The Best PS3 RPGs Available Right Now
It's the end of October 2009 and above all else for RPG fans Final Fantasy XIII looms on the horizon, with the anticipation for that title eclipsing even some of the AAA titles of this holiday period making the wait agonizing for many.
Have no fear, though! We've rounded up our list of the very best PS3 RPGs that are on the market right now so you can go and pick one up to help tide you over.
We started out with a list of our 8 top PS3 RPGs and whittled those down to a top 5, which you can now see here - and read about the reasons behind our choices. There were only a few simple rules: The game must be on PS3, available in the West and of course be of top quality. Without further ado, here we go...!
The Very Best PS3 RPGs
5. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion [RPGSite Score: 90%]
Despite arriving on the PS3 in 2007 and a significant while after the Xbox 360 and PC versions of the game were released, Oblivion still caused a splash for PS3 owners. Dropping players into the world of Tamriel, Oblivion did a great job of telling an epic story while also being one of the first RPGs of the generation to provide an open ended world for the player to explore.
While some areas of Oblivion, such as the limited selection of voice actors for NPCs and the facial animation haven't aged too well, Oblivion has still earned a spot at number 5 on our list thanks to the fact that two years on it's still a stunningly good looking game with tens of hours of content for you to wade through while waiting for the RPG onslaught of 2010 to begin. Best of all, the combat is as good now as it was back in 2006.
For an extra bonus be sure to pick up the Game of the Year Edition which comes complete with the awesome Shivering Isles expansion pack as well as a bunch of other extras that were originally downloadable. You can pick up the game from Amazon here.
4. Disgaea 3: Absence of Justice [RPGSite Score: 80%]
While it originally scored a little less than Oblivion, Disgaea 3 has since gone on to cement itself as a more than worthy successor to the original sleeper hit on the PS2. It's true that the game has some image problems - it still looks like a PS2 title in high definition despite residing on the console with the most graphical firepower on the market, but that complaint will quickly melt away in the face of the awesome strategy RPG gameplay.
Everything fans have come to expect from Nippon Ichi's Disgaea series is here, including pretty hand-drawn character portraits in story scenes, quirky dialogue and tongue-in-cheek humor and of course fiendishly addictive and difficult Strategy RPG goodness.
Originally released last year but with gameplay and a graphical look that date back to 2003, Disgaea 3 is a kind reminder that you don't need to be packing the latest and greatest technology to be a good game. Pick it up at Amazon here.
3. Borderlands [RPGSite Score: 86%]
The inclusion of Borderlands in this list is proof that Western RPGs are really stepping up and taking the fight to their Japanese brothers. Fresh out of the gate this October, Borderlands is a game with bare-bones story, instead putting a focus on high-octane combat that looks like a first person shooter but actually plays very closely to a traditional RPG.
Boasting millions of guns, Borderlands is all about satisfying that loot-gathering bug inside all of us, constantly bombarding you with new equipment and cool upgrades for equipment already in your inventory. Throw a pretty art style and branching skill trees into the mix and the game becomes a must-have even in the face of the jittery frame rate in the PS3 version.
Borderlands is a very attractive package, and if you've played every other RPG on this list this one is brand new - so this could be the one for you. Pick it up at Amazon here.
2. Demon's Souls [RPGSite Score: TBA]
Demon's Souls is a bit of a polarizing title, and as such we haven't actually settled on a final review score yet. Its presence this high in this very list should give you all the indication you actually need of its quality, though - it's a great game with plenty of depth.
Demon's Souls is a perfect title to keep you tied up until the end of the year thanks to it’s incredibly difficulty. You'll often spend hours struggling in the same place but each time you die the game never appears cheap or unfair - there's always something you could've done better. There's little Atlus could've done better though with the game as complete an RPG experience as you'll find on the PS3.
It's definitely a title for the hardest of the hardcore, but Demon's Souls will be perfect for the RPG aficionado who is looking some something that takes them back to the days of playing Final Fantasy I, back when RPGs were more of an uphill struggle against incredibly odds rather than telling a massive story. If you don't already own it hurry and get it now!
1. Valkyria Chronicles [RPGSite Score: 94%]
The strategy RPG genre was tired for many years with Final Fantasy Tactics as the benchmark for all others in the genre. Even the best SRPGs like Disgaea had a similar style, but it took Sega's Valkyria Chronicles to give the sub-genre a much needed smack about the head, shaking it up and pulling into true three dimensional gameplay with superb execution.
The gameplay is innovative, the story epic and powerful and the overall package Valkyria Chronicles offers is downright incredible. Somehow it manages to take the Strategy RPG playbook, rip it to shreds, burn it and rewrite it as something new and exciting but still definitely recognizably a SRPG.
An entire genre, reborn. Every RPG fan and PS3 owner owes it to themselves to play this game to see innovation and polish at their very best. Go and pick it up at Amazon right now.
That's our top five, but we do have one more surprise for you. We've picked out just one 'Time Warp' - an old RPG that's playable on PS3 that's also worth a look. For the PS3, it was a pretty obvious choice.
The Very Best Time Warp
1. Final Fantasy VII
Now available as a download on the Playstation Network, Final Fantasy VII is arguably the best possible game to play in the run-up to Final Fantasy XIII's Spring 2010 release. Many of the same staff worked on both games, and Final Fantasy VII is arguably the most important entry in the Final Fantasy series and one of the most important RPG of modern times.
Chances are you don't need a summary to tell you what Final Fantasy VII is about - all you need to know is that you can now grab the classic PS1 RPG as a download that'll work on both your PS3 and your PSP. While the game's graphics and translation haven't aged too well, the gameplay itself is still as fun as it ever was.
In many ways, FF7 is the birth of the modern JRPG. A must play for any genre fan.
That's it for our top PS3 RPGs you can grab right now. If you're really impatient, FF13's Japanese launch is little over a month away and you can preorder a region-free Japanese copy here. Our advice is to pick up one of the awesome titles above, though.
Stick with us here on RPGSite for the next part of this ongoing article series as we take a look at The Best Xbox 360 RPGs Available Right Now including several Xbox-exclusive titles.
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