Many giants of the RPG genre have been stuck over the last few years, attempting to recapture the critical and commercial success of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Bethesda's upcoming Starfield has been compared to Skyrim by the studio multiple times, with the Fallout IP taking a hit from the rocky release and reception of Fallout 76. BioWare has turned back to the original Mass Effect trilogy with both a remaster and a new game hinted to pick up where Mass Effect 3 left off. Obsidian released CRPGs like Pillars of Eternity and RPGs like The Outer Worlds, which, while met with generally favorable reviews, did not make the splash the studio was hoping for.
Some of the best-received games of the last few years have not been RPGs, but have integrated RPG elements into a larger action-adventure framework. Large open worlds have become more prevalent, and series like Assassin's Creed, Red Dead Redemption, and God of War have all taken a turn towards the RPG genre. Here's why these hybrids may have become successful in recent years, and what that might mean for roleplaying games in the future.
RPG Stagnation
At the start of the 2010s, RPGs were considered by many to be at the forefront of video game storytelling. Games like Mass Effect 2 were able to deliver fast-paced, character-focused narratives to rival Hollywood blockbusters. Games like Skyrim were seen as pushing the boundaries of gaming's open worlds, leading other RPG series like Dragon Age to integrate open worlds into their future installments.
As the decade went on, however, these series struggled to find ways to one-up themselves. Games like Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 suffered from restrictive development timelines as publishers pushed for more entries to popular franchises. Fallout 4 introduced a voiced protagonist and a new settlement system, neither of which was received by many Fallout fans in the way the studio had hoped. Elements that were once considered groundbreaking became increasingly stale as the studios struggled to figure out where to go next.
BioWare's famous romances, for example, were both controversial and compelling in Mass Effect and Dragon Age's early days. In more recent years, however, the system has felt more dated. Instead of evolving or exploring new ways to weave romances into the games' narratives, the romance systems in games like Dragon Age: Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda still relied on the player character engaging in enough positive conversations with their romance option until that character inevitably falls in love with the protagonist. It wasn't bad, but it also wasn't anything fans hadn't already seen.
Similarly, Skyrim's open world was seen as particularly impressive and immersive when it hit the shelves in 2011. Fallout 4, however, showed Bethesda's inability to tell a story as grand as its worlds, holding the studio back from another Skyrim-sized success.
Rise Of The Hybrids
While major RPG developers were struggling to figure out how to maintain the momentum of the early-2010s, other studios were integrating some of the elements that made those RPGs so popular. Like BioWare-style RPGs, the last three Assassin's Creed games have seen players given basic dialogue options, character customization, and romances. Like Bethesda's biggest hits, the series has also expanded the scope of its open worlds.
Red Dead Redemption 2 introduced skill levels, with health, stamina, and Dead Eye as the player's three main stats, expanded the number of unique dialogue options the player had in the world via the greet and antagonize options, and took on an enormous open world. As in many RPGs, its morality system also affected the game's ending. God of War, once a pure hack-and-slash series, introduced far more RPG elements from leveling skills to customizable armor and weapons in its 2018 soft reboot.
Without the pressure of being a full-fledged RPG, these games have been able to deliver relatively linear, pre-planned plots without the expectation that the player's choices should be the most important factor in how the story plays out. Despite this, games like Red Dead 2 do still factor in things like the Honor system, but overall, storytellers have been able to tell a far more focused and cinematic—albeit linear—story while taking some of the fun mechanics from RPGs. This trend seems likely to continue. BioShock 4 is seemingly adding more RPG features than the series' previous installments, such as an open world and branching dialogue system, without marketing themselves as roleplaying games.
The Future Of Western RPGs
The massive resurgence of table-top RPGs over the last decade has also played a role. Many players who loved video game RPGs for world-building and the potential for their actions to have real consequences have found that the flexibility of TTRPGs has far more to offer than the few key choices and limited dialogue options found in most major video game RPGs. Gamers who preferred more linear, cinematic stories could find better offerings among games with only a few RPG features.
Series which were once considered action-adventure games, shooters, or hack-and-slash games are now able to market themselves as pushing into a new frontier. Games that explicitly market themselves as RPGs, however, face the expectation that they're going to push forward into a ground-breaking new model of interactive storytelling, truly taking note of all of the player's decisions. So far, it's hard to say any major western RPG studio has been able to deliver on this.
The major RPG studios are setting up their next moves as gaming settles into a new console generation. Bethesda will be trying its luck with a new RPG IP, Starfield. BioWare will be returning to mainstays like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Obsidian will be taking on some of Bethesda's key IPs directly with a sequel to satirical sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds and a new first-person fantasy RPG, Avowed.
Whether the genre will be able to make a leap forward in storytelling which feels as generational as the transition between the late 2000s and early-2010s, seems unlikely. Until then, games that integrate RPG features while telling linear stories may continue to have the advantage.