Summary
- RPGs with a third-person view offer immersive exploration experiences, showcasing vast environments and characters' appearances.
- Outward, Kenshi, and Gothic provide unique RPG experiences by focusing on ordinary travelers, freedom, and harsh settings.
- Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring excel in making players feel small in breathtaking worlds with imposing enemies and massive landscapes.
Exploration is an integral part of any RPG. The games that linger in the memories of players are often the ones that continuously take away their breath with epic sights or reward them for checking behind that waterfall.
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Gamers tend to flock to first-person RPGs to get their exploration kick, which is only natural with the sense of immersion that camera perspective provides. But zooming out into a third-person view can be just as effective. When players can see their character as they explore virtual worlds, it puts size into perspective, showing just how grand and massive the environments are compared to the character. Plus, players can see how sick their armor looks.
1 Outward
Perfect Adventurer Fantasy
Outward
- Released
- March 26, 2019
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
Nine Dots Studio's Outward is unique among RPGs as the players do not assume the role of a prophesied chosen one or a legendary hero. Rather, players are ordinary travelers trying to get by in Outward's harsh fantasy world.
While maintaining things like hydration and sleep, players trek across vast, breathtaking landscapes, discovering dungeons and grand cities. Admittedly, Outward can feel a bit lacking in NPC encounters, but it more than makes up for that with its unique blend of hardcore survival mechanics and fantasy exploration.
2 Kenshi
Carving Your Own Path
Kenshi
- Released
- December 6, 2018
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Lo-Fi Games
- Publisher(s)
- Lo-Fi Games
- Genre(s)
- RPG, Open-World, Survival
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
Similar to games like Outward, Kenshi has players assume the role of ordinary people rather than the mythical protagonists gamers are used to seeing in RPGs. In developer Lo-fi Games' sandbox, players can become whoever they want - be that a bloodthirsty warlord or a humble farmer.
While Kenshi's main appeal is this freedom, its world is also rewarding to simply explore. Claiming to boast "the largest single-player RPG world since Daggerfall," on its Steam page, there is no end of interesting sights and locations for players to discover.
3 Gothic
Trapped In A Colony-Sized Prison
Gothic
- Released
- November 23, 2001
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Piranha Bytes
- Genre(s)
- RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Weak
In Gothic, players embark on their fantasy adventure within the confines of a colony-sized prison. As would be expected with such a setting, Gothic's world is hostile and not afraid to kick players down over and over again within its opening hours.
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It's this hostility and Gothic's dark backdrop that breeds a rich sense of atmosphere, drenching not only the game's story and quests but its exploration too. While trekking across the Colony, players are easily transported away to Gothic's dreary world and will find escaping is no simple task.
4 Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
Mech Exploration
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition
- Released
- March 20, 2025
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Monolith Soft
Some players may have a love-hate relationship with Xenoblade Chronicles X. A number of the game's mechanics can feel quite tedious, especially the 30-hour-ish wait to unlock the games' mechs, and its story - one which sees humanity fleeing to the planet Mira after getting caught in the crossfire of an intergalactic war - is a bit one note.
However, the game excels in its combat and exploration. Mira is filled with secrets and an ecosystem of alien animals, each with their own behaviors, to discover. And, of course, when players finally do acquire their mechs, visible in all their glory thanks to the third-person view, exploring Mira's desert wastes or bioluminescent forests becomes infinitely more fun.
Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition solves some of the original game's issues with QOL improvements and additional story content.
5 Dragon's Dogma 2
A World Full Of Fantastical Dangers
Dragon's Dogma 2
- Released
- March 22, 2024
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Exploring Dragon's Dogma 2's fantasy world is a delight from beginning to end. Upon first stepping into the game's lush wilderness, players are greeted with a horizon of locations to explore and monsters to fight. Players never know if, after cresting a hill in the distance or travelling through a ravine, it will lead them into the depths of a labyrinthian dungeon or the jaws of some new beastie to fight.
Dragon's Dogma 2's exploration is made all the more immersive by pawns, AI-controlled party members that accompany the player, as they will often comment about their surroundings or offer tidbits of information gained from their travels in other players' worlds.
6 Horizon Forbidden West
Mechanized Nature
Horizon Forbidden West
- Released
- February 18, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Guerrilla Games
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
After the world is nearly destroyed by a robot apocalypse, Horizon Forbidden West's version of Earth is turned into a post-apocalyptic landscape, filled with overgrown cities and the game's iconic machine wildlife.
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The clash in visual aesthetic between the settings' lush flora and mechanized fauna is what makes Horizon so interesting to explore. Players might be spanning the camera around Aloy, taking in the vibrant scenery of a jungle, only for a Maximal to jump out of the bushes and attack them. The game also directly incorporates the machines into exploration by, for example, allowing players to climb the giraffe-like Tallnecks to reveal more of the map.
7 Dark Souls 3
Exploration That Leaves You Feeling Small
Dark Souls 3
- Released
- March 24, 2016
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
A consistent element in the Dark Souls franchise, or FromSoftware's entire catalog for that matter, is the game's ability to make the player feel small. Dark Souls 3 is no different.
Players assume the role of The Ashen One as they travel the land in search of the old Lords of Cinder to return them to their thrones and prevent the Age of Dark. On their journey, players encounter deadly and gargantuan enemies and bosses within the grand ruins of a dying world. The sheer scale of everything in Dark Souls 3, apparent in the third-person view, makes every minute a player spends exploring both breathtaking and imposing. Not only that, FromSoftware has an excellent knack for rewarding players' curiosity, often hiding secrets, items, or even traps at the end of divergent paths.
8 The Witcher 3
Exploring A Land Ravaged By War
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
- Released
- May 19, 2015
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- CD Projekt Red
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's world is oppressive and miserable, which is exactly what makes it one of the best for players to explore. Set during the third Northern conflict, the lands of Temeria are ravaged by war. Battlefields and grave sites are a dime a dozen, each being infested with all sorts of monsters.
Playing as Geralt, a magical monster hunter called a Witcher, players are free to explore the destitute setting and get lost in its grittiness. The third-person camera angle feels especially beneficial when Geralt is riding his horse, as players can freely spin the camera around to look at the wilderness as it passes them by.
Across the war-torn land, there are not only the expected dungeons and ruins for players to delve into, but also many compelling side quests for players to discover and pursue, the writing of which is comparable - if not better, in some instances - to the main storyline itself.
9 Elden Ring
The Endless Lands Between
Elden Ring
- Released
- February 25, 2022
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- From Software
- Cross-Platform Play
- PS4 & PS5 and Xbox One & Xbox Series X|S
- OpenCritic Rating
- Mighty
Elden Ring dials up the sense of scale in FromSoftware's other titles by dropping players into an open world that reduces encounters with dragons to mere bumps in the road. The Land Between, the game's main setting, feels endless. Players assume that every discovery of a map fragment, items that expand the game's map menu, will be the last, only for them to realize that they haven't even seen half of what the game has to offer. In the third-person view, where players can see how small they are compared to these locations, the game truly feels enormous.
Elden Ring's world isn't just big either, it's mysterious. Multiple, massive areas of the game are hidden behind secret paths that can be easily missed by less keen-eyed players. Exploration is rewarded with more exploration, not just secret items or nuggets of lore - both of which are still very exciting to come across, however.
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