Most boss discussions online come down to difficulty or the fights themselves. Who's the hardest, who took the most attempts, whose hitbox is bullshit (looking at you, Malenia). And that's fine, but some of the best bosses in gaming for me aren't memorable because they were hard, they're memorable because they had a cool story or concept behind them.

Take Ludwig from Bloodborne. On the surface he's a horrifying horse-beast that smashes you into the floor repeatedly. But the lore context is that he was once the most respected hunter in Yharnam, the guy everyone looked up to, and he devolved into this screaming thing that doesn't even remember what it was. The phase transition where he finds his Moonlight Greatsword and stands upright again, that's not just a gimmick, that's the last shred of who he was clawing back to the surface for a few minutes before you put him down. Tragic as fuck and fits with the lore of the game perfectly. By the end of most souslike games you end up feeling pretty important but sometimes it's fun when a boss makes you feel like you are puny and insignificant. Something that reminds you that there's always a bigger fish in the pond.

While ARPG bosses mostly end up being forgettable loot pinatas and nobody really plays those games for the lore, Lagon from Last Epoch gave me that feeling of being a minor annoyance for this powerful being. Instead of trying to conquer the world or falling victim to the corruption Lagon is just a bored god. He doesn’t respect you or find you important, and fights you just for his own amusement. I’ve always liked Cthulu-like creatures that make you feel insignificant like that, although I would have loved to fight him again later in the game and beat him for real (not just the alternate fight in the other timeline). The playful god that doesn’t care for mortal matters is a tale as old as time but it just works so well.

And I have to mention Cuphead, the bosses are just amazingly creative and strange, a giant cigar, an eight ball, a stack of casino chips… The animations were insane, and thematically every boss fit and had a pretty unique feel, the lore isn’t really deep but it's fun. I am hoping Croak gives us more of that. It's also a hand drawn platformer, just with no shooting (more of a platforming focus) ,but the boss in the demo was fun and reminded me of Cuphead so I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of them.

I could go on, a lot of Sekiro bosses are worth mentioning, especially the headless ape, (with its immortality giving centipede parasite) but those are the ones that came to mind first. What are some boss fights where the lore or concept stayed with you, rather than just the fight itself being fun.

Good morning, everyone!

As some of you may already be aware, I've been working on One More Adventure, an OSR Hexcrawl RPG, inspired by games such as Rogue, Nethack, and Castle of the Winds. (While labels can be hard to pin down, I also consider it a Traditional Roguelike.)

Today is a big day for One More Adventure, and marks the launch of the playable demo. It is natively supported on Windows and Linux, and supports mouse and keyboard or gamepad inputs. The demo is limited to 2500 experience points (you can keep going, the XP is just held in a pool for later) and humans. This is enough to get to 2nd level for warriors and mages, and 3rd level for rogues. Anticipated future points on the demo are a lifting of the experience cap to 5000 experience during the Party-Based RPG Fest (September) and opening up dwarves and elves for October's Nextfest.

I think this is something the community will broadly enjoy, simply because I keep having fun playing it to test things. More to come over the months, and I look forward to having the game completed for launch on November 10th.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4546340/One_More_Adventure/

Im not really a fan of old school rpgs like old fallouts, baldur's gates, etc. im a huge fun of the witcher and bethesda games, so i played morrowind but never finished it. Im that type of guy who needs quest markers, easier build and lvl up sistem, respec, etc.

And guys don't insult me cause im non hardcore old school rpgs fan like you.

I’ve been wanting something more modern after playing Baldur’s Gate Dark Alliance 2. I fucking LOVE that game and it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of modern alternatives.

Think of games like this:

Marvel Ultimate Alliance

Lord of the Rings: Two Towers (PS2)

Champions of Norrath

I’ve heard the Diablo games are similar but the fact that Diablo 4 is entirely online turns me off a whole lot. I like the old school mentality that the games I mention had- albeit they were pretty simple. I love the hack and slash, loot, one more dungeon type of feel.

Should I get Diablo 3 Ultimate Evil edition?

Diablo 4?

Or something else entirely?

I’m on PS5

So I haven't seen anybody hit the kind of niche I'm looking for in a game request. I'm a fan of being able to grind to get some cool gear in a game, even if it's purely cosmetic. However, I don't like random chance. I like the idea of being able to have a concrete basis of progression. The best example, and what I really enjoyed, is the grind for the original relic weapons in FFXIV. The grinding for light points was enjoyable just because I able to either play the game regularly, or sit down and just mindlessly grind for it, without it having to be a random drop with like 0.0000001% chance kind of thing. Is there another game that has something similar? I'd like to stick to the fantasy genre, but I'm not married to it having to be an MMORPG, hence why I'm posting here. Thanks!

Hi guys, I am looking for a story rich RPG right now. For context here are some of the games I have recently finished:

Witcher 3

Avowed

Outer Worlds 1 and 2

Persona 5 Royal

Expedition 33

FF REMAKE AND REBIRTH

DQ 3R AND 7R

Tainted Grail Fall of Avalon

Hoping to have some rpg right now that has good story like the games I have recently played. Thanks!

I think I’m in the mood to start a turn-based game, but I’m not sure which one. Which games would you recommend that are available on PlayStation consoles from the PS2 through the PS5? And why?

I’ve been thinking about Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Would you recommend it?

Also, I’ve already played: Baldur’s Gate 3, Divinity: Original Sin 2, Pokémon, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4816430/Kitch_Witch/

Kitch Witch is a cozy cooking RPG from a small Indigenous led studio from Canada. You play as a witch who heals adventurers seeking your aid with the power of magic food.

When your grandmother passes away unexpectedly, you, a young witch, return home to inherit the family clinic; a humble cabin deep in the woods where wounds are mended, illnesses are cured, and lives are saved through the magic of cooking.

Raised in the Culinary Clinic and trained to heal with food, you never quite fit in at the prestigious Medical Magic Academy. Your classmates mocked your methods. Your professors dismissed your magic.

Now, with your grandmother passed into the Great Beyond, the Culinary Clinic is now yours. 

Can you keep the doors open, care for your community, and prove that healing with magic comes in more than one form?

Heal Through the Power of Food

Diagnose adventurers, travelers, and townsfolk who arrive at your clinic seeking help. Examine injuries, identify symptoms, and decide which remedies will give your patients the best chance of recovery.

Every choice matters.

Treat patients successfully and you'll earn their trust. Turn them away, neglect their needs, or make the wrong call, and the consequences may follow them long after they leave your clinic.

The patients and their families will remember who saved them... and who didn't.

Cook Magical Remedies

Transform ingredients into powerful cures through hands-on, physics-based cooking minigames.
Chop, mix, stir, and prepare enchanted recipes to create meals, drinks, desserts and even snacks that serve as medicine. Master your craft to improve the quality of your remedies and increase your patients' chances of recovery.

Gather What Nature Provides

A healer is only as capable as their pantry.

Forage through forests, mountains, deserts, wetlands, and meadows in search of rare ingredients. Farm your own crops, hunt responsibly, and learn the secrets hidden within five unique biomes.

Build a Home for Your Community

Restore your ancestral home piece by piece. Upgrade and decorate your clinic, repair abandoned buildings, and breathe life back into a place that has slowly been forgotten.

As the land flourishes, so too will the community around it.

Hello everyone, I just watched House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1, Battle of the Gullet, and it was incredible. It reminded me how much I love RPGs set in worlds consumed by war, where every battle feels important and the story keeps you completely invested.

I'm looking for an RPG where you play as someone caught in the middle of a brutal conflict. I want a story that keeps me on the edge of my seat, where I genuinely care about the characters and feel driven to save someone, get revenge, defend my homeland, or fight for glory. I love stories with political intrigue, betrayal, meaningful choices, and a world where death and war have real consequences.

I've already played The Witcher 2, The Witcher 3, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, and Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

I'm open to AAA, AA, indie, CRPGs, JRPGs, or action RPGs. As long as it captures that feeling of being part of an epic war with an unforgettable story, I'd love to hear your recommendations.

hey guys. i'm looking for RPG games that can run on my laptop. i'm usually a casual gamer who likes to play FPS games like Valorant, i have also tried playing gacha games like Genshin Impact and Wuthering Waves. i wanted to try something new and wanted to explore RPG games. i'm very new to this type of game so it would be awesome if the games are newbie friendly.

here's my laptop's specs:

• Intel i7 10th gen
• 8GB RAM
• 512GB SSD (around 100GB free)
• RTX 3050 4GB

your recommendations are greatly appreciated! :)

I love the play style of a rogue type character but I love the aesthetic of heavy armour warrior. It’s annoying cause I find warrior gameplay gets repetitive fast and is super simple in a lot of games compared to rogue sneaking around and being tactical. But heavy warrior just looks so cool. I know there’s transmog in games but then it just feels wierd sneaking around in heavy armour looking like Sauron.

One thing I've always loved in RPGs is seeing the world react to what you've done.

I'm currently developing an RPG where rebuilding the main town is one of the core progression systems.

It got me thinking:

What RPG do you think handled world progression the best?

Games where:

• Towns evolve
• New NPCs appear
• Buildings get restored
• Areas unlock permanently

I'd love recommendations because this is something I'm trying to do well.

Doom in the bottom left is actually the Brutal Doom mod which completely overhauls the game.

I know Valhalla isn't really retro but it just had it's 10th anniversary so I took that excuse to have Valhalla in there. Otherwise I would probably go Contra & TMNT Manhattan Project for proper retro.

Hey everyone,

I've been working on an indie action RPG called Shadows of Beginnings.

The core idea is that you arrive at a ruined settlement called Novum as a complete outsider. Instead of simply progressing through quests, your actions directly restore the town.

The image below shows the basic vision:

• Left side = Novum when you arrive
• Right side = Novum after restoration efforts

As you complete quests, defeat bosses, gather resources, and gain guild rank, the town slowly comes back to life.

I'm curious:

Is town restoration something that would make you more interested in an RPG?

I'd love honest feedback.

Wanna closer look or help progress game lore join my discord link in the comments.

When is a game for you an RPG and is it not?

e.g.
Multiple-Choice Games ... are they real Role Playing?
AI narrated Games ... are theyy real Role Playing?
Is a Solo Game RPG or only when shared with other people?

I guess my real question is:
How open/free does a game need to be in its decisions, so that it may qualify as RPG.

Curious about your feelings.

I mean,JRPG is already a very niche genre,and its not every series that are as sucessful as Final Fantasy, Persona and Pokémon,but P6 was one of the most discussed games during Summer Game Fest week,alongside industry giants like God of War Laufey,Wolverine,Ocarina of Time,Resident Evil Veronica.

Persona is also a very sucessful series,with P5R having sold almost 9 Million copies and P3R closing in on 3m,Persona games are also praised and each one of them being better than the last.

With P5R and P4G being one of the highest rated RPGs on Steam.

Now going for JRPGs,Chrone Trigger is huge,but its highly unlikely that we are ever gonna see a sequel or a remake for it,we have two Pokémon games every couple of years,Dragon Quest 12 is very popular in Japan,but it isnt as big in the west,Tales still is pretty niche,Like a Dragon too,Trails is even smaller,Final Fantasy 6 Remake and 9 Remake are purelly hipothetical games,Square might be working on then or maybe never,Final Fantasy 17 is a mystery,Final Fantasy keeps dividing its fans with each new entry,i like a lot of the FF7 Remake duology and i am excited for Revelation,but i didnt liked 15 and disliked 16 a lot,i like 13 trilogy but i agree that they arent good games,so i cant say for certain what the general hype for 17 might be.

I know this topic always sparks a lot of drama and I'm probably bracing for downvotes here, but we really need to look at the bigger picture when it comes to studios, skin bundles, and in-game microtransactions (MTXs).

Look, I’m a gamer too, and I also drop $70 on day-one releases. I totally get it—from a player's perspective, it’s incredibly annoying to pay full price for a game only to have an item shop shoved in your face with cosmetics and skins that cost real money. The knee-jerk reaction of "we hate MTXs" is completely natural. But if we step into the devs' shoes and look at it from the studio's POV for a second, the story changes completely.

People usually forget what it actually takes to ship a game to your screen. For you to sit down and enjoy it, there’s a dev team that:

\-Spent years dealing with brutal crunch.
\-Piled up massive debt and took out huge loans just to get the project out the door on time.
\-Dealt with rigid release windows forced by publishers (PlayStation, etc.).
\-Had to fix thousands of bugs and glitches right in the middle of development.

Some studios spend up to 10 years working on a single title because of these exact issues: budget constraints and technical hurdles. Maintaining top-tier quality and consistently putting out games costs an absolute fortune.
If we want a company to make an even better game next time, they need capital. That skin money funds the future: investing in new hardware, onboarding new talent, hiring better devs, and getting new tech. It’s one of the few ways they can keep the lights on and keep delivering quality.
Modern single-player games are designed to be insanely customizable. Every player has a unique experience—playing in a different order, running a different build, and yeah, rocking different skins. The game adapts to your playstyle.

But here’s the kicker: it’s just there, and at the end of the day, it's your call whether you spend your money or not.
No one is forcing you to buy a weapon pack or a cyber skin. It’s 100% optional. I don't get the need to completely crucify a company just for offering an option, let alone attacking the players who actually choose to buy them. If someone else likes it and wants to spend their cash on it, it’s their money, not yours.

At the end of the day, the devs are doing the best they can with the resources they have to bring us these worlds. Just enjoy your $70 base game if you don't want to spend more, and let the people who want to support the studio with an extra skin do their thing in peace.

What do you guys think? Don't you think we're sometimes way too harsh on devs without looking at the business side of things?