This particular genre of gaming offers a long lifespan of continued enjoyment, whether it’s because of an everlasting story like from Mass Effect or Final Fantasy, or if the game just throws you in a massive world with lot’s to do in it – as in the Fallout series, or maybe they have always just provided us with enjoyment from the many challenges to overcome… we’re weird like that.
5. Dragon Age
Being Mass Effect’s medieval stepbrother, Dragon Age has a similar art style that is very obvious – let’s call it the BioWare art style. The story of the Dragon Age games is always interesting, however, it can be quite slow at times. The skill systems are very different from Mass Effect, being more in-depth in Dragon Age, along with being more customizable than Mass Effect’s. The combat in Dragon Age is more like a traditional RPG, offering a more tactical approach, than action approach.
4. The Elder Scrolls (TES)
TES is a great franchise with some of the best stories in gaming – and many unique side quests (with the exception of the radiant quests). You also have the guild quest lines which all feature their own mini-campaigns.
This is a better experience than Dragon Age because every Elder Scrolls game allows you to fully customize your own character, allowing you to develop your own play style, as you can merge the cliche play styles, for instance: You can be a sword-wielding mage. In TES games you can even enchant your weapons with different effects, or you can just be a simple warlock if you wish. Not to mention the gigantic open worlds with a plethora of side activities to do.
3. Mass Effect
Always providing an amazing gameplay experience, Mass Effect has been owning it since the original game back in 2007. The story for these games have always been interesting, as you are trying to thwart the destruction of all advanced lifeforms in the galaxy.
The game features cover-based combat, as well as character customization with classes and skills. There is also a dialog wheel with choices that rely on your own morality, and these choice will actually affect the story, both in the short term, and in the long term spanning through the entire trilogy. Mass Effect beats The Elder Scrolls simply because of the story, the story is worth several playthroughs in itself – simply because the choices you make will carry over to all subsequent games.
2. Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy has been in the scope of many gamers since the original back in 1987. This title was actually a final grace for Square Co. when their previous titles hadn’t fared well – hence the title “Final Fantasy.” But alas, here we are 29 years later and FFXV is large and in charge, so it seems to have really panned out for Square.
The stories for each title vary greatly, as do most of the gameplay elements, making each game unique. Even though most of the titles have turn-based combat, 14, and 15 have slightly strayed from the turn-based nature, becoming more Hotkey based and focusing on the action.
In most of the Final Fantasy games there is an open world with a lot of side activities to do, such as 7’s mini-games at the Golden Saucer, 8’s Triple Triad card game, 10’s Blitzball arena, or 12’s hunting missions.
Final Fantasy beats Mass Effect because the stories are much more engaging and time-consuming, and that’s without the mini-games!
1. Dark Souls
Dark Souls hits just about every mark of an RPG, featuring good combat, epic bosses, alluring atmosphere, and also multiple endings along with new game plus. Although the story is vague, there’s a lot of extra areas that are more challenging than the main areas.
The combat is interesting, being based on defense and poise, or evasion and coordination. The skill system isn’t unique, but it certainly works well in conjunction with making your own play style. Something that is unique, is the fact that you have to level up using souls, which also happens to be your currency for stores.
There is also cooperative play so that you and your friends can face the horrors these games have to throw at you together!
All in all, Dark Souls is crowned king because of the amount of time you can sink into it, you discover this game and BAMB! Its 6 months later and you’re wondering where all the time went… it was fun though!
There are so many RPGs out there that deserve mentioning, which is why RPGs are such a well-known genre. But in the end, I had to choose these games because they were so well known for their quality and performance, that they climbed the ladder on pretty much every gamer’s list.
What do you think? Do you agree with this list? Do you hate our choices? Let us know in the comments!
