Top RPGs: 7 Honest Picks
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Seven RPGs are worth your limited gaming time right now. Below, we explain which one is worth your time, because the honest answer is different for different players.
Here’s the problem with picking the top RPGs to play in the modern era: the last few years have produced too many great ones & nobody has time for all of them. Most of these games run 60 hours or more. Pick the wrong one, and you’ve spent a lot of time on a game you drop in a single weeked. Big ranking lists don’t help much either. They rank 25 games, praise them all, and never tell you who each game is not for. By the end of our guide, you’ll know exactly which game fits your taste and your schedule, and which games to skip.
The quick picks
- Baldur’s Gate 3 –best overall, and best with friends.
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – best modern turn-based RPG
- Elden Ring – best for challenge-seekers and explorers.
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II – best for deep immersion and realism.
- Metaphor: ReFantzaio – best JRPG structure, no modern-day setting.
- Cyberpunk 2077 – best sci-fi open world.
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – best budget story pick.
How we chose (and what we didn't do)
Honesty first: we have not hands-on tested all seven games for this guide. These rankigns come from researching the following: verified critic scores, sales & reception data, and documented player sentiment from sources like Steam review aggregates and Metacritic user reviews, each linked where cited. We ranked for differentiation: every pick answers a different kind of player.
The 7 picks
1. Baldur's Gate 3 - best overall
Larian’s RPG based on Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition rules is the safest recommendation. The numbers are absurd: 96% positive across roughly 439,000 Steam user reviews. Don’t fret the D&D theme, it plays out as freedom. The game will react to nearly any plan or action you try. It also supports co-op for up to four players, so your tabletop group can play the whole story together. Expect over 70 hours of gameplay, with over 180 hours if you’re a completionist, according to HowLongToBeat.com
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2. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - best modern turn-based RPG
Sandfall’s debut game swept “Game of the Year” at all five major award shows in 2025 and sold 8 million copies in its first year. The combat is turn-based, with real-time parries and dodges layered in, making you reflexes and timing matter inside the turns. This allows the battles to feel alive instead of menu-driven. One player in a Steam discussion comparing it to our top pick put the difference simply:
“…clair obscur is more jrpg inspired, and BG3 is a traditional western rpg” — Steam Community user, comparison thread
What owners and critics flag: the optional platforming sections are clumsy, and the map opens up properly once you reach Act 3, leaving the early game feeling linear. Skip it only if you want full open-world freedom from hour one.
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3. Elden Ring - best for challenge-seekers
FromSoftware’s 2022 Game of the Year drops you into a vast world with almost no hand-holding. That’s the point and difficulty, every discovery is yours to make. It runs on everything from PS4 to PC, and has an expansion, Shadow of the Erdtree (Check Amazon Price), adds a whole second land, with reviewers calling it the game at its most refined. It’s worth knowing that the expansion’s recent Steam reviews have dipped to 64% positive against an 85% positive lifetime. So the recent sentiment is more mixed than at release.
What owners and critics note: the difficulty is real, and the game explains almost nothing.
Skip it if you get frustrated repeating tough fights, or want you story or adventure guided.
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4. Kingdom Come: Deliverance II - best for immersion
Warhorse’s medieval Bohemia simulator scored an 88 on Metacritic and sits at 92% positive across 62,000+ English Steam reviews, selling over 2.75 million copies in its first months. With a script containing over 2.2 million words, it will make you live in 15th century Bohemia. You cook, sleep, learn swordplay – from badly to well. That friction creates a feeling of real success when you finally pull off a perfect riposte.
What owners and critics note: the restrictive save system, some forced stealth missions, and a combat system that punishes your first several hours.
Skip it if friction sounds like homework instead of immersion.
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5. Metaphor: ReFantazio - best JRPG
Atlus took the calendar-driven structure that Persona fans love, and moved it into pure fantasy. Critics scored it 94 on Metacritic, and it won Best RPG and Best Narrative at The Game Awards in 2024. Running at 65+ hours depending on how completionist you are.
What owners and critics note: the recurring complaint is pacing, One Metacritic user review says it plainly:
“Some areas and dungeons become repetitive” — Metacritic user review, Metaphor: ReFantazio reviews
There’s also no romance system, unlike Persona.
Skip it if dungeon variet matters more to you than the story structure.
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6. Cyberpunk 2077 - best sci-fi open world
The 2020 launch was definitely rough. That ear is over though. After years of updates, critics now rank it among the best RPGs available. Night City, a fictional Californian metropolis, remains the densest, most atmospheric sci-fi setting in the genre. Playing the story today leads to finally getting the finished version everyone expected at its launch.
What owners and critics note: its reputation still carries launch-ear scars, and that history is worth this honest note, the game yo uget today is not the game reviewers stressed about in 2020.
Skip it if dystopian settings or first-person perspective aren’t your thing.
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7. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - best budget story pick
Eleven years lates, this is still the story-driven RPG that new releases get measured against. Critics reviewing Kingdom Come II reached for it as the benchmark. CD Projekt Red announced a third expansion, “Songs of the Past,” for 2027, so the game is still growing. The game can easily provide over 170 hours of gameplay.
What owners and critics note: it’s an older game, and its systems show their age next to 2025’s releases.
Skip it if you need modern combat feel, its strength is in the writing.
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Which one should you actually get?
Start with one questions: turns or reflexes? Paraphrasing the consensus in the Steam comparison thread – Baldur’s Gate 3 offers roughly double Expeditions 33’s playtime and rewards dice-and-stats tactics, while Expedition 33 is shorter, more visually striking, and rewards execution. Those are the top 2. For the others:
- You want tactics, choices, and co-op: Baldur’s Gate 3
- You want turn-based with modern energy: Expedition 33
- You want to earn every victory: Elden ring
- You want to disappear into another century: Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
- You want a 100-hour JRPG: Metaphor: ReFantazio
- You want neon & guns: Cyberpunk 2077
- You want maximum story per dollar: The Witcher 3
FAQ
Which of these are turn-based?
Baldur’s Gate 3, Expedition 33, and Metaphor are turn based.
Elden Ring, KCD2, Cyberpunk, and The Witcher 3 are real-time.
Are any on Game Pass?
The catalog rotates, so you will have to manually check the current status.
How long are these games?
BG3 runs 75-180 hours.
Expedition 33 runs 30-70 hours.
Elden Ring runs 60-140 hours
KCD2 runs 55-145 hours
Metaphor runs 70-110 hours
Cyberpunk runs 30-110 hours
Witcher 3 runs 50-175 hours
Is Cyberpunk 2077 actually fixed?
Yes, today’s version is fully recovered from its launch state, as per current critics.
Which is the safest as a gift?
Metaphor:ReFantazio is the only game rated T for Teen. If mature content is not an issue, Baldur’s Gate 3 carries this mantle.
The Verdict
Our pick is Baldur’s Gate 3. It has the strongest verified reception of any RPG of this era. It also serves the widest range of players, being a game that you can hand to almost anyone. If you want more real-time combat instead, Expedition 33 is the runner-up, even though it is turn-based as well, it has a very active playstyle.
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