10 Toughest RPGs That Are Incredibly Rewarding

The first inkling of the RPG genre can be traced all the way back to the 1970s, where mainframe university computers could run text based adventures with rudimentary AI, before making the leap to a more visual realm with Rogue in 1980; gaming's first open world, even if it is one presented in ASCII text.

Now, in a sense, every single video game can be considered a ‘role play game’. Whether you’re shooting your way through battalions, platform puzzle solving or slogging it out in the ring, you’re always playing a character. These steps in another person’s shoes, however, pale in comparison to the true RPGs of the video game landscape, sprawling adventures where you take a lowly scrub across a grand adventure, making friends, hoarding loot and gaining EXP to become the greatest hero the world has ever known.

Fast forward to today and the RPG is as expansive and beautifully rendered as one could possibly imagine, with adventures taking hundreds of hours to complete. Whilst many players are perfectly content to drop into these worlds, grind clearly marked side quests and scour for collectibles, some are desperate for a real challenge worthy of only the greatest gamers.

Coming up against the toughest enemies and in the most challenging environments, these are the games someone can truly feel proud to have bested.