The future of RPGs looks bright. It feels like both JRPGs and Western RPGs are turning out some of the best games their respective subgenres have had in years. Turning back the clock to 2015 has some pretty good results too. There was something for almost every type of fan.
Some games forever changed the RPG landscape and a couple of games heralded the eventual grand return of isometric RPGs.We’d call them CRPGsbut the term is somewhat outdated considering most of these games come to consoles too. The biggest compliment to the games on this list is how well most of them hold up today even after sequels and spiritual successors.
Developer CD Projekt Redbecame a household name with this massive RPG. Despite being the conclusion of a trilogy, The Witcher 3 was many gamers' first experience with the franchise.
The game handles this well by remaining consistently focused on the relationship between Geralt and Ciri even as old faces turn up that some players never would have seen before. Even by the high standards set by the genre, The Witcher 3 is huge. You might not see everything the game has to offer before finishing it.
Bethesda turned further away from the series’s roots with Fallout 4, leaning more into action and dungeon crawling than a narrative-driven jaunt through the post-apocalypse. Fallout 4 tightens up the combat from its predecessor and adds the ability to craft your own structures in settlements. It alsostresses equipment and perksover traditional RPG stats.
Fallout 4 was the first time the protagonist had a voice, a change some fans didn’t appreciate. The game has well over three times as many quests as Fallout 3, but they are not all as involved and deep as the side quests in the prior entry.
Undertale came out in 2015 and independent RPGs have never been the same since. The game is a solo effort by Toby Fox, who also wrote the score. The game feels like a throwback to SNES RPGs with some quirky mechanics at first, but at the end of its relatively short campaign threads start to unravel and its true message reveals itself.
Most people will then want to beat the game a second time with this newfound knowledge to get a second, more definitive ending. The game ends up being a commentary on the medium and how our first course of action in gaming is usually violence.
Shadowrun wrapped up its reboot in 2015 with Shadowrun Hong Kong. The gameplay feels a lot like its predecessors, Shadowrun Returns and Dragonfall, but this is not neccessarily a bad thing. These games are a good introduction to isometric turn-based strategy games. They tend to be more forgiving than other examples of the genre.
There is an emphasis on a story that will intrigue certain gamers and the battles are relatively brief. An extended edition is also available for Hong Kong that adds a new story taking place after the events of the game.
Turn-based tactical RPGs from Japan have a reputation for heavy narratives steeped in political strife between kingdoms.Disgaea fits firmly into this genre,but its story strays far from this stereotype. The gameplay will be familiar to those who have played Final Fantasy Tactics or Triangle Strategy, but the Item Worlds add a unique layer to progression.
Every piece of equipment has its own dungeon you may fight through, and every floor upgrades a particular item. While you can beat the game without deeply engaging with this system, you can become overpowered early on if you spend some time with it.
Developer Obsidian has had an interesting trajectory, making Fallout: New Vegas, South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the smaller Pillars of Eternity. The game is an isometric RPG harkening back to CRPGs of the late ’90s and early ’00s like Baldur’s Gate.
As per Obsidian’s reputation, your decisions during the game affect both the ending and other events in the middle of the narrative. Pillars of Eternity came out just as isometric RPGs were starting to bubble up in popularity again. It would be a couple of more years before titles like Divinity: Original Sin 2 brought it even closer to the mainstream, though.
In between proper Xenoblade Chronicles entries, Monolith Soft released this spin-off. Unlike the main games which are open but still separated by loading screens to feel more like open zeons, Xenoblade Chronicles X is atrue open-world game.
The world is huge and varied, including large plains, bodies of water with islands, and even land masses up in the sky. After playing this game, it is easy to see why Monolith Soft aided in the development of Breath of the Wild. Though no plot threads connect it to the trilogy, the story still deals with the existential themes typical of any game with the “Xeno” moniker.
Bloodborne is not only remembered as one of the best games developed by FromSoftware; it is often heralded as one of the greatest video games ever made.The progression offers the same flexibilityas the Dark Souls series.
However, the firearm you wield in your left hand alongside your melee weapon encourages parrying as a core part of the combat. This in turn makes the game feel faster and more aggressive. The setting also shies away from the typical medieval fantasy setting FromSoftware usually draws from.
