Ranging from action adventures like the Uncharted series to all-out brawlers like God of War, the PlayStation 3 is home to a wide variety of different genres and experiences. Among the many titles that grace the platform are role-playing games, or RPGs for short.
Some older titles notwithstanding, RPGs make their bed on the platform much more so than they do on the Xbox 360, namely due to the exclusivity offered by the platform. There's titles like Demon's Souls and Ni No Kuni that are available only on the PlayStation 3.
From commanding a squadron of soldiers against the tyranny of a more powerful nation to learning the secrets of magic in order to battle an evil wizard and save a loved one from being lost forever, PlayStation 3 owners have numerous, immersive worlds to explore.
Read on to discover what we think are the ten best role-playing games the platform has to offer.
Developed in the vein of The Legend of Zelda, Darksiders, and Diablo, players in the Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning quest through a wide open world, where they slay monsters, get loot, and follow a storyline.
The Makers of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, 38 Studios and Big Huge Games, may not be making games anymore, but that doesn't mean the one game they created isn't worth playing. As a matter of fact, it's one of the best RPGs to hit the PlayStation 3 in recent times and one that remains well worth playing despite what happened to its developers.
What a monster of a game. There is no other way of saying this. Demon’s Souls was a game that single handedly took the RPG genre and stood it on its head for years to come. A game changer. A hard game. A very hard game. People loathe it, people love it, but the groundbreaking influence of From Software’s now legendary title cannot be ignored. Others have tried aping the effort after this enormous success, but none ever got close to this.
Demon’s Souls treats death differently than other video games. Death resets the game world, respawns all monsters, and puts the player back to the beginning of the level. What sounds like barbaric insanity though, is a clever system of teaching the player to play right, to respect the game, and to listen to what other plays say in the numerous little messages sprayed all over the game, in what is the recent generation’s most interesting multiplayer feature. A true classic.
Eternal Sonata is a standout title in that one of the playable characters was an actual person. As composer and pianist Frederic Chopin is lying on his deathbed, he dreams of a fairy-tale world where anyone near death has the ability to harness supernatural abilities.
Released as Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream — Reprise in Japan, Eternal Sonata is notable for its use of classical piano pieces, educational cutscenes featuring real paintings and photographs, and a fictional world envisioned by the game's developers of Chopin during his final hours, influenced by his life and music.
Oh, Oblivion. You are kind of the runt of the Elder Scrolls litter so far. Originally conceived as a game depicting a very different Cyrodill Province, Bethesda changed that eventually from a steamy jungle like land filled with ancient Roman style legionaires to a much more traditional medieval European fantasy landscape, and took much bigger hints from the Lord of the Rings movies’ visual aesthetics than Morrowind had before.
But that doesn’t mean that Obsidian was a bad game. Far from it. There were tons and tons of things to see, to do, to kill and to explore. Bethesda are great at designing worlds, and while this Cyrodill is their most vanilla effort yet, it still was an enchantingly beautiful world at the time, filled with mystery and wonder as it should be in a fantasy game. Even the questlines given were high above your standard fantasy computer RPG given, and even today the game still holds up quite well as one huge time eating monstrosity that will not let you go easily.
Fallout: New Vegas is set in the Nevada desert, north of California and years after the events of Fallout 3 and its predecessors. Players take on the role of the Courier, a man who’s lost his memory and whose only lead is to pursue a man with a platinum poker chip—a man responsible for his memory loss. Along the way, the player becomes embroiled in a war between the New California Republic and a group of raiders and slavers self-styled after the Roman Legion
Human Revolution is primarily a first person shooter with strong RPG elements that, if it's anything like the first two games, will allow you to approach combat situations based on your own personal preference. You can take out enemy combatants through stealth, brute force, or even use your hacking abilities to get sentry guns and armed robots to do your bidding for you.
Taking a cue from Ghost in the Shell, Deus Ex carries a strong cyberpunk motif. If things continue to head in the direction they're heading in the real world, there's little doubt that we'll be living in a world just like the one depicted by these games.
Shepard has returned, and so have the Reapers. Mass Effect 3 shows an Earth besieged by an armada of Reapers, and the only hope of humankind's survival depends on Commander Shepard.
Mass Effect 3 brings back the role-playing and action elements of the first two games with a number of improvements, and it takes all the events of the first two games into account, provided you have a save file to import and carry over to Mass Effect 3. All the actions you commit in Mass Effect 2 are therefore etched in stone, and you'll have to deal with the consequences.
Save for the game's ending, we can't think of anything bad to say about the game.
The reason Skyrim isn't higher up on this list is simply because Bethesda took forever to support the game on the PS3.
The latest addition to the Elder Scrolls setting elevates the series to new heights. Featuring a brand new engine, Skyrim is shedding the poorly aged GameBryo.
Players enter the role of the Dragonborn, an individual prophesied to take on the Sons of Skyrim, an army not unlike the Vikings of old.
If you're wondering where Skyrim happens to be, it lies somewhere to the north of Cyrodiil in TES4: Oblivion, where it's always cold, snowy, and full of Draugr—the land's version of the undead who roam the crypts deep beneath the earth.
Have you ever heard of dying a lot as a video game mechanic? Dark Souls puts it to full use as it forces you to master your ability at the game, which is something you’ll have to do if you expect to make any progress whatsoever. Prepare to die a lot.
Set in the strange land of Lordran, players must venture through this bleak and foreboding land of the dead in an attempt to ring two magical bells and reclaim their humanity.
Developed by Studio Ghibli and Level-5, the makers of Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro, Ni No Kuni is one of the most charming experiences to ever grace the console. As a Japanese RPG, it’s top notch and offers everything you could expect from two high-caliber studios.
Players take on the role of a young boy named Oliver who sets off on a quest to bring his mother back from the dead after she dies saving him from drowning. He must venture to another dimension, where he learns to unlock his inner potential and become the hero of that land.
FFXIV: Alexander Raid – The Fist of the Father Guide
Side Quests in The Witcher 3 DLC Hearts of Stone
6 Life Lessons You Can Learn From Gaming
13 Tips to Quickly Improve Your Photos
Zayn Malik: The member of One Direction turns 22