These Open-World Game Worlds Were Made With Love

An open-world RPG is only as good as its world design. A game could literally be the size of the Earth in terms of game size, but if the world were filled with nothing to do or see, it wouldn’t be popular. The following games do give players unique worlds to explore, unlike most others out there.

Xenoblade Chronicles is unique in that it takes place on the back of two giants, and Monster Hunter Wilds uses its environments to tell a story about the monsters hiding inside. These two examples deserve to be elaborated on, and there are other games to discuss, too, so let’s move on.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

A Classic Fantasy World

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an action RPG and an almost perfect world for anyone who wants a big RPG set in a classic fantasy setting. There are plenty of mythical creatures, both sentient and not, lurking around, and a lot of them are based on classic European lore or fairy tales, from trolls to drowners.

There are lots of quaint little villages strewn throughout forests, and the bigger cities have well-designed streets, each bustling with activity. Nothing feels out of place or too fantastical to be unrealistic, even a giant keep in the mountains looks doable, and that helps with immersion a lot.

Fallout 4

Exploring The Ruined East Coast

Fallout 4 is a first-person shooter that is a great representation of the East Coast, specifically the Boston area of Massachusetts, even though it is a post-apocalyptic game where everything is bombed out. It’s not a direct conversion akin to something like the New York City presented in Marvel’s Spider-Man, but Fallout 4’s liberties make sense.

There are big harbors with ships crumbling in radiated water, monuments to the United States’ past, highways in disrepair, and so on. As everything has to be reached on foot, players will be able to go to everything that looks interesting to them instead of passing things by if they had a mount, for example.

Elden Ring

Following The Golden Tree

Elden Ring is a Soulslike and the complete opposite of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, as it’s also a fantasy setting, but one that is much darker and foreboding. There are NPCs, but all of them have a flair of mystery that players won’t be able to tell if they are one bad sentence away from getting up and fighting them in a boss fight.

Secrets are hidden behind every corner, from cave entrances to portals that take players halfway across the map. Even though it’s a dangerous world, it’s also this mystery that draws players in. The world is not about seeing the sights; it’s about inviting a sense of adventure and curiosity that most worlds lack because it is densely packed without much wasted space.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth

A PS1 Game Reborn

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is an action RPG that will be a nostalgia trip for those who grew up playing Final Fantasy 7 on the PS1. This second remake takes place after Midgar, and each section of the game is wonderfully recreated and elaborated on to give these already vibrant areas even more history.

Costa del Sol feels even more like a bustling vacation spot that is no longer empty, and the bleakness of Junon’s sea area is something to behold, like the giant pirate ship outside of the city limits. It’s another example of a dense world where every blade of grass matters, and traversing these areas is more fun once Chocobos are unlocked, each with a different ability, from mountain climbing to gliding.

Xenoblade Chronicles

On The Bodies Of Giants

Xenoblade Chronicles is a real-time MMO-type RPG that has one of the coolest ideas for an open-world game ever. Ages ago, two giants, Bionis and Mechonis, fought in an endless ocean, and then one day their fighting stopped, they died, and then life sprouted up on their backs with machine-like entities thriving on Mechonis while organic life came to be on Bionis.

As players explore, they will make their way through the body of Bionis and then gradually hop over to Mechonis. The camera doesn’t exactly zoom out to show where players are on these bodies, but it’s still a neat idea and an impressive achievement for the Wii that is even better rendered on the Switch thanks to the remaster, Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.

Cyberpunk 2077

A Future Run By Corporations

Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person shooter that can be boiled down to Grand Theft Auto 5, but in a futuristic city, and that description wouldn’t be wrong, but it is so much more than that. The streets of this cyberpunk game are grimy, with everyone trying to claw their way to the top as corporations run everything.

Big buildings and neon billboards constantly remind its citizens of a better life. Outside of Night City is a more desolate wasteland where outlaws thrive. The game also manages to make its NPCs interesting to look at, between robots wearing clothes or exposed cyborgs with their parts hanging out, all of which help the world feel more realistic.

Monster Hunter Wilds

The Biomes Of Monsters

Monster Hunter Wilds, like the other Monster Hunter games, was an action RPG, but the first one to be a true open-world game. What works about this franchise is that monster habitats often make sense in terms of how these massive beasts behave.

For example, in the first area of the game, Windward Plains, players can encounter Balahara, which buries itself in the sand and is able to glide through it like water. The Scarlet Forest is home to Lala Barina, a giant spider that can disguise itself as a flower. The game is both an inviting world filled with wonders the eyes have never seen before and a dangerous one where death can come from all sides.

South Park: The Stick Of Truth

Living Out Your Cartoon Dreams

South Park: The Stick of Truth is a turn-based RPG, and like Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, it is a nostalgia trip. The game contains decades of references, and anyone who grew up watching South Park will be rewarded with the popular and deep lore cuts.

This was the first time South Park was rendered this well in a video game, from checking out Cartman’s closet to mapping out part of Canada. It was the little details that made this game great, and definitely rank it up there as one of the best South Park games of all time. South Park: The Stick of Truth may be small in scope, but the town’s design made sense given the cartoon’s layout over the years.

Hogwarts Legacy

A Magical World Awaits

Hogwarts Legacy is an action RPG, and the final one, where nostalgia is a big reason why it is so beloved. Taking place before the Harry Potter books, players can create their student and attend Hogwarts, which is fully realized from the dorms to the individual classrooms to the grounds around the school.

It is the biggest version of Hogwarts in a game to date, and while it can be a bit confusing at first to map out the many chambers of Hogwarts, it is a delight to explore. Being able to mount a broom and fly over the lake or run through the forest was a delight as well for Harry Potter fans who yearned for an immersive game since 1997.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

A Greek Adventure

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is an action RPG that takes place in Greece in the 400s BCE. Like all Assassin’s Creed games, the rich history is what draws a lot of players in, and Greek culture is one of the most impressive, from giant statues that are climbable to bustling cities.

Best of all, sailing around in archaic ships and taking in the beauty of the tranquil waters or even diving underneath made players feel like they were on vacation via some sort of time travel package. Anyone who remembered studying Greek history in school briefly probably saw Assassin’s Creed Odyssey as a picture-perfect representation of the era, even though it did take some liberties, especially in the DLC involving Atlantis.