Few PC game genres can match the gameplay variety found in role-playing games. RPGs come in many delicious flavors: Japanese, Western, action, strategy, dungeon crawler, roguelike, real-time, turn-based, and many other subcategories.
Sometimes your character wields traditional weapons, such as swords and arrows, in a medieval setting like Nihon Falcom’s Ys series. In other titles, your character carries big heat in outer space. Think Electronic Arts’ Mass Effect games. Even realistic modern cities can serve as intriguing RPG backdrops in games such as Disco Elysium and Yakuza. Regardless of the game and style, RPGs typically deliver rich narratives combined with character and/or equipment customization. That, in a nutshell, is what makes an RPG an RPG.
The role-playing game genre on PC is just as deep, if not deeper, than what you find on consoles, such as the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, or Xbox Series S/X. The aforementioned Ys and Mass Effect series live on PC, as do the Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Final Fantasy, Xanadu, and Dragon Quest titles. There’s a huge PC RPG library, which makes this guide essential.
In this game roundup, you’ll find our favorite RPGs. Each title featured here has been thoroughly reviewed by our experts, so you can rest assured that the suggestions are varied and top-notch. However, you won’t find massively multiplayer online RPGs in this piece. The sub-genre’s unique online requirement, huge raids, and multiplayer components separate it from traditional RPGs. You can look for our roundup of the best MMO games in the near future.
