What is the best RPG game of all time ?

[Asereme]

I have been wondering for a long time what is the best RPG game of all time. For me it is the Witcher. Change my mind.

 

[Brian Boru]

Welcome to the forum

You should get better response here in the RPG forum, so I moved your thread.

Start with this…

Question - Your favourite RPG

Whats your favourite RPG, guys?

forums.pcgamer.com

…even tho the OP hasn't been since since the day he posted it

 

[Colif]

At least Woodie can't repeat his answer in this thread.

 

[MrShadow]

well im up for RPG talk if theres any of you guys are RPG heads. i tend to stick to older ports from the 16 or 32 bit era, preferably remastered to work with my screen res or steam deck.

my PC favourites right now woud be woud be : chrono trigger (on steam at least its the more inferior port from the SNES aparently but ill still play it), dragon quest XI S-echoes of an elusive age (definitive edition), final fantasy II, disgaea 2 PC,
tales of symphonia and my wildcard RPG woud be amazin george 2 -its oldskool and its just...mad.

i know everyone has favourites and there can be games that regardless of our undying love for them and opinion are seen as technicaly briliant,rubbish,to long,to short,to difficult, to much level grinding needed etc but the playstation 1s 'wild arms' and the sega saturns panzer dragoon RPG/panzer dragoon saga were always two all time favurites of mine that i will never forget or lose my respect for-everything from the emotive dragons crying when they get hit to the stunning music (which i own on vinyl) .i woud dearly love to see it not remade but remastered for the PC-im not sure how itd work though with team andromeda being digitaly six feet under for so long and the entire 'missing' code drama -one of them has got to have it, if not cant one of the talented folk rebuilding panzer dragoon 1 and zwei/2 backwards engineer it? i know they were rebuilt using the latest unreal graphics engine but they were built so respectfuly close to the saturn originals .i dont have deep enough experience in this field so i dont know the ethics of rebuilding a defunct developers game thats 20 odd years old now. :/
---i forgot to add, there is curently an ongoing crowd funding type thing going on to rebuilt panzer dragoon saga for the PC- at least thats what i was told by one of my support staff,i need to find the official link to it.

 

[Zloth]

Soundin' more like JRPG talk, but I can do some of that. Did you ever play The Last Remenant, @MrShadow?

 

[Krud]

The best RPG of all time?

Well, I'm not sure how objective one could be about this, so I'm going to start by just listing my personal favorite RPG's and work my way down from there. (Feel free to skip down to the row of asterisks if you'd rather not have to sit through my process.)

In no particular order, lumping certain ones together for ease of posting only:

- Quest For Glory I-IV
- Fallout 1/2
- Fallout 3/New Vegas/4
- Daggerfall/ Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim
- Dragon Age Origins/DA2/Inquisition
- Mass Effect 1-3 (I almost left 3 out, but it still had some catharsis in the DLC to leave it in at first)
- The Witcher 1-3
- Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2
- Planescape: Torment
- Baldur's Gate 1/2
- Arcanum
- Knights Of The Old Republic 1/2
- Jade Empire
- Pillars of Eternity
- Deus Ex/ Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- Pathfinder: Kingmaker

(If I'm forgetting any, they must not have made enough of an impression me.)

That's over thirty titles, which is far too many. So first off, I'm going to eliminate any of the ones I never finished. Not the best criteria, to be sure, since that hinges on my willingness to complete the game in question. But I've already admitted early on I'm not being objective, so this is one of my criteria. If I couldn't be bothered to finish it, then clearly it wasn't my favorite. Which eliminates a lot of the above. (I won't re-list them yet, just know that a lot of them are gone.)

Secondly, is it a game I think about long after I've stopped playing? Does it compel me to plan things, make character builds, look up guides, and just generally invest in the game when I'm not playing it? If not, then I must once again conclude that I'm just not that into it. Now with these two filters in place, I'm left with the following:

- Quest For Glory I
- Fallout 1/2
- Fallout 3/New Vegas
- Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim
- Dragon Age Origins
- Mass Effect 1 & 2
- The Witcher 3
- Neverwinter Nights
- Arcanum
- Knights Of The Old Republic 1/2
- Pillars of Eternity
- Deus Ex/ Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Okay, I'm down to 18 titles. Not quite halfway there, so to make it harder, which ones have I enjoyed enough to replay? (Or at least try to replay, whether I finished a second time or not.) This leaves me with the following:

- Quest For Glory I
- Fallout 1
- Fallout New Vegas
- Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim
- Dragon Age Origins
- Mass Effect 1 & 2
- Neverwinter Nights
- Arcanum
- Knights Of The Old Republic
- Deus Ex

Now it's down to 13. Still too many. Time to get harsh. Did I *like* the ending of the game? I know, a lot of RPG's don't have solid "endings" as such, but some do, and I'm a sucker for them, so that's the next hurdle I'm putting in front of this otherwise great list of RPG's that I'd recommend to anyone. I'm now left with

- Fallout 1
- Fallout New Vegas
- Oblivion
- Dragon Age Origins
- Mass Effect 1
- Knights Of The Old Republic

Okay, half a dozen. Manageable, but not to where we want to be. What else can we make it have. Oh! Since a staple of RPG's is the amount of control we have over our characters and their design, which of these give us that, and how much does it impact the story (or at least how it's told)? Bonus points if we can change the ending in the process. Okay, that just knocked out Mass Effect, so I need to come with more. How about... amount of player choice in combat. That knocks out KOTOR (*sniff*). So we're down to four.

- Fallout 1
- Fallout New Vegas
- Oblivion
- Dragon Age Origins

Now it's time to get a bit mean. How broken are the games? This one hurts, because two games in particular are about to get the boot because of this arbitrary rule I've decided matters, leaving us with two titles:

- Fallout 1
- Dragon Age Origins

So now the question remains: Which of these is the better game? Which is the better RPG? Which felt more fulfilling to me as a player, and that I would point to unapologetically to people looking for recommendations of RPG's?

***************ROW OF ASTERISKS (AS MENTIONED IN TOP OF POST)***************

So, based on my super-scientific process, the answer is Dragon Age: Origins.

Or possibly Quest For Glory IV, I can't be sure.

 

[McStabStab]

Quite a list! No Divinity: Original Sin 2? Disco Elysium? If we're counting Deus Ex, System Shock 2?

For me, Fallout 1 & 2 would probably be at the top as well, and I also like Oblivion over Skyrim.

 

[Brian Boru]

my process

Awesome!

which ones have I enjoyed enough to replay?

That's my main criterion for any genre. The other general one—which you didn't use, to my surprise—is tied to another of your criteria…

a staple of RPG's is the amount of control we have over our characters and their design

…and that's the availability of mods, which allow control over almost every aspect of a game.

 

[Krud]

Awesome!

That's my main criterion for any genre. The other general one—which you didn't use, to my surprise—is tied to another of your criteria…

…and that's the availability of mods, which allow control over almost every aspect of a game.

Don't get me wrong, I love modding (see my other post elsewhere about this, assuming it wasn't deleted for being spammy), but for me tweaking, fiddling, patching, overhauling, streamlining, and all that other meta-gamey stuff is a separate (but sometimes equal) activity that's irrespective of the game's quality overall.

Also, for some of my criteria, modding was assumed because of this being PC Gamer. A lot of the games I listed wouldn't have even made it to the second or third round if I'd been unable to mod them. (As much as I love Obsidian, pre-modded New Vegas was just a mess.)

 

[BaddAzzYellaBro]

Baldur's Gate I & II. Throw in mods and it's almost the perfect game!

 

[BaddAzzYellaBro]

Don't get me wrong, I love modding (see my other post elsewhere about this, assuming it wasn't deleted for being spammy), but for me tweaking, fiddling, patching, overhauling, streamlining, and all that other meta-gamey stuff is a separate (but sometimes equal) activity that's irrespective of the game's quality overall.

Also, for some of my criteria, modding was assumed because of this being PC Gamer. A lot of the games I listed wouldn't have even made it to the second or third round if I'd been unable to mod them. (As much as I love Obsidian, pre-modded New Vegas was just a mess.)

So how did you never finish BG? One of the best modded games ever. I know it's hard, because after 20 years, I just got around to finishing BG:TOB Play for awhile, then I leave the game. Come back, update mods and then start over from beginning. I've done every version of BG since the original discs in 1999, from Weidu to BGT to BGEE Trilogy. Only game besides some form of Jagged Alliance that has been on every computer (desktop and laptop) that I have ever owned. Currently have 2 desktop PCs and 2 laptops and yes, BG is installed on all 4!

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I have been wondering for a long time what is the best RPG game of all time. For me it is the Witcher. Change my mind.

You'll have to come back if you really want us to change your mind. Or maybe you're just pondering all of the options we're giving you and processing them before giving your response?

 

[Garasparn]

For me it'll always be Final Fantasy series, especially parts VII, VIII and X

 

[Lilscotty85]

Diablo 3 is a great rpg check it out if you haven't yet. I love the different seasons they come up with. Choose a class, the constant grind of finding better gear. worth hours of gameplay. I have play all the games in the diablo series and I always come back to it.

 

[wassimlilian]

I have been wondering for a long time what is the best RPG game of all time. For me it is the Witcher. Change my mind.

I totally agree with you, this game is just amazing

 

[Slasken]

The Witcher 3 for me.

 

[Lozia]

The Witcher 3
and that'

 

[FelixFernald]

I was a latecomer to the Mass Effect Trilogy; started playing it for the first time in 2019. I don't think I've played a game with better-written characters and dialogue. And I never expected to have such an emotional attachment to each one. So for me it's the ME trilogy for sure. I didn't even mind the ME3 ending so much, since I had already lowered my expectations and didn't have to wait years for that game to come out.

 

[tri321]

fall out
the witcher

 

[lilgame]

world of warcraft

 

[Wolf _98]

Clash of clans