25 Top RPGs of the Last Five Years

[vallorn]

Dragon age 2 hmm? Well Mr Tito never stop dreaming you crazy diamond. Aside from that I would maybe have put each of the souls series up 1 from where they are and pushed New Vegas Wayyyyyy up the list. Skyrim is big and pretty and all but it lacks the depth in it's systems required to make it a truly classic RPG rather than just a good one.

 

[BoompigXD The Ork]

Just throwing in my 2 cents here, but I honestly think Skyrim is highly overrated. It's buggy as hell, and the combat is absolute shit and super simplistic compared to Morrowind. Essential NPC's are annoying for those you like to be sneaky pickpockets or Assassin's (Which is me), and I honestly just find Morrowind better than Skyrim in every way possible. I know this list is from the last 5 years but could you not find anything else that tops it? I find it hard to believe there were no other RPG's in the last 5 years that weren't better than Skyrim.

Then again, this list does boil down to opinion so I'm gonna fuck off and find tutorials online for The Elder Scrolls Construction Kit

 

[pearcinator]

Decent list. I don't particularly like Skyrim but I have to admit that it has a huge impact on RPGs in general.

I prefer Bioware's RPGs and would have put Mass Effect 3 as #1, Dragon Age: Origins at #2 and then Skyrim.

 

[Ishal]

Eh... too many JRPG's and Bioware games for my taste. I find myself agreeing more with PC Gamer's list. Tons more of Obsidian/Black Isle love and a tempered approach to Bioware's games, which is always refreshing.

But yeah, like they said, this was limited by 5 years. So all in all, it's not too bad.

 

[ron1n]

While I realise this kind of 'list' content is primarily click bait aimed at sucking in people for confirmation of their own choices or to rage at perceived bad inclusions...

I maintain that RPG is the most poorly defined genre in all of gaming. Path of Exile, Pokemon X, and Mass Effect 2 have no business being in the same genre. There's just nothing that really counts as a unifying feature across all RPGs besides having experience bars and a persistent character across the entire campaign.

^ this is correct. RPG really is the most overused and poorly defined genre term. I respect the fact you at least put it into SOME context, but unless you really spell it out, it's just too contentious.

Also going by your criteria, all Mass Effect games should be removed due to the fact the third game effectively made all choices completely redundant for the entire series. What we were left with was a squad based 3rd person shooter and a generic one at that.

As for Skyrim: If you include its mods: 100% yes. But if you take it 'as is', it only breaks into the top 10.

Legend of Grimrock is surely being hard done by also considering it single-handedly revived a dead presentation/play style and made it viable and even fun again.

 

[loc978]

Chalk me up as another purist. My first reaction to the title was 25 RPGs in the last 5 years? I don't think there have been that many. Counting Diablo, Torchlight and Path of Exile is downright cheating in my book. They're in a genre closer to Borderlands than Divinity. Same goes for Monster Hunter.

'Course, I don't have any mobile platforms that new, so the 3DS games caught me by surprise. I may have to buy one some time... though I don't want that stereoscopic nonsense anywhere near my eyes...

 

[Falsename]

Deus Ex was better than Mass Effect?

Yeah, no. I don't think so.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Edit:

Kinda sad not to see Mount and Blade: Warband or Alpha Protocol on the list. Good list though.

We're forever doomed to have the greatest RPG ever made ignored, us Mount and Blade Fans. I'd at least be happy if it placed. Damn obscurity.

I agree with a decent amount on this list. I don't think Human Revolution should be on there and I think a few others should be higher.

I didn't realize this was released in the last 5 years! I only started playing it a few months ago and it's taken the spot of my favourite game (not just RPG). The base game is great enough to make number 1 IMO and then the mods take it to a whole other level.

I guess this means Skyrim would be #2 for me followed probably by ME2, Bastion, and then the Witcher 2.

 

[SmallHatLogan]

Hehehe, oh the opinion flinging this is causing.

Is shit flinging not the sole reason that these lists exist?

With than in mind I'll grab a handful and say I couldn't roll my eyes hard enough when I saw Skyrim at #1. "Skyrim was the greatest blend of mechanics, customization, and freedom found in any role-playing game." That right there almost made me vomit.

As far as the list as a whole goes I can't really say much either way. I've only played a handful of the games there. Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, Mass Effect and Bastion I agree with. I think New Vegas should've been a bit higher. I'm not a fan of Dragon Age but I get why it's so popular. Bravely Default I thought was pretty boring. Dragon's Dogma I'm still undecided on. I really want to like it but I'm having trouble getting into it. I'm generally not one to harp on about the definition of an RPG but I feel like Deus Ex: HR is a bit of a stretch.

 

[GabeZhul]

You know what the real joke is? Fallout New Vegas is at the bottom end of the list and Skyrim is at the top... While F:NV does everything that Skyrim does and arguably better!

Just to list it:
-Both are first person, exploration-centric adventure-RPGs
-Both of them focus on giving the player as much freedom as possible when it comes to choosing their preferred play-style and character-build
-Both came out in a buggy state that was fixed by the official and unofficial patches
-Both have a ridiculously huge modding community with mods that allow you to tweak the game exactly to your liking or add huge amounts of free extra content
-Both of them had a decent DLCs that added completely new areas to explore, new quests, new game-mechanics and challenges and expanded on the lore of the setting

On the other hand...

-New Vegas had better quests, both in terms of side-quests and the main storyline. While it is true that it took a while to pick up, it was still much more engaging and gave infinitely more options to the player when it came to choosing sides, making plot-changing decisions or just giving out multiple endings that actually concluded the story in a meaningful way.
-New Vegas had much better NPCs, companions that were actual characters with their own stories (in Skyrim only Serena came anywhere close to that) and vastly better dialog trees and options
-New Vegas gave the player much more varied options when it came to completing quests, using skills to their advantage or just generally making choices that actually affected things in-game

The only two things that Skyrim had better were:

-Better graphics, both in fidelity and environment variety/design (read: it was prettier)
-More popular.

That's it.

Don't take my argument the wrong way though; I love the hell out of Skyrim and and I clocked several hundred hours into it along the years, with and without mods, but I did the same for F:NV as well and it just baffles and saddens me that one of them is hyped to the point where even its legitimate merits are considered to be just part of the hype while the other is mostly forgotten aside of people comparing it to Fallout 3. I say that both of them are some of the finest games ever made, but I would call NV even a bit better than Skyrim all things considered...

As for whether or not Skyrim itself belong to the top of this list... I would say no. In the top three (or at least top 10 without modding), yeah. The best RPG of the past five years though? I'm not so certain.

 

[veloper]

Have to join the anti-Skyrim chorus. The last 5 years may not have been great, but Skyrim at #1 sounds like such a joke.

The list would have been less terrible if a distinction was made between action-RPGs, including diablo-clones and RPShooters, in one category and the blobbers, turn-based RPGs, RTWPs, all the games with full party control basicly, in the other category.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

As a man who has played 3114 hours (As of now) of Skyrim...I approve of this list.

Holy crap, that's a lot

I personally played 400 hours and agree that it should definitely score high. Mostly because of presentation however, the story and unmodded combat was fairly uninteresting.

Love the classic Mass Effect and Dragon Age hate in this thread too, both series also deserve to be on there (though number 2 should score lower imo). I would personally have liked to see a few more less high-profile titles on there instead of things like Pokemon.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Oh look...a top 25 list about RPG's that with titles that aren't even RPG's..gee I wonder how this thread will go.

With that said..I expected Skyrim to be on top even though I find that infuriating for that pos game to be so high. Last TES game that was good was Morrowind. Guess since everyone and their mother has probably played it or was their first TES game then everyone considers that that hand holding game is actually good with it's crappy gameplay.

Divinity Original Sin being on 24 is a big heresy in my eyes of a CRPG gamer. It should be in the top 5 at least, since it's one of the the best CRPG's that have come out in years.

Mass Efect 2 over Witcher 2 are you freaking serious? No..just no. Mass Effect is not even an RPG in my eyes..it's a third person shooter with RPG elements.

So many RPG's on that list that should be higher and some that shouldn't even be on such a list (DA2), but since it's the OP's opinion. I can understand it I guess, but some of those titles placing them in the list above others (like I mentioned above) is just too much for me not to talk about it.

List should be(in my eyes): Dragon Age Origins, Witcher 2, Divinity Original Sin, Deus Ex, Fallout NV etc.

 

[Evonisia]

Holy crap... Skyrim on some "Top X RPGs" list on The Escapist?.

Spoiler: Doom I say, DOOM!

Personally I agree with this list for the most part, but I'd like to point out that Deus Ex HR's bosses were basically fixed in the Director's Cut edition, so that definitely should be worth mentioning.

So yeah, Skyrim in first place.

Spoiler: I agree.

Nevermind that, they put Dark Souls higher than Demon's Souls.

OT: All I can say is that I'm happy I recognise the names of most of these. I really don't delve into RPGs much (mostly because they're poorly defined).

 

[Tenbob]

Oh look...a top 25 list about RPG's that with titles that aren't even RPG's..gee I wonder how this thread will go.

Mass Efect 2 over Witcher 2 are you freaking serious? No..just no. Mass Effect is not even an RPG in my eyes..it's a third person shooter with RPG elements.

So many RPG's on that list that should be higher and some that shouldn't even be on such a list (DA2), but since it's the OP's opinion. I can understand it I guess, but some of those titles placing them in the list above others (like I mentioned above) is just too much for me not to talk about it.

List should be(in my eyes): Dragon Age Origins, Witcher 2, Divinity Original Sin, Deus Ex, Fallout NV etc.

The thing is that "RPG" is such a broad genre. Extra Credits actually did a pretty good series of episodes on wRPG vs JRPG and how the fact that we distinguish between the two kinds of RPGs is a sort of acknowledgement that there are differences in the RPG genre - in my opinion, there are several sub genres under the umbrella of "RPG".

The reality is simply that RPG is a genre which can easily complement other genres.

For example, you say Deus Ex is an RPG while saying ME is not an RPG.. Why?

Deus Ex is, technically, an FPS with RPG elements. It offers different ways to approach many situations. More significantly, though, it introduces what I like to call "Dialogue bosses" which feels much more RPG - but be under no illusion, a "dialogue boss" is not much different to any other memory - your dialogue choices are doing "damage" for the boss to be defeated.

Mass Effect 2/3 offer similar, it has a strong third person shooter mechanic, but it shares some ground with Deus Ex - in particular the dialogue options. Unfortunately, ME simplifies it with the Charm/Intimidate options or Paragon/Renegade interrupts, but it is still there.

Let me just go through some similarities:

Branching leveling paths. You can choose how to develop your character(s) through leveling up. Augmentations on Deus Ex, power upgrades on ME.

Heavy dialogue segments - Deus Ex with its "Dialogue bosses", Mass Effect with the implications of the choices of your dialogue.

Weapon upgrade systems - Both games you can enhance the weapons you use. Deus Ex through weapon modifications, ME2 through research projects, ME3 through a combination of weapon mods and leveling up weapons.

Choice - Deus Ex has choice through the methods you can approach the areas you are in. Mass Effect's environments tend to be more linear, but offer choices that have an impact later in the game.

That's without getting into the story delivery of both games.

I'm honestly of the opinion that our "genres" are rarely sufficient these days; is portal an FPS, or is it a platformer? Technically, it is both, but it is very different to, say, Call Of Duty and any Mario game of your choice.

For me, all of the games on this list (Or most- I have not played all of them) fit into the genre "RPG" in some way, and almost all of them have mechanics which fit into another Genre and have a heavy impact in how the game is delivered.

Note: Not singling the quoted out, as I know others have voiced similar opinions.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

Surprisingly I've completed most of them except for Shadowrun returns (just bought it). I was hoping for some RPGs I have yet to try so I can get on it.

Although, three Souls games in a list? Is that really necessary?

 

[Neonsilver]

It makes me feel kind of sad that DA2 is in that list. Since to me it means that there can't be much more rpgs in the past 5 years.
Seriously, I can agree that it had potential, but it was so rushed that it had no chance to life up to it.

 

[Anachronism]

I'm glad to see Dragon Age: Origins at the #2 spot, although it would be my pick for #1, to be honest. I know RPGs as a genre are incredibly poorly defined, but The Elder Scrolls has always been more of an adventure game than an RPG to my mind. You can roleplay through your actions, to be sure, but dialogue trees are practically non-existent, and it's not as if there's any significant consequences for most of your actions. Great games, don't get me wrong - I'm replaying Oblivion at the moment - but not really role-playing games, in my opinion.

pretty much everyone is morally reprehensible in some way in the Witcher universe.

And there we find the main reason I had so much trouble getting into the Witcher games. Everyone, including the main character, is a colossal asshole, so why should I care who wins or loses? I don't like any of these people, so how am I supposed to feel invested in this story?

 

[jdarksun]

Are the Dark Souls and Pokemon games really RPGs? Just because you level up doesn't make it "role playing". I've never played Monster Hunter, but it seems like the same sort of "grind" game with no plot.

I maintain that RPG is the most poorly defined genre in all of gaming. Path of Exile, Pokemon X, and Mass Effect 2 have no business being in the same genre. There's just nothing that really counts as a unifying feature across all RPGs besides having experience bars and a persistent character across the entire campaign.

I think I'd put "epic storyline" and "character progress" at the forefront, with "dialog options" being a requirement for modern games.