10 Best Fantasy RPGs Of All Time
5. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I almost hate putting this one on here because it’s so cliche and so popular but I’ve hit you with the old school RPGs, the hack-and-slash dungeon crawlers, and the slightly more niche 10/10s in the pack, it’s about time we talked about the seventh best selling game of all time, and best selling RPG of all time, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
I thought about throwing Oblivion or Morrowind on here as there’s an argument to be made that in certain fields one or the other surpasses Skyrim, but as an overall experience in 2024, our Dragonborn with a penchant for easing buckets over merchant’s heads still takes the sweet roll.
It may be a little overly simplified with its constellation skill trees and hamfisted with its dialogue, but the charm of a Bethesda open world with dozens of different biomes, secrets, artefacts, stories, and fascinating characters is there for the taking and ready to swallow you up in a way most other developers can only dream of achieving. Skyrim is simply undeniable, and while it’s become something of an Ouroboros, lashed to pieces by memes that by their very existence prove its landmark status in the industry, if you can cast your mind back before all of that to its launch in 2011, it was really just stunning.
From gorgeously realised environs and towns to sublime storytelling and a powerful heroic narrative at its core, Skyrim did what all good fantasy RPGs should do–it made you feel like a total badass.