The Best RPGs With Unconventional Settings

Key Takeaways

• RPGs have freedom to craft intriguing worlds with outlandish settings rich in lore.
• Unconventional RPG settings like post-apocalyptic worlds or advanced regions offer unique experiences.
• RPGs like Disco Elysium blend complex themes of capitalism and existential despair in a layered world.

Few genres out there have the freedom to explore the more truly outlandish settings, like RPGs. The escapism that role-playing offers sets the stage for developers to create the most intriguing worlds rich with lore that the players get to adventure through as newcomers, learning all the juicy story along the way.

Whether it’s flying cities, or continents separated into their own planes of existence – the more ‘out there’ ideas can often resonate the most with audiences, especially as they’re used to comment on the wider societal issues that players can relate to. With all that said, here’s a list of some RPG’s with truly unconventional settings.

9 Grim Dawn

Not Any Old Victorian Setting

Grim Dawn’s forebodingly tall and gothic Victorian setting is the perfect home for a story steeped in folklore, the supernatural and steampunk. The somewhat unsettling and hostile world is the stage for a war-torn story dealing with Lovecraftian cosmic horrors and a war between powerful species.

Exploring a world teeming with such danger is rewarding in itself. Barely surviving the fast-paced scrapes against unspeakable horrors found in only the darkest of crypts can make the moment the player walks outside and see the rain pittering against the forest grass feel all the more earned and relieving.

8 World of Warcraft

Azeroth Is Lost In Time

Given just how long World of Warcraft has been around, it’s no surprise it’s full to the brim with content and stories that have irreversibly changed the world they reside in. Though it may have initially started out as a more classical fantasy setting, its lore has since allowed it to transform itself entirely.

From the countless playable races and classes that all have their own fantastical abilities and stories behind them, the combination of ancient magical settings and steampunk technology – and the ability for players to essentially visit the afterlife. Azeroth essentially exists outside any time setting, and each zone adapts itself to fit the expansion.

7 Okami

The Moving Painting

Set in a fantastical version of ancient Japan, the world of Okami can be described only as an entirely living ink painting. The art direction allows this 2006 title to still hold its own in an industry that is becoming increasingly focused on fidelity.

The beautiful architecture is accentuated by the bold outlines and punchy colors that act as the background for this story, which is firmly rooted in Japanese legend. Each character met along their journey has their own loveable eccentricities, and the game’s actual mechanics make it an addictive hack-and-slash and a creative puzzle-solver.

6 NieR: Automata

Robot-Ruled Dystopia

This hack-and-slash adventure from the legendary PlatinumGames studios is set thousands of years in the future. The earth is all but ruined, and humanity has fled to the moon, as a perpetual war between humans and androids rages below.

The crumbling cities and sandy, desolate landscapes make great backgrounds for the stylish combat that came to be expected of a PlatinumGames title. The setting allows for quieter moments of isolated melancholy in a futile war, evoking all the right feelings of the BioShock and Terminator franchises.

5 The Outer Worlds

Tried The Rest, Now Try The Best

Obsidian’s own sci-fi space voyage is filled with its own signature blend of absurdist humor in an advertisement-heavy galaxy. From moon-headed sales representatives to gardeners using human bodies as fertilizer, it seems everyone in The Outer Worlds is out chasing their own version of the Halycon dream.

Though the mega-corporatized galaxy does feel incredibly isolating, and both the protagonist along with their companions experience their own obstacles along the road to success – it doesn’t mean it lacks occasional moments of beauty. The presentation truly is the perfect mesh of the smoke-filled 70s retro and the sleek symmetrical utopia.

4 Disco Elysium

Revachol, Capitalism & Existential Despair

The world of Disco Elysium is far from ordinary. Each continent is essentially a separate plane of existence, and the seemingly endless city of Revachol has fallen victim to colonial exploitation and economic collapse. Solving crimes as a boozy, amnesia-ridden detective who struggles to string sentences together in a setting this layered is no easy feat.

The themes of isolation among the working class, who are left to survive with nothing but the crumbs of a long-fallen society, are prevalent in this bizarre plane of existence. A mixture of steam-punk and reality-altering science makes Revachol so atmospheric.

3 Undertale

The Sound Of The Underground

The now-iconic Undertale is a far cry from being considered a conventional RPG. Set in the sprawling Underground and filled with kingdoms, villages, magic, and a cast of charmingly quirky monsters – those who haven’t played the game before are going to need a lot of determination.

Undertale uses its vast yet isolating setting to deliver some heart-warming moments of introspection, whether it’s on the reflection of loneliness – or stand-up comedy routines from a skeleton. It also turns quickly into being downright horrifying when the player is on their Genocide playthrough, where the background music fades into something far more sinister and foreboding, and the player is left entirely alone.

2 Dragon Age: The Veilguard

The Tevinter Imperium

The latest installment in BioWare’s blighted franchise takes place in the far more advanced region of Thedas, the Teviner Imperium. Though the region has been painted in a less-than-favorable light in past franchise entries—described as the home of corruption, blood magic, and pretty much everything nasty—it’s also the most advanced region of Thedas and filled with magical vistas.

Tevinter Magisters and technological advancements are commonplace here. Whether it’s entire castles floating in the sky – or the gorgeously lit nighttime streets of the surprisingly steampunk city, Treviso, it makes a good case for why mages should be held on a slightly looser leash back in Ferelden.

1 Shadowrun: Dragonfall

Futuristic Dungeons and Dragons

Based on the tabletop role-playing game, Shadowrun asks, “What happens when Dungeons and Dragons progress?” Set in a Bladerunner-eqsue world of elves, orcs, magic, and more – players can finally be that spellcasting hacker they were destined to become.

Shadow Run: Dragonfall takes place in 2054 in an intensely dystopian Berlin, where mythical creatures walk, and the government has essentially been replaced entirely by factions of gangs and anarchists who fight relentlessly among themselves. Players get to choose exactly who they want to be and what name they get to make for themselves in this fantastical future.