1. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
When I met my future wife in 2005, the only RPGs I had played up to that point were JRPGs. Furthermore, she did not even know what the term RPG meant (at the time). Both these things changed when we discovered Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Being the Star Wars nerd of the couple (though she has become quite the fan over time), I immediately knew this game was special. We were both instantly hooked by our first Western RPG. Memorable companions and meaningful choices are a big part of my RPG tastes. KotOR was also the first in a now-long list of RPGs my wife and I have played and finished together, and my most treasured RPG memories come from shared experiences.
2. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
When RPGs began adding life-sim elements, I wasn’t sure it was for me. It sometimes felt like meaningless filler designed to lengthen playtimes. Fire Emblem: Three Houses completely changed my opinion on the subject. I enjoyed exploring Garreg Mach Monastery and building relationships as much as I enjoyed the turn-based battles. Three Houses grabbed me in a way that few games ever have. Its three distinct story paths kept me hooked, helping it become one of my most played RPGs in recent memory. The perfect blend of the various gameplay elements set a new bar for tactical RPGs that other games have yet to match (though Unicorn Overlord is close). For a guy who used to be scared off by strategy games, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is responsible for a total shift from avoidance to preference of the genre.
3. Fallout: New Vegas
Bethesda-style RPGs tend to be polarizing. Some see them as overrated, bug-ridden messes, while others love the freedom and world-building they offer and embrace the “jank” that comes with them. For me, Bethesda’s open-world epics have been must-plays since my experience with Morrowind on the OG Xbox. Of all the games in this ilk I have played, Fallout: New Vegas is the cream of the crop, encapsulating what I love about this style of RPG. What puts it above the rest for me is the lore it creates. Deciding which faction to side with introduces more nuanced choices than obvious good vs. evil paths. Leading up to its release, I was skeptical and wondered if New Vegas would simply feel like DLC for Fallout 3, but I could not have been more pleasantly surprised. And “like the fella once said, ain’t that a kick in the head?”
4. Kingdom Hearts
I am a child in an adult body, plain and simple. Much of the entertainment I loved as a kid has carried over, allowing me to share it with my kids and build new experiences and memories together. The game that exemplifies this the most is Kingdom Hearts. It is a weird, fantastical hodgepodge of Final Fantasy and Disney blended into an action RPG for all ages. It utilizes the vast library of Disney properties much better and long before other projects like Dreamlight Valley or ABC’s Once Upon A Time drama. The story can be convoluted for sure, but from my experience, seven-year-olds care more about running around with Donald Duck and Jack Skellington than concerning themselves with complex narratives. Kingdom Hearts perfectly defines what I love about being a gamer dad.
5. Pokémon Red & Blue
Long before I was experiencing games with my kids or even my wife, I found solace in playing games with my brother and my friends. When Pokémon‘s first generation duo of monster-collecting RPGs was released in North America, it was an absolute explosion. I was 12 and my brother was 8, at the height of our impressionability. Pokémon became everything! If we weren’t filling our Pokédex on the Game Boy, we were watching the anime. If we weren’t doing that, we were battling the tabletop via the TCG. Classmates I rarely spoke to suddenly became Pokémon trade partners. So much of Pokémon Red & Blue‘s gameplay fit my RPG tastes, namely the traditional turn-based battles and the completionist-leaning collect and trade systems. I’ll give any Poké-like a fair shot. Some are great, some not so much, but none compare with the original games’ impact on my life.
Non-RPG: Out of the Park Baseball
In grade school, sports dominated my interests. However, I was far from a typical “jock” or potential athlete. I loved sports despite having very little athletic prowess or potential, eventually realizing that I am simply a sports nerd. When the sports analytics revolution began to gain momentum, it was like I discovered some hidden knowledge and I became one of the “analytics nerds” that some non-believing sports fans like to bemoan.
What does this have to do with my gaming or RPG tastes? Everything! I played the typical sports video games with friends growing up, but like my actual athletic ability, my virtual skills were lacking, leading to my perpetual loser status. I had all but lost interest in sports games until the mid-2000s when franchise modes started getting more in-depth. Suddenly, I could play the games like a strategy-sim, and playing the general manager role was much more engaging than the standard gameplay. I stopped playing actual games, opting to manage the team through roster control and simulating game results. NFL 2K5 (still the gold standard of NFL games) was my go-to for years until I discovered Out of the Park Baseball. OotPB is a true sports management simulator, meant to be played the way I already loved to play sports games. The game’s engine and AI allow for a far deeper and more realistic simulation than a typical sports franchise or GM mode.
There are a lot of parallels between my love for sports sims and RPGs. Controlling a sports franchise is not unlike many of the aspects I love in RPGs (especially strategy RPGs) such as party composition, min-maxing, job and class roles, and balancing finances. I’m not arguing that sports games are RPGs, but I could draw several comparisons between OotP Baseball and RPGs like Disgaea, Bravely Default, and Unicorn Overlord.
