9 RPGs Turning 20 In 2025

How you enjoyed your gaming year in 2005 depended on what console you owned. The Xbox 360 let Microsoft devotees enjoy the fresh hits from the new generation, while Sony and Nintendo loyalists had two new handhelds to toy with before their new home consoles hit shelves.

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The year might not have been the best for RPGs in the decade, but it still delivered several worthwhile titles to please fans. As these games celebrate their 20-year anniversary, it is worth looking back on them to see what they brought to the genre and if they are still worth playing today.

9

Kingdom Hearts 2

Sora’s first adventure through the various Disney properties was a huge success. The debut entry remains charming in its simplicity. Kingdom Hearts 2 goes bigger with improved graphics, more combat abilities, and more worlds to explore in addition to returning ones.

The second game in the series expands the lore, setting the narrative on its path to earning its reputation as convoluted. Even if it becomes hard to understand, the game is still filled with heartfelt character moments. Kingdom Hearts 2 also has plenty of Final Fantasy characters, something its direct sequel, Kingom Hearts 3, lacks.

8

Mario And Luigi: Partners In Time

Besides Paper Mario, the Mario series’s RPG lineage also includes the Mario and Luigi games. Partners in Time’s hook is implied in the title, with the four playable characters being the two brothers and their baby selves from the past.

The battle system still includes timing mechanics that date back all the way to Super Mario RPG. Simple puzzles separate the fights and narrative beats. Developer Alpha Dream continued working on the series until they shut down in 2019.

7

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga

Atlus has become a household name thanks to the massive popularity of Persona 5’s and their original IP, Metaphor Refantazio. Few might realize that they have been pumping out niche JRPGs for decades, including 2005’s Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga.

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The two games tell one complete story, and having a completed save file of the first grants some bonuses in the next. The first game takes place in an area known as the Digital Junkyard, while the sequel sees the action spill out into the real world. The first Digital Devil Saga came out in 2004 in Japan, while North America saw both games come out in 2005.

6

Xenosaga 2

• Developer: Monolith Soft
• Publisher: Namco
• Release Date: February 25, 2005
• Platforms: PlayStation 2

Xenosaga was intended to be a six-game epic. This plan was shortened to make a trilogy. Fortunately, the developers still managed to tell a complete story with only half the number of releases. The second game of the three is an outlier thanks to its art style. The graphics strive for realism over the obvious anime inspiration of the first game.

Besides this, it is mostly in line with the first game’s direction and continues the story directly from where the last one left off. Fans of Xenoblade Chronicles who might be interested in the game will appreciate the story while feeling restricted by the game’s more linear design.

5

4

Pokemon XD: Gale Of Darkness

Though this might seem like a tried and true Pokemon game on a console instead of a handheld, Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness was not handled by Game Freak. It also is not a direct adaptation of the mainline Pokemon games’ mechanics. Still, at the time, it was a novel idea to have a Pokemon RPG on the GameCube.

It is a sequel to Pokemon Colosseum, which only came out the year before. The game received average reviews but still managed to sell over a million copies on the Gamecube, making it a success.

3

The Matrix Online

• Developer: Monolith Productions
• Publisher: Sega, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
• Release Date: March 22, 2005
• Platforms: PC

The Matrix Online was not just an adaptation of the world in video game form. The MMORPG was a direct sequel to the trilogy and continued off the events of The Matrix Revolutions.

The combat married the hacking, hand-to-hand bouts, and gunfights for which the series is known. Looking at the gameplay footage that still exists, it feels very chaotic, yet only those who played it back in the day know how it really felt since the servers shut down in 2009.

2

Pokemon Emerald

With the traditional dual-release format followed by an expanded version, it can be hard to keep track of all the Pokemon games. 2005 saw the release of Pokemon Emerald in North America. It was the finale of the third generation series that was ushered in with Ruby and Sapphire.

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Emerald has a more complex story than the prior two and includes new Pokemon. These bonuses mostly justify buying the game for those who have already gone through one of the other two. It was also the final Pokemon game for the Game Boy Advance before the series moved on to the Nintendo DS.

1

Dragon Quest 8

Dragon Quest 7 for the PS1 still retained 2D graphics. It wasn’t until Dragon Quest 8 came out on the PS2 that the series fully embraced 3D. Despite the visual leap, Dragon Quest 8 is still instantly recognizable as a part of the legendary series in both gameplay and aesthetics.

Coming out in 2005 in North America, the game was a critical darling and eventually received a remake on the Nintendo 3DS. Curiously, the North American release has an orchestral soundtrack, while the Japanese release relies on sequenced music from a computer.

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