The best role-playing games on Xbox One

The Xbox One’s legacy certainly focuses largely on shooters like Halo, Gears of War, and Call of Duty, but Microsoft’s console also has a plethora of role-playing games for those looking to sink their teeth into something a little meatier and immerse themselves in another world. These range from open-ended games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3 to more linear experiences like South Park: The Fractured But Whole, but all of them allow for customization and tailoring the game to suit your own style of play. Some of the games use turn-based battles, while others are more action-oriented, bridging the gap with action-adventure games and acting as a gateway to more complex RPGs. We included a variety of sub-genres when picking the best Xbox One RPGs, including games from North America, Japan, and Europe.

The Assassin’s Creed series started flirting with RPG mechanics in Assassin’s Creed Origins, which released in 2017, but it was the game’s sequel that took it into full-on RPG territory. Set in Greece during the lifetime of famous intellectuals like Hippokrates (who is the namesake of the Hippocratic oath) and Socrates, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey lets you choose between two siblings, with the other serving as an antagonist. Rather than just include a few RPG-style abilities or upgrades, the game features a huge skill tree that lets you customize to your exact playstyle, and there are so many side quests to complete across its enormous map that it can take hundreds of hours to complete them all. The game even goes into supernatural territory more than its predecessors with battles against famous Greek mythical monsters, and its bright, colorful locales are more entertaining than the bleaker ones featured in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla a few years later.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

See our Assassin’s Creed Odyssey review.

Dark Souls Remastered

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From Software’s Dark Souls series is so acclaimed and high-quality that any of the games could have gotten a spot on this list, but if you haven’t played them before, there is no better place to start than Dark Souls Remastered. An overhaul of the original 2011 game, complete with fixes for troublesome areas like Blighttown, better lighting, and all DLC included for no extra charge, Dark Souls Remastered is an even better version of what was already a masterpiece. Its influence extends far beyond the high difficulty that has made it the stuff of memes, with the game’s bonfire system and interconnected world combining to make for an extremely satisfying adventure, even if all you did was kill a few skeletons and unlock a new door. And when you make it to Anor Londo? Forget about it.

See our original Dark Souls review.

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Diablo 3 Arguably better on consoles than it was at PC–especially at launch, Diablo 3 has maintained a player-base for nearly a decade for a simple reason: It’s really, really fun to play, and it’s ideal for replaying over and over again. Blizzard’s action-RPG is a refined and fast-moving take on the dungeon-crawling looter, with several distinct classes to choose from and full support for cooperative play. Though the main story isn’t all that long, the Reaper of Souls expansion and extra modes can make Diablo 3 a hobby of its own if you let it, and twin-stick shooter fans can even have a good time with it because of the excellent Demon Hunter class. As you wait for the eventual Diablo IV launch date, it’s definitely worth making the time for Diablo 3.

See our Diablo 3 review. See at Amazon
Divinity: Original Sin 2

Larian Studios has established itself as such a talented and well-equipped RPG developer that it was given the chance to create Baldur’s Gate 3, but the company has nothing left to really prove–Divinity: Original Sin 2 is already its masterpiece, with an incredibly deep customization and role-playing system, support for four-player cooperative parties, and a massive open world to explore. The game has been available on Xbox One for several years, but it has only gotten bigger in the years since, with expansions and additional content to further flesh out what is already about 100 hours of classic role-playing goodness, filled with true player-choice. Seriously, you can kill basically anyone you come across without hitting a failure state, so the truly chaotic evil among us can have fun, too. See our Divinity: Original Sin 2 review.

See at Amazon Dragon Age: Inquisition

Though BioWare has been in a bit of a slump lately, the studio still knows how to make terrific role-playing games, and Dragon Age: Inquisition is proof. Learning from the mistakes of Dragon Age 2 with a larger scale, more ambitious storyline, and a better mix of action and strategy in its role-playing combat, Dragon Age: Inquisition is pretty close to perfect. Being able to control companions in key situations to get the edge on enemies adds an extra tactical layer to the game without being too daunting, and the dialogue retains the classic BioWare wit and humor we’ve come to expect. It even features a novel time-travel plotline that separates it from other sword-and-sorcery fantasy games, along with plenty of political intrigue and even a little espionage. It simply can’t be missed. See our Dragon Age: Inquisition review.

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