Long before action RPGs became as common as they are, combat in role-playing games was predominantly done in a turn-based fashion. This form of gameplay, which was born out of hardware limitations and was heavily inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, has continued to remain incredibly popular over the decades, as new developers continue to iterate on the formula.
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Over the past year, turn-based RPGs have been getting more love than ever, primarily thanks to the release of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. After racking up numerous Game of the Year awards, Expedition 33 has become one of the most acclaimed games ever, turn-based RPG or otherwise. Despite this popularity, does Expedition 33 do enough to vault itself onto a shortlist of the greatest turn-based RPGs that have ever come about? What better time to figure that out than to rank the five best turn-based RPGs in history.
5. Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
While he’s more often associated with platforming games, Mario has also appeared in countless turn-based RPGs over the years. Beginning with Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars on SNES, Mario would go on to reappear in the Paper Mario series and would also star alongside his brother in the Mario & Luigi games. Despite having so many excellent RPG outings, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is far and away the best to feature the Italian plumber and is one of the finest that the genre has ever seen.
The Thousand-Year Door greatly improves on just about every element of the original Paper Mario, especially when it comes to gameplay. Mario has more unique abilities at his disposal, and the partner characters that can also be used in battle have more inventive tactics of their own. These improvements to the turn-based combat are joined by an excellent story that features an incredibly memorable cast of friends and foes. It’s no wonder that Nintendo opted to remaster it for Switch in 2024.
4. Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy was one of the first major franchises that featured turn-based combat to go mainstream. This style of play for Final Fantasy has disappeared in more recent installments, but for over 20 years, virtually every game in the saga had some form of turn-based gameplay. Of this group, Final Fantasy VII is unquestionably the best.
Other than featuring the most recognizable characters and music in all of Final Fantasy, FFVII also made some excellent upgrades to the turn-based combat at the core of the series. The Materia system, in particular, added much more depth to gameplay and gave players more control over what they wanted to index their abilities into. This, combined with a unique slate of companions that all had unique powers of their own, made Final Fantasy VII an unforgettable turn-based experience.
3. Chrono Trigger
The SNES era was filled with so many incredible turn-based RPGs that it’s hard to choose just one, but Chrono Trigger stands out among the pack. Created by the “Dream Team” of Hironobu Sakaguchi, Akira Toriyama, and Yuji Horii, Chrono Trigger‘s mere existence feels like a dream. The game contains many of the best elements of Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Dragon Ball, all wrapped up in a compelling story that features memorable characters and stellar music.
As a turn-based game, Chrono Trigger featured plenty of revolutionary elements that also helped push the genre forward, too. Its Active Time Battle system allowed for real-time elements to be included in combat, which is something that numerous future games would mimic. The Tech system was also quite innovative, and would let companions team up with one another to deal out truly monstrous attacks. It’s rare that games from the SNES time period still feel fresh, but Chrono Trigger is a truly timeless RPG.
2. Pokemon Gold and Silver
Pokemon is often seen as the best entry point for younger audiences when it comes to turn-based role-playing games, but it’s also still the undisputed king of the genre. While many other franchises have started to steer clear of turn-based gameplay in favor of real-time systems, Pokemon still uses this structure for each mainline entry. What makes Pokemon even more unique is that, whereas many turn-based RPGs only have a handful of options to choose from when it comes to combat, Pokemon has hundreds of unique creatures with their own moves and designs to choose from.
Although it’s hard to select just one Pokemon game to represent the series, Gold and Silver remain the high points of the franchise. These games expanded upon everything found in the original Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue (new Pokemon types, multiple regions, etc.) to create an experience that is still unmatched over 25 years later. If you were only ever going to play one Pokemon game in your life, Gold and Silver (or their remakes, HeartGold and SoulSilver) need to be the ones you choose.
1. Persona 5
Persona has been carrying the torch for the turn-based RPG genre for over a decade at this point. Beginning with Persona 3, the Atlus-developed series started to truly separate itself from its Shin Megami Tensei roots. Atlus would go on to improve the formula found in Persona 3 once again with Persona 4, but with 2017’s Persona 5, the franchise and genre as a whole would reach a new high point.
Outside of having a stellar soundtrack and aesthetic, Persona 5 more perfectly meshes the life sim and RPG elements of the series than any other entry before it. The addition of the Baton Pass and All Out Attacks in combat added much more depth and strategy, while the improved dungeon designs made them much more engaging to sleuth through. Like many other games on this list, Persona 5 also featured a great storyline and cast of characters, both of which were made even better in the expanded Persona 5 Royal.
For all of these reasons, Persona 5 isn’t just the best turn-based RPG of the past decade, but it’s the best of all time. Hopefully, it won’t be much longer until we see how Atlus improves on the series next with the eventual Persona 6.
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