The Best RPG of 2016

Honorable Mention: I Am Setsuna

It’s award season here at Twinfinite! Starting with a few runner ups, let’s look back at the best RPGs from this year and our 2016 winner! 

I Am Setsuna may not do a lot in the story department, but it does remind us of the joys we had from playing the old-school RPGs of yore. It’s a classic story of a wayward mercenary who finds redemption in escorting a young and fair maiden across oceans and treacherous lands to help her fulfill her destiny. It sounds like a cliche (and it is), but its execution is near flawless, and that’s really all that matters.

The game adopts an active time battle system, not unlike the one we’ve seen in earlier Final Fantasy games, but it also introduces a few other mechanics such as momentum management, fluxes, and spritnite customization, to add a new layer of strategy into the mix. The soundtrack is sorrowful but fitting for the game’s atmosphere, and the combat is just as good as you remembered from all your hours spent in Chrono Trigger.

Honorable Mention: Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse

Apocalypse only hits hard if you’ve played 2013’s Shin Megami Tensei IV. Despite Atlus’ assurances that you can jump into this without playing the preceding game (and you certainly can), some of the game’s nuances and subtle, yet important, references will completely go over your head. Still, there’s no denying that Apocalypse is a damn good RPG that doesn’t hesitate to pummel players into the ground with its challenging boss fights.

Featuring a Pokemon-like collection system where you can employ demons into your party, Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse allows players to actively negotiate with demons during battles in an attempt to convince them to join you. This isn’t an easy process, and it makes every recruited demon feel like a hard-earned companion, especially in the early game. It gets even harder when you’re forced to decide if you want to fuse your demons together to create a much more powerful one. The combat strategies you can utilize in Apocalypse are endless, and that’s only made possible by the deep and complex fusion system Apocalypse has perfected here.

Not to mention, Apocalypse offers multiple endings that are tailored according to your actions and decisions made in the game. Like previous SMT games, Apocalypse will question your values, and players will have to decide where exactly they stand on the spectrum of law and chaos.

Second Runner Up: Final Fantasy XV

It has got its story problems, but Final Fantasy XV’s immersive open world truly shines when you take the time out to explore all that Eos has to offer. Final Fantasy XV offers up the best open world environment of 2016, hands down, and it’s easy to lose yourself in the multitude of side content there is to tackle in the game. The boss fights featured in XV are some of the best we’ve ever seen in the series, and they’re truly brought to life by their incredible designs and the game’s phenomenal soundtrack.

The storytelling itself could use a bit of work. but Final Fantasy XV also does a wonderful job of selling its core cast of four characters. It’s a bit of a slow burn, and you won’t even realize it till you’ve reached the end, but Noctis and his friends share some of the most convincing and heartwarming friendships/bromances you’ll see in a video game.

First Runner Up: Pokemon Sun and Moon

Just when we thought the Pokemon RPG series couldn’t surprise us anymore, Sun and Moon came along and completely surpassed all of our expectations. The removal of Gyms and badges sounded like a risky move at first, but it’s one that paid off extraordinarily well with the introduction of island kahunas and the Totem Pokemon. Sun and Moon kept things feeling fresh and familiar at the same time by bringing back ‘mons from gen 1, and giving them new Alolan Forms – a smart way to keep the pioneer fans around for more, but without alienating any newcomers.

The combat in Sun and Moon is just as fun as you remember, with strategy and tactics coming into play when you’re forced to take Pokemon types into consideration, along with their move sets and held items. However, perhaps the most shocking improvement that came with Sun and Moon was the story itself. Yes, Pokemon Sun and Moon actually had a well-written story with characters that you grew to care about over the course of the game. Surprised? So were we, but pleasantly so.

Pokemon Sun and Moon are quite possibly the best and strongest entries we’ve seen in this long-running franchise yet, and it’s exciting to wonder where Game Freak takes the series from here.

Winner: Dark Souls III

Dark Souls III was our clear choice for the best RPG of 2016 thanks to how it has polished its third-person action RPG combat to a near-perfect shine. Here is a game that demands your full attention for every combat encounter you come across. The game gets challenging, but it never feels “hard” or “unfair,” because you know exactly what went wrong each time your character dies. The bosses are, of course, the centerpiece of Dark Souls III, and each is accompanied by a glorious orchestral soundtrack that roars to life when you step through a fog wall. The final boss of this entry, while not the toughest one you’ll find in the series, is memorable simply because of the choice of music used, and the meaning it carries for fans whose journeys started with the release of Dark Souls all those years ago.

Dark Souls III continues to tell an epic tale of mankind, dragons, and the undead through the subtle hint drops that can be found in the lore description of every item. The words you read in these descriptions are carefully picked, and every one carries a meaning that’s left for you to discern. The environments and buildings tell stories, and you’ll only get the full Souls experience if you take the time to examine these, and piece the puzzle together to uncover the rich history of Lothric. And even if you don’t, well, you’ll still get hours and hours of entertainment just from learning the ins and outs of the fantastically responsive combat system.

The Dark Souls series still stands as one of the best medieval fantasy adventures we’ve seen in modern video games, and Dark Souls III closes out the saga with a bang worthy of some serious Sun-praising.

Congratulations to Dark Souls III, the winner of our Best RPG of 2016 award! Be sure to visit back this week more award announcements including the big one, our game of the year for 2016!