You can judge how good a year in games is by how much it has to offer for everyone. If a year was great for fighting games and nothing else, it wouldn't be great for me, because the only fighter I've spent significant time with is Super Smash Bros. Last year was a weak year if you're a fan of big triple-A games, with Elden Ring at the beginning, God of War Ragnarok at the end, and little in the middle. When we think of the great years in gaming, there tends to be something for everyone.
2017 had Breath of the Wild, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Assassin's Creed Origins for open-world fans; Wolfenstein: The New Colossus, PUBG, Fortnite, Splatoon 2, and Call of Duty: WWII (my personal favorite COD campaign) for shooter fans; Divinity: Original Sin 2, NieR: Automata, and Torment: Tides of Numenera for RPG fans; What Remains of Edith Finch, Dream Daddy, and Night in the Woods for fans of narrative indies; and Prey and Dishonored: Death of the Outsider for Arkane fans (who, it must be said, were eating good). 2007 was a historically good year, too, with Super Mario Galaxy, Rock Band, BioShock, Assassin's Creed, Portal, Uncharted, Halo 3, and COD 4: Modern Warfare.
This year, we've got a similar situation going, but the catch is that much of that variety is burbling up within the RPG space. Whatever kind of RPG fan you are, 2023 has something for you. It’s been a long time since a year offered this many solid (or seemingly solid for the ones that aren't out yet) RPGs in this many subgenres.
Already this year, we've had One Piece Odyssey, ports of Persona 4 Golden and Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 Portable, Fire Emblem Engage, Tales of Symphonia Remastered, Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure, Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & the Sacred Key, Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection, Trinity Trigger, Shadows Over Loathing, and Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores.That's a lot of games and those, by and large, aren’t even the games that RPG fans are looking forward to the most.
The rest of 2023 has many heavy hitters in store. If you like Western first-person role-playing games, Starfield is the biggest launch you've had to look forward to since Cyberpunk 2077. A new game from Bethesda is always an event. That event may be a disaster (see: the first several months of Fallout 76's lifespan) or, like Skyrim, a genre-defining success for a generation of gamers. Elsewhere, first-person RPG fans can look forward to the return of the previous contender for the belt with Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion. I've always had mixed feelings about that game, but CD Projekt Red has put in the work to make it a better experience in the years since release, and I'm excited to see what the DLC looks like.
If you just generally like Western RPGs there are even more options. Baldur's Gate 3 is finally emerging from early access in August and, as someone who has been waiting for Larian's latest to reach its final form, I can't wait. Diablo 4 is also out soon, and though I have no experience with the series, I plan to play a whole bunch of it with a friend who lives on the other side of the world.
If you like new turn-based JRPGs, Sea of Stars will have you covered. I'm still working my way through Octopath Traveler 2, which came out back in February, and that's a pretty fantastic game. If you like old turn-based JRPGs, Square Enix has you covered with the Pixel Remaster collection of the first six Final Fantasy games. And, if you like action RPGs, Final Fantasy 16 is out this year, and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is out in the winter, which could end up being this year, but may arrive early in 2024. Either way, we're getting two big new Final Fantasy games within 12 months of each other, with remasters of the first six games to tide us over in the meantime.
And, of course, if you expand the definition out far enough, most triple-A games are RPGs. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Redfall, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom may not get brought up in the same conversations as Final Fantasy and Fallout, but they're all games in which your character gets stronger as you play by gaining experience and leveling up. But, the RPGification of games means that we need to draw lines somewhere or we'd be including Madden and Call of Duty in this conversation, too.
However you slice it (and barring major delays) 2023 is set to be the best year for RPGs in a long, long time. COVID-related delays kept us from getting many big games in 2021 and 2022, but like a weary warrior emerging from a dungeon, there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel.