Top 10 Best Modern RPGsSure, classics such as Baldur’s Gate and Plane scape Torment are must-plays for all RPG fans. But for today’s list, we want to take alook at games a tad newer – and see if there’s any truth to the claim that the golden era of RPGs is all in the past. Without further ado, let’s jump into the list of top 10 best modern RPGs!
- Number 10. South Park: The Stick of Truth & The Fractured But Whole Video game adaptations of South Park have been coming out since 1998, but none of them were particularly successful – that is before Obsidian Entertainment started working on them. Both The Stick of Truth and The Fractured But Whole are cleverly written RPGs which pay sincere homage to the cartoon. The former also manages to poke fun at various fantasy and RPG tropes, while the latter took the piss out of the Superhero Genre – in a witty and crass way well known by the fans of the show. While quite light on the role playing aspect,the writing, the humour and the entertaining turn-based fighting system make the SouthPark games worth playing, even if you’re not a die-hard fan of the cartoon.
- Number 9. Undertale : It’s best to play Undertale without any spoilers – and to truly experience it, you should play it more than once. The thing is, even if your second play through is completely different from the first, the game – and some characters – know what you did in the previous attempts to beat the game. And they will judge you for it. The way you play – including the body-count you leave behind – will greatly influence the ending of the game, making it truly worth while to replay the game multiple times. For a silly-looking pixel tastic game full of skeleton jokes and boss fights that can be resolved by patting your opponent (who is a dog), it touches upon some heavy topics, and makes you think really hard about your in-game choices.
- Number 8. Tyranny : Tyranny allows your character to be an utter bastard – without being a cartoonishly evil villain who steals candy from orphans and kills people for no reason while twirling their mustache. Your character, the Fate binder, is responsible for upholding the law of the land – cruel though that law may be. Of course, you can choose to play your role in different ways – the defining characteristic of your rule can vary between cruel order,chaotic freedom, ambition, rebellion, or (in case of the DLC) loyalty. Each of the paths comes with its risks, and you have to be clever and make calculated choices to be successful. Tyranny doesn’t care if your character is morally compromised – but stupidity and chaos will be punished.
- Number 7. Torment: Tides of NumeneraT ides of Numenera was advertised as the spiritual successor of one of the best western RPG sever, Plane escape Torment, and you can clearly see the inspiration, even if the game uses a completely different setting due to some licensing issues. The futuristic world of Numenera is millions of years removed from the current Earth, and while the society of the Ninth World is basically medieval, the world around is full of artifacts of the previous eras – technologies so advanced,they might as well be magic, and are treated as such by the people. Full of philosophical questions, and not necessarily full of answers to those questions, Tides of Numenera has been criticized by some forbeing “too wordy” or “basically a book” due to a large amount of text you have to get through – we’ll let you decide for yourself whether or not you consider that to be a flaw.
- Number 6. Nie R: Automata If you enjoy stories about androids living in a post-apocalyptic world, then NieR: Auto matais just the game for you. The plot of the game is quite complex and in order to fully experience it, and witness all of the multiple possible endings, you have to play the game multiple times – though each subsequent play through comes with a new quirk to make it not-so-repetitive: for example, the playable character changes, or some of the game mechanics suddenly work different. Gameplay-wise, the tight and stylish fighting system combining slasher and bullet hell elements will keep you engaged for long hours – after all, Platinum Games was founded by the creator of the Devil May Cry series.
- Number 5. Monster Hunter World : The title says it all – this game is all about slaying a variety of monsters. Blurring the lines between RPG and actiongame, Monster Hunter World will send you on a string of what would normally be boss-fights. The world’s diverse environments are fullof different creatures, and you will have to spend your time crafting new equipment,as well as switching your play-style to be as effective against your foes as possible. The game can be played alone as well as inmultiplayer mode, and will keep you immersed for long, long hours.
Number 4. Persona 5 : The newest Persona game can easily be considered the most ambitious entry to the series so far. Like the previous games, Persona 5 involves fights in extra dimensional dungeons full of monsters, forcing you to make use of personas– beings reflecting your inner self, each with different powers, statistics and level up progression. Whenever you’re not visiting another dimension crawling with demons, you are a typical high school student – and what you choose to do with your free time is crucial. You can spend time socializing with your friends– which unlocks not only plot elements, but also additional powers for your character or teammates. Or you can use the time to learn new skills,craft items, read books, take part in eating contests etc. Each of those downtime activates comes withtheir own benefits. The trick is that time is very limited in the game, and you have to choose wisely what you will spend it on. The plot of Persona 5 is also quite ambitious,and the themes of the game include the moral consequence of forcing evil people to have a change of heart and repent, the apathy of society faced with moral decay, abusive teachers,drug cartels, corrupt politicians and of course – teenage romance.
- Number 3. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt The Witcher 3 has been featured on a number of lists of best RPGS and best games period since day one – and for a good reason. The culmination of CD Project RED’s The Witcher series, it brings a conclusion to Geralt’s story in an epic narrative, bringing together plot points from both the original books, and the previous games. Apart from the incredibly well-written main plot, the game has also received much praise for the way the side-quests are treated – there is no filler content such as a dozen of boring fetch-quests with no story behind them other than “this character needs 10 items of that kind, bring them to him”. Thanks to that, the amazing combat system and a ton of diverse enemies lurking around, the open world of the Witcher 3 is far from being a generic, kind-of empty and repetitive open world and offers ton of fun even if you decide to let the main quest wait a little. And that’s not even mentioning the amazing DLCs!
- Number 2. Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity2: Dead fire Another example of a modern take on isometric RPGs, Pillars of Eternity is an incredible experience for both nostalgic fans of the good old Bio ware slash Black Isle games as well as newcomers to the genre. Both games are quite story-heavy, and include a variety of companion characters with well-written personal sub-plots (though sadly no romance options in the first game). While Pillars of Eternity 1 is well worth playing already, the sequel greatly improves on its foundation, adding a huge amount of gameplay and character creation options and even further removing the world from a generic D&D-inspired fantasy land. The biggest change in the second installment is the focus on seafaring – the game takes place in the Dead fire Archipelago, and in order to be able to move around you need to own a ship, complete with a crew. This forces you to manage your resources wisely,improves the complexity of the gameplay, as well as makes the setting and plot quite unique from other fantasy games.
- Number 1. Divinity : The Original Sin, and Divinity The Original Sin 2 Both of the Original Sin games are amazing isometric RPGs, with tons of quests, great plot, a good sense of humour, as well as fantastic combat and magic systems. What makes fighting particularly fun is the way different spells and effects interact with each other and the environment – for instance, combining a toxic cloud with a fire arrow will result in a huge explosion, and casting an electricity-based spell can cause every creature standing in a pool of water to suffer from an electric shock. The Original Sin 2 takes all the elements that worked in its predecessor and improves them even further. For example, the crafting system in The Original Sin was fun enough, what with spaghetti sauce made by combining a tomato and a hammer – then comes the second installment, which not only allows you to use up to five items in various combinations in the process of crafting, but also gives you the ability to combine existing skills and spells into new ones, creating a huge opportunity for customizing your fighting style. And thanks to the co-op mode, you can play with a friend, or with up to three friends in the case of the second game, either using split screen, or online multiplayer!
So that’s it for our list! Do you agree with our choices? Or are we missing your favourite RPG of the recent years? //Let us know in the comments.