With a wide variety of game titles releasing every year, many role-playing games don’t hit the mark that players are expecting when they purchase the title. Not every release can be as well received as, say,Dark Souls, and therefore many titles need to earn their keep in the cutthroat community of gaming.
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Many titles are not well received at release due to bugs orconfusing conceptsthat lose the interest of players. However, some games are able eventually to win over their audiences after some time has passed. By listening to their current audience or seeking out a new one, someRPGshave finally found their place, allowing them to make history.
Updated June 27, 2025, by Megan Smith:New role-playing games are constantly being created and published for players to enjoy, however even titles from a couple of years back have had its own sudden breath back to life. One such example of this has been the sudden resurgence in those playing Cyberpunk 2077 after the recent release of the anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
With the hope from CD Projekt Red that the one and only DLC for the game will release next year and hopes of another title being made. This is only one of manyRPGs that originally bombed at launch but suddenly began to shine for players.
13Honorable Mention – Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunkisn’t old enough yet to class as a cult classic, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t deserve an honorable mention on the list. Any play that can remember starting this title back in 2020 may remember how many bugs and issues the game was having that lead to some players receiving refunds and the PlayStation store no longer selling the title.
Years later and Night City is finally getting the recognition it deserves asbeing a fascinating citywith a variety of interesting quests and characters for players to meet, as sales of the title rocketed on Steam.
12Fallout New Vegas Deserving Of A Remaster
Before release,Fallout New Vegasreceived some favorable reviews from critics. The usual technical issues were there, butthe vast open worldof this radioactive wasteland outshone its issues. However, within hours of its release, fans of the franchise flooded Obsidian Entertainment with reports of technical issues involving save files getting corrupted and certain elements being unplayable.
Although fans were angry, the developers pleaded for them to keep their copies and got to work on fixes. Within the week of release, a fix launched to quell some issues as the company continued to sort out the others. After a rocky start, players would eventually be praisingFallout New Vegasas one of the best Fallout games in the franchise for years to come.
11Lukewarm Beginnings With Assassin’s Creed Unity
Although now praised by some fans as theAssassin’s Creedtitle with the best parkour, at its release fans felt disheartened. Overall,Unityreceived lukewarm responses from both players and critics.
Its main advertised feature of playing with others to complete assassinations was ruined through connectivity issues, and the game itself was a bit of a buggy mess. Many of these issues could not be fixed, and Ubisoft considered players feedback for later games. Even so, many fans still playUnity, claiming it to be an enjoyable experience with the most memorable parkour.
10Poorly Timed Earthbound
In Japan,Earthboundsold incredibly well. It was highly praised as an instant classic with its adorable pixel art style and interesting humor. However, it’s release in America was quite bizarre. Firstly, although the game appeared to sell okay, it was still viewed as an unsuccessful release for Nintendo. The game had alsonot made it to Europedue to these poor sales, as well as the NES being in the process of phasing out.
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Even with these setbacks, fans of the title did exist in America and praised its uniqueness. WhenEarthboundreturned to the Switch through the online service, it gave even people in Europe the chance to try it out and discover for themselves how different and enjoyable this game was, cementing its status as a cult classic.
9Controversial Diablo 3
Diablo 3had its controversies. Fans disliked many of the new additions, as well as directions that the team at Blizzard had decided to go. Players disliked the lack of a PVP mode and the addition of an auction house. This made the game feel less rewarding, as some individuals could buy what they needed while others enjoyed the profit.
However, plenty of fans of the franchise still play and enjoyDiablo 3.There was a turning point after discontinuing the auction house and acknowledging how the legacy ofDiablo 2overshadowed the production of the third game.
8Apocalyptic Exploration In Fallout 76
After infamouslyreleasing with no NPCsinside the game, not to mention the bugs, it is of no surprise that the game didn’t have a promising first release. Reviews from critics were average at best and unfavorable at worse, and questioned whetherFallout 76was worth saving.
However, Bethesda stuck to it, bringing back NPCs and fixing technical issues. With the release of the Wastelander DLC, the game saw even more of an improvement and an increase in positive reviews from critics, and the RPG gradually saw its fan base return to try out this newer concept.
Taking place in one of the countless settings ofDungeons and Dragonsthis RPG explores the campaign of Planetscape in a story-driven adventure that sees little of combat. Although when it first released back in 1999 it was deemed to not be a commercial success since then it has attracted the attention of many.
Due tobecoming a cult classicit has since received more released on newer platforms such as coming to Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PS4 in 2019 while critics continue to praise the title as being one of the best role-playing titles ever created.
6A Worthwhile RPG Like The Elder Scrolls Online
This Bethesda title, managed by ZeniMax Online Studios, had issues during its early days of launch. Critics that had reviewed the game had given it average reviews, saying the concept of thisElder ScrollsMMORPG was okay, but okay doesn’t cut it for such a big franchise.
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Answering to this call to ensure fans would want to keep playing, the developers scrapped the subscription for a onetime payment. Thanks to the release of DLCs such as Summerset, which won the Outstanding Video Game Award,Elder Scrolls Onlinehas gradually called back its audience and kept them entertained.
5Torturous Fun In Pathologic
Similar to Earthbound,Pathologicdid amazingly well in Russia, but the western release was disappointing due to its poor English translation. Language barriers aside, this survival RPG has been called literal torture by those that have played it due to itsdifficult mechanicsand unique concept.
Others, though, have found the title to be quite appealing, as they understood the deeper meaning to the game that lies beneath its graphics and poor translations. Since its original release in 2005, the game has received an HD remaster in 2015 which fixed some audio and translation errors. There was also a new game titledPathologic 2in 2019 that looked to develop the story further.
4Sleeper Hit Suikoden 2
At the time ofSuikoden 2’srelease 3D graphics were becoming far more popular, this meant that the few critics that gaveSuikodenany attention felt that the retro graphics used were outdated and lackluster.
Although deemed a sleeper hit at first due to its disappointing sales, the game eventually got theattention it deservesas players began to come back around to its charm. Reciting that it is a classic Konami title of the RPG genre. There has since been hope form players that this alongside the original will get a remaster.
