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Looking for the best RPGs on the PS5? This list has you covered. RPGs are the bread and butter of the PS5, with plenty of exclusives and extremely long games that you won’t be able to put down. Whether you’re looking for your next RPG or you want to revisit an old favourite, the PS5 has so many RPGs to choose from that you’re spoilt for choice.
We’re looking through the large PS5 RPG catalogue and picking out the best RPGs to try out. These games are the best of the best that the PS5 has to offer, and all you need is spare hours to sink into them.
If you want to see more, check out our list of the best free PS5 games and the best action games on PS5. In no particular order, these are the best PS5 RPGs out there:
Sea of Stars
Sea of Stars is something of a love letter to the old-school JRPGs from the 80s and 90s, blending turn-based combat with a beautifully charming pixel-art world. There are a lot of games out there that act as love letters to old JRPGs and they never seem to offer anything new and are just walking references to things we’ve already seen. Sea of Stars, however, breaks free from this curse and is able to have its own identity while still paying homage in the best ways.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
The wicked world of The Witcher is one that will engross you for hours, days, and years to come even after you’ve finished them. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is the most complete Witcher game out there, offering a gigantic open world with monsters to hunt and problems to solve as Geralt the Witcher searches for Ciri, his ward. The sword-play-focused combat is fast and fun, doing an excellent job of letting you feel like the badass monster hunter you are. The Witcher games take place in an entirely separate canon from the book series, but they are chronologically set after the main series of books where Ciri is an adult. The Witcher 3 offers an incredibly rich experience and lets you immerse yourself in the hauntingly beautiful and sometimes horrific world of the Continents.
Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn
Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn is an MMO at its core, and it offers an RPG experience you might expect from a Final Fantasy game. You can tackle dungeons for better gear, you can change jobs, you can party up, and do as much or as little as you like as you explore the wide world of Eorzea. The entire base game and its first expansion, Heavensward, is free-to-play, giving you a level cap of 60. After you reach this cap, you will need a subscription to play the rest of FF14 and its other expansions, but in return, you will get an extremely streamlined MMO experience that will keep you occupied for years.
Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen
Dragon’s Dogma was released in 2012 to very little fanfare and some cult following. There is something of a sliding scale of love and hatred for this game, with very little middle ground between the two. Dragon’s Dogma is an RPG set in the medieval world of Gransys, which is crawling with fantastic monsters to slay such as Griffons, dragons, Ogres, goblins, and so much more you’d expect from classic fantasy games and stories. If you can get into it, Dragon’s Dogma is an incredibly fun and rewarding experience, with an exceptionally fleshed-out world and Class system to get lost in. Explore the land as you’re tasked with reclaiming your stolen heart from a terrible dragon. The aesthetic of Dragon’s Dogma alone is to get you hooked, and the rest of its mechanics and gameplay will make sure you won’t be able to put it down.
Octopath Traveler 2
The first Octopath game had a lot of problems, most of which were thankfully solved with the release of Octopath Traveler 2. While the game loses several points being part of the 2D-HD graphics fad, the world is detailed and the characters are what make the game so fun and engaging. If you can get past the graphics and how the game looks, you’ll be handsomely rewarded by the game’s turn-based combat and engaging story. You don’t need to have played Octopath 1 to understand 2 since it is completely unrelated to the story and characters from the first game.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Who would’ve thought that Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin would actually turn out to be an incredibly decent action RPG? If you can look past literally every aspect of the characters, the designs, the story, the cinematics, the writing, and basically any spoken dialogue in the game, you will notice that the core systems of its action-focused gameplay are incredible. The Job system is detailed and expansive, the combat is tactical and harsh while still giving you plenty of options to take on foes. The game is helmed by Team Ninja, who is responsible for Nioh 2, and it tweaks similar systems and translates them into the world of Final Fantasy brilliantly, such as having access to Blue Magic and so much more.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon
If you want an RPG that is self-aware and pokes fun at other legendary RPGs like Dragon Quest, then Yakuza: Like a Dragon is the game for you. Set in Japan, this new iteration of the Yakuza games trades the real-time action combat for turn-based. You play as Ichiban Kasuga on his heroic quest for redemption after taking the fall for something he didn’t do. The characters are amazing, the story and writing are hilarious, and the combat is stellar. It wouldn’t be a Yakuza game without mini-games, and thankfully Like a Dragon is positively bursting with them. You can sing karaoke with your party members, run a business, collect trash, ride mini carts, and so much more.
Genshin Impact
Genshin Impact is an expansive open-world game just waiting to be explored. While Genshin is free-to-play and has a fairly unfair gacha system, there is plenty of enjoyment to be gained from Genshin without spending a single penny. You can play the entire game and access every bit of content without spending money. You can earn in-game currency by playing and exploring, and the exploration is incredibly fun and rewarding in ways that most games fail to capture. The story is ongoing and new updates are constantly being added, which means there’s never a bad time to jump into Genshin Impact or dust off your old save to give it another go. We don’t recommend spending any money on Genshin, especially because you can enjoy it for what it is without doing so.
Persona 5 Royal
Persona 5 Royal is the best version of Persona systems in any of their games. You don’t need to have played the previous ones since it is completely unrelated to the other titles. Persona 5 Royal takes place in Japan and you play as Joker, the leader of a group called the Phantom Thieves who discover another world ruled by Shadows and evil desires. The gameplay loop is simple and satisfying, from the social sim aspects of raising your ranks with your friends, romancing them, exploring dungeons, learning the incredible turn-based combat, and so much more you will be hooked for hours. Persona 5 Royal is a fantastic anime RPG that you need to play. Persona 5 Royal is effectively an expanded re-release of the original Persona 5. Royal has loads of new content and is the best version of P5 to play by far, so give it a try if you want some high-school JRPG hijinx with satisfying combat and a great story.
Demon’s Souls
The first in FromSoft’s Souls games, Demon’s Souls is a brilliantly rewarding and painfully challenging RPG. If you never played it due to its limited PS3 exclusivity, the PS5 remake of Demon’s Souls is the best way to play the game. Nothing has changed from the original other than voice actors and music, but the core gameplay and difficulty are untouched, and it doesn’t hurt that it looks utterly beautiful on the PS5. Create your character, level up your stats, find new equipment, and take on the frustrating beast that is Demon’s Souls. You can play the game in co-op through each level, which is an even better way to enjoy the game.
Monster Hunter World: Iceborne
Arguably the best iteration of the storied Monster Hunter series to date, Monster Hunter World and its huge expansion Iceborne is one of the best action RPGs out there. Monster Hunter World brought so many modern innovations to the old janky systems of the previous Monster Hunter games, which has helped the game immeasurably be more user-friendly. Monster Hunter World is a long game, and it is extremely tough towards the end of the Iceborn expansion with all the new monsters that were added to the game for free. The amount of content you have in Monster Hunter World is exceptional, and you can play through the whole game with your friends in a party of four, making for one of the best co-op experiences you’ll ever have. Take on massive monsters together or by yourself, all the while exploring extremely detailed environments and maps, hiding all manner of secrets and gorgeous scenery.
Tales of Arise
Tales of Arise is the first Tales game made for PS5, and it is one heck of an adventure. Tales games are known for their combat and characters, and Tales of Arise certainly delivers on what is the best iteration of the Tales combat formula. You run around a series of overworld maps and fight enemies in a fully 3D environment. The combat is extremely fun and exciting, providing several epic moments throughout. The story has some downfalls, but the gameplay is more than enough to make up for that. The characters are all fleshed out with their own motivations and personalities, all of which blend together to make them feel like separate people in your party, and the dialogue and interactions between them are phenomenal. You can customise your character’s outfits, and weapons, and listen in on hundreds of funny and informative Skits the Tales series is known for.
Persona 4 Golden
Persona 4 Golden is arguably the best Person game out there, depending on who you ask. Naturally, Persona 5 modernised and improved every single aspect of the gameplay, but the story and characters of 5 don’t hold a candle to the murder-mystery story and cast of Persona 4 Golden. As with other Persona games, your time is split between the social sim aspect where you go to school, level up your social skills, and spend time with friends, with each day progressing the story to its next arc. Other than the social sim, you have dungeon-crawling and turn-based combat to deal with, all of which are extremely fun and rewarding to play. The characters of Persona 4 Golden are phenomenal, and the writing of this game is especially great, arguably better than Persona 3 and Persona 5. P4 Golden is now on PS5 after initially only being available on the PS Vita, giving it a new home and making it more accessible for everyone who wants to play it.
