Top 5 Greatest RPGs of All Time

Yes. Yes, they can. Final Fantasy 9 was released initially in 2000 for the PlayStation 1 and takes the undisputed top spot on this list for sure. It was the last instalment in the franchise for the PlayStation 1 before moving to the new PlayStation 2 console, for which Final Fantasy X was already being made.

The game received critical acclaim upon its release and currently has a 94/100 rating on Metacritic. Fans have pulled together to create various mods for the game over the years, as well as the Project Memoria drop, which gave an idea of what a more modernised version of the game might look like long before Square Enix intended to remake it.

Final Fantasy 9 follows a party of adventurers as they work their way across the land of Gaia, unravelling a conflict that eventually spans planets. Despite the grandiose overarch of that particular narrative, the characters are relatable and flawed, their personal stories are engaging, and their growth is pleasantly organic within the unique and gorgeous world that has been presented.

Final Fantasy 9 is a traditional turn-based RPG with an elegantly simple system. Square Enix at its best. Gone are the problems of Final Fantasy 8, where missing a single weapon’s magazine will equate to running around on Disk 3 with a character that can only do 20 points of damage; instead, there are multiple opportunities to upgrade or pick up weapons and other equipment.

Some items are available early game to make some encounters on the field easier, as bonuses should you be able to find them, and the synthesis system for Zidane’s daggers always comes with a sense of satisfaction when you see him twirling a double-bladed weapon above his head.

#2: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Okay, so this game hasn’t even been out a month yet, and the internet has just finished getting through a whole controversial moment with nerfing characters in updates, but this game exploded onto the scene with such outrageous success that it felt wrong to leave it off of a list like this.

Released on 25th April 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 set a precedent for selling 1 million units in 3 days and being made by a small group of people working for a brand new studio (not just in some dude’s basement). It scores a massive 92/100 on Metacritic with new reviews rolling in daily and has been the talk of the RPGs world for how beautifully it handles its turn-based system, how it tells its extremely tight but heavily melancholic story and for the beautiful Art Nouveau graphics enhanced by such little details as the paint swirl and sound as each character gears up for a move during combat.

The story follows the participants of Expedition 33, who have been sent out of their Belle Epoque home of Lumiere into the wider world to confront the Paintress. She is a deity who wakes once a year to change a number on a magical monolith, and anyone aged over that number will subsequently decay and disappear.

It’s an excellent hook to introduce the similar themes to Final Fantasy 9 of death and grief, and as the game progresses, the player gets an intriguing insight into the psychology of characters who have been plagued by this countdown all their lives. The game shows us natural dialogue and chemistry, extra attention to those heavy themes, and a wide, beautiful world for these poor people to wander over before they perish.

This game basically took the RPG genre, extracted everything awesome about it, and then combined it to make a Frankenstein-esque super monster that is just working for the community. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the combat systems where everything is nicely colour-coded, everyone has different move sets and skills to strategize with (no copy paste for Clair Obscur), and where the implementation of Quick Time Events means that the player can never be complacent. The game was designed to grab your attention in the best way, and once it has that attention, it does not intend to let go.

#3: Persona 5 Royal

You cannot have a list of the greatest RPGs of all time and not have at least one Persona game present. That’s like having a classic mac and cheese without the cheese. Each instalment in the Persona franchise has been strong, with excellent story, immaculately stylised characters, and killer settings and soundtracks, but Persona 5 takes the crown, particularly after its remake, Persona 5 Royal, was released in 2022. This one rates a staggering 95/100 on Metacritic, which sits pretty alongside the label: ‘Universal acclaim’.

The story is set in modern-day Tokyo, and our protagonist is Ren Amamiya, or the Joker as he’s better known. Ren is forced to move following a false accusation of assault, and, upon discovering that he and his friends are developing some interesting super powers, he decides to become a vigilante and use his powers to eradicate the sinful desires in the hearts of corrupt adults. This story is a stark and highly charged romp into psychology, and it shines best through putting pressure on the main cast to explore their own psychological conditions based on what they’ve seen, and in the networking simulation of the world of Tokyo.

Where Persona 5 Royal tends to stand out is in the consistency of the aesthetic and attention to thematic detail that can be seen insofar as the character’s special move animations during combat. As Ren goes about his daily life in Tokyo, he can gain social points depending on who he talks to and how he talks to them until they become friendly enough to be ‘Confidants’. This mechanic isn’t just for NPCs either. If enough time is spent with a party member, then having them become a Confidant means unlocking special moves that you can perform with them during combat.

When not in Tokyo, Ren can be seen running through the dungeons of the Metaverse in physical representations of his victi- I mean, his current mission’s psyche. This is where the game really shines, creating fantastic, oversaturated dungeons reminiscent of American McGee’s Alice and implementing a turn-based battle system that’s just as eccentric as some of those special move animations.

#4: Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

It’s got to be good if it has a live-action spin-off series and an anime. Right? Witcher 3 came crashing onto our various consoles in 2015 and has ended up sitting atop a veritable throne of Game of the Year awards, enjoying a rather stately 92/100 on Metacritic.

It follows the story of Geralt of Rivia, a man tasked with roaming the countryside, felling monsters for money, or otherwise getting rid of other supernatural nuisances with breakdancing prowess. As the game begins, he is searching for his adopted daughter, Siri, who is running from the terrifying Wild Hunt. He follows her trail across the land, becoming involved in various other branching narratives, all of them compelling in their own right because of the rich Slavic lore of the game.

With sandbox games like this, especially RPGs, it’s easy to sacrifice the integral parts of the story to the great swallow of the world’s wide canvas. Witcher 3 doesn’t do this at all. Each new area has some new insight into Geralt, or the world around them, or just something fun to do (see anything that involves my man Dandelion). The game was developed using REDengine3, which was how the devs were able to craft such a complex array of stories, including all those glorious nitty-gritty and sometimes gory details, without compromising on the size of their open world.

The action-based gameplay of Witcher 3 is a little hard to get the hang of, but once you’ve really grasped those mechanics and are able to set up a glowing purple trap in no time at all, it gets to be really fun picking the right sigils and triggering them to watch something ghostly suddenly be forced into physical form. That’s when you get to hit them with one of Geralt’s swords, and my God, is that satisfying.

#5: Undertale

In a comparative RPGs list involving big budgeters and hyper-realistic fanfares such as Clair Obscur and Witcher 3, it’s hard to think that a little indie game like Undertale could make an impact. This game has a cult like following, however, and despite it’s 8-bit pixel art appearance and the fact that the creator, Toby Fox, literally made the game pretty much by himself because he read a Wikipedia page on array data structures which led to thoughts of how to create a battle system that wouldn’t be ‘boring’, the game continues to see success and is still talked about as a cornerstone of an RPG experience.

Undertale is a ‘top-down perspective’ game that allows the player to control a child who falls down into an underground world populated by ‘monsters’. The story unfolds as the player leaves Toriel’s abode and begins to explore the new underground world in search of a way to the surface. It is, at its heart, an unapologetic appreciation of RPGs as a whole, taking classic elements and ripping them to brutal shreds in the most loving way, such as Toriel’s painstaking tutorial, resulting in an overprotective conflict designed to keep the player from progressing.

Each of the characters has their own, unique ways of trying to stop the player from progressing, some more effective than others. What remains real is that they are pretty much all harmless, all ridiculous, and all carrying the same prejudices against humans that the humans allegedly have against them.

This satirical take on the traditional serious RPG and the sheer quirky ridiculousness of this game is enough to earn this game a solid spot in the list of the greatest RPGs of all time, but the gameplay itself expands on this. Each battle requires different rules to be taken into account, each combat requiring different sets of challenging minigames to complete in order for damage to be dealt.

The enemies have different things that they respond to as well. You can’t just hack and slash your way out of trouble, as per Kingdom Hearts, you have to pay attention to the battle options and the enemies. The gym bro dog requires you to flex with him to earn bro points, the melancholy ghost character requires you to be poetic with them so they feel seen. It’s a wonderful exploration of what gives people and creatures their humanity, and is much beloved for this intrinsic human element.

All RPGs are Winners

RPGs make up some of the hallmarks of the gaming industry and have since back in the 80s with those magical text-based adventures. So many incredible games fall under this umbrella term that it’s been hard to pick just five. Honorable mentions should be given, in fact, to Final Fantasy 7, Ni No Kuni 1 and 2, Skyrim, Fallout 3, and more.

While the games listed here are our top 5, we really want to know what you guys think. Should the top spot have gone to something else? Or do you agree that the title of Greatest RPG of All Time should stay with Final Fantasy 9? Either way, if you haven’t played these games, you should definitely check them out. They’re all amazing and will keep you entertained for many valuable hours.