It’s an incredible time for RPGs—don’t miss these 11 latest games
8 months ago Benito Santiago
It's nice to know that someone knows you and will do things just for you. This is where role-playing game fans have been since last August: we're spoiled for RPGs.
Most importantly, it's not just an RPG. We have Western and Japanese style RPGs. We have action-based and turn-based; first and third person perspectives; Modern and medieval. If you like role-playing games, there's probably something for you.
Check out the best role-playing games from the past several months, along with a selection of upcoming ones we're excited about. There's definitely something in here that you haven't played unless playing RPGs is your full-time job. (Which opportunity is your team hiring?)
Baldur's Gate 3
Release date: August 3, 2023
Here's one for fans of Dungeons and Dragons, medieval RPGs, and Larian Studios. This incredible year of RPGs started with Baldur's Gate 3. Launched a few years ago, Baldur's Gate 3 was officially released last summer and exceeded everyone's expectations, including major publishers and fans alike.
Developer Larian Studios has managed to pack what feels like the entirety of D&D 5th Edition into a game, alongside long-time fan favorites and characters set to make many satisfying decisions. Larian honed his craft with the excellent Divinity: Original Sin 1 and 2, and then dropped this monster on us to show everyone who the king of RPGs is now. It is truly a masterpiece.
Starfield
Release date: September 6, 2023
Starfield is for fans of Bethesda RPGs like Fallout and Skyrim, and fans of more grounded science fiction. It's the first game released by Bethesda Game Studios since Fallout 4 in 2014—almost a decade between games. This is also the first game in decades. But it has a lot to expect from Bethesda games, for better or for worse.
The game was somewhat divisive upon release, but features a solid story, plenty of exploration and exotic missions, and extensive ship building and crafting. Like Cyberpunk 2077's original release, Starfield has struggled to garner fanfare for years and years, but there's an RPG in here for dozens of hours of fun.
Our advice: Play the main quest first alongside some of the main quest lines and then dive into New Game Plus before you get too deep. The game does take up your time, but it's a spoiler to say the least.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Freedom
Release date: September 26, 2023
This is for fans of first-person role-playing and cyberpunk fiction. Cyberpunk 2077 was a disaster when it first released—it had a strong main quest line and an amazing world to explore, but it was plagued by boring development, a lot of bugs, and unfulfilled promises.
After a few years of updates, including some major improvements to the gameplay systems, Cyberpunk 2077 is in a good place. This fall brings the game its biggest update yet, and that doesn't even take into account the Phantom Liberty expansion, where the player works with Idris Elba's Solomon Reed to uncover a conspiracy.
Cyberpunk now lets you play with a variety of character builds, including ones inspired by the “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” anime series, and the entire game world is meatier and more exciting. Even those of us who played through the original found a lot to love about the new update. And even without Phantom Liberty, it's a great update.
The world of horror
Release date: October 19, 2023
This is for fans of cosmic and Japanese horror rogue-like games and old-school first-person dungeon crawlers. World of Horrors is an odd game on this list – everything else on this list is similar to what's listed in one way or another.
World of Horrors is a first-person roguelike RPG, which means you're expected to quickly find a failed ending and start another run. In terms of gameplay, the horror world is like one of those old dungeon-crawlers where you advance screen-by-screen instead of moving fluidly.
The game features a cute Game Boy inspired style with art by horror master Junji Ito. You play a character who lives in a town haunted by the universe and ghosts and is driven to investigate in hopes of stopping those horrors. Here's the thing: most characters in horror stories don't make it past the end credits. Get ready to die over and over again, and see a lot of horror in the process.
Super Mario RPG
Release date: November 17, 2023
For Nintendo and Mario fans, new RPG fans and old kids who remember the original. While most of the games on this list can squeeze in well over 100 hours, Super Mario RPG is only going to give you 20 hours at most, he said. HowLongToBeatEven if you are trying to do everything. Let's be clear, but this is not a bad thing!
Much of what makes Super Mario RPG 2023 Remake so fun worked when it was released on the Super Nintendo many years ago. It has a beautiful art style with an isometric top-down view, and it keeps the turn-based gameplay fresh and engaging by asking the player to press buttons at the right time to increase attack and defense.
The first game featured more writing for Mario characters than any previous title, and many things we now consider canonical about Mario characters – like Bowser being a lone loser – originally came from this game.
As a dragon: infinite wealth
Release date: January 26, 2024
For fans of turn-based RPGs, modern settings and long, dialogue-heavy cutscenes. There are a few series on this list, but none of them are their own series on this list.
As Dragon: Infinite Wealth is the eighth game in the long-running As Dragon series. The series started with Ryu Ga Gotoku, which was released on PlayStation 2. The name translates as Dragon, but Sega renamed it Yakuza for the stateside release and kept this name for the first 7 games in the series. But now the gaming giant has returned to the English translation of the original Japanese title.
It's strange since the eighth game; We recommend starting with the seventh, Yakuza: Dragon. That game introduced the main character, Ichiban Kasuga, and this game continues the story. Even if you don't know or like Ichiban, this can be a great title to start with.
In addition to reintroducing characters from the previous title, it's also a victory lap for series debutant Kazuma Kiryu, the pop-clad, goatee-sporting code with a heart of gold. In the year Innocent people of Tokyo's red light district (renamed Kamurocho in the game series) after being released from prison in 2005.
This game takes us further than Kamurocho ever before, dropping Ichiban naked and penniless onto the sunny shores of Honolulu, Hawaii. Infinite Wealth is full of romantic characters, long scenes and plot twists. There are mini-games, including an Animal Crossing mission where Ichiban rebuilds a trash-covered island into a five-star resort.
By the time the credits roll, you'll find it impossible to resist falling in love with the characters of Infinite Wealth – some of whom you might think are pretty bad at first.
Reinstall Persona 3
Release Date: February 2, 2024
For fans of Japanese-style RPGs, relationship games, and modern settings. Persona, like the Dragon series, places you in modern Tokyo. Instead of playing like an old kid fighting hodums with your bare fists, you step into the shoes of a Japanese high school student in uniform and use a persona – the physical manifestation of the user's psyche – for the actual fight. The fate of the world.
At the same time, you're a high school student and you can't always walk around the city. Instead, you manage your time with school and your social life while working with your friends, each with its own element, to fight evil on the side. The series really exploded with Persona 5, but Persona 3 Reload brings one of the series' most popular titles back and ready to play on modern platforms, and it's not to be missed.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
Release Date: February 29, 2024
For longtime fans of the popular RPG Final Fantasy VII, people curious about what happens to that character, and PS5 owners looking for something fresh. Final Fantasy VII Remake It was released in 2020 and brought us the first game in Midgar's Room—basically the first PlayStation title from 1997's first three discs.
This game has many of the same strengths of the remake, but continues the story and takes us into a large open world that gives the characters time to breathe. You can get to know characters like Tifa and Barrett, explore the new, much less linear area, and play tons and tons of mini-games—including the stellar Queen's Blood game.
Does that one thing happen to a character? You'll need to play it to find out. No spoilers – not many kids played the original.
Dragon's Dogma 2
Release date: March 22, 2024
For fans of medieval RPGs, real-time action combat and exotic gameplay options. Perhaps the most idiosyncratic game on this list is Dragon's Dogma 2. Game director Hideaki Itsuno is best known for Devil May Cry but blessed us with 2012's Dragon's Dogma. Twelve years later, we have a perfect series of ideas that he set out to create at that time.
Dragon's Dogma 2 throws you into a fantasy world where a dragon steals your heart — physically, not romantically — and forces you to be the chosen one that you must defeat. As an Arisen, you are accompanied by NPC party members, pawns, who talk to you and give you advice. Crucially, however, these are not pre-written characters. Each pawn you find is created by another player and affects that player's path through the game.
Dragon's Dogma 2 is full of great action and exploration, funny moments with pawns, and the unique but fun elements that set them all apart – like timed missions that you can fail and elven villages where you can't communicate unless you have them. Translator. You can make your character very short to reach certain levels, but they can run under some of the game's biggest enemies. Dragon's Dogma is weird, but for some reason it's a cult.
Chronicles of Judah: One Hundred Heroes
Release date: April 23, 2024
For fans of the Suikoden series and multiplayer games. One of the most popular RPGs of the original PlayStation era was Suikoden II. Games like this are few and far between, and we've got just one more. Yuden Chronicles was directed by Yoshitaka Murayama, who helmed the original and passed away earlier in 2024 from an undisclosed illness.
Like Suikoden II, and as the name “One Hundred Heroes” suggests, you'll find tons and tons of characters to engage with. It's a Suikoden game in everything but name. Like Dragon's Dogma 2, we're excited to have a long-awaited new entry in such a singular game series – even if it's not technically part of the same series.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
Release date: June 21, 2024
Here's one more choice for those who love dark fantasy settings and want action combat. Ever since the massive success of Elden Ring, fans have been waiting for another game from Japanese developer Software. Elden Ring immerses you in a unique fantasy setting full of strange, unstable characters and intense combat encounters.
It takes much of what we love about Dark Souls and pours it into a massive open world. “A Song of Ice and Fire” author George RR Martin helped develop the story behind the game, and Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki guided the game to bring it all to life. Elden Ring was one of the best games of 2022, just like everyone who reviewed it said, and we've been salivating for this one ever since.
Edited by Andrew Hayward.
Editor's Note: The above games are traditional “Web2” games and do not contain any crypto or blockchain elements.
