Şu Anda Denemeniz Gereken En İyi RPG Oyunları (Mart 2026'da)

When explaining what an RPG is to friends who have never touched one, the clearest description is a game where you have different paths of play: not physical roads but narrative lines and whole mechanical systems that diverge based on the choices you make. I love RPGs for the quality of escapism they provide and resent them, in equal measure, for how completely they take hold — a genre wide enough to absorb hundreds of hours and specific enough to cost you sleep over a single questline.

The proof that the genre keeps expanding is concrete: Baldur's Gate 3 won Game of the Year in 2023, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 claimed the same distinction in 2025, pushing turn-based and choice-driven design into mainstream conversation and reaching players who had never seriously engaged with either.

The list below covers every major subgenre — action, turn-based, open-world, dungeon-crawler, tactical strategy, and farming sim with swords — chosen to serve newcomers who need a reliable first pick and experienced players looking for something they may have missed. Each entry includes the developer, year, and platform alongside a direct account of what the game actually does.

Undertale

In Undertale, every enemy can be defeated through conversation and mercy rather than combat, making violence a deliberate choice rather than a default.

• Year: 2015
• Developer: Toby Fox
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Android, iOS

I recommend Undertale to every person who claims RPGs are not for them, because it dismantles the genre's usual barriers in roughly twelve hours and does not require prior experience with combat mechanics or stat management. Developed and published entirely by Toby Fox, the game places a child in an underground world populated by monsters and builds its entire mechanical identity around the option to spare every single one of them. Combat runs in real time, with bullet-pattern evasion borrowed from shoot-em-ups, but an Act menu replaces the attack option with context-specific dialogue choices that shift enemy behavior depending on what has already been said. The main cast — Sans, Papyrus, Toriel, Undyne, Alphys — carries writing that holds up across multiple playthroughs, and each run rewards different kills or mercy counts with new story information. Undertale holds a 10/10 rating on Steam from over 100,000 reviews, a figure rare enough to confirm the game lands consistently. Fox later began Deltarune as an episodic follow-up, with four chapters released through 2025, and Kotaku ranks it among the best RPG-adjacent releases of the year.

Monster Hunter Wilds

In Monster Hunter Wilds, players track and kill massive creatures across dynamically shifting biomes, harvesting parts to craft upgraded weapons and armor in a loop that deepens through the endgame.

• Year: 2025
• Developer: Capcom
• Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC

I think Monster Hunter Wilds makes the clearest argument in the genre that an action RPG can sustain dozens of hours of engagement without a traditional narrative — the premise is hunting, the progression is gear, and the build variety is the story. Released February 28, 2025, it is the direct follow-up to Monster Hunter World, which introduced the franchise to millions of international players. Wilds adds dynamic weather systems and wound-targeting mechanics that let hunters precisely exploit freshly damaged limbs mid-hunt, a tactical layer absent from World. The main campaign runs 15 to 20 hours, but the endgame opens the character-building loop fully, offering dozens of weapon and armor combinations against higher-rank monsters. Fourteen weapon types return from World, each with distinct combo trees, meaning two players hunting the same target can approach it with almost no mechanical overlap. GameSpot includes Wilds on their 2026 best RPG list specifically for its unparalleled character-building potential.

Disco Elysium – The Final Cut

In Disco Elysium – The Final Cut, a detective with drug-induced amnesia navigates a politically charged city using 24 skill-based character attributes, with no traditional combat anywhere in the game.

• Year: 2021 (Final Cut)
• Developer: ZA/UM
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch

Disco Elysium routes every interaction through dice rolls modified by 24 distinct skills — Rhetoric, Inland Empire, Electrochemistry, Shivers, and twenty more — each leveled through character build choices at the start and through ideological alignment decisions during play. The Final Cut added full voice acting to every line of the original game's script, which runs to over one million words, a substantial production commitment for a dialogue-only RPG. You play as a detective in Revachol investigating a murder while your character's ideological alignment — communist, fascist, liberal, or nihilist — shapes NPC responses and available skill bonuses. PCMag describes the game's politics as ultimately sympathetic to working people while still asking you to play as a cop, a tension the writing maintains rather than resolves. GameSpot ranks it among the best RPGs to play right now for its revolutionary dialogue mechanics. The game holds a 10/10 on Steam and won multiple Game of the Year awards in 2019.

Pillars of Eternity

Pillars of Eternity lets you build a party across eleven classes in a high-fantasy world where souls can be physically observed, read, and manipulated by the player character.

• Year: 2015
• Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

Pillars of Eternity arrived as a direct spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment, funded through a Kickstarter campaign that raised $4 million in 2012 and reached PC in 2015. The game is set in Eora — the same world later explored in Avowed — and centers on the Watcher, a character capable of reading the souls of both the living and the dead. Its real-time-with-pause combat handles up to six party members simultaneously, with each class featuring its own ability tree and resource pool. GamesRadar recommends it specifically to players who have completed Avowed and want deeper roots in the same fiction, and notes that character creation alone can consume an hour. Obsidian designed each NPC's dialogue with physical descriptions of body language alongside spoken lines, giving context that directly informs how you choose to respond. The game's Definitive Edition includes the White March Parts I and II expansions, which add a significant new region and dozens of additional hours.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon

Yakuza: Like a Dragon replaces the series' real-time brawling with turn-based JRPG combat and follows a new protagonist through the criminal underworld of Yokohama.

• Year: 2020
• Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio/ Sega
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Yakuza: Like a Dragon marks the franchise's shift from beat-em-up to JRPG, following Ichiban Kasuga — a low-ranking yakuza who grew up idolizing Dragon Quest and literally visualizes combat as a fantasy RPG. The genre change is not incidental; the game's writing frames turn-based mechanics as an expression of Ichiban's personality, making the structural decision a narrative one. Yokohama's Isezaki Ijincho serves as the primary open world, rendered with the same side-activity density that defines the series: hostess bars, arcade machines, part-time jobs, and a casino. PCMag calls the game excellent despite its genre departure. The sequel, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, takes Ichiban to Hawaii in 2024 and appears on GameSpot's best RPG list for 2026. Jobs function as the class system here, and switching between them alters both character stats and the visual presentation of combat abilities.

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

In Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles, you command a grid-based tactical squad through a political war narrative with over twenty job classes, each carrying skills that transfer when switching assignments.

• Year: 2025 (remaster)
• Developer: Square Enix
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles is a complete overhaul of the 1997 original and its 2007 War of the Lions port, released in 2025 as the definitive version of the game. Kotaku calls it possibly the finest strategy RPG ever made, describing it as perfectly paced and beautifully crafted while acknowledging small localization criticisms in the same review. The game follows Ramza Beoulve through the fictional Ivalice's War of the Lions — a conflict drawing from the real-world Wars of the Roses — with a theological conspiracy running beneath the political surface of every chapter. The job system provides access to over twenty classes, from Chemist and Geomancer to Mime and Dark Knight, and skills learned in one class remain usable as passive or active abilities when switching to another. Unit positioning, terrain height advantages, and weather effects on spells give the tactical layer a depth that continues to generate discussion nearly three decades after the original's release.

Bloodborne

Bloodborne builds its entire action-RPG identity around aggressive offensive play in a Victorian Gothic city overrun by cosmic horror, with a Rally mechanic that restores health lost to enemy hits through immediate counterattack.

• Year: 2015
• Developer: FromSoftware
• Platforms: PS4 (available on PS5)

Bloodborne removes shields from the FromSoftware formula entirely and demands that players attack after taking damage to recover a portion of that health back — a system called Rally that rewards aggression and punishes hesitation. The setting, Yharnam, draws from Victorian architecture and Lovecraftian body horror, with enemy designs that transform as the player uncovers more of the city's history with blood ministration and forbidden research. GameSpot calls it FromSoftware at its finest in terms of game design, specifically citing the interconnected world structure where shortcuts open progressively as spatial understanding grows. Boss encounters — Vicar Amelia, Father Gascoigne, Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower — are consistently ranked among the genre's best. The game remains a PS4 exclusive with no confirmed port, which limits access but has not diminished its reputation across more than a decade of active discussion.

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley lets you inherit a farm, grow it across four seasons with time-limited daily cycles, mine dungeons for resources, and build relationships with 12 marriageable villagers in a persistent calendar world.

• Year: 2016
• Developer: Eric Barone (ConcernedApe)
• Platforms: PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox, Android, iOS

Stardew Valley was designed, coded, and composed entirely by one developer, Eric Barone, over four years, and launched on PC in February 2016 with a rating that has remained near-perfect across over 800,000 Steam reviews. Barone and a significant portion of the player community classify it as an RPG, given its skill progression system, dungeon combat, character relationship trees, and branching decisions about construction and romance. Seasons dictate available crops, fish, and events on a calendar that runs across three in-game years before most content is exhausted. GamesRadar places it 14th on their 2026 RPG ranking, ahead of several action titles, citing the depth of social simulation and exploration. A major update added four-player cooperative multiplayer. The mining system runs 120 floors deep and introduces progressively more dangerous enemy types including Slimes, Skeletons, and the Dwarvish Sentries introduced in later updates.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 combines turn-based JRPG combat with real-time parry and dodge inputs in a dying world modeled on Belle Epoque France where a goddess kills all people of a specific age each year.

• Year: 2025
• Developer: Sandfall Interactive
• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is the debut title from French studio Sandfall Interactive and won Game of the Year 2025 at multiple outlets, with GamesRadar calling it an outstanding visionary debut that delivers one of the most exciting hybrid battle systems ever devised. The Paintress writes a number on a monolith each year and everyone of that age dies, giving the story defined, narrowing stakes that the narrative sustains without the structural bloat that weighs down comparable RPGs. Sandfall cited both Final Fantasy and Souls-like design as dual influences; the resulting combat asks players to manage turn-based ability choices while inputting real-time parries timed to specific enemy animation frames. GameSpot and PCMag both recommend it, with PCMag praising its focused, restrained approach to open-world design and giving it 3.5 out of 5. GamesRadar ranks it 13th among the best playable RPGs of 2026. The production includes a full orchestral score, motion capture, and voice performances that multiple outlets single out as exceptional for a studio's first game.

Nioh 2: Complete Edition

Nioh 2: Complete Edition layers a Yokai Shift transformation system and a new counterattack mechanic onto Sengoku-era action RPG combat built around three-stance weapon management and stamina ki pulse timing.

• Year: 2021 (PC)
• Developer: Team Ninja
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5

Nioh 2 improves on the original in nearly every mechanical category, adding four new weapon types — the splitstaff, switchglaive, tonfas, and dual hatchets — alongside a Yokai Shift system that temporarily transforms the player using abilities absorbed from defeated supernatural enemies. The setting spans the late Sengoku period and weaves real historical figures including Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi into a narrative that also incorporates Japanese mythology and spirit lore. PCMag calls it a fantastic sequel and recommends it without hesitation to players who want hardcore action combined with deep gear-based character investment. The ki pulse mechanic, which restores stamina through a timed button press after each attack string, demands a rhythm of play that distinguishes Nioh from both Dark Souls and Dynasty Warriors despite borrowing visual elements from both. The Complete Edition includes three DLC packs — The Tengu's Disciple, Darkness in the Capital, and The First Samurai — adding several additional regions, missions, and boss encounters.

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon Age: Inquisition puts you in command of a powerful political organization across multiple open-world regions in Thedas, managing military, diplomatic, and espionage responses to a breach tearing rifts in the sky.

• Year: 2014
• Developer: BioWare
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One (playable on PS5, Xbox Series X|S)

Dragon Age: Inquisition was BioWare's largest game at release, spanning the Hinterlands, Storm Coast, Exalted Plains, Western Approach, and several other distinct open-world regions each with independent quest lines and environmental storytelling. The Inquisitor — playable as any race and any of three classes — gains power through a war table that assigns advisors to operations running on real-time timers, adding a strategic management layer to the standard RPG loop. GamesRadar ranks it 21st among the best current RPGs and identifies it as the most approachable entry in the Dragon Age series, positioning it as the foundation for Dragon Age: The Veilguard's events. The romance system includes nine companions with distinct conditions and backstories, and several become unavailable depending on earlier player decisions. The Game of the Year edition bundles Jaws of Hakkon, The Descent, and Trespasser DLC, with Trespasser functioning as a narrative epilogue that directly sets up the following installment.

Wasteland 2

Wasteland 2 sends a four-person Desert Ranger squad through post-nuclear Arizona and California, resolving quests through skill checks, faction negotiations, and turn-based tactical combat with no single predetermined correct outcome.

• Year: 2014
• Developer: inXile Entertainment
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One

Wasteland 2 is a direct sequel to the 1988 original that predates the Fallout franchise its design influenced, and inXile Entertainment funded the development through a Kickstarter campaign that raised $3 million in 2012. The game runs top-down isometric and handles combat through an action point system governing each move, attack, and ability use per turn. PCMag identifies choice as the foundational design principle, noting there is no single protagonist and no single correct path through any given objective. Character creation distributes points across attributes like Coordination, Luck, and Awareness, plus seven skills from a pool of over thirty. A Director's Cut version released in 2015 with over 8,000 new lines of recorded dialogue, refined combat balance, and a reworked skill system. The game's two primary regions — Arizona and California — present factional conflicts between the Desert Rangers, the Servants of the Mushroom Cloud, and the Mannerite Commune that reach no predetermined resolution.

Persona 4 Golden

Persona 4 Golden connects dungeon crawling inside a supernatural television world to a social simulation of high school daily life, where time spent building relationships directly strengthens combat-relevant Persona fusions.

• Year: 2012 (PC 2020)
• Developer: Atlus
• Platforms: PC, PS Vita, PS4, Xbox, Switch

Persona 4 Golden was originally released for PlayStation Vita in 2012 as an enhanced version of the PlayStation 2 original, then arrived on PC in 2020, reaching players who never had access to Sony's handheld. The central mystery involves a serial killer using a fog-bound television world to murder victims, and the protagonist — a high school student new to rural Inaba — builds Social Links with classmates and locals to strengthen Persona abilities inside the TV dungeons. PCMag describes Persona 4 as the franchise's best entry before Persona 5 arrived and notes the debate about whether that assessment still holds. The calendar system allocates each in-game day across study, part-time work, social activities, and dungeon exploration, demanding time-management decisions. Social Links level up by spending time with specific characters, and each level grants bonus experience when fusing a Persona of the matching Arcana. The Golden version added a True Ending route and two new Social Link characters — Marie and Adachi — that were absent from the original.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sends monster hunter Geralt across a war-scarred open world containing over 100 hours of content, with quest outcomes that alter political power structures across entire regions.

• Year: 2015
• Developer: CD Projekt Red
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch

The Witcher 3 remains the benchmark against which open-world RPG writing gets measured more than a decade after release, with the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions frequently cited as among the finest DLC produced in the genre. GamesRadar ranks it second only to Baldur's Gate 3, and GameSpot calls it one of if not the best RPG ever made. CD Projekt Red's quest design avoids moral simplification: the Bloody Baron arc forces sustained engagement with domestic violence, grief, and culpability without delivering a clean resolution. Geralt tracks his adoptive daughter Ciri across three political factions, and the game's ending branches based on accumulated decisions rather than a single final choice. PCMag gives it 4.5 out of 5 and identifies the rich narrative and streamlined alchemy as the title's strongest improvements over its predecessors. The 2022 next-gen update added ray tracing, faster load times, and costume items referencing the Netflix adaptation.

Borderlands 4

Borderlands 4 is a fully open-world loot shooter set on a new planet, structured around map-wide exploration rather than discrete zones, with four new Vault Hunter classes and a campaign playable in four-player co-op.

• Year: 2025
• Developer: Gearbox Software
• Platforms: PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Switch 2

Dark Souls II

Dark Souls II builds its challenge around a corpse-run death system, equipment durability degradation, and a power stance mechanic that lets players dual-wield matching weapons for entirely new attack animations.

• Year: 2014
• Developer: FromSoftware
• Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One

Dark Souls II stands as the most mechanically distinct entry in the original trilogy, developed partially by a secondary team within FromSoftware while Hidetaka Miyazaki worked on Bloodborne. PCMag describes it as a relentless barrage of demonic enemies and enraging boss encounters, explicitly recommending it to players who can clear their desk of ceramics before sitting down — a joke the review delivers without apology. The power stance mechanic, introduced here, lets players hold two matching weapons simultaneously for new dual-wield animations, a system Elden Ring later expanded significantly. The Scholar of the First Sin edition repositioned enemy placements and added NPC invaders to increase difficulty. Soul Memory — a cumulative count of all souls ever collected — governs matchmaking rather than current Soul Level, a system the community has debated since launch. The DLC trilogy — Crown of the Sunken King, Crown of the Old Iron King, and Crown of the Ivory King — is generally regarded as the game's strongest content.

The Outer Worlds 2

The Outer Worlds 2 lets you build an Earth Directorate agent with traits, skills, and self-selected flaw conditions across the Arcadia colony in deep space, with faction choices producing multiple distinct endings.

• Year: 2025
• Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

The Outer Worlds 2 launched October 29, 2025, from the same Obsidian team behind Fallout: New Vegas, Pillars of Eternity, and Avowed — arguably the most credentialed active RPG development group currently working. The game follows a spaceship captain who assembles a crew while investigating a conspiracy with consequences for all of humanity across the Arcadia colony. Kotaku reviewer Zack Zwiezen describes it as a worthy spiritual successor to Fallout that exceeds the franchise it drew from in specific areas, particularly in making player freedom feel coherent rather than incidental. The flaw system generates negative trait options based on how you are actually playing: if a specific enemy type keeps damaging you, the game offers a relevant flaw in exchange for a skill point. GamesRadar ranks it 22nd on their 2026 best RPG list. GameSpot includes it among the best RPGs to play right now, alongside Avowed — also from Obsidian, also released in 2025 — making the studio the most productive RPG developer of the year.

Trials of Mana

In Trials of Mana, you select three characters from a cast of six before the game begins, and that combination determines which storylines are active and which villain you face at the final chapter.

• Year: 2020 (remake)
• Developer: Square Enix
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Switch

Trials of Mana is a full three-dimensional remake of the 1995 Super Famicom title Seiken Densetsu 3, which had no official Western release until the 2019 Collection of Mana and was only playable outside Japan through fan translation for decades. The remake keeps the original's central design conceit: protagonist and companion selection at the start determines which of the game's storylines run simultaneously and which villain serves as the climax. PCMag praises it as an excellent action RPG, citing the vibrantly cartoonish aesthetic and the expanded class-change system where each character can upgrade twice — at levels 18 and 38 — with each branch opening different abilities and stat priorities. The voice acting is inconsistent across the cast, which PCMag notes as a specific shortcoming. The original Super Famicom version was designed with shared-controller multiplayer in mind, though neither the original nor the remake includes co-op as a formal mode. The Mana series had been largely dormant before the 2019 collection and this remake revived Western interest.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines

In Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, you choose one of seven vampire clans at the start, and that choice determines your dialogue options, combat capabilities, and how the residents of 2004 Los Angeles perceive and react to you throughout the entire game.

• Year: 2004
• Developer: Troika Games
• Platforms: PC

I recommend Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines to anyone who has exhausted every BioWare RPG and wants a choice-driven game that goes further into moral ambiguity than any of them — one where the player character is a predator by nature, and the writing never lets you forget it. Developed by Troika Games and published by Activision in November 2004, the game places a newly embraced vampire into the factional politics of the Camarilla, the Anarchs, and the Sabbat, all operating under a strict code called the Masquerade that forbids revealing vampire existence to humans. The seven playable clans — Brujah, Gangrel, Malkavian, Nosferatu, Toreador, Tremere, and Ventrue — each carry distinct stat priorities and social consequences: a Nosferatu cannot walk city streets without triggering a Masquerade violation, while a Malkavian delivers all dialogue through a fractured, prophetically aware voice that recontextualizes the entire script on a second playthrough. Combat is a hybrid of first-person shooting and RPG stat checks, where a character built for social skills will struggle in direct fights and must find alternate routes through violent encounters. Troika shipped the game in a technically unfinished state — it launched the same day as Half-Life 2 on the same Source engine — and the community-maintained Unofficial Patch, still updated as of 2025, restores cut content and fixes hundreds of bugs that the studio never had time to address. GameSpot includes it on their best RPGs list as a title that, two decades later, has no real equivalent in the genre for how thoroughly it commits to its vampire fiction.

Suikoden 1&2 Remaster

Suikoden 1&2 Remaster lets you recruit 108 Stars of Destiny across two interconnected political war narratives, with base-building and strategic battle systems that grow as more characters join.

• Year: 2025
• Developer: Konami
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch

The Suikoden series holds a specific and defended position in JRPG history, and the first two games — released in 1995 and 1998 — are among the strongest arguments for that reputation. Konami released the HD remaster on March 6, 2025, with retouched visuals and improved character movement while keeping the narrative and gameplay of the originals intact. GameSpot notes the games were considered among the best RPGs of their era and argues the remaster justifies that classification for current audiences. The 108-character recruitment system is the design's most distinctive feature: each playable character joins through specific story triggers or side quest completions, and missing any of them locks certain endings and prevents the true conclusion. Suikoden II in particular — covering the Dunan Unification Wars — is frequently cited as the franchise's peak, with its conflict between two childhood friends providing an emotional anchor that the six-party turn-based combat system supports rather than overshadows.

Cyberpunk 2077

Cyberpunk 2077 places you as mercenary V in Night City, where character builds can prioritize gunplay, stealth, hacking, or melee cyberware with different story routes available through each specialization.

• Year: 2020
• Developer: CD Projekt Red
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch 2

Cyberpunk 2077 launched in December 2020 in a state of significant technical disrepair — Sony temporarily pulled it from the PlayStation Store, and multiple lawsuits were filed against CD Projekt Red — but the studio spent two years patching the game before a 2023 overhaul reworked the skill tree, police system, and vehicle combat entirely. GamesRadar gives the current version five stars and ranks it 17th among the best playable RPGs of 2026. The Phantom Liberty expansion, released in September 2023, adds an espionage storyline in the new Dogtown district starring Idris Elba as handler Solomon Reed; GameSpot calls it potentially one of the best DLCs in video game history. The story follows V, a mercenary who receives an engram of deceased rockstar Johnny Silverhand — voiced by Keanu Reeves — after a corporate theft operation goes wrong. Night City's six districts have distinct visual identities, gang affiliations, and ambient quest density that reward unstructured exploration.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic lets you train as a Jedi or fall to the dark side 4,000 years before the films, using a party-based RPG structure adapted from the d20 tabletop ruleset.

• Year: 2003
• Developer: BioWare
• Platforms: PC, Xbox, PS4, PS5, Switch, iOS, Android

Knights of the Old Republic released in 2003 and established the template for cinematic choice-driven RPGs that BioWare extended through Jade Empire and the Mass Effect trilogy. The game's timeline — 4,000 years before the Star Wars films — allows entirely original Force users, wars, and political structures to exist without contradicting established canon. GamesRadar calls it one of the most accessible RPGs ever made, noting it works for players who find the genre mechanically intimidating because the automated turn-based engine handles combat effectively without requiring mastery. Three starting character classes evolve into Jedi subclasses by the second act, and the Light Side/Dark Side alignment system tracks every dialogue choice and moral decision throughout. The narrative twist at the game's midpoint remains one of the most celebrated reveals in video game writing. Aspyr Media produced a remaster available on PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.

Diablo II

Diablo II runs five character classes through four acts of gothic dungeon crawling with a loot generation system that produces unique, set, and rare items through randomized stat rolls and drop tables.

• Year: 2000/ 2021 Resurrected
• Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
• Platforms: PC, Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Diablo II defined the action RPG template for its generation and remains the game that most subsequent hack-and-slash titles measured themselves against for twenty years. GameSpot calls it the series at its finest and notes it still generates discussion despite being a quarter century old. The five classes — Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian, Sorceress, and Paladin — each have three skill trees with 30 abilities apiece, and the endgame's item-hunting produces enough statistical variation that players pursued specific item configurations for years. Diablo II: Resurrected, released in 2021, rebuilt the game's visuals in 3D while keeping the original 2D logic engine running underneath, letting players switch between classic and remastered visuals mid-session with a single button press. The expansion Lord of Destruction added the Druid and Assassin classes, a fifth act in the Barbarian highlands, and an upgraded stash system that remains the most requested quality-of-life feature from the original.

Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon Forbidden West sends Aloy west into the ruins of Utah, Nevada, and California with new machine types, underwater traversal, aerial mounts, and a fully restructured skill tree split into six distinct categories.

• Year: 2022
• Developer: Guerrilla Games
• Platforms: PS4, PS5, PC

Horizon Forbidden West is the direct sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn and follows Aloy in search of a source code capable of stopping a terraforming plague killing Earth's biosphere. GamesRadar called it phenomenal and ranks it 24th on their current best RPG list, specifically noting how cleanly the sequel expands on the original's foundation without restructuring the fundamentals that made it work. New machine types include the Tremortusk and the Slitherfang, both with multiple combat phases and distinct weapon vulnerability patterns. The Sunwing mount adds aerial traversal unavailable in the first game. The skill tree restructures into six categories — Warrior, Trapper, Survivor, Hunter, Infiltrator, and Machine Master — with both passive stat increases and active ability unlocks in each branch. The narrative introduces the Zeniths, original humans who survived the apocalypse offworld and returned with technology far beyond what Aloy encountered previously.

Baldur's Gate 3

Baldur's Gate 3 adapts Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition rules into a co-op RPG where virtually every scenario resolves through multiple paths, including options that emerge from character race, class, background, and prior decisions.

• Year: 2023
• Developer: Larian Studios
• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Baldur's Gate 3 won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2023 and sits first on GamesRadar's current best RPG list, which describes it as the benchmark against which every subsequent RPG will be measured. Larian spent three years in Early Access processing community feedback before the full August 2023 release. PCMag calls it the truest adaptation of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign ever produced, crediting the studio's commitment to letting player choices propagate consequences across all three acts. Twelve playable classes and eleven races combine with origin characters and a Dark Urge option that adds a parallel psychological narrative. The game supports four-player online cooperative play with each participant controlling their own character through the same story independently. GameSpot identifies the number of meaningful choices — each capable of altering the ending — as genuinely mind-boggling. Larian announced after launch that they would not produce a Baldur's Gate 4, choosing instead to move to original IP.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Mass Effect: Andromeda sends a new Pathfinder protagonist to the Andromeda galaxy to identify habitable planets for colonists, with open-world planetary exploration across five main alien worlds.

• Year: 2017
• Developer: BioWare
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One

Mass Effect: Andromeda moved the franchise to a new galaxy with Scott or Sara Ryder as protagonist and replaced the trilogy's linear mission structure with open-world planetary surfaces containing Remnant vaults, outpost establishment objectives, and ambient enemy camps. PCMag gives it 3.5 out of 5, acknowledging the sizable open worlds and competent combat system while citing the infamously criticized facial animations, tedious menu design, and performance issues at launch. BioWare released several patches improving the most widely mocked animation problems, but the game never shed its early reputation. The combat restructures the trilogy's class system into a fluid hybrid where players mix abilities from all three profiles — soldier, biotic, tech — without locking into a single class permanently. Squadmates Liam, Peebee, Drack, Vetra, Cora, and Jaal each have loyalty missions that expand backstory and affect combat behavior. The multiplayer mode, which ran cooperative horde missions, shut down in 2019.

Shovel Knight Dig

Shovel Knight Dig sends the series protagonist through a procedurally generated downward roguelike structure, with randomized stage layouts built from a template pool and permanent unlocks accumulated across multiple runs.

• Year: 2022
• Developer: Yacht Club Games/ Nitrome
• Platforms: PC, Switch, iOS

Shovel Knight Dig is a spin-off of the original Shovel Knight, developed by Nitrome in collaboration with Yacht Club Games, and replaces the original's horizontal platformer structure with a vertical roguelike that generates each run from room templates arranged downward through three worlds. PCMag gives it 3.5 out of 5 and notes the gameplay shift produces a less satisfying experience than the side-scrolling original while still delivering a mechanically sound roguelike that rewards repeated attempts. Each run contributes to a village reconstruction that unlocks new starting gear and permanent ability upgrades over time. Specific relic items found during runs modify movement and combat options, and optional boss encounters add replay variety. Yacht Club built Shovel Knight's reputation through the Treasure Trove collection, which expanded the original into four distinct playable characters with completely different mechanics, making Dig a deliberate departure rather than a direct continuation.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim drops a prisoner with Dragonborn powers into a civil-war-torn province with over 300 potential hours of content and no requirement to engage the main story at any particular pace.

• Year: 2011
• Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
• Platforms: PC, PS3/4/5, Xbox 360/One/Series, Switch

Skyrim received a Special Edition, an Anniversary Edition, and ports to virtually every platform including Nintendo Switch and multiple VR headsets, making it one of the most re-released games in history across fourteen years. GameSpot credits its cultural impact with pushing open-world RPG design expectations forward in ways still visible across the genre today. The skill system levels through use — swinging a two-handed weapon trains Two-Handed, picking locks trains Lockpicking — with no class selection at the start, allowing the character's build to develop organically through the first dozen hours. GamesRadar ranks it sixth on their best RPG list and notes the absence of forced quest acceptance means players can wander indefinitely without touching the main narrative. The PC modding community has produced tens of thousands of modifications, including total conversion projects that rebuild the game's systems entirely. Bethesda's internal metrics reportedly show millions of active players each month, more than a decade after release.

Tales of Arise

Tales of Arise builds its action combat around a Boost Strike system that requires two specific party members to coordinate, across a narrative about 300 years of colonial occupation and the resistance movement that challenges it.

• Year: 2021
• Developer: Bandai Namco
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Tales of Arise represents the franchise's most significant mechanical overhaul in years, moving from the traditional 2D-plane action system to a full three-dimensional field with aerial launchers, dodge cancels, and Boost Strike combos that demand coordinating two specific party members in sequence. PCMag gives it 4 out of 5 and calls it the entry that put the Tales series back on the map, crediting streamlined progression and expanded combo-centric combat as the key improvements. The game takes place on Dahna — a planet colonized by the technologically superior Rena for 300 years — and follows a masked Dahnan slave and a Renan woman with a connection to a forbidden flame. The story handles trauma, systemic oppression, and reconciliation with more directness than earlier franchise entries. Six playable characters each use distinct weapons and skill trees, and cooking recipes provide temporary stat buffs between encounters. Beyond the Dawn, a paid expansion released in 2023, adds a new post-game storyline.

Elden Ring

Elden Ring extends the FromSoftware Souls formula into a fully open world accessible via a spectral horse, with an underground map system of equal scope to the surface and hundreds of distinct equipment build combinations.

• Year: 2022
• Developer: FromSoftware
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Elden Ring won Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022 and represents FromSoftware's collaboration with George R.R. Martin, who constructed the world's history and principal figures before development began. GamesRadar ranks it ninth on their best RPG list and calls the Lands Between one of the best open worlds ever built; GameSpot describes it as FromSoftware's masterpiece that exceeded every expectation the studio had built through the Souls series. The mount Torrent allows double-jumping and rapid traversal across terrain no previous Souls title attempted to scale, with certain boss encounters designed specifically around mounted combat. PCMag gives it 3.5 out of 5, citing persistent PC frame rate issues that improvements have reduced but not eliminated. The Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, released June 2024, added a completely new landmass with an independent progression system. Character builds range from pure strength to intelligence-based sorcery to Faith arcane hybrid casters, each viable through the endgame.

Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson

Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson ties every attack, environmental interaction, and movement step to the beat of its soundtrack, building a turn-based RPG world where sheet music governs the physical landscape.

• Year: 2025
• Developer: Ritual Studios
• Platforms: PC

Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson appeared on Kotaku's best RPGs of 2025 list, where reviewer Kenneth Shepard identified it as especially rewarding for players with musical training who can hear how audio integrates into every mechanical layer. The combat system draws from the timing-based attack inputs of Paper Mario and Clair Obscur but extends further by tying every action — including stepping on specific floor tiles — to the beat of the current area's theme. Brushing against plants and walking across particular surfaces adds new melodic lines to the ambient soundtrack, turning exploration into composition. Ritual Studios designed the game's world so that sheet music appears visibly in the landscape and the logic of rhythm governs what interactions are available at each position. Visual cues accompany every beat window, making the game functional for players without music background while offering additional harmonic feedback for those who can identify patterns in the underlying score.

Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy reconstructs Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the 1800s as an open-world action RPG, with a spell loadout system, broom and Hippogriff flight, and a Room of Requirement beast sanctuary.

• Year: 2023
• Developer: Avalanche Software
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, Switch 2

Hogwarts Legacy places you as a fifth-year student at Hogwarts in the late 1800s, far enough from the novels' events to introduce entirely original faculty, students, and conflicts without relying on familiar characters. PCMag gives it 3.5 out of 5 and cites frame rate issues in some areas as the primary technical complaint. GameSpot calls it everything a Harry Potter RPG should be, praising the full castle recreation down to individual architectural details — moving staircases, common room interiors, and classroom equipment. The spell system lets players equip four spells at once from a larger unlocked pool, with each spell serving distinct combat and puzzle purposes: Accio pulls objects, Levioso suspends them, Avada Kedavra kills instantly as an Unforgivable learned through a specific quest. The Room of Requirement serves as a base-building area for raising magical creatures captured using Nab-Sack encounters in the open world. The game generated over $1 billion in revenue within two weeks of launch, making it the fastest-selling game in the Wizarding World franchise's history.

Black Myth: Wukong

Black Myth: Wukong adapts the Chinese novel Journey to the West as a third-person action RPG, casting the player as a Destined One who inherits Sun Wukong's powers to battle 83 demon kings across six chapters.

• Year: 2024
• Developer: Game Science
• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Black Myth: Wukong released in August 2024 as the first major AAA game developed in China, produced by Game Science — a studio founded by former Tencent developers — and sold over 20 million copies within its first three months. PCMag gives it 4 out of 5, describing it as boldly reinventing Journey to the West with deep melee and magic combat systems alongside a world built with genuine respect for its mythological source material. Each chapter corresponds to a specific demon king or mythological location from Wu Cheng'en's novel, and the game features 83 boss encounters total across its six-chapter structure. The transformation system lets the player assume the forms of defeated enemies temporarily, adding combat variety that reflects the shape-shifting abilities Sun Wukong uses throughout the source text. The recreation of specific temple iconography, deity designs, and Buddhist architecture drew extensive commentary from cultural historians and media critics alongside the initial marketing campaign.

Divinity: Original Sin II

Divinity: Original Sin II gives every party member a full origin story and supports up to four-player cooperative play through the same campaign, with a surface-based elemental interaction system that rewards vertical combat thinking.

• Year: 2017
• Developer: Larian Studios
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch

Divinity: Original Sin II predates Baldur's Gate 3 by six years and stands as the proof of concept for what Larian Studios later achieved at higher production scale. GameSpot ranks it among the best RPGs currently available and describes the world of Rivellon as unforgettable. The opening conflict — magic users versus a society that wants to restrict all magic — is the entry point into a plot where player choices determine the ending's shape. Six origin characters each have personal quest lines that weave into the main narrative, and any can be played as protagonist while the others fill party slots as AI or additional player-controlled characters. The elemental surface system means that igniting an oil pool with a fire arrow, then freezing the burning result, produces a different outcome than the reverse sequence. GamesRadar ranks it 18th on their 2026 list. The Definitive Edition, released in 2018, overhauled the final act and reworked several mechanics based on community feedback.

Octopath Traveler 0

Octopath Traveler 0 recovers the content of the discontinued mobile game Champions of the Continent, strips all gacha mechanics, and releases it as a standalone turn-based JRPG estimated at nearly 100 hours.

• Year: 2025
• Developer: Square Enix
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox, Switch

Octopath Traveler 0 is a gacha mobile game, Champions of the Continent, rebuilt as a complete product after Square Enix shut down the live service. Kotaku reviewer Kenneth Shepard calls it a game saved from obscurity and frames the conversion as Square Enix correcting an earlier mistake of building an obviously strong RPG around monetization mechanics that diluted its quality. The game uses the HD-2D visual style first introduced in the original Octopath Traveler — pixel characters in layered three-dimensional environments — and retains the break-and-boost turn-based combat where exploiting enemy weaknesses reduces defense before spending boost points multiplies a single action's output. Shepard describes it as consuming nearly 100 hours for completion. The adaptation required both content selection and structural decisions about framing a story originally written for indefinite serialization as a game with a beginning, middle, and end. The conversion stands as an unusual publishing decision with no clear precedent in the RPG space.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Fire Emblem: Three Houses places you as a professor at Garreg Mach Officers Academy, where the house you choose to teach determines your faction in the continental war that follows and locks you into a distinct story route.

• Year: 2019
• Developer: Intelligent Systems/ Koei Tecmo
• Platforms: Switch

Fire Emblem: Three Houses splits into four distinct routes — Black Eagles, Blue Lions, Golden Deer, or the hidden Crimson Flower path — making it the longest single Fire Emblem title and one structured to reward multiple playthroughs. GamesRadar describes the compulsive pull of the social simulation layer between combat missions as generating the desire to build a team during a commute and study character relationships during any available window. Students gain proficiency in weapon types, magic schools, and skills through weekly lesson assignments, adding a management dimension absent from most tactical RPGs. The monastery hub contains fishing spots, a greenhouse, a dining hall with recipe-based stat bonuses, and individual faculty schedules that open new dialogue as relationships build. Major characters — Claude, Dimitri, and Edelgard — hold distinct ideological positions that become the political conflict's basis, developed through dozens of support conversations before the war chapter begins.

Sea of Stars

Sea of Stars uses a turn-based combat system with timed inputs and an enemy lock-breaking mechanic, presenting an original story through a visual design explicitly referencing 16-bit JRPG aesthetics.

• Year: 2023
• Developer: Sabotage Studio
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch

Sea of Stars is Sabotage Studio's follow-up to The Messenger, developed over three years with hand-animated sprites, a layered parallax environment, and a musical score contributed partly by Yasunori Mitsuda, the composer of Chrono Trigger and Xenogears. PCMag gives it 4 out of 5 and identifies Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG as its primary design references while noting the protagonists Valere and Zale are less distinctive than the world surrounding them. The combat system awards bonus damage for timed button presses at the moment abilities connect, and introduces a lock system where enemies project upcoming attack types as symbols breakable by matching element or hit-count attacks before they trigger. The game sold over a million copies in its first month and secured multiple nominations at the 2023 Game Awards. A world map expands through a sailing mechanic as the story progresses, and environmental puzzles require specific ability combinations rather than combat.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided builds its espionage action RPG around a Prague setting under militarized occupation of augmented humans, with open-ended mission design that accommodates combat, stealth, hacking, and social approaches simultaneously.

• Year: 2016
• Developer: Eidos Montreal
• Platforms: PC, PS4, Xbox One

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided takes Adam Jensen — now working with a covert Interpol unit — into an apartheid-coded Prague two years after the Aug Incident turned augmented humans into a feared and institutionally targeted minority. PCMag describes Jensen as an incredibly versatile protagonist who excels equally at firearms, melee, and stealth, with character build choices determining which approaches develop most fully. The augmentation system covers Jensen's body in purchasable upgrades from silenced takedowns and hacking to structural dermal armor and nanoblade deployment. Each mission in Prague has multiple entry routes, multiple resolution approaches, and different consequences depending on how much violence the player employed. Smart vision detects enemies through walls, and a cover system handles ranged combat. A standalone DLC, A Criminal Past, released in 2017 and explores Jensen's pre-game history through a maximum-security prison scenario with restricted augmentation access.

Wuthering Waves

Wuthering Waves delivers open-world action RPG exploration through a parkour movement system and a resonance combat mechanic that rewards character rotation, with an Echo loot system that adds passive builds to character management.

• Year: 2024
• Developer: Kuro Games
• Platforms: PC, PS5, iOS, Android

Wuthering Waves launched in May 2024 as a direct competitor to Genshin Impact in the free-to-play open-world action RPG space, differentiating itself through faster technical combat and a movement system allowing wall running, gliding, and parry-based momentum preservation. PCMag gives it 4 out of 5 and describes it as standing out from the gacha genre through excellent action, expansive environments, and a distinctive post-apocalyptic aesthetic distinct from Genshin's fantasy palette. The resonance system ties character synergies to combat rotations and field resonance skills charged through specific input sequences. Echoes — items dropped by defeated world enemies — slot into character builds as secondary stat sources and passive ability layers, adding a loot-hunting dimension absent from most character-based gacha titles. The main story, set in a world recovering from a catastrophic event called the Lament, received pacing criticism at launch but improved through significant updates across 2024 and 2025.

In Stars and Time

In Stars and Time traps party leader Siffrin in a time loop at the final confrontation with an evil king, using accumulated loop knowledge as the primary RPG progression mechanic rather than traditional leveling.

• Year: 2023
• Developer: insertdisc5
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Switch

In Stars and Time uses a rock-paper-scissors-derived combat system where memory of enemy attack patterns — accumulated across failed loop attempts — determines effectiveness, making each death an information source rather than a setback. GamesRadar ranks it 25th on their best RPG list and describes the party as feeling like a real found family, with interpersonal dynamics between Siffrin and the other members providing emotional weight that carries the loop mechanic beyond a mechanical gimmick. The game runs in black and white with selective color emphasis during key emotional beats, reinforcing the loop's accumulating psychological toll on the protagonist. The writing integrates the loop structure into the narrative's thematic content — Siffrin processes anxiety, isolation, and attachment through repetition — in ways that mirror how players experience the mechanics themselves. Developer insertdisc5 released the game in November 2023 after a crowdfunding campaign, and it circulated primarily through word-of-mouth in RPG communities.

Metaphor: ReFantazio

Metaphor: ReFantazio builds a fantasy nation-state RPG around a royal succession tournament set in a world structured by a fictional tribe hierarchy, combining Persona-style social simulation with a transferable archetype job system.

• Year: 2024
• Developer: Atlus/ Studio Zero
• Platforms: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Metaphor: ReFantazio won GameSpot's Game of the Year for 2024 and was developed by Studio Zero, the internal Atlus team responsible for Persona 5. The game follows an unnamed protagonist working to resurrect a cursed prince and win a royal election by gaining the trust of eight tribes, each with distinct cultural and political identities examined through the lens of inequality and systemic discrimination. GameSpot describes it as a celebration of stories set in a world rife with inequality that mixes escapism with real-world issues, producing a narrative that feels both magical and grounded. The Archetype system functions as a job class mechanic with over 40 archetypes unlockable through character bonds, each granting abilities that carry over as passive bonuses when switching classes. The social simulation calendar structure — borrowed from the Persona series — governs time allocation between dungeon exploration, archetype training, and relationship-building. The game runs over 80 hours for a first completion.

Nioh: Complete Edition

Nioh: Complete Edition builds its Sengoku-era action RPG around a three-stance weapon system — High, Mid, and Low — each with distinct combo properties and ki pulse timing requirements.

• Year: 2017 (PC)
• Developer: Team Ninja
• Platforms: PC, PS4

Nioh is Team Ninja's first action RPG and draws on Dark Souls' structure while building a combat system mechanically distinct from anything FromSoftware produced, specifically through the Ki Pulse — which replenishes stamina mid-combo via a timed button press — and the three-stance framework giving every weapon three different move sets with different strategic applications. PCMag describes it as very much its own beast despite the surface-level comparison to Souls, citing the technical action and stronger narrative grounding in William Adams — the real Irish-born samurai who traveled to Edo-period Japan and whose documented life loosely structures the story. The setting blends the late Sengoku period with a supernatural conflict involving yokai and the sorceress Kelley. The Complete Edition includes three DLC packs — Dragon of the North, Defiant Honor, and Bloodshed's End — adding new regions and boss encounters. Each weapon type distributes over 30 individual skills across three stances, making equipment choice a significant long-term investment.

Assassin's Creed Shadows

Assassin's Creed Shadows gives you two complementary protagonists for feudal Japan — the historical Black African samurai Yasuke and the kunoichi Naoe — each with separate skill trees, combat styles, and quest lines.

• Year: 2025
• Developer: Ubisoft
• Platforms: PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster

Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster bundles both PlayStation 2-era turn-based RPGs with improved visuals, an arranged soundtrack, and International version content not previously released outside Japan.

• Year: 2014
• Developer: Square Enix
• Platforms: PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Xbox One

Final Fantasy X is one of the most commercially successful entries in the franchise, originally released in 2001 as the first mainline Final Fantasy on PlayStation 2 and the first to include fully voiced dialogue. The HD Remaster packages it with Final Fantasy X-2 and the International content — Expert Sphere Grid, Dark Aeons, and Penance for FFX; the Last Mission tower RPG for FFX-2 — previously unavailable outside Japan during the PS2 era. PCMag gives the collection 4.5 out of 5 and calls it a must-buy bundle for fans of either original release. Final Fantasy X's Sphere Grid levels characters by unlocking nodes on a physical grid using Sphere Levels earned from battle, allowing deliberate pathing toward hybrid stat configurations. The narrative follows Tidus — a blitzball star from the futuristic city Zanarkand — joining summoner Yuna's pilgrimage to defeat the cyclic monster Sin. Final Fantasy X-2 shifts tone and gameplay completely, using a real-time battle system built around a job-switching Dressphere mechanic and starring Yuna as its lead.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 places Henry of Skalitz in historically accurate 15th-century Bohemia with a first-person sword combat system, reputation tracking across regions, and quests designed to accommodate stealth, social manipulation, and direct combat as genuinely equivalent approaches.

2025 | Warhorse Studios | PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 released February 4, 2025, continuing Henry's story in a Bohemia divided by civil war between King Sigismund and the Hussite movement. GamesRadar ranks it eighth on their 2026 best RPG list and describes its medieval world as providing a more lived-in feel than fantasy counterparts precisely because the castle intrigue is rooted in documented history. The combat system streamlines the Master Strike and clinch mechanics from the first game while retaining directional sword-swinging inputs that demand timing and footwork over button combinations. GameSpot includes it on their 2026 best RPG list. Warhorse's open world covers the Kuttenberg region — based on the real Czech mining town Kutna Hora — with a new city area larger than any single location in the first game. The game shipped with over 2,000 additional lines of spoken NPC commentary compared to its predecessor, and the reputation system tracks behavior independently across different regions, allowing a character notorious in one area to remain trusted in another.