To deliver a strong epic story and keep the players invested for hundreds of hours (a common runtime for the genre), fantasy RPGs first need equally great worlds as their foundations, ones that blur the line between the player and the screen. For years, the creators have strived to deliver all-new fantasy worlds that feel believable. Centuries of history, deep lore revelations, unique races and fantastical creatures, distinct architecture, fleshed-out religions, customs, and beliefs — in the best fantasy RPGs, everything works in tandem to ensure a deeply personal journey through a world that genuinely feels special and alive.
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Some of the best fictional worlds in gaming evolve and get richer with each new installment, becoming more complex and nuanced, expanding to previously unseen regions and territories, and packing countless memorable stories that stay with the fans. Today, we’ll be ranking the greatest fantasy worlds in RPGs, both original and based on the existing IPs, known for their absorbing nature as well as distinct aesthetics and atmosphere.
Sanctuary
The Diablo Series
Set in the dark fantasy world of Sanctuary, the Diablo series has evolved and changed notably from game to game, finally returning to fan-favorite dark and grim gothic aesthetics in Diablo 4. A place where humanity resides between Heaven and Hell, with constant attacks by the undead and demons of all sorts, Diablo 4 is back to a diluted palette and pitch-black dungeons and caves after a more colorful step in Diablo 3 that not every fan was too fond of.
Overall, Diablo 4 offers a pretty standard fantasy package for ARPG lovers, with worldbuilding deep enough to make the environments and regions believable, but not to distract too much from its gameplay, so it’s a more event-based lore. Throughout Diablo 3 and 4, the devs have experimented with various regions of Sanctuary with their own distinct cultures and feel, such as Kehjistan and Nahantu, adding a more tribalistic layer to its multi-regional world.
Eora
Avowed, Pillars of Eternity
The most ambitious original world created by Obsidian to date, Eora debuted in Pillars of Eternity, where it was more of a high fantasy setting with a deep lore involving souls and gods. The sequel, Deadfire, shifted the emphasis to pirate aesthetics and grounded colonialistic politics, while fleshing out the franchise’s religious aspect even further. Finally, Eora has been made available to explore in first-person with the latest entry, Avowed, featuring its rich blend of inspirations and a set of distinct races like Aumaua and Orlan to oppose classic tropes with more variety.
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These fictional worlds offer the deepest and most complex backstories for each and every element, and they are a real treat to immerse yourself in.
Outside of new races, perhaps the most interesting aspect of Eora is the series’ intricate god pantheon, with complex characters, ties, and connections, where players are constantly challenged by questions of belief, have some extremely long and lore-heavy conversations, and are even tested by the gods in various ways. Even if Eora might not fully compare to settings like The Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age yet, this universe has enough potential to become a home for many future RPGs.
Faerûn
Baldur’s Gate 3
Despite Baldur’s Gate 3’s iconic status as one of the best modern CRPGs, when looking strictly through its world lens, some points should be taken off due to Faerûn not being the original setting invented by the devs. Set in the classic, vast, and diverse Forgotten Realms (Dungeons & Dragons universe), and backed by decades of history and evolution, Baldur’s Gate 3 hardly makes any substantial additions and alterations.
Of course, not every fan will be looking for them in the first place, simply enjoying the vibrant, colorful classic fantasy in Baldur’s Gate 3, full of weird creatures and characters, where seemingly everything is possible. The broadness of its setting can be a double-edged sword of sorts, as with the abundance of stories and themes, the game tries to include every possible fantasy twist and trope without focusing too much on something that makes it unique.
Thedas
The Dragon Age Series
Both Mass Effect and Dragon Age are core pillars of BioWare’s RPG history, representing some of the richest video game universes ever. For many, Thedas in Dragon Age: Origins has become almost a homeland, emerging as one of the first true adult fantasy worlds in the medium, heavily focused on complex themes like racial dynamics and morally ambiguous characters driven by personal motives. While mostly familiar on the surface, the world of Dragon Age has enough unique hooks like the central Mages vs. Templar opposition, races like Qunari, and signature world-shaping events like the Darkspawn Blights to fully stand on its own when compared to The Elder Scrolls or Forgotten Realms.
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With plenty of magic, strange creatures, and an epic underlying story, what these open-world games have in common is a beautiful, high-fantasy world.
Dragon Age games are also widely known for picturing Thedas very differently from game to game, as creators keep reinventing the feel and look of the world anew, sticking to early-established lore beats and key conflicts but retconning many of the world’s aspects. This is why there’s hardly any cohesiveness between Origins, DA2, Inquisition, and The Veilguard, and every Dragon Age fan has their favorite.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Tamriel
The Elder Scrolls Series
When compared to Faerûn, The Elder Scrolls’ Tamriel continent is a more grounded, serious, and epic high fantasy setting, emphasizing the world’s cohesiveness rather than its broadness (well, maybe outside of Morrowind). Each game, like Skyrim, is mostly set in its own vast province dominated by one of the races, of which there are nine, delivering a rather special feel and atmosphere, with an overarching sense of being just a part of a much bigger world.
For over 30 years now, the world of Elder Scrolls has been expanded and enriched with intricate lore details, distinct cultures for each of the playable races, including original Argonians and Khajiit, political struggles, and centuries of backstory that players can explore through countless in-game books or conversations. It’s also worth noting how Bethesda devs carefully add more and more facets without overexplaining or defending the “canon” aspect, still leaving many aspects of lore and history open to interpretation.
Yharnam
Bloodborne
Within FromSoftware’s portfolio of distinct and rich worlds, Bloodborne remains a true gem (sorry Dark Souls fans), and the gothic world of Yharnam with its rich cosmic forces, influences, and mysterious diseases, remains as fascinating and intriguing many years later as it was over a decade ago. Hardly any player will forget their journey through Yharnam and its surrounding areas, and even fewer players will be prepared for where the next step will take them.
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Bloodborne’s world is a true masterclass of blending seemingly incompatible elements into one irresistible package that gives more questions than answers and sparks imagination with its vague yet cohesive nature. After years of analyzing the lore and history of everything in Bloodborne, the picture is much clearer than it was before — yet Yharnam still holds enough mysteries to warrant a long-awaited return to this one-of-a-kind universe that fans can’t get enough of.
The Continent
The Witcher Series
Another game series that doesn’t take credit for its fantasy world. The Witcher games are based on the book universe by Andrzej Sapkowski, even though CD Projekt Red’s efforts of bringing it to life are undeniable, especially after going full open world in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The world of the Continent (okay, the name could’ve been better) is a sprawling Slavic-inspired fantasy with its distinct edge and atmosphere, separating it from the majority of high fantasy worlds in the medium. The cataclysmic Conjunction of the Spheres event is another major factor, essentially unlocking the Multiverse potential, which may yet play its role in the multiple upcoming projects.
The world of The Witcher is equally rich in fascinating creatures, mutants, and monsters rarely encountered elsewhere, grounded political struggles, racial inequality to make Dragon Age blush, intriguing connections between sorceresses and kings, and deeply personal stories of ordinary people. It’s a near-perfect basis for an open-world RPG, and just how lucky the players are that it ended up in CDPR’s hands.
The Lands Between
Elden Ring
The crowning gem in FromSoft’s gaming catalogue, Elden Ring, with its stunning world of the Lands Between, is an unmatched achievement in the realm of fantasy RPG settings. The game brings the lore depths that fans of the studio expect to a world of unparalleled scope and variety. Players no longer visit separate locations, like in Bloodborne or Dark Souls, but follow their own path through the colossal, sprawling, and rich environments firsthand.
What’s more, each new creature, area, and place across the Lands Between and the Realm of Shadows completely amazes on its own, while hiding century-old layered secrets and tons of backstory under the surface that only the most devoted fans will uncover. From complex connections between various demigods and their blood ties to parasitic cosmic influences orchestrating the entire direction of this world from behind the curtain, the lore of Elden Ring is so vast that entire novels can be written about it.
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