When it comes to the golden age of RPGs, most tend to think about examples in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. Systems like the SNES, PS2, and DS were all filled with unique experiences that gave RPG and JRPG fans something to look forward to. At the dawn of the HD generation, starting with the Xbox 360, it seemed like RPGs of all varieties started to narrow their focus.
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Don’t be ashamed, you’re the hero, despite what NPCs think in these RPGs, where everyone seems to believe you’re a monster.
Now, a lot of RPG experiences can feel too similar, and they don’t have what a lot of old-school fans want. That’s where these RPGs come into play, mostly from the past decade. They offer experiences that buck trends, evolve ideas, or return to classic mentalities that fix some issues modern players have.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Flexible On Every Level
Baldur’s Gate 3 brought back the golden age of PC games and expanded the scope to make it feel more like a modern game, and one that rewarded players with many choices. Players could customize their character from their looks to their class and even race, and these choices could matter later on with dialogue choices.
Not many games take race into consideration when breaking down dialogue trees, but this game does. With an expansive party, all equally well written, players were treated to a challenging tactical RPG where choices were everything, giving players more reasons to replay.
Elden Ring
An Open-World Without A Checklist
Elden Ring was a new type of open-world game that was a Soulslike, which meant it didn’t hold the hand of players. After an initial encounter, players were given freedom to go wherever they wanted, unburdened by a story, quest system, or series of checklists to continually knock down.
It was an open-world RPG that encouraged exploration and discovery more than anything else, with the RPG elements helping dictate the challenge level. Even though it came out in 2022, Elden Ring still has no challengers that are exactly like it, and that’s something the developer, FromSoftware, can be proud of.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Modern Old-School
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 took the world by storm by being a mid-budget game that felt like a AAA experience. It was a turn-based RPG complete with a party system with characters who all played differently, and there was an active element to counter enemy attacks.
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The classic RPG world map returned as well, which hadn’t been seen in its heyday since the PS1 days. With an expansive world and a competent battle system, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 proved that there was still a hunger for turn-based games like this, and they could be made and sold for relatively cheaply.
Cyberpunk 2077
Building Your Future Identity
Most RPGs tend to be fantasy-based, and that can get a bit exhausting to play similar worlds back to back, even with good quality. That’s why Cyberpunk 2077 was so refreshing to see, as it took place in the future, but it wasn’t a perfect society. It was a grimy cyberpunk world where the rich got richer, and the dregs of society had to climb up the ladder.
The themes were unique, but on top of that, the game encouraged players to build their character to their liking, whether they wanted to be a hard-nosed enforcer or a criminal hacker who snuck past the law. Most missions were open-ended and allowed all types of builds to progress.
Sea Of Stars
A Return To The 90s
Sea of Stars has a similar appeal to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, as it brought old-school mentalities from the 90s to the modern age. The big difference here is that this game took a retro approach to its design, complete with pixel art that is too good to be from the SNES age, but that’s the vibe it was certainly going for.
The game had a world map, text-only dialogue, and a linear progression through an epic story. The best part was the battle system, which took inspiration from Chrono Trigger, as characters could combine techniques, making the party dynamic more strategic compared to just picking favorites. It’s another example of an indie RPG giving old-school fans what they want.
Pokemon Legends: Z-A
Getting Closer To The Action
Pokemon Legends: Arceus delivered something close to what Pokemon fans had been demanding for a while, a more open game with looser catching mechanics. While excellent, Pokemon Legends: Z-A came even closer to delivering a more active combat system, which was another big fan request.
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As players explore their expansive city, they can go into catching zones and either battle Pokemon into submission to catch them or just toss a ball and hope for the best. Pokemon were still limited to four moves, but they all ran on cooldowns, meaning players could spam attacks in a more active manner, so Game Freak is getting close to perfection.
Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time
Make Your Life
Not every RPG has to be an epic adventure involving saving the world, and Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time proves it. It’s a more casual experience as players can go into dungeons and do the normal RPG routine alone or with friends as warrior classes, like Paladins, and none of the combat is that difficult.
Alternatively, they can have a more passive character and inhabit the life of a cook, tailor, fisherman, lumberjack, and so on. What’s more, players can even decorate their house and make a life for themselves, as the title implies.
Nobody Saves The World
Classes With A Purpose
Nobody Saves the World is a top-down Zelda-like adventure with a blank slate of a hero obtaining the power to turn into various classes through magic. More classes unlock as the game progresses and as players branch off from their skill tree.
They can turn into combat-heavy classes, like a knight or archer, or they can become classes that can get them into tricky spots, like turning into a mouse to go into holes. The idea of a class system being useful beyond combat when it comes to traversal and puzzle elements is a rare treat, and Nobody Saves the World deserves a lot more attention for this innovative, albeit weird, idea.
Disco Elysium
An RPG Without Combat
Disco Elysium is more of a tabletop game than a console or PC-based RPG, and that’s wonderful for a lot of fans. Dungeons & Dragons is essentially a conversational game wherein players can make dialogue and combat choices with their own words without heavy controller inputs.
That was seemingly the idea behind Disco Elysium, as players can build their detective into varying stats and skill trees to boost aspects of their character. The better the stats, the more likely a dialogue choice, with the roll of a dice, will be. It takes some time getting used to, but in this quality, there is nothing else like Disco Elysium.
