10 Best Fantasy RPGs Of All Time

Baldur’s Gate 3 feels like a game that nobody in the AAA space would fund. Like it’s some fever dream perfect amalgam of the earnest charm and rich story beats of the best JRPGs, combined with the D&D systems that work best for video games while leaving the rest on the cutting room floor, and gathering up Skyrim-grade biomes, Final Fantasy-level loveable characters, and Larian’s own near incomparable eye for detail.

This isn’t to say Baldur’s Gate 3 surpasses all those games, but it’s clear that inspiration ebbs and flows between RPGs and those who make them and it’s because there are so many top tier examples that such a high bar exists for studios to aspire to.

While there are classic CRPGs and JRPGs that could be subbed in here, games like Chrono Trigger, Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights, or Dragon’s Dogma, it’s difficult to make an argument that there is a better RPG out right now. That’s a huge call but Baldur’s Gate 3 excels in just about every field. It offers a thriving and lush open world that is just littered with thoughtful details, compelling and deep RPG mechanics and character progression tools, enthralling narrative beats, and provides immense freedom in how you choose to engage with the world around you and the scenarios you’re confronted with. 

All of that would fall apart, though, if it wasn’t all built off the back of a merry group of potential party members who are as complex and fascinating to get to know as they are to wield in battle. All told, genre fans were pretty spoiled by this one as it’s just about the perfect RPG.

At least I’d be confident in saying it’s the perfect WRPG. This may be just my take, but I think there are and will always be discrete mechanical and narrative elements to WRPGs and JRPGs that are more to a subjective taste, but we’re lucky to have both. That’s my two cents and my ten entries but as I said make sure you’re giving me yours in that comment box.