These games tell amazing stories players want to experience time and time again, are populated by memorable characters, and often explore deep themes — even if their heroes do tend to have memory problems, spiky hair, and swords the size of New Jersey. A truly great RPG is a generational treat. Players flock to the newest Final Fantasy, or to acclaimed newcomers like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Metaphor: ReFantazio.
But there have been plenty of other great games released over the last ten years or so, and they didn’t always receive the attention they should have. Here is our list of 10 of the most underrated RPGs of the last decade, ready to point you toward some of the very best experiences you may have missed. The original release of Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter happened way back in 2004 in Japan, where it was known as Eiyuu Densetsu: Sora no Kiseki.
In 2011, a localized version finally came to North America, courtesy of Xseed Games. Then followed the PC port in 2014. Recently, Falcom finally returned to its classic series, producing an ambitious remake that blends action and turn-based combat, while retaining the rich world and epic scale that made the previous versions so great.
A remake of the second chapter followed earlier this year. While both games launched to rave reviews and have found a passionate audience among players in the know, they’re not being talked about in the same breath as behemoths like Final Fantasy. Ever since Harvest Moon launched on the Super Famicom in 1996, the world has had a passion for virtual farming that defies easy explanation.
Stardew Valley has kept that passion alive, alongside new and remade Story of Seasons entries, and there have been numerous other cozy sim games along the way. Sometimes, developers mix the classic farming with RPG elements, as in Rune Factory. Then there is Harvestella, an action-RPG from Live Wire that takes that second approach.
It provides 12 character classes, including standards like the fighter and the mage, and finds the hero managing a farm while interacting with the locals living in a village called Lethe. There are deep RPG elements, along with an intriguing plot to accompany all the farming, cooking, crafting, and fishing. Not everyone likes the old-school style of RPG that takes place from a first-person perspective and primarily confines itself to dungeon crawling.
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