The Best Romantic Movies Under 90 Minutes

You can have too much of a good thing. If Titanic or Gone with the Wind are your romantic movie night picks, then you’d both better have eaten early, pre-planned your toilet breaks, and made some serious investment in the lumber support of your living room furniture. Cuddling up with a loved one to watch […]

The post The Best Romantic Movies Under 90 Minutes appeared first on Den of Geek.

When talking about RPGs, the first thing that usually comes to mind is a medieval-inspired fantasy setting full of dragons, magic, and armor-clad warriors. That’s not the exclusive definition of fantasy in fiction of course, but it’s a pretty good starting point.

But which fantasy RPGs are the best? There are literally hundreds out there, with all sorts of different takes on this broad idea, and numerous different gameplay styles. But ultimately, we narrowed it down to these 15 best fantasy RPGs of all time.

15. Dragon’s Dogma 2

A lot of gamers have expressed disappointment with Dragon’s Dogma 2. The biggest complaint is that it doesn’t do all that much different from the original game, even though there are 12 years between the two titles, and that’s actually kind of a fair point. In many ways, Dragon’s Dogma 2 feels like a remake of the first game.

But there are very good reasons why the first game is so beloved. A sequel didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. Dragon’s Dogma 2 brings back the Pawn system, smooths out the combat, and puts you in an even larger world you can explore however you see fit. It’s one of the most immersive fantasy RPGs around even if it didn’t change a whole lot from the original.

14. The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age

When it was released in 2004, The Third Age received quite a bit of criticism for its similarities to Final Fantasy X. Yes, the combat system is virtually identical, and it’s a very linear game. But Final Fantasy X is still widely hailed as one of the best games in the series, so why all the hate for The Third Age?

Lord of the Rings practically invented every single trope of the fantasy genre. The franchise certainly deserves to have a classic turn-based RPG, and The Third Age is an excellent one that’s aged better than most titles from the early 2000s. Maybe it would get a little more respect with a proper HD re-release.

13. Pillars of Eternity

The 2010s saw something of a resurgence in the long-ignored CRPG subgenre. Pillars of Eternity began as a Kickstarter project with the goal of making a spiritual successor to classics of the ‘90s like Baldur’s Gate and Planescape: Torment. And Obsidian absolutely nailed it.

Pillars of Eternity features deep and highly customizable combat in the vein of those games, but what really won players over was the strong writing. Every single character you meet has their own lengthy backstory and motivations. Playing through the game can almost feel like reading a lengthy fantasy series.

12. Fable II

It’s easy to knock the Fable franchise for what it isn’t. The early promises of series creator Peter Molyneux were of course ridiculously ambitious, and many probably couldn’t even be accomplished with modern hardware. But what we ultimately got with Fable II was a charming action RPG with a slightly off-kilter yet cozy aesthetic that’s still unlike anything else in the genre.

Admittedly, Fable II isn’t necessarily for everyone. The humor is unapologetically British, and the world vacillates between the melancholy and absurd in ways that can be disconcerting at times, but if it clicks for you, it’s a wholly unique fantasy RPG from a bygone era of gaming.

11. Metaphor: ReFantazio

It’s always tricky to put a newer game on a list like this because you don’t want to recognize another flavor of the week that will soon be forgotten. As of this writing, Metaphor: ReFantazio has only been out for a few months, but already it looks to be a game that will be replayed and analyzed for years to come.

At first, it might be easy to write it off as Persona in a fantasy skin, but the game is so much more than that. Metaphor: ReFantazio has one of the best stories in any RPG in recent years. Essentially, it’s about your role in choosing the successor to an assassinated king, but it weaves through so many more topics, such as racism, inequality, and extremism, yet never comes across as heavy handed or preachy.

10. Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy had to be somewhere on this list. It’s right there in the name of the series. But deciding which Final Fantasy is actually the best fantasy RPG was a bit difficult. The settings of several games like Final Fantasy VI and VII aren’t really traditional fantasy worlds, so that automatically disqualified them. Final Fantasy XVI is a technically impressive return to the series’ traditional fantasy roots, but the story and combat are far from the series’ best.

In the end, the best true fantasy game in the Final Fantasy series is Final Fantasy IX. It captured the spirit of the earlier games with a beautiful medieval setting and some of the best characters in any RPG ever. It also features some of the better traditional turn-based combat in the franchise before later games started straying from the series’ roots.  

9. Dragon Quest XI

While Final Fantasy has explored all sorts of different ideas and settings over the years, the Dragon Quest series has been a reliable fantasy RPG franchise since its inception. They’re all really great JRPGs to be honest, but it’s pretty well agreed upon by fans of the series that the most recent title, Dragon Quest XI is the best to date.

In terms of gameplay, this is about as traditional of a JRPG as you’re going to find. The turn-based combat and item management has barely changed since the first game. But this is also one beautifully crafted anime world, with a great cast of characters, and a lengthy story that manages to stay interesting to the end.

8. Suikoden II

Largely ignored by critics and gamers alike when it was first released due to graphics that looked dated even by the standards of the late ‘90s, Suikoden II has been rightfully reappraised as one of the greatest fantasy RPGs of all time. This is a game that thrives at telling both large- and small-scale tales. The story beautifully weaves an intimate story of friendship in a continent-spanning epic about war and political strife.

This philosophy extends to its gameplay as well. While most combat takes place among small parties in traditional turn-based battles, there are also one-on-one duels, and large-scale battles between armies. Suikoden II took a lot of risks that paid off, and the ideas here still haven’t shown up in many other titles.  

7. Divinity: Original Sin II

Upon its release in 2017, many outlets hailed Divinity: Original Sin II as an almost perfect CRPG for its deep customization, freedom of choice, and morally gray writing. Looking back at it now, Original Sin II maybe isn’t quite that good. Its complexity can sometimes lead to unfortunate and unpredictable outcomes both in storytelling and combat, and it can often be difficult to keep track of the game’s many quests. But it’s still a top tier fantasy RPG.

There are a wealth of ways to build your character and resolve situations, and dozens of hours of content here. If anything, it’s just that Larian Studios improved on the successor of Original Sin II so much that it’s made it easier to see some of this game’s cracks in hindsight. 

6. Elden Ring

We may never know exactly how much fantasy author George R.R. Martin contributed to the final Elden Ring product. It certainly doesn’t bear many similarities to A Song of Ice and Fire. Still, The Lands Between is still a unique and engrossing fantasy world full of both beauty and desolation. There’s so much to do and see, and the game gives you so much freedom from the start. It really is the pinnacle of everything FromSoftware has been working towards since Demon’s Souls.

Elden Ring is arguably the most accessible of any Soulsborne game to date. Sure, it’s difficult, but the game’s open nature means there are plenty of opportunities to level up fast and get some really strong gear early on, making it a much more manageable experience for most players than any previous FromSoftware RPG.

5. Dragon Age: Origins 

The Dragon Age series is apparently on hiatus after Veilguard failed to meet sales expectations. That’s not entirely surprising, though. The series spent years trying to chase the brilliance of the first game, but could never quite get there (even if Inquisition came close). 

Origins will always be well regarded for the complexity of its writing. Ferelden is an intricately designed world full of rival factions with deep histories. Every major character you meet has a compelling story, and then there’s the six very different origin stories you can choose from at the start of the game. Dragon Age: Origins was BioWare at the absolute peak of the studio’s creativity. 

4. World of Warcraft

Often imitated but never duplicated, World of Warcraft has reigned atop the MMORPG world for more than two decades now, fending off dozens of challengers to its crown by constantly reinventing itself. The current iteration of World of Warcraft now has 10 expansions worth of content, and has been retooled to be highly accessible to groups and solo players alike.

RPGs always like to tout how large their worlds are and how much there is to do, but given the sheer scale of what the game has become, with 13 classes, eight professions, and tens of thousands of quests, there’s almost too much content here for any single person to play through in a lifetime. And the game just keeps growing. 

3. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 

It’s still surprising that we haven’t had a new single player Elder Scrolls game in more than a decade, but Skyrim is so damn good that people still keep returning to it after all these years. The appeal of Skyrim is that it’s more of a fully featured fantasy world than just another RPG with a long to-do list. Sure, there’s a main story, and plenty of other quests to complete, but after the initial opening, you can ignore all of it. And most players do just that, exploring all of Skyrim’s wonders off the beaten path.

When discussing Skyrim, the thing that tends to stand out to most players are the emergent experiences, things like climbing a snowy mountaintop and suddenly encountering a dragon or an angry giant. Skyrim doesn’t feel like just another game, so much as an entirely different world that you’re visiting for hours at a time. 

2. Baldur’s Gate 3

It’s going to be a long time before we see another fantasy RPG with the depth of Baldur’s Gate 3. It may sound like an exaggeration if you haven’t yet played it, but it’s absolutely true: Larian Studios managed to make the closest video game approximation to a tabletop Dungeons & Dragons campaign ever seen. A year after release, gamers are still finding new ways to essentially break the game with the spells and abilities at your disposal.

But what’s really impressive about Baldur’s Gate 3 is the incredible replay factor. Each class and subclass opens up brand new ways to complete the campaign, and several choices can completely change how the story plays out. And that’s without playing as The Dark Urge character, which gives an entirely new perspective on the tale.

1. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The Witcher 3 doesn’t necessarily do much different from a lot of the other games on this list, it just does all of those things so much better. There’s the obligatory massive fantasy world that takes many hours to fully explore, the fantastic story with dynamic choices and multiple endings, and a highly customizable real-time combat system to take on the game’s numerous enemies.

All of this is delivered in one of the most impressive triple-A presentations of all time. The Witcher 3 has some of the best voice acting in any game to date, and even though it looked great when it was released in 2015, it looks even better now with the most recent next-gen update. There really is no better fantasy RPG to get lost in for hundreds of hours.

The post 15 Best Fantasy RPGs of All Time, Ranked appeared first on Den of Geek.

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