10 RPGs With The Best Class & Skill Systems, Ranked

It can be difficult for developers to maintain live service titles these days, with fans expecting more and more content each month to avoid the risk of being labeled a "dead game." Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has been treading that particular tightrope rather well since launch, delivering new armor, weapons, and emotes via the Premium Warbonds system that has been serving them well up until now.

We’re in the dead middle of May and on the cusp of several huge releases to the usher in the summer season. If you’re looking for a trio of blood-chilling, adrenaline-pumping, and heart-racing thrillers to tide you over until this year’s summer blockbusters, you’ve come to the right place.

For more than 25 years, developer Game Freak has found a way to reinvent the Pokémon franchise for each new generation of gamers. Both brand-new Pokémon trainers and seasoned Pokémon masters are captivated by these cute (and sometimes scary) little monsters. Maybe it’s the drive to catch ’em all that keeps players coming back. Or perhaps it’s how adorable these little pocket monsters can be. Whatever the reason, players continue to return to or start exploring the Pokémon franchise.

Despite the series insisting that the Great War was a global, thermonuclear event, the franchise has only visited several locations in the United States, even in its outing as an Amazon Prime Video series. It isn't as though other locations don't exist in a similar vein to the post-apocalyptic ruins of America, since there are characters from other countries, like Zao from With the mod in the news, it brings attention to other international locations which the post-nuclear survival series could take place in.

Soulsborne titles seem allergic to overt story telling, famously hiding thebackstories of the world and characters through item descriptions. Even with the legendary author, George R. R. Martin, writing the mythos of the world, many elements in remain just as mysterious as before the game was released. In general, the community has managed to piece together what events have happened and why, such as the battles of the Shattering, but it seems some characters will stay unexplained, though the upcoming DLC,, is one last chance at new insights.

The Bond you build between characters in can create romances, unlock side quests, and more. Gifts are the best way to deepen the relationships you have with your favorite companions, allowing those allies to give you access to new gear, weapon styles, and even skill points. The right items presented to various characters will let their Bond with you grow much faster as your journey continues.

is the best-selling title FromSoftware has ever developed, taking the soulsborne games into uncharted territory with its open world. Thanks to this, it is the most approachable of the titles, while managing to keep the famously crushing difficulty that soulslike games are known for. With a project as large as ,there are going to be some growing pains that prevent the game from being perfect. Sometimes, that can be too many reused assets, while other times it can be the balancing of certain enemies.

Martin Hultberg - once the director behind Ubisoft's looting, shooting The Division - now has his eyes on the fledgling get-in-and-go extraction shooter genre, which he reckons can still reach the "mass market."

took the gaming industry by storm back in February 2024, quickly gaining a dedicated fanbase and community around the live-service title. Although it still boasts an impressive player base, a couple of months later, the numbers have begun to dwindle from the initial highs that it once enjoyed. This is to be expected with any title since the gaming industry moves on quickly, and games cannot be expected to hold onto unsustainable numbers, but there is something can do to stem the bleeding.

Fallout 4's new next-gen update has been met with a collective shoulder shrug as the long-awaited upgrade is a lot smaller than fans were hoping for, but Bethesda sort of makes up for it by adding in some of the RPG's absolute silliest weapons yet. 

is one of gaming's recent triumphs, having won Game of the Year back in 2022. It presents players with a vast, densely packed world filled to the brim with harsh obstacles and dangerous enemies. Like any Soulsborne game, it is notoriously difficult, and it can be quite an arduous task to see everything that Fromsoftware has put into the Lands Between. It's all worth seeing, too, given that the legendary author, George R. R. Martin, had a hand in the game's world-building.

has aided in the recent resurgence of being its biggest live game stream. For some, the show is the reason they got into 's fifth edition, and it is the gold standard as to what 5e can be, yet Matt Mercer and the cast seem intent on distancing themselves from Wizards of the Coast. As of March 2024, 's very own fantasy tabletop RPG, has entered beta testing.