanctuary features a skill tree - and what a big skill tree it is. It's hard to grasp the scale at first, growing outwards into many branches like a real tree. It comes packed with plenty of abilities and classes, and you're not likely to have it completely filled quickly.

8 Nioh 2

Ninjutsu skill tree in Nioh 2 with with Quick-Change ability highlighted

One of the few series that somehow successfully blended Souls' combat with the frenetic combo showcases of Devil May Cry, Nioh 2 is an exhilarating game. With 11 weapons to choose from, plenty of guardian spirits, and Onmyo magic and ninjutsu on top of that, there are endless ways to customize your build.

Then come the skill trees, the perfect addition to any RPG. Every weapon has its own skill tree, packed with active and passive skills to unlock. It's a beautiful-looking menu, every node reaching out from the center and symbolizing the various weapon stances. Even zoomed out, you can see the nodes you've unlocked looking like miniature star constellations.

7 Path Of Exile

Path of Exile Passive Tree

Path of Exile is one of those rare games that seems like it never should've taken off as well as it did or have been as well-supported as it is. Yet here it is, going strong with plentiful updates to keep it going. As a free-to-play ARPG, it's one of the few of its kind and has an undeniable quality.

Path of Exile can also be a bit dense. People tend to look at grand strategy games and think they're impenetrable. Just look at the skill tree for Path of Exile, though — that thing is...incomprehensibly big. In terms of pure design, it may not be the prettiest, but the grandiose scale has a beauty of its own. One that seems dizzying to have even been created.

6 Final Fantasy 13

A far back view of Fang's full Crystarium from Final Fantasy 13

The Final Fantasy series has never been afraid to experiment, from its core combat system and level design down to the fundamentals of progression. FF7 introduced a major change with how Materia determined character roles, and every game since has tried some variation on the idea.

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FF13 has an interesting rendition, falling somewhere between the systems of FF10 and FF12 and following the path of each character's crystals to unlock new abilities and stat increases. You can ultimately unlock everything, but the Crystarium itself is a beauty to behold. It's a fully 3D plane of interconnected crystals that grow with each character.

5 Civilization 6

A view of the Civ 6 tech tree with some early technologies researched

To say 'skill tree' isn't exactly the correct phrase here, or for strategy games in general. In the case of Civilization 6, it's actually technology and civic trees. They're not an unusual feature of Civilization games by any means and are, in fact, pretty central to a game.

Interestingly, they probably showcase the intent of skill trees best. You can choose to develop piece by piece or plan far in advance. Techs and civics have dependencies on prior ones to mirror that of reality and are linked by threads to show it. It's simple and readable, but the literal forward growth of it feels like following the tale of a tapestry depicting history itself.

4 Shadow Of The Tomb Raider

Lara kneeling to the right of the full skill tree from Shadow of the Tomb Raider

The modern Tomb Raider trilogy tried plenty of new things to set it apart from the original, and despite incredible sales, it seems Square Enix wasn't quite satisfied with it. Though they may be a far cry from the earlier style, they are still beautiful games that attempt a blend of action and survival elements.

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All the games in the trilogy feature skill trees, and in truth, they all function pretty much identically. Shadow of the Tomb Raider goes the extra step to give it some visual flair. The three focuses of the tree are identified by different colors; red, green, and blue. Rather than downward lines, they're styled more like tiles of a mosaic, slotted between each other and unlocking adjacent tiles as you progress. It's a simple change that livens it up just a bit more.

3 Deus Ex: Human Revolution

The augmentations screen of Deus Ex Human Revolution with the aim stabilizer highlighted

The Deus Ex franchise has definitely had a wobbly few years of late, being another of Square Enix's ill-fated studios. Human Revolution was a raving success, though Mankind Divided didn't hit those same highs. All the same, both are incredible games, and Human Revolution revitalized an ailing genre.

A major aspect of Human Revolution was the blending of UI elements with the world. It was Jensen seeing it through his augmentations, and the skill trees were no different. Rather than just squares to claim down a line, each augment was actually highlighted on his body and had a logical reason for why it functioned. Seeing through walls had his eyes upgraded, punching through walls his hands, and so on. It felt less like random upgrades and more like a logical growth. The skill tree actually made sense with the RPG aspects of the game.

2 Total War Three Kingdoms

Reforms Tree from Total War: Three Kingdoms

The Total War series may have started as strategy games based heavily on human history, blending elements of turn-based and real-time tactics, but it has evolved so much since. Dealing with the legends of Troy and other grand fantasies, they still hold great joy for strategy enthusiasts. They also have no fear of adapting their core systems to different games.

Three Kingdoms is a great example. Technology trees are an important part of many games, and the Reforms Tree is Three Kingdoms' rendition of this. However, unlike others, it's literally a tree. Every time the season changes to Spring, you get the opportunity to advance your reforms along the actual branches of the tree, crafting your own unique history and form of government. It's humourous to have made the idea so literal, but it also shows the true intent of how a skill tree is meant to function.

1 Skyrim

skyrim alteration skill tree menu

Skyrim was something of a trendsetter, one of those games that come along every once in a while, reshaping how everyone thinks games should be made. They often bring great ideas that many people rarely seem to pick up on correctly. Skyrim is teeming with creativity in the design of its world, yet so few manage to capture that same feeling.

Just about every AAA game has skill trees nowadays, RPG or not, and they're mostly pretty generic. Skyrim, however, comes with a presentation like no other. To access the skill tree, the camera drags your gaze upwards toward the sky, and you plot your growth along the stars of the constellations. In function, it's quite basic. However, the way it feels is such an important aspect that it's something incredibly difficult to recreate.

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