As with the best mystery stories, though, that one murder ends up having ties to much larger players and events happening in the world around you, which leads to uncovering your own character’s personal history and traumas. This game, more than almost any other ever made, allows you to push it to the extremes in terms of what you do or don’t engage with, but also how you do or don’t engage with it. Not all the time, but there is a great deal of humanity scattered across The Witcher’s vast and beautiful dark fantasy land, too. People’s stories, their sadness, their requests that are not brazenly shouted from the rooftops, their moving gratitude for your help, and the small dilemmas and consequences you’ll face as you go. In terms of being a roleplaying game, The Witcher 3 absolutely masters the wandering adventurer fantasy. The creators of the mechanical populations in Elder Scrolls and Fallout should regard it with some anxiety.
From your first moments getting to Hogwarts, you are thrust into a devilish plot by a magic-hungry goblin and a Dark Wizard, heavy on your heels as you come into lost and seemingly forgotten magic. Holding the key to unlocking the secrets of this lost magic threatens to tear the world apart. Balancing that along with your regular Hogwarts studies, discovering all the magical locations, encounters and magical beasts this game has to offer. You try again, get in a fight and win, but your wounds become infected and so you still die. You try and try again, eventually learning to tear old t-shirts into bandages, to boil water to avoid illness, to select the botany trait at the start so you can tell the difference between edible and poisonous mushrooms and berries.
The game lets you pick from three character classes at the start of the game and choose if your character will align with the dark side or the light side of the Force. This is easily one of the best Star Wars games around, and fans adore it as it captures the magical, space-fantastical essence of the films while imbuing the entire experience with choice. There’s incredible voice acting, accessible gameplay, and sparkling supporting characters. The list of the best RPGs of all time are some of the most beloved outings in gaming history, sweeping you up in unforgettable adventures and letting you embody the role of all manner of different characters.
You’re free to go anywhere, talk to anyone, and take on quests in any order you want. There’s a main goal to stop the forces of Oblivion from overtaking the land, but how you do it is completely up to you. This remastered version makes it feel fresh again and opens the door for a whole new generation to enjoy one of the best fantasy adventures ever made. From powerful story arcs to fully customizable skills and characters, this genre promises a vast array of adventures. From fast-paced action RPGs to lore-driven Japanese RPGs, the genre expands across various niches.
Where previous games in the series painted every part of your adventures with a broad brush, Bannerlord dives down into the details. There are more weapons and different kinds of soldiers to hire, and more complexity to combat. There’s more variety in jobs to perform and far less repeated dialogue. Each system is now more interesting to tinker with, and you need a lot less imagination – or fewer mods – to string those systems into a fun story than before. The only caveat is that Bannerlord remains in early access, with balancing and bug fixing still in progress.
Persona 5 Royal is an expanded version of Persona 5, one of the best RPG games of 2017. Game Freak wanted to create a new way to enjoy all the best Pokemon games, and Pokemon Legends Arceus does all that and more. Not only does the story pull you in immediately, but the shift to open-world exploration delivers the kind of Pokemon experience we all dreamed of when we were young. With every death and mistake you make, you learn more – growing stronger, wiser, and more capable of taking on the king with each attempt.
The 25 best RPGs you can play right now
Tales of Arise was an excellent introduction to the series for newcomers and a great action RPG on its own. Tales of Arise was included in Xbox Game Pass Standard, Xbox Game Pass Console, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Monster Hunter Rise’s new console version brought the joy of the PC version to current and last-generation systems with a fantastic release. It remains an excellent version of a great game and was a day one release when it was released on Xbox and the Windows store. Monster Hunter Rise is included in Xbox Game Pass Standard, Xbox Game Pass Console, PC Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
#48 Dragon’s Dogma 2
Having sold over three million copies and earned critical acclaim, Dragon’s Dogma 2 delivers freedom and thrilling action in a detailed fantasy world. Monster Hunter games have been around for a long time and are known for giving players the thrill of hunting huge monsters in wild, open environments. Each game in the series lets you become a Hunter – a brave explorer who tracks down dangerous creatures and defeats them in intense battles.
Are you ready for a new RPG adventure that will test your mettle in various ways? The game takes place in a world where a thick fog consumes the land, and the horror of this fog has warped everything beyond recognition. In Dragon’s Dogma 2, Capcom did its best to do just that, and the results are quite striking. There are numerous fantastical things to experience here, and as you go deeper into the world, you’ll see just how much you can influence it and the people within.
Seasons dictate what you can and can’t do, so you’ll soon fall into a pleasantly repetitive routine. If you have the farming bug, you can also check out our list of the best games like Stardew Valley to play now. As we said in our Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth review, the follow-up adds meaningful improvements to side content, and the overall experience is elevated by just how much the party is able to shine as a group throughout. While it’s still worth diving into Remake first, Rebirth is undoubtedly a fitting continuation. In Stars and Time is one of the best indie RPGs we saw in 2023, and it’s well worth checking out if you’re looking for something with a unique twist. Following the adventure of Siffrin and their friends, you set out to try and end an evil king’s schemes.
The papercraft visual style is a treat too, while the turn-based combat is massively strategic and full of deadly variety. You create a character, and then wander a huge world game guide looking for an army to recruit. To begin with, you’re crap at everything, but through play your mental and physical stats improve. You win fights, use your winnings to pay and grow your army, and win bigger fights.
Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster
The early Final Fantasy games were some of the most influential RPGs of all time, and the new Pixel Remaster versions are simply the best way to play them. Not only do the newly polished graphics and remastered music make the original pixel art and music shine like never before, each game also features boosts to aspects like EXP and Gold to speed you along. It’s never been easier to experience these classics without all the grind.
In Citizen Sleeper you’re a robot worker who has escaped from their employer, and is taking refuge on a space station. The game borrows from both the RPG template and a little from the visual novel, as you navigate a 3D map of a dilapidated space station, but enter dialogue encounters with lovely static 2D characters. Stardew could have left it there, a straightforward life-swap about buying organic seeds and feeding the cat. But it also turned the whole surrounding town into a neighbourhood of gentle hobos, friendly fishermen, thick-skinned drunks, and more.