Role-playing gamesare and forever will be a staple of the video game industry. They have been around since the days of the NES, and they frequently push the industry forward in terms of both storytelling and technical accomplishments. JRPGs, action RPGs, turn-based RPGs, tactical RPGs, sim RPGs, farming RPGs, open-world RPGs, Soulslikes…honestly, I could go on and on as the genre is just that diverse. There is something out there for pretty much everyone, and that includes folks craving an RPG that makes them feel like an all-destroying god.
OK, here is the thing: as role-playing games are typically extremely long, they dedicate a lot of time and attention to perfecting their difficulty. A 50-hour campaign that offers no challenge whatsoever can get boring very quickly, so many games try to avoid overpowering players. Sure, you can break the mechanics and become a breathing grim reaper for all enemies, but that is not the default state. Still, a few games turn players into walking deities without any peers.
Criteria and things to keep in mind:
For the most part, tactical RPGs are among the harder entries in the overall genre; however, they also regularly allow players to naturally become overwhelmingly strong, especially on repeat playthroughs.Disgaearevels in excess, delivering humorous adventures that cast players as (usually) Overlords who lead armies of misfits into battles.
While most of the campaigns have notable difficulty spikes that ensure an element of challenge, attacks are still satisfying OP as they quickly start to hit for a ridiculous number of points. Landing an onslaught that delivers more than a million damage will never not be gratifying. Even outside combat,Disgaea’s character creation system turns players into gods capable of birthing fodder soldiers who can be flung into battle andfed to the grinder.
There are a lot ofDisgaeagames, so newcomers might struggle to pick a starting point. The fifth numbered entry was my introduction to the series, and it still has some of the best gameplay (but a relatively weak story).Disgaea 1 Completeis a safe option, and the same can be said for the most recent release (Disgaea 7).4and6are among the weaker ones.
Final Fantasyhas plenty of games that allow you to feel like a god, and it is great.Final Fantasy 8and15are fairly obvious examples, andFF16’s first playthrough is so easy that most fights are rudimentary. The latter is a valid candidate for this discussion, but the former two require players to make conscious decisions to become OP rather than the transition happening automatically.Stranger of Paradisealso has one of the most complete and powerful protagonists in the franchise, but Team Ninja’s game was just hard enough that I never quite felt like a force of nature.
Crisis Core’s gameplay is just straight-up broken. The combat revolves primarily around a roulette system that determines what Limit Breaks can be used, along with equipped materia and relatively straightforward real-time action. While the first few hours offer a bit of a challenge,Zack only needs to complete some side quests to become absurdly overpowered, to the point that I randomly found myself nearly one-shooting most of the bosses during the second half of the story. Do not get me wrong, it felt great when I wiped the floor with Hollander’s face, but Zack is narratively not meant to be that strong of a character.
Skyrimgrants so much player freedom that our experiences are likely to be wildly different. Putting aside difficulty levels, there is no guarantee somebody will become overpowered by just doing their thing, especially if they primarily focus on playing through the story missions while occasionally venturing off the beaten path.
However,Skyrim’s sandbox nature nearly demands taking detours, and it is hardly unusual for somebody to drop dozens of hours into the game before they even start touching the main quest. By that point, they should demolish most enemies without facing any real challenge, making the Dragonborn feel like a proper legendary figure.
While not guaranteed, it is not tough tobecome OP inSkyrim. Just focus on leveling up a skill like alchemy or conjuration, pick up a powerful weapon as early as possible (which is pretty easy to do), and you will spread death across the land.
The originalKingdom Heartswas and still is pretty hard, but it is an outlier in Square Enix’s franchise. Although it is arguably thebest entry in the series,Kingdom Hearts 2goes out of its way to ensure that the main campaign offers only brief roadblocks, with Sora easily capable of hack and slashing his way through encounters without having to strategize. Even boss fights are quite easy, with massive health bars melting away with a few swings of a keyblade.
Kingdom Hearts 3takes things a step further by bestowing Sora with immediate access to all of his abilities and mechanics, making him feel pretty much unstoppable from the very first second. This decision leads to a game that plays out like a power fantasy that relies on style over difficulty, which is not a bad thing, depending on what type of adventure you are craving.
Considering its rough launch,Cyberpunk 2077is in a good spot nowadays. The story shines, the world is pretty great despite not being the most interactive, and the customization options are plentiful. If there is one area that has never quite come together perfectly, it would have to be balance.
Unless played on the highest difficulty and with personal choices that facilitate a challenge run,Cyberpunk 2077can become trivial by roughly the halfway point of the campaign, and reaching that point mostly just requires completing some side missions and finding a few solid guns. If you go for astealth gun build, you will be annihilating enemies before long. Don’t get me wrong, V becoming a beast can be an absolute blast, but I feel like you need to make a conscious effort not to become overpowered inCyberpunk 2077.
Kingdoms of Amalurcame out at a time when Western RPGs that prioritized real-time hack and slash combat were not a popular thing. As such, Big Huge Games' project was a breath of fresh air that managed to set itself apart from theSkyrimsof the world, delivering an accessible and gorgeous campaign that did not overstay its welcome.
Story-wise,Kingdoms of Amalurdoes kind of cast players as a god, as the Fateless One can pretty much reshape the future. Ultimately, this plot beat does not impact the gameplay all that much; however, that does not matter as the protagonist is extremely powerful from the start. The combat is very much skill-based, so once players get adjusted to the flow of battle, they will begin to feel unstoppable.Kingdoms of Amaluris not difficult by any stretch of the imagination.
This one feels like a cheat, asDiablohas always been about the endgame and not the campaign. Provided somebody is sticking around for the long haul, they will spend most of their time repeating content to get better weapons, all the while scaling up the difficulty level to earn superior rewards. However, the first twoDiablogames have at least somewhat challenging stories, withbosses that live up to their lore. That is not the case withDiablo 3(andDiablo 4).
InDiablo 3, you will mow through the story without breaking a sweat, with enemies dropping like they are stuck in a modern Musou game. You will be showered with enough treasure to makeFate’s Gilgamesh blush. While the lack of challenge can lead to monotony setting in, it can be satisfying to serve as the battlefield’s judgment.
