Finishing an RPG, from a five-hour experience to an 80-hour marathon, is almost always satisfying, depending on the game. To get specific, Undertale can be completed in about five hours, while Persona 5 takes about eighty, and they are both great at what they accomplish. Players may put their controllers down after and sit in silence, in awe of the experience that just blew their mind.
Are Undertale and Persona 5 masterful RPGs that make it impossible for sequels or other RPGs to surpass them someday? The following RPGs, from the East to the West, showcase just how legendary and inspirational they are. Taking into consideration their release dates, they set a high bar, and it will be hard to ever outdo them culturally. This list will focus on classic games that are at least a decade old and have created a legacy unlike any other.
No One Can Beat A Dragon
It’s hard to beat a cool release date like 11/11/11, but the game that came out that day is even more legendary. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim quickly became the talk of the town, as anyone who was anyone bought and devoured it.
It felt like the first true open-world experience, even though there were plenty of open-world games that came before and after it. Many have attempted to be as unique and expansive, but the areas, weapons, and magic all make Skyrim hard to forget. The inclusion of dragons and draconic powers also helped it rise above others, and it will take a lot for the next The Elder Scrolls game to top it.
Final Fantasy 7
A Console Defining Experience
Final Fantasy 7 made JRPGs cool and got more players on board with the genre than ever before. It was a console-defining game that helped the PS1 surge to new heights, and it’s one of the many reasons why, unlike other games in the series, it has received so many spinoffs.
Final Fantasy 7 hit at just the right time with cutting-edge graphics, a mature story, adaptability thanks to the Materia system, and so much more. Entries in the series that followed this one have been great too, easily some of the best JRPGs around, but Final Fantasy 7 is just a cut above all JRPGs, regardless of franchise.
Undertale
THE Indie RPG
Undertale is an indie RPG that was inspired by some of the greats, like Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars and EarthBound. Yet, it somehow was able to become more culturally relevant in a modern era when sharing games is easier than ever.
Everything works in perfect harmony, from the art to the comedy to the music, along with the unique approach to combat, as players are encouraged to talk their way out of battles instead of fighting in traditional turn-based combat. Indie RPGs have tried to be as weird and genre-breaking as Undertale, including the original creator Toby Fox, but nothing has hit quite as hard yet.
Bloodborne
Many Soulslikes Later
FromSoftware redefined action RPGs with Demon’s Souls, and it’s one of the most important games of the modern era, but the developer was seemingly not firing on all cylinders yet. Bloodborne, for many, is when FromSoft perfected their own formula while putting a gothic spin on everything.
It was bewitching like an H.P. Lovecraft tale, and the weapon-switching abilities really added extra spice to the combat, which was more active than in the Souls series. Bloodborne has since become almost like a mythical game that only PlayStation fans know about, since it was only released on the PS4, much to the chagrin of FromSoftware fans and Soulslike fans overall.
Pokemon Gold & Silver
Two Campaigns In One
Pokemon Gold and Silver
- Released
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October 15, 2000
- ESRB
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Everyone // Mild Cartoon Violence, Simulated Gambling
Pokemon Gold and Pokemon Silver did the impossible; they somehow made the Pokemon series an even bigger hit. They had more Pokemon, new communication tools like phones, day-night cycles, and so on. It was everything an RPG sequel should be and then some.
That little extra oomph was going back to the original game’s territory, Kanto, and having a full second adventure take place there. Beyond paid content, no Pokemon entry has ever had that revelation before. In the day and age of DLC, it seems unlikely that a company would go the extra mile like that again.
Diablo 2
A New Millennium Of Evil
Diablo 2 was one of the first big RPGs of the new millennium. Diablo was certainly popular, but Diablo 2 is when the series reached its peak. The classes were more robust, the loot system was more diverse, and the game was simply bigger and continually expanding thanks to Blizzard’s updates and expansions.
That doesn’t mean the sequels were bad or lesser. Diablo 4, in particular, was quite good, as was Diablo 2: Resurrected, the second game’s remaster. It’s just that PC players in the 2000s had an identity, and it was Diablo 2. If people weren’t playing Diablo 2, then they didn’t have a PC—end of story.
Kingdom Hearts
The Wildest Crossover Of All Time?
Video game crossovers can be odd sometimes, but they’re usually at least collaborations between two or more game franchises. Kingdom Hearts was special, as it was a collaboration between the Final Fantasy creators, Squaresoft, and the giant movie studio, Disney.
Original and Final Fantasy characters alike interacting with famous Disney characters like Mickey Mouse, Aladdin, Aerial, Maleficent, and dozens of others sounded too wild to be true. The experiment fortunately worked for both companies and created a hugely popular PS2 action RPG like no other, and that surprise can never be felt again.
Chrono Trigger
The Dream Team Game
Chrono Trigger was brought together by some of the best creators of the ’80s and ’90s. It seemed impossible in 1995 to have rival developers teaming up, but it came together beautifully into a time-travel-based RPG well ahead of its era.
Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball fame did the art, Hironobu Sakaguchi of Final Fantasy fame designed the gameplay, Yuji Hori of Dragon Quest fame helped write it, and so on. That’s part of the reason why Chrono Trigger is heralded as something beyond imagination; a classic retro game that has yet to be topped.
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