A fantasy role-playing game is one of the most entertaining genre you can ever come across. Rpgs themselves are designed in such a way that you can get totally absorbed by their plot, whereas fantasy brings magic into our daily routine. If you have never played fantasy role-playing games or, on the contrary, it’s your favourite type of computer games, you might be interested by the current article. Furthermore, you should be aware of the fact a fantasy role-playing game today is one of the most widespread genre on the market.
What is a fantasy rpg?
First of all, let’s look at the definition of a fantasy role-playing game. Not so long ago, you wouldn’t have any problems with identifying a fantasy rpg, however, today many role-playing games are mixed with other genres, especially action games. For that reason, you might have some difficulties with understanding an exact type of a game.
What game can be called an rpg?
Certainly, fantasy rpgs include the features that are typical for any type of role-playing games. The most crucial of them are:
- skill building and levelling up a character which can be managed by various game systems, however, the main idea remains the same – the skills, experience as well as some other features of your character can be developed with time;
- open world which, albeit can be limited up to a certain extent, still offers the players of an rpg a lot of space for exploration. Moreover, in the majority of role-playing games exploration is essential for completing major game tasks as well as secondary quests;
- the choices and decisions made by a player can affect the world of the game. Undeniably, this is one of the most exciting features of rpgs which adds even more thrill to the gaming process. The more non-linear plot a role-playing game has, the more interesting it is.
We can also name combat scenes as one of the most popular rpg features, although, some of the games that are undeniably of the role-playing genre do not have any battles.
Which role-playing game can be called fantasy?
Today, the term fantasy is rather broad including a large variety of games. Yet, you can easily notice some crucial aspects featuring almost every fantasy game. Undeniably, in our description of fantasy games, we are going to focus on fantasy role-playing games.
One of the most important features of fantasy rpgs is a fictional universe where mythical creatures are living. Note, that sometimes a real world can be combined with a fictional universe of fantasy being, but still, this let a game to be considered as a fantasy rpg.
Of course, almost every fantasy role-playing game provide its players with magical items that can be used for attack, defence or other purposes.
The best fantasy role-playing games
As we have already mentioned, a fantasy rpg is one of the most popular video game genre today. Which of them are the best?
Certainly, the answer to this question is a rather subjective issue, however, one can easily point out the features characterising the best role-playing games. As for many experienced gamers, they include the following details:
- advanced exploration options;
- a well-written story;
- a character development system providing multiple choices;
- dynamic, user-friendly combat mechanics appropriate to the general story line of the game;
- lively and exciting dialogues.
Taking into consideration all these factors, it is obvious that any list of the best role-playing games of the fantasy genre must include such titles as:
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines developed by Troika Games and published by Activision in 2004 for the Windows OS;
- Undertaile developed and published by Toby Fox in 2015. Undertale can be played not only on Microsoft Windows, but also on Linux, OS X, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch;
- The Witcher 3 developed and published by CD Project Red in 2015 for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4;
- Dark Souls developed by FromSoftware for a wide range of platforms including Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo. The game was published by FromSoftware and Namco Bandai Games in 2011.
- Divinity: Original Sin 2 developed by Larian Studios. The game can be played on macOS, Microsoft Windows, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Divinity: Original Sin 2 was published by Bandai Namco Entertainment in 2017;
- The previous version of The Witcher released in 2011 by CD Projekt was also extremely successful. This game was developed by CD Projekt Red and available for the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, OS X and Xbox 360;
- Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn developed by BioWare and published by Interplay Entertainment and Black Isle Studios in 2000. One can play this legendary fantasy rpg on Linux, mac OS and Microsoft Windows.