The Hardest Open-World RPGs Of All Time, Officially Ranked

For many people, open-world games are an ideal place to kick back and relax, as the content is often far more laid-back and the attention is placed on volume over pure intensity. As a result, there aren’t many open-world RPGs that pose a serious challenge, especially when, in many cases, you can run around for hours grinding and then come back to the main content all juiced up.

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen

Not Your Average RPG

• Fights demand preparation.
• Skill required over button-mashing.

Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen represents the beginning of RPG difficulty spikes, as it presents you with a significant challenge when compared to most modern open-world adventures. Large monsters require you to learn specific attack patterns, exploit elemental weaknesses, and make full use of your chosen vocation, while poor preparation can quickly turn even routine encounters into deadly battles for survival.

Its reputation for difficulty primarily comes from Bitterblack Isle, the setting of the titular Dark Arisen DLC, which introduces brutally difficult enemies and aggressive boss encounters that in turn reward you with powerful endgame equipment, but the demands to get them are far higher than in the base game. If you think you have mastered the monster grappling combat of Dragon’s Dogma, then there is always more content out there to overwhelm you.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance

Realism Demands Respect

• Realistic combat punishes impatient players.
• Survival mechanics make even early quests challenging.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance abandons traditional RPG power fantasies in favor of historical realism. Henry begins as an untrained blacksmith’s son, meaning something as basic as a sword fight can end in defeat if you don’t take the time to learn the game’s demanding combat system.

You have to think about timing, positioning, and stamina management to survive any encounter. When it comes to the rest of the world, you also have to contend with survival mechanics like hunger and equipment maintenance, all with limited resources. While the game becomes more manageable over time, its commitment to realism ensures that your progression always feels earned rather than handed on a silver platter.

ELEX

Pure Overwhelming Powervv

• Early-game enemies pose a sizable threat.
• Exploration frequently demands caution.

ELEX wastes no time teaching you that you aren’t the strongest character in its world. Venturing into the wrong area almost always results in a swift death, which means that the early hours are more about carefully choosing your battles while slowly building strength through quests and exploration until you feel comfortable.

That unforgiving structure is one of the game’s defining qualities, and I always found far more gratification from every step taken than most other RPGs, as there are no shortcuts to success at any point. Because of that, knowledge and patience are far and away your best tools for progression, and in many ways, understanding the world is far more important than becoming overpowered.

Gothic 2

The World Is Your Enemy

• Every enemy encounter requires planning.
• Progression is deliberately slow.

Gothic 2 remains one of the toughest classic RPGs, and a big reason for that is its uncompromising world design. Powerful monsters roam freely from the very beginning, meaning curiosity alone can easily lead to disaster. If you stumble too far from the beaten path, your hopes of staying alive will very quickly evaporate.

The game’s difficulty also stems from its progression, where minor steps forward can take several hours to complete, but in the end, the sense of accomplishment is pretty hard to top. Every new weapon, armor upgrade, and level feels meaningful because nothing is handed to you. However, Gothic 2 is certainly not for the faint-hearted and is arguably more of a test of patience than actual skill.

Old-School Doesn’t Mean Easy

• Massive dungeons can overwhelm inexperienced players.
• Complex systems leave little room for mistakes.

The Elder Scrolls might not be the first game series you think of when it comes to difficult RPGs, but Daggerfall is easily one of the hardest in the genre. The enormous world is matched by equally ambitious RPG systems that extend from spellcrafting to reputation mechanics, all of which come together to create an experience that offers tremendous freedom but very little guidance.

Many of the game’s most difficult moments come from simply navigating its labyrinthine dungeons and understanding its mechanics. If you are willing to learn the systems, I can promise you it is well worth it. With that said, I also understand why so many give up at the first hurdle, given how much perseverance is required to take those first few strides into the unknown.

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This article originally appeared on GameRant and is republished here with permission.