We’re living through a role-playing game renaissance right now. The last several years have been full of great ones, and 2024 is no different. Everywhere you look the genre is growing, evolving, and dominating. From Japanese-style RPGs to Western-style ones, retro remakes to open-world sequels, there’s never been more to dig into for fans of exploration, branching dialogue, or just making the numbers go up.
This year saw the release of ambitious blockbuster RPGs iterating on tried-and-true formulas as well as bold mashups borrowing from the genres’ best to create something new and equally satisfying. The games were also long, from nearly 15 hours to over 65. Finishing every game on this list by focusing on the critical paths alone would take you roughly 513.5 hours, or about three months of treating them like full-time jobs. But of course the real delight of most RPGs is taking your time, exploring every last NPC conversation and dead-end path in a leisurely fashion until you’ve seen everything the game has to offer. And the following games offered a lot.
