For years now, GOTY winners tend to be RPGs. It’s a genre that encapsulates games as an art form almost perfectly, allowing each and every part of video games as an interactive medium to truly shine and stand out.
While interactivity by itself can be the basis of fun in games, RPGs take all of that to the next level, contending with traditional mediums like novels or films and proving that yes, video games can tell tremendous stories while letting you intervene in the narrative.
This year was amazing for RPGs of all kinds, and one of them even won the Game of the Year, which, as I’ve said, is sort of traditional by this point.
So, here are the best RPGs that had come out in 2025.
The absolute best RPGs from 2025
Monster Hunter: Wilds
Proper, purely story-driven RPGs weren’t so many this year, at least there weren’t many on the same level of narrative quality as is to be expected of cRPGs. However, the RPG genre is broad, allowing for a multitude of core gameplay mechanics that are experienced by virtue of a character, whose role you take upon yourself.
With that in mind, I had to include Monster Hunter: Wilds. Tough it suffered from abysmal performance on launch, the game has come a long way since, as Capcom addressed the majority of its problems and made the game properly playable through a ton of patches, updates, and hotfixes.
When we look past all its surface-level issues, Monster Hunter: Worlds remains one of the best action-RPG games of this year (and many other years as well), providing you with a recognizable monster-hunting experience taken up to 11. With more bigger, badder monsters, MHW is truly among the best in the franchise, and is only going to get better.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2
Now that we have action out of the way, it’s time for some real narrative kickers. A sequel to the stellar 2018 title, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a direct continuation of its predecessor’s story, taking place in an impeccably accurate medieval Bohemia (today’s Czech Republic) amid social upheaval and, as is expected of medieval Europe—war.
KCD2 builds on the foundations laid by the first game and improves just about every aspect, streamlining those systems that were too confusing, complex, or straight up boring while generally expanding on the story, RPG elements, and other aspects of the world. You can do just about anything in this game, perform any task, all at your own pace.
It’s one of the most robust RPG experiences out there, one where choices really matter and where your actions reflect upon the world in meaningful ways, allowing me to deem it a true RPG in every sense of the phrase.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
You knew it, I knew it, the editors knew it before we even pitched the article: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had to be on this list. It’s not even that interesting at this point, because no matter what game category is discussed, even if it has the slimmest, smallest connection to E33, it’s going to be mentioned.
It’s everyone’s game of the year, yours, ours, Geoff’s, you name it. It’s a JRPG at heart, with meager roleplay mechanics that set it apart from a classical RPG experience, though it remains strongly within this modern, more broad definition of what an RPG is. Of course, you won’t find many notable story decisions to make here, but that doesn’t really matter, given just how amazing the core narrative is by itself.
The characters are tremendously well-written, the voice acting performances are fantastic, and everything in this title comes together to form one cohesive narrative experience that you won’t forget for a long time after the credits roll.
The Outer Worlds 2
Coming off of the first Outer Worlds game, I’d bet not many people expected the sequel to be so good. The first game, while fun, wasn’t a great RPG by any means, and played more like an action game with RPG elements than a proper Obsidian RPG. That all changes with the sequel, which threw me back to the days of Obsidian’s New Vegas, and that’s no surprise given that the best of the company’s designers worked on it.
The writing is impeccable, funny when it should be and dark when needed, produced by some of the most capable minds in the history of RPGs. What’s more, most of the biggest names that worked on this title are more-or-less responsible for the RPG revolution of the 90s and early 2000s, which really shows in the dialogues.
I loved the world building, the art style, and its speech-heavy approach to gameplay. But, if you prefer alternate modes of roleplaying, you’re by all means allowed to do it, and there are high chances the devs thought of it before you did.
Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector
I had to put in at least one cRPG before I closed the list off, as I truly believe this “sub” genre represents what RPGs should be as a whole. It’s a heavy narrative game, with texts and dialogues more important than any other gameplay mechanic. You talk your way through this game, much like you would in something like Disco Elysium.
I played this title’s predecessor, which, though rather simple, had some of the most amazing writing I had ever come across in a video game. The sequel, too, is on equal footing, though it improves everything the first game did well, including the narrative. I loved it, especially the art style, and I’m fairly certain you would, too, if you were to give it a shot.
I mean, it’s on this list for a reason.
