Western RPGs That Are Incredible From Start To Finish

When it comes to RPGs, it’s often the Japanese-developed offerings that have the most spotlight shined upon them. This makes sense, with Japan responsible for such genre titans as the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series. Not to mention the fact that JRPGs boast some traits that tend to push all the right buttons for genre fans. They’re just so packed with content at times that they can be exhausting to finish. All the same, though, Western developers are just as capable of crafting incredible RPG experiences.

Western RPGs explore just as many grand worlds and unforgettable characters. Here are ten such titles, acclaimed for their quality, that keep up those high standards from their beginnings until the credits roll.

10

Child Of Light

A Fairytale Ride Through Lemuria

Child of Light was introduced by Ubisoft Montreal in 2014, a beautiful storybook adventure created in the UbiArt Framework engine. Players guide Aurora and her growing band of fantastical friends through the kingdom of Lemuria, to which she had been transported after seemingly dying in the ‘real world.’ To return home to her grieving father, she must retrieve the Stars, Sun, and Moon of this kingdom and defeat the Queen of the Night, Umbra, who has seized control of the realm.

From the village of the Bolmus Populi to the waters of the Cynbel Sea, from the twists and turns of the Mahthildis Forest to the charming homes of the Capilli, Child of Light embraces its fairytale aesthetic throughout, down to the evocative piano-based soundtrack, relentlessly rhyming dialogue, and battles that take place on a ‘stage’ of sorts and involve manipulating time to try and interrupt foes’ attacks. It’s not extremely lengthy as so many RPGs are (How Long To Beat suggests approximately 11 hours for the main story), but its rather short run time and similarly condensed yet rewarding sidequests make it a very approachable RPG.

9

Disco Elysium

Never Predictable For A Moment

Some games are just too open-ended for their own good. It’s easy to be led astray and choose what’s clearly a very bad idea from a list of possible actions provided, just because it sounds hilarious and you want to see what happens next. If this is the sort of thing you’re looking for, Disco Elysium will absolutely fit that bill for you.

The setup, in which you’re a detective investigating a killing in a small town who can’t remember anything else about himself, gives the player the freedom to develop their character and their investigation as they wish. A methodical, thoughtful approach? Bumbling off into sidequests with fascinating narratives of their own? Utterly bemusing your partner Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi with your illogical decisions? The choice is yours. Disco Elysium is very much dialogue-based, with writing that is hilarious, horrifying, and utterly unpredictable in equal measure. This is how it keeps players gripped: Not through action (of which there’s very little in the conventional sense), but through the sheer need to know what will happen next. It’s extremely replayable, too, because decisions made and character builds affect the progress of the story so much.

8

Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

Join The Dark Side (Or Don’t)

The most important thing for any licensed game, and probably the one that they completely miss the mark on most often, is to make the player feel as though they’re part of the franchise they love. As though they’re really playing through the movie, if it’s directly based on one. Star Wars games have, perhaps, hit that mark more often than titles based on other series, with Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2: Rogue Leader, for instance, absolutely living up to the concept of playing through a series of the most dramatic battles and sequences from the original trilogy. The famed Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic takes a rather different, yet no less effective, approach.

Developed by BioWare, a team known for engaging RPGs demanding meaningful choices from the player, this 2003 titles puts the players in the shoes of a warrior who will later undergo Jedi training, the ultimate goal being to take down Darth Malak. Your growing roster of abilities and Force powers is affected by the decisions you make, which can lead you to the Light or Dark sides. Such choices will determine not only the ending, but other factors such as companions who may be available to fight alongside you. KOTOR is fondly remembered for its unique battle system, high-stakes plot with little ‘filler,’ and providing the freedom that fans had long been desperate

for from a Star Wars game. This original title in the series still holds up very well. It’s fun to be the villain, but it’s just as fun to be good.

7

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Hunter And The Hunted

Being based on a novel series, it makes sense that a primary strength of The Witcher would be its exemplary narrative. The life of a Witcher is reminiscent to that of a Slayer as depicted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in that they are formidable fighters with capabilities beyond those of ordinary humans, using them to destroy monsters and supernatural threats. Curiously, though, commanding the tremendous strength of Geralt of Rivea isn’t a highlight of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. On the contrary, in fact, the combat mechanics could be considered rather basic. Sword combos and evasion are the bread and butter of the action, with magic being a rather more limited factor.

This is a Western RPG better suited to those who prefer a lengthy, engaging narrative over the thrill of battle. How Long To Beat estimates that it will take around 51.5 hours to beat the main campaign alone, and 174 hours for a completionist run. Through all of that time, the emotional and all-consuming tale of the Wild Hunt unfolds, as Ciri is pursued by this mighty band for her unique position as a Child of the Elder Blood. A vast and varied land is traversed, relationships develop and NPCs live or die based on Geralt’s actions. The depth of the worldbuilding is remarkable, and frrom the subtle to the dramatic, decisions you make will lead to one of several potential endings.

The Skyrim Is The Limit

In some RPGs, optional content and sidequests are a little bit throwaway. They are fetchquests or quick monster hunts, for instance, which aren’t very substantial and don’t add much to the overall lore of the world. One reason The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim remains legendary, so many re-releases later, is that its optional content can be fantastic.

With something like The College of Winterhold or the Thieves Guild, you might underestimate what you’re getting into. Here we have whole substantial storylines offering mountains of quests. Typically, you’re not just tolerating a rather bland sidequest for the sake of unlocking a great weapon, but engaging in a whole questline that pulls you away from the main story for hours on end and teaches you so much more about the depth of the world that Bethesda created. This is wht so many players take so long to finish the Dragonborn’s primary story: Because everything else is just as good. Even better in a lot of cases, in fact. Skyrim doesn’t just tell an engaging story, it tells several, and some of its best content is easy to miss entirely.

5

Baldur’s Gate 3

Shaping A Narrative That Never Lets Up

Baldur’s Gate 3 resonated with RPG fans around the world on its arrival in 2023, and surely also inducted many new ones to boot. While The Witcher 3 prioritized the sheer strength of its world-building while keeping its core combat rather understated, Larian Studios wanted to bring both factors to the fore. Being based on Dungeons & Dragons’ battle mechanics, whereby the party can perform just about anything in combat that their characters have enough strength, dexterity, or whichever other attribute would be appropriate to pull off, freedom was key. As such, a battle becomes something of a chess game, where careful positioning, usage and timing of skills, and a constant watch on the changing state on the battlefield (and any effects such as a building fire that can be used to the player’s advantage) need to be taken into account.

The developers put just as much care and attention into the story, and the plotting of both the main campaign and the side content. As noted with Skyrim, the side content is critical to gaining insight into your party members and enhancing your ties with them. The relationship system in Baldur’s Gate 3 is just one highlight of the game, and so everybody’s side content provides just as much insight as following the campaign itself. There are some similar titles for those who just can’t get enough.

4

Mass Effect 2

A Unique Place In Series History

BioWare’s Mass Effect series has experimented with its action RPG leanings since its introduction. The second mainline entry didn’t prioritize these RPG elements like the original did, but instead opted to intensify the action by borrowing staples from the FPS genre (HP slowly regenerates if the player is able to stay out of combat for a period of time for instance). This was not at the expense of an engaging plot, though: In this title, Shepard and their allies must investigate and thwart the Collectors, who have been harvesting human colonies.

While the nature of the Collectors and their connection to the Reapers is ultimately revealed, it’s clear that the game has an unusual place between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 3 in terms of the wider narrative. Series fans continue to debate its position among the original trilogy, and the impact of its different means of customizing and developing characters’ abilities. What it did do, however, was provide some excellent Loyalty Missions, which tied the story and the side content together by affecting the outcome of the climactic battle at the end of the game. Some of the more exciting setppieces in the game are hidden away in the side content, making it worthwhile to pursue everything.

3

Planescape: Torment

An Almost Timeless Adventure

When developing an RPG that’s going to focus on depth of narrative and player choice, there are worse inspirations to take than Dungeons & Dragons. We’ve already seen this with Baldur’s Gate 3, and Black Isle Studios also adapted a setting from the tabletop game, Planescape, into this iconic RPG. The Nameless One is out to find those who can shed light on his long, seemingly cursed life, a journey that will take him across Planescape’s city of Sigil and beyond. In a similar fashion to Disco Elysium, then, it is mostly set in an urban environment (in this world’s understanding of such), and this may contribute to its lack of conventional action. In turn, and in another parallel to the aforementioned modern classic, it compensates with an utterly enthralling narrative.

The world and its inhabitants, in true Planescape fashion, are haunted by tragedies, troubled by awful decisions they must make, and face heart-wrenching plights. What the game does so effectively is pull the player into all of these things, sometimes offering a choice for The Nameless One to make and, of course, to have to live with. The game asks fascinating questions of the player, too, exploring the nature of the protagonist’s immortality and what such an existence really means. It may be rather slow-paced and is far from an action RPG, but Planescape’s is still one of the deepest and most unsettling narratives in gaming.

2

Cyberpunk 2077

The Phenomenon It Always Deserved To Be

Some games, tragically, have promised exciting new ideas but failed to follow through with them on release. It’s possible, after all, to just be too ambitious for your own good. Cyberpunk 2077 was one title that seemed as though it could be heading for just such a situation, with its launch being quite the mess. Fortunately, CD Projekt Red was able to steadily incorporate the fixes the game needed, and though performance can differ based on your system of choice, the title is an extraordinary, creative RPG that is certainly worth experiencing.

In Night City in 2077, nanotechnology and cybernetics are impacting the citizens of every walk of life. Protagonist V equips a chip that essentially contains the essence of one Johnny Silverhand, and the title then explores how Silverhand’s deeds in the past feed into the hunt for V in the present. It’s an intriguing narrative that explores the depths of humanity, memory, and just how far technology can take us, for better and for worse. The gameplay becomes increasingly varied as factors like vehicle combat become more prominent, and there’s also the opportunity to really tailor V to your preferences as you advance along the wide skill trees. From hacking to neutralize threats peacefully to simply blasting away, you can play your way, and the way the narrative comes to a head as the end approaches (you lock yourself out of one particular ending if you don’t side with Johnny in making one very important choice) keeps the player invested. For those who couldn’t get enough of the game’s narrative, a lengthy expansion, Phantom Liberty, arrived in 2023. It provides additional insight on Johnny and V’s shared fates, as well as exploring more cast members in gut-wrenching detail.

1

Fallout: New Vegas

The Battle For The Platinum Chip

It’s not always necessary for a game’s narrative to complex and multi-faceted for it to keep players invested throughout. Fallout: New Vegas very quickly establishes one key thing: The Platinum Chip is going to be absolutely pivotal to events throughout. The game begins in explosive fashion, with a narrator first recounting the stories of the societies formed by the survivors of the conflict. With nary a beat, we’re then presented with the seeming death of the protagonist, with the chip they had been tasked with delivering being claimed instead by Benny.

Courier Six is fortunate to survive, and their pursuit of their would-be killer leads them across New Vegas and with a pressing need to choose allies. The geography of New Vegas and nearby assets like Hoover Dam make it a prime target for local factions who are fighting over it. The likes of the New California Republic each have a range of quests that the Courier can take part in across the open world, and they can prove important in advancing both the narrative and the protagonist’s favor with that group (think building a reputation with particular gangs in classic Grand Theft Auto). The groups’ motivations, goals, and major players are so diverse that there’s some fantastic variety between missions, and so much to see in the open world besides. Most importantly, the group you choose to side with will ultimately win the turf war for New Vegas, making for several different endings. If you thought this Fallout adventure was gripping, there are lots more too!