Summary
- Gamers love playing RPGs as they offer satisfying endings through character development & epic final boss fights.
- Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Final Fantasy 15, & Undertale provide emotionally impactful and satisfying conclusions.
- RPGs like Persona 5 Royal and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt offer lengthy but rewarding journeys with brilliant end-game twists.
RPGs tend to be pretty long in terms of playtime. Some RPGs, particularly JRPGs, can stretch well into the hundreds of hours, telling vast and epic stories that are mind-bogglingly big. Yet, despite the length, gamers love a good RPG because they're so satisfying to conquer.
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Whether it's because of a massive level of character development, a satisfying end to an epic story, or a simply epic final boss fight, no games are quite as enjoyable to finish as an excellent RPG, and there's plenty to choose from.
8 Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic
Far, Far Away
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
- Released
- July 15, 2003
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Violence
- Genre(s)
- RPG
Trying to determine the very best Star Wars game is a Sisyphean task, but if there is a consensus pick, it's probably BioWare's 2003 magnum opus Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, which told one of the very best stories in all of Star Wars lore.
The epic story sees players adventure across the galaxy with a ragtag group of pals, choosing whether to align with the dark or light side of the force, and a revelation about the player's true identity that has gone down in history as one of gaming's biggest twists. It leads to an amazing final battle in the Star Forge, resulting in an incredibly satisfying ending.
7 Final Fantasy 15
A Final Trip With The Homies
Final Fantasy 15
- Released
- November 9, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Language, Mild Blood, Partial Nudity, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
In a list of the best Final Fantasy games, Final Fantasy 15 is probably not going to rank among most people's favorites. There are a lot of good reasons for that, and the story is kind of a mess. However, its ending is stellar and makes for a genuinely emotional and satisfying conclusion.
The best parts of Final Fantasy 15 are about building up relationships with Noctis and his pals, and the finale of the game is all about those relationships coming full circle. In a game drowning in convoluted lore, it's a wildly impressive emotional grounding that makes the whole ending one of the most emotionally impactful conclusions in the entire Final Fantasy franchise.
6 Undertale
RPGs Reinvented
Undertale
- Released
- September 15, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- E10+ for Everyone 10+: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Mild Language, Simulated Gambling, Use of Tobacco
- Genre(s)
- RPG
Undertale came out of nowhere and made a statement that the age of indie RPGs had truly arrived, marking the apotheosis of the early 2010s indie game movement that forever changed how games were made and proving that more experimental games could reach massive levels of popularity.
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One reason Undertale reached that level of popularity is due to the incredibly satisfying journey the game leads the player along. By the end of the game, players aren't just trying to encounter a surprise final boss and a catharsis for the friends they made along their adventure, but also rethinking the core tenets of what makes an RPG tick. For RPG fans, there's few better feelings than finishing a truly emotionally impactful story like Undertale.
5 Fallout: New Vegas
Mosey Down Memory Lane
Fallout: New Vegas
- Released
- October 19, 2010
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs
- Genre(s)
- RPG
In recent years, the reputation of Fallout: New Vegas has increased drastically, now ranking as many players' favorite entry in the entire franchise as appreciation grows for its RPG credentials and experimental gameplay.
While Fallout: New Vegas may not deliver the same emotional impact in its final moments, the sheer amount of choice a player has in shaping the future of the Mojave Wasteland makes the concluding slideshow a famously brilliant bit of low-budget storytelling that makes the player feel like they made a real difference and their choices matter, even for the minor factions. There's few feelings more satisfying than looking back on all the work completed.
4 Persona 5 Royal
Steal Your Heart
Persona 5 Royal
- Released
- October 31, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- m
- Genre(s)
- JRPG, Adventure
Persona games are famously lengthy titles that can take hundreds of hours to complete, particularly for completionists who want to maximize time in the dungeons. Persona 5 Royal is no different, clocking in as one of the longest entries in the franchise.
Yet, Persona 5 Royal isn't lengthy for the sake of it. Instead, the whole game is about building social relationships over time, growing to bond with the protagonist's pals, and putting those relationships to the test in a twisty conspiracy narrative that holds a load of brilliant end-game twists and surprise dungeons that make the player truly appreciate the epic journey they've been on.
3 Mass Effect 2
Suicide Mission
Mass Effect 2
- Released
- January 26, 2010
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Third-Person Shooter
As BioWare's gameography matured, the scope of their RPGs started to gradually dwindle, until they became more like action games than RPGs. Yet, in 2010, BioWare found the perfect balance between RPG storytelling and action gameplay in Mass Effect 2, resulting in The Suicide Mission, one of gaming's most notorious missions ever, that led to a really satisfying ending.
Most of Mass Effect 2's plot is dedicated to building up the new Normandy ship with a ragtag crew to stop the Collectors and their nefarious plans. This is all a carefully crafted plan to get the player to care about these characters, because they can die in the Suicide Mission, and it is heartbreaking to see it happen. Beating it is like few other experiences in gaming.
2 Final Fantasy 6
Avenge The World
Final Fantasy 6
- Released
- October 11, 1994
WHERE TO PLAY
- ESRB
- T For Teen Due To Fantasy Violence, Partial Nudity
- Genre(s)
- RPG
The Final Fantasy series has gone through many evolutions during its long existence, yet few of its entries have been able to crawl out from the shadow of Final Fantasy 6, often considered the fan favorite, for a particular narrative move that changed how many gamers interacted with games thereafter.
Because, spoiler alert, about midway through the game, the player finally gets a chance to fight Kefka, the big bad, and they fail. They fail horribly, and the world enters an apocalypse. Building themselves back up and taking on Kefka one more time to take them down for good is so incredibly satisfying, and it tells a story to rival an epic movie or book.
1 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The End Of The Road
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Released
- May 19, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
On its own, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a satisfying game to beat. It's massive, with some great DLC, and the best writing in modern RPGs. But, where it really shines is as a conclusion to the whole Witcher story and a goodbye to Geralt as a character.
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To put this in context, for fans of the franchise, The Witcher 3 isn't just a conclusion to the game trilogy, but to the original books as well. That means The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt pulls no punches in its final hours, delivering catharsis after catharsis, and telling a fantasy epic that wraps up in a satisfying way that few games can beat.
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