In big and complex RPGs with ludicrous amounts of freedom, we typically expect an engaging story to keep spurring us onward. It's easier to stay invested in a 100+ hour epic if you truly care about the characters, where they're going, and what they're doing. Often, we have some input into how that story ultimately plays out, through narrative choices along the way that can impact the ending. Some games make players leap through all kinds of absurd hoops in order to get the good or best ending.
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The requirements can be frustratingly specific, and it's even worse if there's no particular indication throughout the game as to what the right choices are to pursue them. The thing that players truly dread, though, is when one seemingly innocuous decision along the way can doom you to miss out on a perfect conclusion to your story. Here are some titles where it's easy to fall into that trap.
5 Triangle Strategy
A String Of Decisions, Where One Mistake Can Break The Chain
Triangle Strategy is a turn-based tactical RPG wth excellent combat developed by Square Enix, set in the realm of Norzelia. Here, an uneasy peace between the nations of Glenbrook, Hyzante, and Aesfrost, fostered after a long period of warfare, is shattered again when Aesfrost stages an invasion of Glenbrook. It stars Serenoa Wolffort, of House Wolffort, a leading military force in Glenbrook. The player begins with a core cast of allies, including Prince Roland of the kingdom and new fiancee Frederica Aesfrost, and can recruit more as their actions and decisions dictate. Each is an entirely unique unit, with a different selection of abilities to learn, weapon to upgrade, and proficiencies.
Your decisions in the game won't only affect the units you can add to your roster, but the different paths the story will take. The game is best known for its Scales of Conviction mechanic, whereby the main characters of Serenoa's party each vote on one possible course of action or the other during pivotal moments in the story. During the game's climax, though, three of your party members will each suggest an entirely different plan, incompatible with the others, and choosing any one will cause an opposed member to leave the party. However, a very specific series of actions throughout the game will see Serenoa dramatically arrive at an idea that suits everybody, resolving the lingering issues in each nation and uniting them in a new age of peace (plus marrying Frederica, of course). To achieve this best ending, though, some very particular choices must be made, including refusing to use any of the fire traps against the army invading Wolffort territory in Chapter 7, thereby making the invading army far more difficult to force back. You must also agree to help an illegal trader transport his precious Salt, and reveal the truth of Prince Roland's identity to Svarog of Aesfrost when questioned. There's also a very particular item hidden away in the village of the Roselle, Frederica's people, which must be obtained. Some of these choices seem insignificant at the time, or to have no bearing on the overall outcome, but each is essential to staying on the path to the best ending.
4 Persona 4 Golden
Don't Make One False Move
The Persona RPGs are some of the most beloved, and certainly some of the longest. It would be completely understandable, then, if a player decided that one playthrough was enough, at least for a good long time. If you don't see yourself revisiting a title for that reason, then, it's critical that you get the ending you want. For the best ending in Persona 4 Golden, everything hinges on a series of decisions made right at the very end.
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For one thing, there's the requirement that series fans will already be familiar with: Maxing out the associated Social Link. In this case, it's Marie's, presumably because the game wants to ensure that you get as acquainted as possible with this Golden-exclusive character. Other major players will presumably be maxed out too, and each one you talk to on the last day (the last last day, in March) will add another of those emotional little scenes that the games do so well. After that, resist the game's repeated insistence that you should go home, and instead travel again to the Riverbank followed by the Velvet Room. Speaking to your allies in these places will open up the path to one final stop, Shopping District South and the staff member at its gas station. This sequence of events opens up Yomotsu Hirasaka, the game's very last dungeon. It must be visited on this day, can only be accessed via this sequence, and it's home to Izanami. If you truly want the ultimate closure, this is the way to achieve it.
3 Vampyr
Let Your Humanity Triumph Over Vampirism
As a doctor at the time of the Great Influenza epidemic which arrived in the wake of World War I, Jonathan Reid has a challenging professional life to say the very least. That's before a further complicating factor is added to the mix: He's also been bitten by a vampire and converted into one himself. This is the deeply troubling dichotomy of his life. He has traveled back to London after fighting in the conflict and been given a job at Pembroke Hospital, where he can develop a close rapport with patients and secure the medicine required to help them. He can also, however, choose to embrace his vampire side and feast on them.
The game takes place across several districts of London, each populated by its own cast of characters. The health of each NPC impacts the health of that district as a whole, and this is the decision the player has to make: To be the dutiful doctor, crafting the necessary medicines for their ailments and healing them, or devouring at will and allowing the districts to fall to chaos and be full of enemies. The latter may not sound tempting, but note that the more you speak with characters and get to know them better (the characterization is surprisingly in-depth), the more experience they will be worth if you opt to feed on them.
It's a lot more difficult to level up if you refuse to feed in this way, but you'll only get the best ending if you spare everybody. Note, then, that one NPC, Dorothy Crane, is quite infamous. She's the 'pillar,' or the key character, of the Whitechapel district, and the storyline sees Reid confront her about her blackmailing of a prominent figure, Lady Ashbury. You can opt to spare her, charm her, or embrace (feed on) her. As the first option sees her resign her post a healer, it seems that charm, to simply make her forget, is the safest option, but doing so actually causes her to go missing and eventually return as a skal, an unfriendly vampire. The health of Whitechapel is devastated by this seemingly-innocent choice, to the extent that lots of players have felt compelled to restart after making this common mistake.
2 The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Slightest Decisions Change Ciri's Fate
In some RPGs, the decisions the player must make are enormous and universe-defining. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has its share of huge setpieces too, but sometimes the smallest decisions are the most impactful. In the aftermath of the Battle of Kaer Morhen, Geralt can choose to attempt to lift Ciri's spirits. Doing so will result in his instigating a snowball fight with her, a bit of silly fun but also a powerfully emotional moment in its own right. What newcomers may not know is that the tiniest things like this will ultimately dictate whether Ciri lives or is lost.
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Particular decisions the player can make through the game offer Ciri the chance to prove her confidence and develop faith in her own extraordinary abilities. In order to do this, she must sometimes be trusted to act alone. For instance, in another vital case, she may speak to Margarita and Phillipa by herself, if Geralt encourages her that she'll be okay to do so. Alternatively, he can choose to join her, but what may be intended as a supportive and protective act actually counts as a negative choice. If the 'wrong' choice is made in enough of these moments, Ciri can perish in her attempt to subdue the formidable White Frost.
1 Undertale
It's Not Easy Being Friendly To Everyone
Players spend a lot of their time in RPGs slaying foes in battle after battle, all for the sake of getting stronger. In Undertale, it's quite refreshing to pursue the pacifist route instead. Those who are truly committed can complete a True Pacifist run, but as always with this game, there are a lot of surprises ahead that make this incredibly difficult.
If you become too fixate on simply avoiding defeating any enemies during this utterly unique adventure, you'll miss those seemingly insignificant decisions that will also immediately end your attempt at achieving True Pacifist. Say, for instance, that you defeat and spare Papyrus, but simply move on. Yep, there goes that attempt. You also need to complete the encounter with them afterwards. After that, reviving Undyne with a splash of water is also a critical requirement, as is the later encounter with Alphys. You must have already completed a neutral playthough to attempt the True Pacifist route, and several of the requirements for it are things that you might be inclined to skipped having already seen them once. If you do so, though, your story is ruined. One of the most challenging challenge runs of all.
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