Fantasy Video Games Bucket List

A council of six advisers argue the succession between campaigns; the last of the numbered run, in 2015.

A procedural province the size of Great Britain, in 1996.

Solas, the Veil and a party of seven; the 2024 return.

Ten years in Kirkwall, reusing every cave; the divisive middle.

The turn-based hexes before Heroes III; six factions and a soundtrack in MIDI.

Arthas becomes the Lich King, and the custom maps become DotA.

A ward of Candlekeep on the Sword Coast; the Infinity Engine begins.

Vampire lords, Dawnguard crossbows and the Soul Cairn.

Orcs and humans at sea and in the air; the RTS that made Blizzard.

Two Source Hunters and a co-op RPG that lets you argue with your own party.

Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy books as an app; Inkle's four parts.

Four players, one screen, and a voice announcing that the Wizard needs food badly.

April Ryan between Stark and Arcadia; Funcom's 1999 epic adventure.

The Nemesis system: orcs who remember killing you; Monolith's Tolkien.

Every Warhammer faction on one Immortal Empires map; the biggest Total War.

A fifth-year student in 1890s Hogwarts; the wizarding world as an open world.

The Land of Shadow, Messmer and the final boss argued about for months; the biggest From expansion.

Obsidian's Kickstarter revival of the Infinity Engine RPG.

Atlus's fantasy Persona: an election to become king; the 2024 JRPG.

Four-player co-op CRPG with elemental surfaces; Larian before Baldur's Gate.

Climb the monsters and hire other players' pawns; Capcom's cult open-world RPG.

Toussaint, a vampire and the best expansion ever made; Geralt's real ending.

Bigby Wolf, sheriff of Fabletown, in a 1980s noir; Telltale's Fables.

Minsc, Boo and Jon Irenicus; the Infinity Engine RPG at its biggest.

Cyrodiil, the Dark Brotherhood questline and Oblivion gates opening in a world that levels with you; Bethesda's 2006 breakthrough.

Azeroth with millions; the MMORPG that swallowed a decade.

The Nameless One wakes on a mortuary slab; "what can change the nature of a man?"

A boy and a fairy in a Ghibli-animated world; Level-5 and Studio Ghibli.

Close the rifts, run the Inquisition; the biggest Dragon Age.

Vvardenfell, giant mushrooms and a world that explains nothing; the Elder Scrolls at its strangest.