Summary
RPGs have been prevalent within gaming since the dawn of the medium. They continue to evolve with the passing of time, with elements of the genre often making their way into other types of games.
Themomentum from the genre’s explosionin the ’90s did not slow down after the new millennium arrived, with many classic RPGs coming out at the turn of the century. The followingRPGs from the 2000sare not just fantastic; they broke barriers and did things that would only become the standard years later. Some might say modern games have yet to catch up to these all-time greats.
Updated on August 01, 2025 by Mark Sammut:Thebest 2000s RPGsthat broke new ground are still mostly playable today, even if they might be a bit rough-around-the-edges in places. This article has been expanded with more context for the projects, along with galleries.
CD Projekt Red has had some incredible ups and downs throughout its history as a developer. After the massive success ofThe Witcher 3,they stumbled big time with the release ofCyberpunk 2077.If gamers are still sour about them, they should perhaps look back to the company’s past and try out the firstWitchergame.
It is not easy to get into these days after playing the third entry in the franchise, but it showcases an ambition that would be better fulfilled later on in their catalog. Released in 2007,The Witcherintroduced moral ambiguity intoaction RPGs when the choice was still very much between being evil and a paragon of virtue. The gameplay does not hold up, but the story is still top-notch. Fortunately, CD Projekt Red recently announced a remake of the title.
Valkyria Chronicleshad a unique take on theturn-based strategy genrebefore it became more popular. Instead of moving characters around on a grid and having an infinite amount of time to make decisions, players move freely in the play area for a certain distance.
If players moved in the way of enemy fire, the adversaries would automatically reign bullets on the character. The same goes for enemies walking into the player’s team. With games likeMario + Rabbidsintroducing their spin on the genre, it makes one wonder ifValkyria Chronicleswould be more popular today if it came out ten years later. As it stands now, the series is only for the biggest fans of the niche genre.
In an age where players still expected very specific features from a JRPG,Final Fantasy 10changed the formula in a big way. The game features no world map and issurprisingly linear until the endgamewhere players are free to roam around more freely.
Additionally, traditional levels are replaced by the Sphere Grid, which gives the party more freedom about how each character progresses. Anyone skeptical of these changes immediately had their worries put to rest when they started playing.
Released in 2007,Mass Effectwas one of the more ambitious projects any studio had undertaken. The idea of a trilogy of games where players' decisions echoed throughout sequels was pretty much unheard of at the time.BioWare pulled it off, however.
TheMass Effectseries was in a dark place for a while after the release ofAndromeda, but the trilogy’s re-release and the upcoming continuation have put it back in fans' good graces. Going back to the original entry reveals some limitations that would be fixed, but it is surprisingly tight for such an old RPG.
Square has always had graphically impressive games, andVagrant Storyrepresents the technological apex of what the company was able to do with theoriginal PlayStation.
It is a dungeon crawler, opting to focus purely on combat and dungeons rather than shops and towns. With this concentrated design, it was able to do things other action games couldn’t, such as including an in-depth weapon and armor crafting system.
The immersion present in this cyberpunk opus was unprecedented back in 2000. Every level was an intricately detailed sandbox where players could approach a situation in any variety of ways, depending on their imagination and the character’s abilities.
Directed by Warren Spector, it is exactly the evolution one would have expected from the mind who broughtThiefandSystem Shockto the gaming industry. Even after a sequel and a reboot,many consider the debut entry the best of the series.
MMOs were pretty niche in the 90s and hard to access.With the increased ubiquity and accessibility of the Internet, it was only a matter of time beforeWorld of Warcraftcame along and swept up a large chunk of gaming culture along with it.
One could not go to a gaming website or open up a magazine without reading something new about the game in the first several years of its release. 20 years later, andWoWis still a titan in the now-crowded genre.
Some games are too ambitious for their own good.Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlinesis brimming with innovative ideas, but without fan patches, the game barely works. That said, the available content is generally fantastic, particularly during the opening half of the campaign.
This is the price one pays for trying such an ambitious 3D RPG in 2004. The characters players create, along with their actions, affect multiple aspects of the world. Hopefully, the sequel can create the same experience, only with fewer technical issues.
Two years beforeWorld of Warcraft,Final Fantasy 11broke ground by not only being the first MMORPG in the franchise but also the first toinclude cross-platform play. PlayStation 2 players could interact with PC players on the same server.
By today’s standards, it is extremely hard to get into,but it managed to be extremely popular in its day. WhileFF11still playable on PC, most have moved on toFinal Fantasy 14, which is arguably a superior overall game in its current state. Still,FF11was a big release for its era, and it tends to be overlooked in this day and age.
The dungeon crawler series from Blizzard removes most of the superfluous story and boils the genre down to combat and loot collection. Not only was it endlessly entertaining, but the game saw regular updates for years, making the long wait forDiablo 3more tolerable.Other dungeon crawlers likeBorderlandswould follow a similar structure.
Diablo 2was just a ground-breaking game in general, including innovations that became staples of the isometric action RPG genre. The game transitioned to open-level design, filling the overworld with content that ensured players always had something to do.Diablo 2’s classes are far more diverse than its predecessor’s option, allowing for unique builds tailor-made for different playstyles. This was a massive game-changer for the RPG genre.
