The RPG genre is stacked with exceptional games, both on the gameplay and narrative side of things. Many of the best games ever made exist within this genre, ranging from fantasy epics to futuristic dystopias, but the most impressive of the bunch are those that manage to focus heavily on action while still being incredibly well-written.
The 10 Best RPGs of 2025
With many impressive games under the RPG banner in 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, The Outer Worlds 2, and more offer outstanding experiences.
It can be hard to create a satisfying gameplay loop that is also held together with a cohesive story and set of characters, yet time and time again, more games prove that it is possible with enough talent and drive. Regardless of whether players prefer slow-burn adventures or intense thrill rides, there is bound to be an action RPG with an all-time great story waiting for them to try.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Tragedy On An Epic Scale
- Strong thematic focus on mortality.
- An ensemble cast with evolving relationships.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 delivers an ambitious yet cohesive narrative centered on the incalculable cost of endless conflict. Its world is built on cycles of war that strip meaning away from life, giving emotional weight to every battle in and out of combat, but where the writing really excels is in balancing the story's grander themes with intimate individual character struggles.
The central cast develops through shared trauma that becomes more devastating over time, creating relationships that feel truly personal by the end. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 isn't afraid to explore complicated topics like mortality and legacy, inviting players to think introspectively about their own place in the world.
Star Wars Knights Of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords
Deconstructing The Series' Classic Force Ideologies
- Companion-driven conflicts that tie the story together.
- Presents an aversion to binary choices.
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords challenges the moral simplicity of the original series by questioning profound concepts like power, faith, and heroism. The narrative rejects clear answers, replacing them with philosophical debates and lingering doubt, no matter what decisions are made, completely reshaping familiar concepts within the franchise.
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While plenty of RPGs have been announced for 2026 and beyond, these upcoming role-playing games are especially exciting.
The game's companions actually act as ideological bounceboards, forcing players to reflect and reconsider as their path to darkness becomes more morally gray. In a sense, it simply uses the Star Wars name as a baseline world within which its narrative explores uncomfortable ideas that were otherwise ignored by the binary "good" and "bad" perspectives of the original trilogy.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines
Distinctive Paths Depending On Player Choice
- Strong writing is complemented by quality voice acting.
- Exceptional thematic cohesion regardless of player choice.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines thrives on character-driven storytelling, sending players on a journey into a gothic world that feels alive despite being mostly full of the undead. Factions are the primary focus, but rather than being a series of disconnected groups, they interweave with one another and shape the player's interactions within the world in meaningful ways.
Because of how integrated the role-playing is with the writing, dialogue options and quest outcomes can quickly be altered drastically by a single set of choices. Bloodlines isn't afraid to lean into the fragility of its characters, either, exploring their pasts and explicitly showing their weaknesses, which often define their entire personalities.
Deus Ex
Thought-Provoking Right From The Start
- World-building is done through environmental storytelling.
- Features themes that remain relevant decades later.
Deus Ex is a technological and conspiracy-driven experience that is heavily driven by the player's ability to think outside the box. Rather than forcing them down one specific path, the game encourages players to explore other avenues and approaches, often leading to far more interesting outcomes down the line.
Every mission supports multiple solutions, reinforcing the idea of freedom in the most organic way possible. The narrative is also incredibly compelling, exploring philosophical conflicts and political paranoia; forward-thinking themes back in 2000, but they remain relevant today.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Historical Authenticity Above All
- Grounded narrative and storytelling.
- Quests shaped by social status.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance grounds its story in historical authenticity, rejecting fantasy tropes in favor of a more realistic, socially conscious narrative. Progression is slow and earned, reflecting the harsh realities of Medieval life in 15th-century Bohemia, and the story runs parallel to the player's progress up the societal ladder, perfectly integrating gameplay into narrative.
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The writing really emphasizes the struggles between classes, clearly showing how different groups interact with one another on a personal level. This commitment to realism also makes those moments and pieces of dialogue all the more compelling, turning simple conversations into engaging sequences that resonate long after the player moves on.
Mass Effect Trilogy
Carrying Crucial Decisions Throughout The Series
- Deep character arcs persist across games.
- Choices carry heavy influence within each game and the trilogy as a whole.
The Mass Effect Trilogy is easily one of the best sci-fi RPGs ever made, and a big reason for that comes from its ability to maintain cohesive relationships over the course of the entire trilogy. While the overarching plot follows a familiar heroic structure, the emotional core within the crew of the Normandy makes it feel far more impactful and memorable than many other big names in the genre.
Choices influence trust and loyalty, and there are multiple moments throughout the series where players will witness the impact of their decisions, even if it means waiting for an entire game to finish. Despite the galactic scale of the threats faced, the writing really shines in the quieter moments, drawing players in with a series of characters that have since become favorites in the gaming world.
Vagrant Story
Dense, Cryptic, And Sophisticated
- Minimal exposition with rich narrative undercurrents.
- Gradually unfolding darker themes.
Vagrant Story tells a tightly focused political tragedy not by outlining everything for the player straight away, but by letting them slowly unravel the deeper meaning behind its dark world. Its dialogue demands a lot of attention, rewarding patience with a story that runs incredibly deep if players are willing to delve into it.
The exploration of obsession, corruption, and identity is executed through fragmented storytelling that trusts interpretation, and by refusing to over-explain every minute detail of the story, it gives the game a more intellectual feel, allowing it to remain timeless despite being over two decades old.
NieR: Automata
A Philosophical Masterpiece
- Uses an experimental narrative structure and presentation.
- Emotional character arcs persist and change over several playthroughs.
NieR: Automata is one of the best examples of an RPG that uses multiple perspectives and endings in a genuinely compelling way. Gradually, each event is reframed, as rather than simply replaying the same things over and over, players are instead given huge revelations that completely change how they view the story, despite being on a second or third playthrough.
The characters also evolve alongside the player's perception, altering their perspectives and growing into incredibly complex individuals with more than a single identity. As ambitious as the narrative is, it manages to stick the landing, maintaining a sense of cohesion that transcends other significantly less sophisticated RPGs in virtually every regard.
Fallout: New Vegas
As Good As RPG Choice Gets
- Real consequences for choices big and small.
- Puts a heavy emphasis on role-playing.
Fallout: New Vegas stands as a benchmark for faction-based storytelling and true role-playing freedom. Each group in post-apocalyptic Nevada is defined by a strict ideology, spawning incredibly complex political webs that define large swaths of the narrative without ever becoming convoluted.
The world itself is already impressive on its own, but the player can actually influence huge aspects of it through decisions and alliances made during their playthrough. It never feels as though they are a blank protagonist simply moving around the world. They are an integral piece of the puzzle, someone who plays an important role in deciding the fates of individuals, communities, and entire philosophical ideologies.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Pioneering The Modern RPG Space
- Mature and morally complex in both its main and side quests.
- Exceptional character writing across the entire cast.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has remained the gold standard for RPG writing for many years now. It's such a deeply complex and nuanced narrative that it keeps players coming back time and again. Every character has importance in the world, and the choices the player makes when interacting with them always feel morally grey, potentially leading to several later paths that could be good, bad, or somewhere in between.
As great as the main quest is, many players consider the side content to be the high point, as the world feels so much more full of life when the external stories are just as engaging as the central one. Without ever losing its footing, The Witcher 3 manages to juggle intimate interactions with far grander storylines that all feel equally believable and engaging, no matter how far into the narrative the player is.
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One of the standout features of an RPG is the option to do anything you want, even fall in love. These titles feature a wide array of romance options.