The Best RPG of 2023

One of gaming’s oldest genre’s had a remarkable 2023. It contained several long-awaited releases, a number of delightful surprises, and a stunning sequel that will be remembered as an all-time great. We knew it would be a good year for RPGs going in, but we didn’t know that it would be this good. Role-playing games of all different types were represented this year – turn-based and action, strategy and open-world, Japanese and European. It was a feast for fans of the genre, made all the more surprising that one of its anticipated releases spent less time in the limelight than many would have expected.

Runner-Up: Starfield

That game, of course, was Starfield – Bethesda’s long-awaited journey into space. It was a sprawling, messy, and at times confusing affair – we ultimately awarded it a 7 in our review – but there was no denying that it was a labor of love from director Todd Howard and company. An unabashed tribute to sci-fi film and literature, Starfield steadily develops in some striking ways, culminating in one of the most memorable reveals of 2023. One fan loved it so much that they beat its New Game Plus an incredible 33 times.

Since its release, Starfield has cultivated a community dedicated to building unique ships, creating elaborate outposts, and unlocking its various secrets. It is in so many ways the Star Trek RPG that we’ve always wanted but never really received, at least not in the triple-A space. It’s a journey of discovery through the universe that marks it as unique among its peers, filled with questions like, “What if clones of Genghis Khan, Franklin Roosevelt, and Amanirenas were put in charge of their own societies?” If you’re the type of person who stayed up watching reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 90s, then Starfield is second to none.

Runner-Up: Diablo IV

Another RPG that perhaps deserves more credit than it gets from fans is Diablo IV, another IGN Awards runner-up. Released to great fanfare back in June, Diablo IV earned considerable praise for bringing the series back to the bloody horror of its early days. We praised it in our review for its “finely-tuned combat, extensive build options, stellar graphics, and strong live-service foundation” when it first released. Unfortunately, its heavily-criticized Season 1 rollout soured the mood somewhat, leaving Blizzard scrambling to regain the goodwill of fans, which it arguably did with the much better received Season 2.

Online RPGs like these are always a little tricky to judge, since they tend to get caught up in whatever the discourse du jour is among hardcore fans who are unhappy, say, about the DPS output of a particular build or the hardship of a particular grind. These are all legitimate grievances, but they tend to lose what made the experience so memorable in the first place. Diablo IV is, by any measure, one of 2023’s best RPGs. It’s a tremendous co-op experience that you can play with friends on both PC and console, with the type of presentation that hearkens back to Blizzard’s golden age (seriously, that opening cutscene with Lilith is an all-timer). Blizzard also deserves a great deal of credit for its candid communication as it has sought to quickly address fan feedback. With more expansions on the way, Diablo IV is one of the handful of reasons to be optimistic about Blizzard’s future heading into 2024.

Runner-Up: Sea of Stars

Diablo IV’s diametric opposite is Sea of Stars – a hopeful, optimistic, and frequently very cozy turn-based RPG developed by Sabotage Studios. It’s pitched as an ode to Chrono Trigger, but really it’s a tribute to an entire family of RPGs developed for the Super Nintendo, PlayStation, and beyond. Its soundtrack even features contributions from RPG legend Yasunori Mitsuda, and let me tell you, they rock.

Sea of Stars’ somewhat plain protagonists – one boy and one girl – belie a delightful cast with their own stories and playstyles. My favorite is definitely Garl, warrior cook and loyal friend to Valere and Zale – an everyman with a ladle and a delicious pot of soup. A breezy adventure that can be wrapped up in just about 30 hours, Sea of Stars is nonetheless a gorgeous RPG with an engaging battle system, some great boss battles, and a charming cast (and did I mention the soundtrack is great? Because it is).

Runner-Up: Octopath Traveler 2

Speaking of tributes to 16-bit RPGs, Octopath Traveler 2 picks up where the first game left off with an even bigger adventure filled with memorable characters, some truly excellent writing, and another banger of a soundtrack (seriously, if you want some great music, you can often do worse than to fire up an RPG developed in Japan). In a nod to Akitoshi Kawazu’s (in)famous SaGa series, Octopath Traveler 2 features a host of adventurers on their own individual journeys, all of which intersect and eventually combine in some truly fascinating ways. Octopath Traveler 2 flew under the radar among mainstream gamers, but RPG fans went wild for it, with many calling it their Game of the Year before Baldur’s Gate 3 came along (a few would probably still pick Octopath Traveler 2). It remains a unique experience, not just because of its memorable HD-2D art-style, but because of characters like Temenos, snarky cleric extraordinaire. Square Enix often gets criticized for its handling of its classic franchises, but Octopath Traveler 2 feels like the love letter to RPG history that fans deserve.

Runner-Up: In Stars and Time

[Note: I asked IGN’s number one In Stars and Time fan Rebekah Valentine to write this section. Take it away, Reb.]

Such a stellar year for RPGs wouldn’t be complete without a loving nod to the quirky traditions of Earthbound and Undertale, and this year’s hit of this style was In Stars and Time. Set at the tail end of what initially appears to be a standard RPG adventure, protagonist Siffrin finds himself in a time loop, reliving the same journey through the “final dungeon” of his adventure over and over again. Helpful for him, as he’s able to undo any losses against traps or enemies and ensure the success of his party against the evil King. But as he makes his way to the final battle and beyond, In Stars and Time quickly presents a deeply intriguing mystery beneath the loops – one that makes it difficult to put down without doing juuuust one more loop.

While I could talk forever about the clever time looping mechanics, the stellar story, or the wonderfully literal interpretation of a rock-paper-scissors battle system, what really made In Stars and Time shine for me was its well-written cast. Funny, complex, diverse, flawed, joyfully queer, and wonderfully human, the five party members of In Stars and Time proved an absolute treat to spend time with loop after loop. I’m especially fond of the cantankerous but secretly soft Odile, and I want to protect the self-serious pre-teen Bonnie with my life. One more loop, then, just so I can see them again.

Runner-Up: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

Now it’s time to talk about two of the highest vote-getters for best RPG at IGN. The first is Cyberpunk 2077: The Phantom Liberty, which completed Cyberpunk’s comeback from biggest disappointment of 2020 to one of the great RPGs of the year. But wait, you ask, isn’t Phantom Liberty an expansion pack? Well, yes. But CD Projekt’s expansions have a way of taking on a life of their own. I began my 2023 by finally completing my playthrough of The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine, and I was staggered by the sheer breadth of what it added to an already tremendous RPG. It truly felt like its only self-contained little sequel.

Phantom Liberty is Cyberpunk’s Blood and Wine. It’s a large expansion that takes into account all of CD Projekt’s learnings over the past three years, all while incorporating extensive new mechanics like car chases and vehicle combat. It exists as a rebuke to all the critics who said that one expansion couldn’t make Cyberpunk 2077 into a good RPG. As it turns out, Phantom Liberty and its accompanying 2.0 update doesn’t just make Cyberpunk 2077 into a good RPG, it makes it into a great one, washing away much (if not necessarily all) of its troubled history. It’s impossible to tell the story of RPGs in 2023 without it, and that makes it an essential addition to this list, and to your library.

Winner: Baldur’s Gate 3

Finally, there’s Baldur’s Gate 3, IGN’s best RPG of 2023. Before its release, one observer I know wondered aloud how the most anticipated PC RPG in years could be flying so far below the radar. Then everyone learned about the Bear Sex, and one of 2023’s biggest gaming phenomenons was born.

Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t just one of 2023’s best RPGs – it may well be the best RPG ever made. Recency bias, you say? Perhaps. But Baldur’s Gate 3’s writing, characters, and storytelling are every bit the equal of its illustrious protesters, and arguably match up to genre holy grails like Planescape Torment. It’s also the most significant triple-A PC RPG since BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins – glorious proof that turn-based RPGs can be every bit as successful as their action-based counterparts.

It’s impossible to rate Baldur’s Gate 3’s overall impact, especially when it arguably isn’t even a finished work, but there’s no doubt that Larian Studios has forced developers across the industry to rethink their assumptions about the genre. And speaking of Larian, it has finally fully arrived as one of the industry’s great RPG developers, assuming the mantle relinquished by BioWare. We will no doubt still be talking about the adventures of Karlach, Lae’zel, Gale, and the rest in the years to come, especially as fans complete their second and third and fourth playthroughs (I mean, you have to do the Dark Urge playthrough at least once, right?)

In the meantime, raise a toast to Baldur’s Gate 3, one of the best games of 2023, and an RPG that will go down in history as one of the genre’s seminal accomplishments.