Best CRPGs Franchises, Ranked

Key Takeaways

• CRPG franchises deliver rich, immersive experiences driven by player choice and diverse settings.
• Some lesser-known series like Expeditions stand out for offering fun and engaging historical experiences.
• Baldur’s Gate and Pillars of Eternity are key titles that helped bring the CRPG genre back to popularity.

As CRPG franchises have played a crucial role in the development of video games, providing rich experiences and complex narratives that have captivated players for decades. The depth of the worlds created and the freedom of choice grant this genre an unparalleled longevity and relevance in the electronic games market.

Over the years, various productions have stood out, raising the bar for the best CRPG franchises and establishing benchmarks of quality and innovation, from older entries to modern versions of this classic genre. These series have not only attracted a loyal audience but also influenced other genres, consolidating their importance and legacy in the gaming industry.

10 Neverwinter Nights

An Immersive Experience In The Dungeons & Dragons Universe

The Neverwinter Nights games provide solid CRPG experiences, also grounded in the rules of Dungeons & Dragons. The games present well-structured narratives and various character customization options, allowing players to explore detailed worlds filled with varied quests.

Furthermore, the titles stand out for their robust content creation tools, which encourage the community to develop and share their own adventures. This functionality increases the games’ longevity, offering countless replay possibilities and maintaining player interest over time.

9 Expeditions

Great Historical CRPG Franchise

Although the CRPG genre is heavily inspired by medieval high fantasy settings or popular tabletop RPGs, it also encompasses various other franchises. An example of this is the Expeditions series, which uses historical settings to tell its stories to players. Despite not being as popular as other franchises in the CRPG space, these games manage to provide fun and engaging experiences.

The gameplay of each title generally maintains the same basic mechanics, with some modifications to adapt to the new settings introduced. Whether playing as a Viking or a Roman soldier, players enjoy a consistent experience with the historical period represented. Additionally, the narrative, often in an epic tone, is another factor that significantly contributes to the quality and immersion of the games.

8 Shadowrun

Cyberpunk Mixed With High Fantasy Elements

Shadowrun is one of the best CRPG franchises derived from table-top RPG roots, combining bleak futurism with dark fantasy. In a cyberpunk world where technology and magic coexist, players can choose among elves, orks, humans, and other races, exploring a setting dominated by seedy corporations and untold dangers around every corner. This fusion of fantasy and cyberpunk creates an immersive and unique experience, perfect for fans of rich and dark settings.

Thus, for CRPG genre fans, the franchise delivers a fun and quite immersive experience. Moreover, unlike Cyberpunk 2077, which adopted FPS action-adventure gameplay when adapted to video games, Shadowrun followed the course of many tabletop RPGs, transforming into a CRPG franchise with incredible turn-based combat.

7 Pathfinder

Owlcat Games’ Duology Is Incredible

Inspired by the rule system of the tabletop RPG of the same name, Pathfinder received two major releases from Owlcat Games that are among the best CRPGs in history: Kingmaker and Wrath of The Righteous. Set in the world of Golarion, the games sets players on the path to conquer and maintain a kingdom or save the world from a demon invasion.

The games feature incredible freedom of choice and great character customization possibilities, allowing selection among various different classes, each with unique bonuses, which ensures great variety for the protagonists. Additionally, the games offer a flexible experience, being able to swap combat between real-time and turn-based, thus adapting to each player’s favorite style.

6 Wasteland

Many Similarities With The Fallout Franchise

Despite Fallout being more well-known among players, Wasteland was the pioneer, created by the same developer, Interplay, being one of the first CRPGs to explore a post-apocalyptic setting. When Interplay lost the rights to Wasteland, the team decided to develop a new game with similar themes, resulting in the birth of Fallout, which achieved the same success.

Although both share ideas and a similar setting, their stories follow distinct paths. Wasteland remained faithful to the classic CRPG style, with emphasis on choices, isometric graphics, and the characteristic gameplay of the genre. This commitment to the genre offers players gameplay rich in decisions and a satirical narrative, full of parodies of society, maintaining Wasteland‘s original charm.

5 Pillars Of Eternity

Important CRPG For The Genre’s Return To Popularity

Aside from the overall quality it possesses, Pillars of Eternity can also be considered an important game for the genre, as it was one of the releases that contributed to the CRPG genre returning to the mainstream. Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, which has experience in creating incredible worlds and narratives, it offers players an experience that pays homage to the classics.

Through a world with its own mythology, which rewards players’ exploration and immersion, as well as detailed and well-developed characters, the Pillars of Eternity franchise managed to establish itself as one of the best in the genre among CRPG fans. Despite offering an old-school experience in many aspects, the games also utilized some modern mechanics, perfecting the formula in Pillars of Eternity 2.

4 Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic

Great Work Done By Bioware & Obsidian

Being one of the most popular franchises in cinema, Star Wars received different adaptations for the video game market, with Knights of The Old Republic holding a special place in many fans’ hearts, often remembered as one of the best CRPG franchises in history. Developed by BioWare, who would later produce Mass Effect, the game tells an epic story in space.

Moreover, Knights of The Old Republic has several elements that fans of the franchise are passionate about, such as a moral choice system that makes the player follow the path of the light side of the Force or succumb to the dark side. The characters are, for the most part, interesting, and the combat is fun, with all these elements, along with the rich Star Wars setting, turning the duology of games into an incredible experience for CRPG fans.

3 Divinity: Original Sin

One Of Larian Studios’ Oldest Sagas

Larian Studios, now renowned for the incredible work on Baldur’s Gate 3, was already widely respected for its Divinity franchise. Although the first games in the series did not contain all the typical elements of a CRPG, it was with Divinity: Original Sin that the developer really consolidated its position, creating one of the best CRPGs in history.

With Divinity: Original Sin 2, Larian further improved what its predecessor introduced, providing unmatched freedom to players to explore maps and interact with characters. The game stands out for its unique gameplay, with turn-based combat and deep interaction with the environment, allowing players to create strategic advantages in each battle and enhancing the experience with intelligence and depth.

2 Fallout

Its CRPG Origins Need To Be Celebrated

Before being acquired by Bethesda and entering the era of first-person adventure, the origins of the series lie as one of the best CRPG franchises ever produced, with two incredible games that marked a generation of fans. The unique setting, which takes players to a retro-futuristic post-apocalyptic future, comes to life with incredible story and gameplay.

One of the standout elements of Fallout in the series’ CRPG era is the system of moral choices and consequences, allowing players’ decisions to have great weight in the game’s course. Additionally, the game also has a narrative full of humor, with sarcasm and other parodies of society inserted in various elements of the settings, factions, and characters.

1 Baldur’s Gate

The Great Reference Among CRPG Franchises

Among CRPGs, no franchise has managed to achieve the status of success and quality that Baldur’s Gate possesses, delivering a consistent trilogy to players. Based on the rules of Dungeons & Dragons, the series combines an engaging story with well-crafted characters, also offering many choices to be made, customizing each players experience along the way.

Furthermore, Baldur’s Gate as a whole managed to establish and elevate various standards for the genre, such as wide freedom of exploration and decisions that allow players to define the fate of various characters. Baldur’s Gate 3, in particular, which brought the franchise back to the mainstream, manages to respect these elements while delivering incredible modern visuals and mechanics to deliver an experience that is both classic CRPG and a vision of the genre’s future.