Fantasy RPGs

Little can get the imagination going like a fantasy RPG. It allows you to explore vast, wondrous worlds while battling fearsome, sometimes nightmarish creatures. From the bothersome goblins and orcs to the mighty dragons terrorizing villages, there is much to explore in these new worlds. There are many games that follows this genre, but this list will focus on some of the best there is to play.

10) Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning (2012)

Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning trailer

A great addition to the genre, coming from the mind of famed fantasy author R.A. Salvatore along with the lead designer of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Ken Rolston. In a world controlled by destiny, you take on the role of a warrior resurrected from death. This releases your character from their own destiny. As a result, you become the Fateless One, a being with no destiny or higher calling. Released from the grips of fate, you are tasked with saving this world torn apart by war. You can explore a massive world, filled with a number of fantastic and fearsome beasts to slay as well as villages and kingdoms to save.

The Fateless One battling a monster

The gameplay is fast paced, combining melee and magic attacks to take down foes. One of the interesting aspects to the fights is the fateshift attacks. These are fatalities, used to finish off foes with a flourish. Along with this addition, the Destiny system allows you to constantly grow and change your character, allowing you to constantly change your experience in the game.

Kingdom of Amalur: Reckoning gameplay

9) Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (2012)

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen trailer

In this game, another giant world is offered to you as the player. The game begins with a giant dragon, Grigori, coming down to terrorize a helpless village. Facing off against the enormous dragon, you are immediately placed against insurmountable odds. Upon your defeat, your heart is taken, but you are not allowed to die. Becoming an Arisen, you are tasked with exploring this world, ultimately tracking down and doing battle with the dragon that defeated you once before. To do this, you explore a dark world filled with terrors lurking around every corner.

The Arisen and his party battling a manticore

Luckily, though, you are not alone. As an Arisen, you have the ability to create Pawns, allies of your own creation, to serve you. Unlike the normal party system, you are able to customize each of your Pawns as you see fit to cover the weaknesses of your own style. If you are a mage, you can create a warrior to defend you. If you prefer the up close combat, create a cleric or a mage to heal or attack from afar. This allows you to constantly adjust to your style, creating new allies to cover any weaknesses your hero may have.

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen gameplay

8) Torment: Tides of Numenera (2016)

Torment: Tides of Numenera trailer

Born as you are falling from orbit, you take the role of a newborn being whom was once the Changing God. Having cheated death numerous times in the past, it is your task to escape it once again as you are hounded by an ancient creature known as the Sorrow. You are joined by out a wide array of allies, each with their own motives and agendas, for better or for worse.

The party being targeted by a sorceress

Unlike in most settings where you battle your way through your foes, your greatest weapon in these games are your words and choices. With your allies and those around you reacting to your every move, your choices could mean the difference of stalwart allies or traitors in your midst. Not only that, the battles have more to them than a simple display of strength, destroying the enemies before you. You will also need to solve puzzles and interact with your party to best approach these encounters.

Torment: Tides of Numenera gameplay

7) Divinity: Original Sin (2014)

Divinity: Original Sin trailer

Taking the role of a young Source Hunter, one who hunts those who use foul magic, your journey begins on a routine murder investigation. Through these investigations, though, you begin to unravel a plot set in motion by an evil cult, set on releasing devastating beasts upon the world from a separate dimension, the Void.

The heroes facing against a dragon

Unlike other fantasy games, you are not confined to a class, allowing you to customize your specific hero as you see fit for new combinations of skills and abilities. What more, with the multiplayer system, you can begin to take part in the adventure with a friend rather than braving it alone. The combat takes place in a turn based style, allowing you to take the time needed to formulate an approach against enemies and combine your skills as you see fit.

Divinity: Original Sin gameplay

6) Pillars of Eternity (2015)

Pillars of Eternity trailer

You start as a foreigner, new to the lands of Dyrwood. Your caravan is attacked and you must take refuge, escaping from the storm that destroys your initial group. Upon your escape, you bear witness to a ritual in which a group of cultists strip away a soul from the body it inhabits. During this exchange, you become something else by a twist of faith. You become the Watcher. In doing so, you become able to read the souls of others, but also lose the ability to ever sleep. Given the fact that you will go insane over time in this state, you set out to find the cultists and reverse the curse placed upon you.

The party struggles against a dragon

This game takes a gameplay style very similar to that of the older Baldur's Gate series. You take part in turn based combat with a character completely of your own devising. You are given free reign on your specialties, from your class to your core skills, which you use to pull yourself from a number of situations. With this character and a wide variety of characters to make up your party, you take part in a journey through a dark and troubled world as you try to reverse the curse placed upon you.

Pillars of Eternity gameplay

5) Dragon Age Origins (2009)

Dragon Age: Origins trailer

The original in the Dragon Age series, you take the role of an ordinary man chosen to become a great warrior. Chosen to become one of the Wardens, defenders of the realm against the dark beings known as the Darkspawn, you are tasked with uniting the kingdom as one unified force against the coming invasion. You are able to choose your beginning as well as your style of gameplay. The choices aren't as varied as some of the other entries, only offering a Warrior, Mage, and Rogue to begin. This narrow choice widens over time, though, as you find new classes to transfer into based around your starting class.

The Wardens taking down an Ogre

The varied cast of allies you meet allow for you to choose whichever class you feel comfortable with, covering the weaknesses you may have easily. The combat is fast paced, but allows you to utilize your entire party as if they are your own character. This allows for more diversity in your strategies as you take first hand control of the assortment of characters available to you.

Dragon Age: Origins gameplay

4) Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn (2000)

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn trailer

Taking place a few years after the original game, your party is ambushed and captured. Taken hostage by a powerful wizard, your hero is experimented on. However, you are given a break as an attack takes place upon the complex you are held at. With the wizard preoccupied with defending his home, you manage to escape with your party. Thus, your journey in this new, foreign land begins.

Minions summoned to take down the party

You take the real time gameplay of the original game with the ability to pause on screen, allowing you to either keep the combat fast paced or take your time to move your party as you want to for any situation. The alignment system also allows for your choices to have a huge effect on your gameplay. Evil choices may alienate the saintly allies from joining you and vice versa.

Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn gameplay

3) Dark Souls 3 (2016)

Dark Souls 3 trailer

In the third installment of the series, you revisit the land of Lordran. As the player, you create a character to use based around starting equipment with equally low stats, offering your first taste of the dire situation your hero will be in. Regardless, you are in for a tough run as you work to slay the Lords of Cinder. In a game that is renowned for its difficult gameplay, this continues the trend of pitting your ordinary warrior against brutal bosses, from grotesque monsters to former heroes, much like your own. Of course, the multiplayer helps in this journey, allowing you to suffer through the adventure together.

The player returning to a familiar land

The reason it is so high on the list, though, is the extensive lore that this world possesses. The game does not necessarily tell you the lore, outside of what you need to know to progress, but you can find the extensive lore through item descriptions and seeking out new conversations. This ranges from a pair of swords, split to offer protection to both crown princes of the land, to a crown, telling the tale of the conquest a boss went through to rule the land that he inhabits.

Dark Souls 3 gameplay

2) Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)

Skyrim trailer

The fifth installment of the Elder Scrolls franchise, you are placed as a prisoner in the snowy landscape of Skyrim. After your execution is interrupted by the timely arrival of a dragon, you are set free and manage to escape. Starting a new life, you begin to take on the destiny as the Dragonborn, striving forward to slay dragons and adopt their abilities as your own. Your adventure will take you along a sprawling world with many interesting NPCs to talk to and adventure with.

The Dragonborn facing a dragon

One of the interesting points to this first-person styled RPG is the fact that the dragons that this land is known for are constantly moving. It is entirely possible to be stopping in at a village to sell your hard earned loot when a dragon simply crashes down to terrorize the villagers. It is also entirely possible for more than one to decide to target the same place. Due to this, you are never truly safe as you journey through this world. Then again, neither are the dragons, given your mission to slay them.

Skyrim gameplay

1) Witcher 3 (2015)

Witcher 3 trailer

There could not be a fantasy game list without mentioning Witcher 3. You take the role of a well known Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, as you travel through an expansive world. You are tasked with finding a child of prophecy, the key to either saving or ending the world. In a world that may not be worth saving, your choices can impact the people and the world around you. Along the way, there are many hours of gameplay through the hunting of monsters or simply sitting down for a game of Gwent, the card game in the series.

Geralt facing off against an injured griffon

The game follows the usual trend of the series, offering choices that allow you to create Geralt's story as you see fit. The combat can easily evolve over time with numerous diverse enemies to battle against and many combinations of skills and magic to fight against them. It is by far one of the best fantasy RPGs to have come out in recent years.

Witcher 3 gameplay

Closing

As you can see, there are quite a number of interesting and diverse fantasy games to enjoy. There are many more not even on the list, but for any die-hard fantasy game fans, these are some must plays. Each have their benefits, but they are all fun and interesting in their own way.

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