Role-playing games are an exciting genre capable of throwing you into worlds you never could have imagined. Adventures like these can take you anywhere with cinematic storylines and interactive gameplay mechanics. However, for the absolute best experience from beginning to end, it's The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt that you'll want to play. It has everything a RPG enthusiat could want with a massive world, compelling narrative, and breath-taking graphics.
Best Overall: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
Geralt has been a Witcher for a long time, hunting down the beasts that men dare not. But now, the Wild Hunt is coming for a child he helped to train: Ciri. To save her, first he needs to find her, and that will be a journey all it's own. Welcome to the massive open-world that is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
From the opening scenes to the end of the story, The Witcher 3 is a vivid and beautiful game. There is so much packed into every frame. The character animation and detail pairs with a crisp environment and well-designed enemies that bring this world to life. What's more, the sheer size of this game has no effect on the graphics' quality. And this game is huge. There are hundreds of quests, side quests, hunts, locations, and people. Major cities and small towns alike dot the landscape and you can easily spend more than thirty hours on the game in just the first area.
The combat is realistic and fluid, but also takes a bit to get used to. Fighting off regular humans or small beasts isn't particularly pesky. However, the variety of beasts you'll deal with often require specific tactics or extra grinding to deal with them. It's also easy to stumble into dungeons you aren't prepared for, but it's just as easy to bail on them, and then come back later when you are ready.
Overall, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt delivers a RPG experience that is the gold standard on Xbox One. The graphics are stellar, the story is compelling, there is more than enough content, and you are allowed to make choices to shape your journey. It's easily the absolute best RPG on XBox One and should not be missed.
Best Value: Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy XV spent 10 years in development in an effort to bring the JRPG genre to the next generation. It was built to appeal to both existing Final Fantasy fans, and those who had never played before. It did all that and more, delivering stellar graphics, a great story, fantastic side quests, and the best combat system in the franchise.
The story follows Prince Noctis of Insomnia as he leaves home to meet up with his fiancee. Accompanied by his three best friends and body guards, he'll travel across the world to finally get married, if the many things in his way don't stop him first. What starts out as a simple roadtrip becomes much deeper, and goes back much further.
The graphics in Final Fantasy XV show off each different area. Small details like the way dirt rolls across the road, and the fur or scales on different monsters make the world look real. Since time is ticked off along hours as you play, you'll also see major differences between early morning, mid-day, dusk, and night time. There are also a variety of different minigames, sidequests, and a main storyline that you can run down. Players can race chocobos, find new recipes, and help bystanders, all while discovering an open world.
Scattered throughout the world are a variety of different enemies, and you'll fight them using an action combat system that is sharp and fluid. You'll control Noctis, and can use link-attacks to sync up with your friends to deliver punishing blows. The ability to warp strike also lets you teleport across the battlefield to strike swiftly. There is far more choice in the strategies you use when fighting, and both types of weapons and skills can be adapted to suit your playstyle.
Best Sequel: Kingdom Hearts 3
Kingdom Hearts 3 is a ton of fun, whether you've been a fan of the games since Day 1 or you decided to jump on the hype train late in the game. You play as Sora, along with his companions, Goofy and Donald. Many of Sora's powers from earlier games have been lost, after he nearly fell under the control of Xenahort and he's now searching for a way to regain the power of waking, the ability to restore lost hearts. The story here is complicated and convoluted thanks to 15 plus years of different games tying together on massive plot, but there are in-game clips that attempt to explain everything to new players. It's still a captivating narrative, and the multi-world exploration brings this story to life.
Each section of gameplay in Kingdom Hearts 3 takes place on a different world. You'll see Toy Story, Monstrum, and plenty more. Each one has a fantastic design that makes it seem like you're really there and offers up familiar characters like Woody, Buzz, Sully, and Mike Wachowski. Combat differs a bit from world to world as you obtain new keyblades for Sora to equip, but it remains fluid and fast paced. It's still pretty chaotic, but once you get the hang of mechanics and skills it's easy to slash your way through waves of enemies as they appear. If you played an of the main entries, the system shouldn't be a problem.
Aside from a convoluted story, which may confuse or fail to connect with some players, the only other major issue crops up with the Gummi Ship. In many ways, it feels like it hasn't gotten a meaninful update, and while it is how you travel to new worlds, the controls feel a bit off. In many ways it seems like the Gummi Ship is an afterthought, instead of being an aspect that matters. However, that's just something small. The game pieces fit together well to make one amazing RPG experience.
Best Post Apocalyptic: Fallout 4
In 2077, the world fell to a Nuclear apocalypse. You and your family were lucky enough to have a space waiting in a Vault-tec bunker, a place to ride out the Fallout and survive. However, when you wake up things have gone sideways. Your partner is dead, your son has been kidnapped, and it has been a very long time since the war. If you want to find your boy, and the truth, you'll need to hunt down clues through the wasteland. Welcome to Fallout 4.
Fallout is a open-world RPG set in a post-apocalyptic world fueled by chaos and poisoned by radiation. You can choose whatever path you want, which includes both searching for your son...or not. There are new features like settlement building that you can play with, multiple different storylines to hunt down, and hundreds of locations to explore and people to meet along the way. In true Bethesda fashion, there is also plenty of DLC to take advantage of once you have explored the main game. Plus, the world itself is vivid and filled with all kinds of tiny details.
Combat remains punishing, and still uses the VAT system to pinpoint where you'll shoot an enemy. It's also still a better idea to pick and choose how and when you'll attack because Fallout is not made to have you mow through waves of enemies. You won't be completely on your own though; you can pick up a variety of sidekicks that will help you along the way. Each one has their own personality, goals, and quest line, making them more realistic than random passersby you might find on your journey.
There are a few flaws to keep in mind here, though. Like many Bethesda games, there are bugs all over the place which can make gameplay truly frustrating when you need to reload a save due to a glitch. Likewise, some features including settlement building and the morality system aren't fully developed or nuanced which makes them less fun. If you can ride out those little issues, this is a great game to sink some hours into.
Best Farm Sim: Stardew Valley
Stardew Valley is a simple story: your grandfather has left you a farm in the town of Stardew Valley. When you get there, the farm is overgrown and there are ruins on the lot where it sits. In fact, the whole town seems to be on a bit of a downswing according to the mayor, but it isn't dead, and with your help it can be returned to its glory days.
The main gameplay of Stardew Valley is about bringing your farm back to it's glory days. You can plant a variety of different plants for each season (with the exception of winter) as well as taking advantage of foraging, mining, and fishing. As you play you'll meet the many other people in town, go to town events, and maybe even fall in love.
In the beginning, you'll spend most of your time clearing rocks and trees from your farm. Once you've planted your first crops, it's time to explore the town and find the forest sprites hiding in the old town community center. If you fulfill their quests, you'll watch as the building is renovated, bringing Stardew Valley back to being an awesome place to live and work.
The choices you make will change the game, and your farm will grow season after season, year after year. The game is entirely what you make of it and has simple graphics, with an emphasis on building something new. By collecting wood and stone, you can build expansions to your house, along with a barn and chicken coops. You're also able to raise cows, and chickens, plant a variety of different crops, and even create an orchard of fruit trees. The decisions are all yours to make.
Bottom line
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Each RPG that made our list offers up something different in terms of story and of gameplay. There is a huge variety here which means there is a game out there for everyone to enjoy. Of course, if you want the absolute best experience, then the game to check out is The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The Witcher 3 combines everything that makes RPGs great. Amazing graphics, a compelling story, and an open world so big it'll make your jaw drop. There are dozens of different quests, dungeons you can explore, and people to meet. The Witcher just gets better everytime you play it, and has great DLC when you've beat everything the main game has to offer.
Credits — The team that worked on this guide
Jen Karner has been gaming for more than twenty years and has always loved the thrill of a good RPG from Final Fantasy to Kingdom Hearts and everything in between. You can follow her on Twitter
