Highlights
- Many great RPG games, like Bloodborne and Jade Empire , remain stand-alone in nature, despite the common expectation for sequels or spin-offs in the industry.
- Crystalis , an older RPG, never received a sequel despite its memorable world and unique post-nuclear war setting filled with magic and monstrous creatures.
- Super Mario RPG , released in 1996, was a beloved entry in the Mario franchise, yet no direct follow-up has been created. However, with the upcoming remake, fans still hold hope for a sequel in the future.
Though it is incredibly common in the video gaming industry for amazing games, particularly RPG ones, to get sequels and spin-offs and turn into franchises, it doesn’t always happen. There are quite a few great games that remain, to this day, completely stand-alone in nature.
RPG games are built with worlds and characters that can live on, the intention of there being a larger franchise set around most original games is almost a given. But there have still managed to be quite a few occasions when a game, for whatever reason, was made without any further games accompanying it ever being developed.
7 Bloodborne
Most people talk about the collection of From Software games similar to Dark Souls as being in one franchise, nicknamed the Soulsborne franchise. However, Bloodborne is quite different from the other games in many ways and is very much a stand-alone adventure that focuses more heavily on a Lovecraftian style of horror than the Dark Souls games.
From Software seems to have started taking an approach to their games that involves far fewer sequels, with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Elden Ring both following Bloodborne and being completely original as well. This makes it seem less likely that the amazing Bloodborne will ever get any sort of follow-up, but fans continue to hope that it may happen one day.
6 Jade Empire
Developed by BioWare and released back in 2005, originally as an Xbox exclusive, Jade Empire was an excellent RPG with a Chinese Mythology-inspired world and a great morality system that was similar in style to that of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Jade Empire’s major change from that game was that BioWare switched to real-time combat, which worked beautifully alongside the incredible narrative side of the game.
Unfortunately, Jade Empire undersold on release despite positive reviews. It has since gained a cult following due to the PC port, and fans continue to hope that BioWare will return at some point to the world of the Spirit Monk to give it the sequel which the original game so righteously deserves.
5 Crystalis
A much older version of an RPG which somehow never managed to get a sequel, Crystalis came out in 1990 for the NES and has been remembered well enough that it managed to be included in the recently released SNK 40th Anniversary Collection that was released on various platforms.
Crystalis was a classically-styled top-down RPG about a magician who awakens to a post-nuclear war world and has to navigate the world, now filled with monstrous creatures created by nuclear warfare. Science was abandoned and magic studied in the wake of the world ending, and Crystalis uses this to create a hugely fun world that would feel unique even by today’s standards if it was revisited.
4 Super Mario RPG
There have been various attempts since this original effort to create a Mario-related RPG game, such as Paper Mario, but none have ever been received so warmly as the Super Mario RPG that was released in 1996 and featuring a wonderful story about Mario seeking out Smithy, who crashed into Mario’s world and scattered seven-star pieces.
This game was a beautiful entry in the Mario franchise and many fans were baffled for years, and many remain so now, at the fact there was no direct follow-up of any kind. With it being recently announced that a Super Mario RPG remake was coming to Nintendo Switch, there is still hope that there could be a sequel sometime soon following the remake if it is successful.
3 Vampyr
One of the more recent games that has a lot of hope among many fans that there could yet be a follow-up, Vampyr was an RPG that put players in the role of a vampire doctor who is torn between his oath to do no harm to people, and his rising bloodlust. A fascinating game that created a beautifully dark world around the vampire mythos, Vampyr was almost a multimedia franchise.
There was, shortly after the game’s release, a TV series said to be in development. Unfortunately, it never came to fruition and was scrapped. But this does not rule out the idea that a sequel to the original game could still be released at some point in the future. For now, there is no news on anything of the kind occurring, and many consider the game a wasted opportunity.
2 Legend of Dragoon
Another older game with a great cult following that still seeks a follow-up, Legend of Dragoon became infamous in 1999 when it was released for the use of realistic CGI cutscenes that were ahead of their time as far as video games were concerned. However, after its release many critics called it a lesser version of games like Final Fantasy, prompting a drawback from some gaming fans.
Still, Legend of Dragoon managed to sell a great number of copies, and it was surprising that a follow-up never materialized. Fans of the game are still waiting and hoping today for at least some sort of remake that could give them hope of the game being revisited in a sequel down the line.
1 Skies Of Arcadia
Despite remaining by the end of the Dreamcast's usage as one of the best games ever released for the platform, 2000s Skies of Arcadia was another game that underperformed upon release and therefore never managed to garner any kind of sequel or follow-up such as a remaster.
Set around a young pilot who attempts to stop an evil empire from reviving ancient weapons with the capability to end the world, Skies of Arcadia was a beautiful turn-based RPG that had a wonderful focus on exploration around the world, which was an amazing one reminiscent of the worlds built in some different Legend of Zelda or Final Fantasy games.