For better or worse, open-world games as a whole are a “new norm “in our industry. Literally everyone is trying to make one. But it’s the RPGs that are trying to do it the best. These are ones coming next year that you’ll definitely want to pay attention to.
#10 Dune Awakening
- Developer: Funcom
- Publisher: Funcom
- Platform: Microsoft Windows
- Release date: TBA
Let’s start out with a game that was unveiled rather recently. Dune Awakening is the second major game to be based off the Dune books and the recent award-winning movie.
In this one though, it has a more MMO feel to it, including allowing you to pick who you are and what you want to be by letting you explore the open-world and do whatever you want in it. For example, you can explore the desert planet of Arrakis and see all that it has to offer.
Or, you can use the versatile spice in order to enhance your character and their abilities. What will you become at the end of your journey?
#9 Diablo IV
- Developer: Blizzard Entertainment, Vicarious Visions
- Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows
- Release date: 2023
Given what players have had to experience/endure from Diablo Immortal, the hopes about Diablo IV are both very high, and very tenuous. However, it should be noted that microtransactions WON’T be a part of the main progression system. It’ll only be for cosmetics, which is a bonus.
Sticking with the gameplay, this will be yet another adventure against the forces of evil. You’ll get to pick your class and then dungeon-crawl through the vast world as you try and defeat enemies, gain power, and stop the forces of evil from winning.
Think you can do that? You’ll find out soon enough.
#8 Where Winds Meet
- Developer: Everstone Studio
- Publisher: Everstone Studio
- Platforms: PC
- Release date: TBA
Behold a new game that was also announced recently that is set to take place in the land and mythology of China.
You’re going to be a wandering swordsman who comes across China during the days of the Ten Kingdoms period at the end of one of its last dynasties.
What you choose to do in the kingdom though will be up to you. You can be the swordsman you were destined to be and fight off the threats in the kingdom to defend the people. Or, you can go into business for yourself and see what you can gain. Or, you can just be a regular person in the kingdom and have a regular job!
The choice is yours.
#7 Forspoken
- Release date: January 24, 2023
- Developer: Luminous Productions
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows
You might know of Forspoken because of all the talk about “whether it’s good” and the delays that it did in order to get into 2023. Even with these flaws, it still is an anticipated title, alright?
The game will have you playing as the character known as Frey. She is a person from New York, but she doesn’t stay there, as she gets taken to a realm full of magic and monsters. Things only get weirder for her as she realizes that she too has magical abilities!
Now, she must both unlock them and wield them in order to escape the land she’s trapped in!
#6 Crimson Desert
- Publisher: Pearl Abyss
- Developer: Pearl Abyss
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 5
- Release date: TBA
Welcome to the land of Pywel, a place that is known for its harsh conditions, and where life is truly earned because nothing is given for free here.
The time in which you arrive there is one where “legends are fading” and so the influence you and other players have on the realm is vast, whether you want it to be that way or not.
You are a mercenary, and you’ll be brought to bare against all sorts of human both human, monster, and mythical. You’ll need to find a way to survive it all by growing more powerful, by gaining more allies, and by not landing this harsh land win against you.
#5 Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
- Release date: 2023
- Publisher: Kepler Interactive
- Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 5
- Developers: A44 Games, A44
So, what happens when a portal to the afterlife opens, an army of the dead lead by their god appears and tries to wipe out all life? Well, you’ll find out soon in Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn. Because in this massive RPG, you’ll be a part of a coalition army of the remaining parts of humanity and other races in order to take down the threat once and for all.
The best part is that you’ll be able to wield a true arsenal of weapons from blades, to guns, to magic, and more.
The world of Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is vast and you’ll want to explore it all in order to endure.
#4 Avowed
- Developer: Obsidian Entertainment
- Publisher: Xbox Game Studios
- Release date: TBA
- Platforms: Xbox Series X and Series S, Microsoft Windows
Given that Obsidian Entertainment is behind some of the best RPGs ever made, including Pillars of Eternity, The Outer Worlds, and Fallout New Vegas, you can very easily see why some are very curious about their new title in Avowed will be like and play like.
What we know is that this will be a first-person RPG title that is actually set in the realm of Pillars of Eternity, but obviously a different viewpoint of it.
Many people have compared it to Skyrim due to its focus on real-time combat and the various ways you can use both sword and sorcery. If the open-world is as grand as the previous games they’ve done? This will be one heck of a game.
#3 Final Fantasy XVI
- Developer: Square Enix
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Platforms: PlayStation 5
- Release date: Summer 2023
Each Final Fantasy game, or at the very least the mainline ones, always seek to outdo one another in one form or another. Final Fantasy XVI is no different, because it aims to shift the franchise into darker and more mature territory. As proven by its new combat system, its M-Rating, and the outlines we’ve gotten for its story and characters.
Including the one for the main character you’ll play as via Clive Rosfield, a proficient swordsman who was meant to be a destined child, but was not chosen by it. Now though, a key death in his life is leading him down the path of revenge, and blood will be spilt so he can get it.
#2 Starfield
- Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
- Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
- Platform: PC, Xbox Series X|S
- Released: 2023
There’s a lot you can potentially say about Starfield. We mean that literally as we still don’t know everything we honestly need to know about the title.
However, based on all the accounts and the things that have been said about the game, it’s going to be the biggest Bethesda title ever made, and that’s saying something when you think of things like Skyrim and Fallout 4.
You’ll get to explore a VAST wealth of planets and see what’s on them, explore massive cities, and of course, fight and grow your character as a whole. The team at Bethesda are sure this will be a hit for them, we’ll find out next year.
#1 Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
- Developer: Square Enix
- Publisher: Square Enix
- Platforms: PlayStation 5
- Release date: Q4 2023
Without a doubt, the open-world game that pretty much EVERYONE is looking forward to at this point is that of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. Mainly because the previous entry in FFVII Remake was so grand it was almost mind-boggling.
Many were curious how breaking up the story of the original game would go, and apparently, it’s going pretty well so far. Now though, with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, we’ll get the next part of the story, as well as seeing more from characters like Sephiroth and be able to explore the areas outside of Midgar.
True, we only know it’s coming out in “Winter 2023”, but surely it won’t be delayed…right?
