The First Descendant has enjoyed a big launch, but it’s also been marred by a number of issues that developer Nexon has continued to apologize and offer compensation for.
Since the free-to-play co-op focused looter shooter launched a long list of issues has emerged, including frame-rate problems, the failure to deliver on promised items such as Twitch drops, and for some players, the failure to deliver items they’ve paid real-world money for.
The latter issue revolves around a problem where customers have yet to receive items when they’ve bought the same item multiple times through the basket on Steam or the PlayStation or Xbox platform stores.
Developer Nexon issued an update on this “mass Caliber purchase error,” promising a fix. In the meantime, it asked players to buy “Caliber” items (items that are bought with the premium in-game currency that is itself bought with real-world money), individually “to avoid any inconvenience.”
For those who bought items from July 2-4 and have yet to receive them, these purchases will be canceled, Nexon warned. “The same measures will be taken for any further mass purchases until the error is resolved,” Nexon said.
“We apologize once again for the inconvenience caused by this error. We are working diligently to fix the issue as soon as possible to minimize inconvenience.”
Meanwhile, producer Lee Beom-jun published a developer chat to YouTube in which he thanked and apologized to players. In the video, the Nexon developer promised a hotfix that would optimize performance of the PlayStation 5 version (The First Descendant runs particularly poorly on PS5). There’s work on those missing Twitch drop rewards, as well as a promise for gun sound improvements and crash fixes.
Interestingly, Lee Beom-jun offered an explanation of sorts for The First Descendant’s controversial third-party data collection and sharing policy that Nexon asks players to agree to before playing the game. This personal information sharing, one of the leading complaints amid the game’s ‘mixed’ Steam user reviews rating, is supposedly required because Nexon uses it to track what players are doing in The First Descendant in order to improve it. Lee Beom-jun insisted Nexon does not use players’ personal data, rather the nicknames they choose.
Despite all these problems, The First Descendant has enjoyed a big launch, with a huge 239,513 peak concurrent players so far on Steam. That’s enough to put the game in Steam’s top five most-played games. Sony and Microsoft do not share player numbers. Check out IGN’s The First Descendant review in progress to find out what we think of the game so far.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The RPG Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has this week received another update for the Switch, dealing with some performance mode issues, graphics issues, and various other problems. Here’s the full list of what’s been resolved in the latest patch update as of 3rd July 2024:
It has felt like a long time coming, but NIS America has today announced that Ys X: Nordics will finally make its Western debut on Switch on 25th October 2024.
This comes roughly one year after the latest entry in the long-running Ys series arrived in Japan last September, but we’re excited to finally see it come our way.
Ubisoft is finally taking Assassin’s Creed to Japan with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The highly requested setting for Ubisoft’s biggest franchise will be explored through two protagonists: the fictional shinobi assassin Naoe and the real-life Black samurai Yasuke.
In anticipation of Ubisoft’s highly anticipated journey into feudal Japan, we’ve put together this breakdown of everything you need to know about Assassin’s Creed Shadows, from its price and release date to its gameplay and story.
Ubisoft has released several trailers for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the most informative of which — the reveal trailer and the most recent gameplay trailer from Ubisoft Forward — are embedded below.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Release Date
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be released on November 15.
It will be playable three days early, on November 12, for those who preorder either of Shadows’ three premium editions (more on these below) or subscribe to Ubisoft+ Premium on PC ($18/month).
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Platforms and Price
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC (via Ubisoft Store or Epic Games Store), Mac, iPad, and Amazon Luna
The base version of Assassin’s Creed Shadows costs $70 across all platforms. An internet connection will be required to install even the physical version of the game, though it can then be played offline.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Story
Plot and Characters
Assassin’s Creed Shadows stars two protagonists: the shinobi assassin Naoe and the samurai Yasuke. Naoe is the fictional daughter of the real Fujibayashi Nagato; Yasuke is based on the real, 16th-century Black samurai of the same name.
Set during the late Sengoku period (or Azuchi-Momoyama era) of feudal Japan, Shadows begins in 1579 during a time of civil war within the country, complete with the era’s samurai, shinobi, Portuguese merchants, and Jesuit missionaries. The two protagonists converge as they find themselves on opposite sides of conflict: Yasuke served as a retainer to Nobunaga, the daimyo who led the Oda clan in its invasion of Iga; Naoe, under the leadership of her father, is part of the Igan resistance.
Here’s the official synopsis from Ubisoft:
Live the intertwined stories of Naoe, an adept shinobi Assassin from Iga Province, and Yasuke, the powerful African samurai of historical legend. Against the backdrop of the turbulent late Sengoku period, this remarkable duo will discover their common destiny as they usher in a new era for Japan.
Like Assassin’s Creed Mirage and the original AC before it, Shadows’ main targets can be assassinated in any order. “One thing that we really wanted is [to make] sure the world feels alive, and those targets are always in the world,” said game director Charles Benoit. “So it’s possible that you’ll encounter some of them without really knowing about them before.
Quests, therefore, won’t point you toward your next target but will “guide” you with hints. “It’s less of ‘follow a quest up to a point’, but it’s much more, ‘I want to do this’ and then you’ll find the way how to do it,” said creative director Jonathan Dumont.
Feudal Japan Setting
Assassin’s Creed is well known for its exploration of different places and eras with each new entry. This year’s game takes players to feudal Japan, specifically 1579 through the early 1580s. Shadows is set during the end of the tumultuous Sengoku period at the height of Oda Nobunaga’s power when the warlord overthrew the Ashikaga shogunate and began his campaign to unify the warring factions of Japan.
Central Japan, where Nobunaga held power, will serve as the center of Shadows. Locations we’ve seen in the hitherto released trailers include the Iga province and Takeda Castle.
Game Length and Map Size
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is closest in size to 2017’s Egypt-set Assassin’s Creed Origins, according to Dumont. “It’s in-line with the latest Assassin’s Creeds that we’ve done,” he said, referring to the series’ post-Syndicate RPGs. “On a scale level, maybe we can compare it a little bit more to the size of Assassin’s Creed Origins.
“We did want to have a much closer to real life scale ratio,” Dumont added. “So because castles took a lot of space, and we really wanted the mountains to feel like mountains, [we’ve made] the environments feel wider in the game. But I would say around the same size as Origins.”
Dumont didn’t comment on game length, though we’ll note Origins main story takes roughly 30 hours to complete, according to IGN sister site How Long to Beat.
Does Assassin’s Creed Shadows Have a Modern-day Story?
Ubisoft has yet to reveal details about Shadow’s potential modern-day segments, though it sounds like there will be one. Assassin’s Creed executive producer Marc-Alexis Côté told Game File, “You are in the Animus,” when asked about the modern day in Shadows. He also revealed Assassin’s Creed Infinity will be known as the Animus hub and serve as a portal to the series’ modern-day sections moving forward.
This section will be updated as more information is announced.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Gameplay
Yasuke and Naoe Differences
Assassin’s Creed Shadows allows you to switch between Yasuke or Naoe at will, with the exception of introduction quests and character-specific missions.
Naoe plays as a more typical assassin; she’s equipped with a Hidden Blade and the ability to kill stealthily by scaling walls and hiding in foliage. As Naoe, you’ll also have access to throwable kunai and her chained blade, which is swung around to slice through enemies and environments. The assassin is also given a grappling hook to improve traversal; it can be attached to the edges of roofs and other miscellaneous anchor points. “It’s all physics-based, so there’s a little bit of improbability sometimes when using it,” said Dumont. “There’s a danger to using it, but you could also perform assassinations from it.”
Yasuke, on the other hand, has a more head-on approach to combat; the samurai’s heavy armor keeps him on the ground, where he excels as a master swordsman.
Each character has individualized skill trees and gear, though XP, collected weapons, and resources are shared.
General Combat
Dumont says the team’s goal was to make Shadows’ combat feel “spectacular,” and to this end they’ve increased the amount of environmental items that can be carved up or destroyed and reintroduced instant kills with the Hidden Blade. “The thing that shines the most, I feel, in Assassin’s Creed, it’s really the Hidden Blade, the assassination, being able to stay hidden,” said Benoit. “So that’s the core that we want to keep. What we needed to push forward [was to make it] feel a bit more modern in the approach.”
Shadows also adds duels reminiscent of those seen in Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films. “When we have a mini-boss type of fighter, we really want it to feel like a duel,” said Benoit. “So this exchange of blocking, parrying, dodging. So it’s always like a dance.”
Weapons you’ll acquire throughout Shadows include katanas, the kanabō war club, yari spears, shuriken, kunai, and the kusarigama (sickle on chain). Weapons have their own skill trees, and proficiency is increased by playing with each weapon. These can be found or crafted by gathering components throughout the game world. And yes, the ability to transmog is still here, allowing flexibility in the appearance of your gear.
Yasuke and Naoe will also be faced with a new enemy type: servants. These characters exist between civilians and enemies, and are able to raise alarms and call for reinforcements.
Exploration and Traversal
The big addition to Shadows world is a light-dark system, which has a major influence on the game’s stealth mechanics. Powered by an upgraded version of Ubisoft’s Anvil engine, Shadows global illumination system creates dynamic light and shadows that affect enemy vision. You can influence this by snuffing out lamps and taking out torch carriers. The degree to which you are hidden is displayed through a new light meter on the UI.
The light-dark system intersects with Shadows new seasons mechanic, which changes the terrain (and therefore how you interact with it) as spring turns to summer, fall, then winter. Seasonal differences include changes to weather/wind, bodies of water (swimmable or frozen), the height of grass, foliage, enemy positioning, and visibility. “Players will have to adapt constantly to what the environment is giving them,” said Dumont. The seasons will change as you progress through the main quest.
Eagle vision, which allows you to see characters through walls, returns in Shadows, though gone are the drone-like birds used to scout locations in Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. In an effort to reduce the amount of map icons, climbing to the top of synchronization points no longer unlocks a portion of the map, rather they provide a vantage point from which you can survey the surrounding area for highlighted points of interest. However, these locations still serve as fast-travel points.
Shadows will take you through Japan’s diverse landscape of towns, trading posts, farmland, mountains, forests, and historic castles rendered nearly to scale. Each castle serves as a type of bespoke dungeon, according toBenoit, who added, “It’s so big, it’s like an adventure each time you go in the castle.”
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Development
Ubisoft Quebec is leading development of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The studio previously headed up development on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Syndicate, and Black Flag, as well as 2020’s Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Over a dozen other Ubisoft studios are providing development support.
Jonathan Dumont, creative director of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, is again overseeing the creative direction of Shadows. Charles Benoit, who served as a game designer on Odyssey, is the game director for Shadows.
Ubisoft is selling three editions of Assassin’s Creed Shadows — Standard, Gold, and Ultimate — as well as a GameStop-exclusive Collector’s Edition. Preordering any version will net you a bonus quest called “Thrown to the Dogs.”
Here’s everything you need to know about each edition:
Standard Edition
$70 USD
Includes base game
Gold Edition
$110 USD
Includes base game
Three days of early access
Season Pass
Ultimate Edition
$130 USD
Includes base game
Three days of early access
Season Pass
The Ultimate Pack
Sekiryu character pack
Sekiryu hideout pack
5 skill points
Red dragon filter in photo mode
Collector’s Edition
$280 USD
Includes Ultimate Edition of game
Diorama figurine with dual protagonists
Steelbook
Hardcover artbook
Shinobi’s metal tsuba replica with stand
Silk creed kakemono roll
Set of 3 sumi-e lithographs
Separately, the IGN Store is offering a life-sized, officially licensed replica of Yasuke’s helmet. This ultimate collector’s item is now available to preorder, with an estimated ship time of Q4 2024.
Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.
During Anime Expo, Arc System Works unveiled a world premiere teaser trailer for its upcoming Guilty Gear anime, Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Rulers, which is set to be released sometime next year.
Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Riders is a 3D CG anime adaptation of the eponymous fighting game that is being animated by SANZIGEN. While the teaser gave little away story-wise, the trailer did showcase the long-running fighting game’s central characters, Sol Badguy and Sin Kiske. The trailer, which is stylized in a similar fashion to the game’s cutscenes, pits the pair against a mysterious new foe named Unika, who has a grudge against Gears.
— Arc System Works America (@ArcSystemWorksU) July 4, 2024
Guilty Gear stands head and shoulders above other fighting games series thanks in part to it being one of the flashiest anime fighters of all time. Consequently, Guilty Gear also has a reputation for being one of the hardest story timelines to follow. A case in point is the fact that the story mode for Strive’s predecessor, Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2, is essentially an uninterrupted hour-long anime unto itself. For folks wondering where Guilty Gear Strive: Dual Riders will sit in the series storied lore, here’s a plot synopsis for the show:
“After the decline of the once robust fields of science and technology, a new energy source known as magic fuels the modern era,” the official description reads. “Humanity creates forbidden biological weapons: Gears. Those Gears eventually stand against humanity in a rebellion. Although they manage to overcome in the struggle for survival known as the Crusades, humanity’s losses are so great that even after several decades pass, their emotional wounds remain unable to fully heal.
“Sin Kiske, the child of a human and a Gear, heads to his father Ky and mother Dizzy’s wedding ceremony. Their wedding breaks the ultimate taboo: a union between a human and a Gear. Even with the world at peace, it took many years for such a ceremony to come to fruition. Despite the complex array of emotions surrounding it, the wedding ceremony is met with blessings. When suddenly, a mysterious girl appears… The fated child inheriting Gear blood–and the mysterious girl who despises Gears. Their meeting would shake the world.”
In our review of Guilty Gear Strive, we gave the game a 9/10, saying, “Guilty Gear Strive sets a new standard for anime-like fighting games with its visuals, stellar netcode, and flexible fighting system that encourages and rewards creativity.”
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
Sonic X Shadow Generations is already gracing us with the return of Shadow the Hedgehog, but according to a page on the official Japanese website for the game, it seems that there may be a secret fourth playable character that has yet to be announced.
As spotted by Tails’ Channel on social media (thanks, VGC), the website displays modern Sonic, classic Sonic, Shadow, and a fourth slot that’s currently blank with the words ‘coming soon’ displayed underneath. You’ll need to click the blue star icon on the right-hand side if you want to swap between Sonic and Shadow.
“Dune is unadaptable! It could never work as a film,” I cry, placing defiant fists upon my hips. “But what,” says Denis Villeneuve, “about two?”, shattering my physical form into one trillion shards. I have a difficult life.
But wait! What about as a strategy game? Denis glances nervously at the inexplicable open pools of molten steel all around us. I’ve got him now. He hasn’t even played Spice Wars. Except… I think Spice Wars is about as good as an adaptation could be. Imperium too. Damn it. Alright Denis, let’s have a truce and sort this one out.
PlayStation has announced a new line of collectible figures called The Shapes Collection which includes franchises such as God of War, Horizon, and Ghost of Tsushima.
Revealed on the PlayStation Blog, the six inch figure collection will premiere with an Aloy figure from Horizon Forbidden West for $49.99. It’s a “deluxe collector grade figure with 42 points of articulation and 12 different accessories including multiple face plates and alternative hands.” The figure will be released in August 2024, with preorders now available.
Coming soon after in The Shapes Collection is Kratos and Atreus from God of War Ragnarok, Varl from Horizon Forbidden West, and Jin Sakai from Ghost of Tsushima. These figures have between 24 and 34 points of articulation depending on the model, and two to four different accessories each. Preorders will open on July 15, 2024 for this second wave, with shipping beginning in September.
“[The figures] are based on the actual digital sculpts used for the game, something you can really see in the final result,” said Horizon developer Guerrilla Games’ lead character artist Arno Schmitz. “We made sure the many articulation points made sense and even the finest textural detail shows up on the figures.”
Creative director at Ghost of Tsushima studio Sucker Punch Jason Connell chimed in too. “Jin’s Ghost armor has so many beautiful details, including intricate fabric patterns and overlapping armor plates that are integral to the design of his character,” he said. “In addition to his katana, it’s also always important to us to see all of his various Ghost tools represented to capture his different fighting techniques.”
PlayStation didn’t reveal if further figures would be released down the road, but as these four just scratch the surface of its wealth of franchises, it’s perhaps likely. Other potential figures could include Ellie from The Last Us, Nathan Drake from Uncharted, Spider-Man from, well, Spider-Man, and more.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi has confirmed in a recent interview with Bloomberg (thanks, VGC) that he is not interested in revisiting the franchise.
Granted, given that he left Square Enix in 2003 to establish Mistwalker, this shouldn’t necessarily come as much of a shock, but what’s interesting is the reasoning behind his decision. According to Sakaguchi, he loaded up Final Fantasy XIV in 2021 with the intention of spending just a few hours with the game before attending an event.
There’s nothing quite like the first time you explored Skyrim. From the moment you narrowly escape your grisly execution in Helgen and emerge into the legendary RPG’s vast wilderness, it’s an adventure that allows you to go anywhere and everywhere with no limitations, and it’s this sense of sheer freedom that’s had millions of players returning to its cold, untamed landscape for over a decade.
But after spending years exploring the many different versions of Skyrim that have been released, it’s safe to say we’re all looking for some new games to scratch that fantasy adventuring itch. So, to ease the wait until we get an official follow-up in the long-anticipated Elder Scrolls 6, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best games in the same vein as Skyrim that you can play right now.
1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
An obvious one to kick us off, but one of the best places you can go to get an experience similar in style and scope to Skyrim is The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The fourth game in Bethesda’s landmark RPG series, Oblivion may be Skyrim’s predecessor, but it still has all the components that made its younger sibling such a hit.
Casting you as a prisoner who finds themselves in the center of a conflict involving demonic gods, fiery doors to a hellish plain and the murder of Tamriel’s emperor, you set forth across the land of Cyrodil on a daring adventure. Along the way, you’re free to explore this realm however you see fit, completing quests, allying with factions and building your character with new skills, weapons, armor sets, spells and more.
Simply put, it’s more Elder Scrolls, and a great way to continue your journey through Tamriel while you wait for Elder Scrolls 6. As for where and how you can play it, it’s available on PC and can be played through the Xbox Series X | S and Xbox One’s backwards compatibility feature.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The poster child of the Nintendo Switch and one of the best fantasy RPGs ever made, you really can’t go wrong with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Nintendo’s acclaimed reinvention of its seminal series really has it all: a secret-filled open world to explore, a range of physics-based systems that you can toy with to battle enemies and navigate precarious terrain, phenomenal quests, a stunning art style, and much, much more.
Breath of the Wild is a game that never holds your hand. It lets you loose into a fully explorable Hyrule, sets you up with some essential tools and, from there, you’re free to do what you please. Whether you want to scour the land for lore tidbits, climb to the peak of the tallest mountain or even head straight into the final boss room, everything is available to you from the moment you make your descent from the Great Plateau.
It gives you the reins and lets you do whatever you see fit. If you’re looking for a game that has the same freedom and unguided exploration that makes Skyrim so compelling, Breath of the Wild is a perfect substitute. It’s available exclusively on Nintendo Switch. You can also jump straight the sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, but you’ll get a similar experience.
3. Dragon’s Dogma 2
One of the more recent releases on our list, if you’re looking for a big, sprawling RPG that puts exploration at the forefront, Dragon’s Dogma 2 could be a great pick. Spread across two realms, Vermund and Battahl, Dragon’s Dogma 2 drops players into the boots of The Arisen: a player-created warrior whose heart has been stolen by an ancient dragon.
Tasked with finding and killing this dragon, they embark on a quest across a vast, untamed world. Much like Skyrim, the true draw of Dragon’s Dogma 2 is its heavy focus on exploration. Its world is full of secrets to uncover, and with monsters patrolling every inch of its map, you’ll quickly amass organic stories as you clash with colossal foes and survive dangerous encounters by the skin of your teeth.
It’s also a deep RPG with various classes to master, a wide range of weapon types and armor sets, and a unique party system where you can recruit allies created by other players. All in all, it’s sure to satiate those hungry for a massive fantasy RPG on the scale of Skyrim. It’s available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and PC.
4. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
In the pantheon of 100-plus hour RPGs, Geralt’s quest to stop the Wild Hunt in The Witcher 3 is a top-shelf pick. Set in a morbid, Slavic-mythology-inspired world of monsters, magic and shady politics, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is often lorded as one of the best RPGs ever made and for good reason. It boasts a giant open world filled with difficult battles, morally gray choices that affect the outcome of quests and an engrossing story to follow.
You play as Geralt: a gruff, white-haired, yellow-eyed mercenary searching for his surrogate daughter, Ciri. His quest will take him on a perilous journey, where he’ll face mythical monsters and evade the ever-present threat of the spectral warriors known as the Wild Hunt.
Much like Skyrim, The Witcher 3 sets you up with the basics and then releases you into a lore-rich fantasy world untethered. Whether you want to live the bounty hunter lifestyle, taking on contracts to kill monsters while ignoring the main quest, or face the Wild Hunt head-on by following its supremely well-written story, it puts the control in your hands. The base game and its two sizable DLCs are well worth a playthrough once you’ve conquered everything Skyrim has to offer. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC.
5. Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Moving away from high-concept fantasy and into the more grounded world of a realistic medieval epic, another game that manages to capture the sense of unbridled freedom Skyrim offers is Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Quickly becoming a cult hit when it launched in 2018, Kingdom Come: Deliverance tells the tale of a blacksmith’s son on a quest for revenge.
Set in Bohemia in the 15th Century, the story follows an apprentice named Henry living in a small village. After his parents are brutally murdered during a Cuman invasion, Henry is forced to flee, entering the service of Lord Hanush of Leipa and pursuing the men who killed his parents. From here, the game lets you loose on a giant open world complete with authentic medieval locations to explore, a range of open-ended quests which react to your decisions and an intricate battle system to master.
Kingdom Come: Deliverance is an experience that focuses on immersion, from its high-stakes battles to its range of survival mechanics, which task you with managing everything from food and sleep to your hygiene and armor degradation. If you’re looking for something a little more involved than Skyrim or an RPG with a more grounded setting, Kingdom Come: Deliverance is definitely worth a look. It’s currently available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC.
6. Elden Ring
One for fans of a challenge, Elden Ring is a punishing game, but one that’s more than worth the blood, sweat and tears it takes to roll credits. FromSoftware’s latest serving of bleak RPG goodness is simply one of the most gratifying RPGs ever made, and that’s not just because beating some of its most challenging bosses makes you feel like you’ve just gone 12 rounds with Mike Tyson.
Elden Ring just fundamentally masters the art of exploration, from hiding routes to brand new areas off the beaten path to burying useful rewards for those who choose to search every nook and cranny. No area is meaningless; no detour is fruitless. It makes you feel like you’re charting your path across a living, breathing world. A dying world that takes pleasure in crushing you beneath its boot, definitely, but one that rewards your curiosity all the same.
With the game’s Shadow of the Erdtree expansion now available, there’s never been a better time to play. So if you’ve finished Skyrim, are looking for a new world to explore and don’t mind getting eviscerated by a giant lobster or two, The Lands Between could be worth a visit. Elden Ring is available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
7. Fallout 4
Granted, it’s the furthest thing from a fantasy RPG, but if you’re done with Skyrim and want something that shares its design philosophies, Bethesda’s work on Fallout 4 naturally has a lot in common with The Elder Scrolls series. It’s a massive open-world RPG that focuses on letting you build a unique character, explore sprawling environments and complete quests. The major difference is that you’ll be shooting big green mutant abominations while listening to alternate-history corporate propaganda instead of casting spells at mud crabs.
Taking the series to Boston, Fallout 4 sees a new vault dweller, known as the Sole Survivor, embark on a mission to save their kidnapped son from a mysterious faction known as The Institute. Much like Skyrim, that mission is just one of the many objectives scattered throughout the Wasteland, and you’ll be able to explore freely without an invisible hand guiding you down any single path. It’s a great way to get an experience that shares the same DNA as Skyrim with a post-apocalyptic twist. Fallout 4 is playable on PlayStation, Xbox and PC and remains one of the best Bethesda games available.
8. Dragon Age: Inquisition
Bioware’s most recent take on the sprawling fantasy RPG, Dragon Age: Inquisition is another big ol’ fantasy RPG that offers over 80 hours of gameplay to sink your teeth into. Tasking you with saving the realm of Thedas from mysterious rifts opening in the sky, you’ll lead a faction known as The Inquisition as you explore a series of massive open-world maps, defeat monsters and uncover a new Dragon Age story.
Much like Skyrim, Inquisition allows you to build a character, pick their class and race, and then set forth on your adventure. As you journey through the game’s various worlds, you’ll add new party members to the Inquisition while completing a range of quests and making choices that affect the story, your keep and Thedas as a whole.
In essence, it’s another meaty fantasy RPG to play after you’ve wrapped up Skyrim, and there’s never been a better time to get stuck in, with Dragon Age: The Veilguard slate to launch later this year. Dragon Age: Inquisition is available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
9. Baldur’s Gate 3
On a gameplay front, Baldur’s Gate 3 and Skyrim don’t share much in common. Baldur’s Gate is a top-down CRPG that focuses on strategic fights, carefully constructing a party of characters with complementary abilities, and completing quests by using your chosen party’s list of stats and skills.
However, Baldur’s Gate 3 is arguably one of the best introductions to CDRPGs out there, and a must-play for those who enjoy a big, expansive fantasy RPG like Skyrim. Its world is a carefully curated expanse of tactical combat, engrossing storylines and outstanding quests, the latter of which react and evolve to your choices, leading to a playthrough that feels distinctly tailored to you. But the biggest boon of all is how it freely allows you to play your way.
From giving you the option to mix and match a mind-boggling number of classes, races, backstories and more in the character creation screen to giving you free rein with how you approach and complete quests, Baldur’s Gate 3 encourages you to experiment and tinker with its systems to your heart’s content. If you liked how Skyrim never pointed you in a direction or forced you down a set path, Baldur’s Gate 3 is going to be a game you get along with. It’s available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
10. Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning
A cult classic brought back to life through its 2020 remaster, Kingdoms of Amalur is a great pick for those who’ve wrapped up their time with Skyrim and are looking for a new fantasy RPG with fun combat, a huge world and plenty of quests to complete. The story takes place in the world of Amalur, with the player taking on the role of the Fateless One: a corpse brought back to life by the Well of Souls, severing them from fate.
After waking in a pile of bodies, they embark across a realm known as the Faelands in hopes of stopping a destructive force fated to eradicate Amalur’s people. Along the way, you’ll be able to build your character, pick a class and freely explore the Faelands, completing quests, delving into dungeons and bringing down formidable threats. It’s available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
11. The Forgotten City
The Forgotten City is a unique entry on this list because it actually started its life as a Skyrim mod. However, it doesn’t take long to see why it was given the full game treatment. The Forgotten City’s story starts in modern-day Italy, as you wake on an island and discover you were brought to shore by a mysterious woman. After a brief conversation, you search a strange ruin in the center of the island and, somehow, are transported back in time to Ancient Rome.
It’s a killer set-up, but it only becomes more compelling when you realize this city is stuck in an eternal time loop, and whenever a mysterious law known as the “Golden Rule” is broken, the loop resets. From here, the Forgotten City takes the base fundamentals of Skyrim and uses them to craft a completely different type of experience. The Forgotten City is, at its core, a detective game; one that tasks you with talking to citizens, learning more about the Golden Rule and uncovering clues to solve its underlying mystery. It’s almost entirely devoid of combat, and that makes for a game that somehow doesn’t feel like Skyrim at all while retaining the game’s inherent DNA.
If you’re looking for something akin to Skyrim that plays with the formula and tries something wholly different, The Forgotten City is more than worth a look. It’s available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch.
12. Outward
Another one for the fans of a hardcore adventure, Outward is an RPG that casts players as a regular, everyday person instead of some prophecised warrior fated to save the world. Their initial task is simple. Pay off a debt hanging above their head within five days. However, it quickly spins into a large-scale open-world epic, as the player crosses the land of Aurai, faces tough threats and contends with the elements to survive.
What sets Outward apart is its focus on realism and consequence. It includes various survival systems, which force the player to contend with hunger, sleep and the harsh environment around them, while quests and other objectives can fail if they aren’t attended to in time. There’s no fast travel in Outward and, in the place of a standard respawn system, you cannot die, instead triggering random events that move you around the map.
In short, it’s a game with a ton of interesting systems, and one that’s well worth a look if you’re searching for Skyrim’s sense of open-world exploration with a few twists to keep things interesting. Outward is available on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC.
13. The Elder Scrolls Online
Another obvious one, but if you’re ready to move on from Skyrim, why not continue your Elder Scrolls experience with a few friends? As the name suggests, The Elder Scrolls Online is an MMO take on the series, allowing you to visit various realms across Tamriel while completing a laundry list of new quests.
From Skyrim and Cyrodil to Morrowind and Highrock, there are a lot of returning locations for longtime fans of the series, as well as some brand new locales to explore, including the Khajit homeland of Elsweyr and the High Elves’ home of Summerset. Along the way you can tag along with other players, bringing down enemies, completing missions and building your own unique characters.
If you’ve exhausted everything Skyrim has to offer and want more Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls Online is a surefire bet, especially as the game has been updated with a multitude of DLCs over the years. The Elder Scrolls Online is available on PlayStation, Xbox and PC.
Callum Williams is a freelance media writer with years of experience as a game critic, news reporter, guides writer and features writer.
