20 Best PS3 RPGs

Dragon's Crown is a Vanillaware game, and one screenshot gives it away. Vanillaware hand-paints every detail down to the blades of grass. George Kamitani first planned it as a Dreamcast sequel to Princess Crown, the 1997 Saturn game he directed, and then spent the next decade pitching it to publishers who kept turning him down. Atlus took the project on after UTV Ignition pulled out of games.

Up to four players clear dungeons together, locally or online, and Kamitani took direct inspiration from arcade brawlers like Golden Axe. That puts it on the edge of this list, a beat 'em up first with RPG parts on top. Critics praised the gameplay and the art and grumbled about the repetition. It had sold over one million units by September 2017.

Folklore is a PS3 exclusive from Game Republic, co-directed by Yoshiki Okamoto, who worked on Resident Evil. It is set in Doolin, a village in Ireland, and follows Ellen, who is searching for answers about her mother, and Keats, a journalist who covers the supernatural. On the night of Samhain they cross into the Netherworld, the realm of the dead, and gain power over monsters called the Folk. You put four Folk on the face buttons at a time and throw them at whatever is trying to eat you.

Critics liked it. Buyers mostly missed it, and Sony turned down the two sequels Game Republic proposed because of the low sales. Players who found it call it an odd and pleasant surprise. Kenji Kawai and Shinji Hosoe wrote the music.

Tales of Xillia is a main game in the Tales series. It came out in Japan in September 2011 and in English in August 2013, a two-year wait Tales fans know well. At the start you pick one of two leads: Jude Mathis, a medical student, or Milla Maxwell, a woman followed by four unseen beings. They set out to destroy a device the kingdom of Rashugal uses to drain the mana from the world.

When the Linked Artes gauge fills, your characters can use linked artes in a row and nothing can stagger them. English reviews liked the battle system and were cooler on the map designs. In Japan it sold half a million copies in a week. Players also tell you there is a sequel waiting, and Tales of Xillia 2 came out in English in August 2014.

Diablo III came out on PC in May 2012 and reached the PS3 in September 2013. Like the first two games, it is an action RPG with fast real-time fighting seen from above. You play a hero saving the world of Sanctuary from the forces of Hell. Most of the game is loot. Better items carry extra damage, bonus stats or sockets for gems, and higher level monsters drop higher level items.

Reviews were positive, though the always-online requirement drew complaints. It had sold over 30 million copies by August 2015, and the Reaper of Souls expansion reached consoles in August 2014 as the Ultimate Evil Edition. It is the easiest game on this list to pick up for an hour that turns into four.

Drakengard 3 is a prequel to the first Drakengard, made by the team behind Nier, with Yoko Taro directing again. Keiichi Okabe, who scored Nier, wrote the music. The story follows Zero, the eldest of six sisters called Intoners, who control magic through song. Zero sets out to murder her younger sisters with the help of her dragon, Mikhail.

On the ground it is a hack and slash. In the air you ride Mikhail, and that is the part critics disliked, along with the graphics and the technical problems. They liked the ground fighting and the story. Yoko Taro said "It's not Drakengard or Nier" when the game was unveiled in early 2013, at 60% complete.

Dragon Age: Origins is BioWare's spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. You build your character by race and class, and the game gives you one of six prologues, two for each race. Fights run in real time, but you can pause at any moment and give your party's AI detailed orders for every situation. Edge of Reality made the console versions, and it reached the PS3 in November 2009.

You become a Grey Warden, part of an old order that drives back the Darkspawn, and you travel across Ferelden to get help from mages, Dalish elves, dwarves and soldiers. BioWare hired more than 144 voice actors, with Claudia Black as Morrigan. It sold more than 3.2 million copies. Players usually recommend it alongside Mass Effect.

Director Hideaki Itsuno came up with Dragon's Dogma in 2000, and it finally came out on PS3 and Xbox 360. You play the Arisen, out to kill the dragon Grigori in Gransys, a fantasy land inspired by Sicily. Three AI companions called Pawns fight beside you, and they pick up traits from how you play. The big idea is climbing. Grab a griffin's legs or climb up to its head, and you stop "hacking away at the shins", as Itsuno put it.

Critics liked the gameplay and found the story thin. An enhanced version, Dark Arisen, came out on the same consoles in 2013, and the two had sold 9.4 million units by December 2025. Players describe it as a mix of games they already know, Skyrim and the Souls games most of all. A sequel came in 2024.

Nier has a messy family tree. In Japan the PS3 got Nier Replicant with a younger hero, and the Xbox 360 got Nier Gestalt with an older one. Outside Japan both consoles got Gestalt, simply called Nier. It spins off from the fifth ending of the first Drakengard, directed by Yoko Taro, and the hero is looking for a cure for his daughter, who has the Black Scrawl virus.

Reviews were mixed. Critics praised the story and the music by Monaca, Keiichi Okabe's studio, and knocked the side quests and the graphics. Over time it became a cult classic, and players side with the critics on the good parts: they praise the story and the soundtrack and shrug at the combat. The original sold 500,000 copies, and Nier: Automata followed in 2017.

PS3 owners waited a long time for this one. Mass Effect came out on Xbox 360 in 2007, reached Windows in 2008 and only got its PS3 port, by Edge of Reality, in 2012, after Mass Effect 2 was already out. You play Commander Shepard, a human soldier who has to stop a rogue agent helping the Reapers, a machine race, invade the galaxy.

Critics praised the interactive storytelling and the cinematic design and criticized the unbalanced combat and the poor AI. It still won Best RPG at the 2007 Spike Video Game Awards and sold over one and a half million copies by January 2008. Players tell you to play the whole series.

Mass Effect 2 reached the PS3 in 2011, a year after the Xbox 360 and Windows. Shepard has to build a team, earn each member's loyalty and lead them on a suicide mission against the Collectors. The developers made the optional missions as intense as the main one, so the side content is where a lot of the best moments are.

Critics praised the characters and the improved combat, though some missed the deeper role-playing systems of the first game. It won Game of the Year at the 14th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards and Best Game at the 7th British Academy Games Awards. Jack Wall came back for a darker score. Players say this is where the series came together.

Persona 5 was one of the last big games made for the PS3. It came out on PS3 and PS4 together, in Japan in September 2016 and worldwide in April 2017. You play a high school student with a criminal record for a crime he did not commit. He and his friends find a hidden realm and become vigilantes who fight corruption there.

Katsura Hashino directed it, with Shigenori Soejima back on character designs and Shoji Meguro on music. Critics now count it among the greatest video games of all time. The PS3 version is the original game, since the expanded Royal edition came out on PS4 and later consoles. Players who want a JRPG on the PS3 name it often.

Final Fantasy XIII came out in Japan in December 2009 and internationally in March 2010, and it became the fastest-selling game in the history of the series. Lightning, a former soldier, turns on the government to save her sister. You control only the lead character in battle, and the Paradigm system lets you switch the whole party between roles like attacker and healer.

Critics praised the graphics and the battle system, and the game's linearity got a more mixed reaction. Players are split on it too. Plenty recommend it, and plenty still grumble about it. Two sequels followed, Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns, which closes out Lightning's story.

Valkyria Chronicles is set in Europa, a made-up region based on Europe in the early years of World War II. The Empire invades Gallia, a small neutral country, for its natural resources, and Welkin and Squad 7 fight back. Sega's CANVAS engine makes it look like pencil drawings in motion, and it still looks lovely.

Battles mix turns with real-time control: you pick a soldier or tank on the map, then move and aim it yourself. The unit types work like rock, paper, scissors, and tanks are devastating against infantry. It earned numerous awards, and two sequels followed on the PSP. Players recommend it to anyone open to a tactics game.

3D Dot Game Heroes is a love letter to 8-bit adventure games, The Legend of Zelda most of all. It shows 2D-style graphics in a 3D world built from blocks, so the old pixel look has depth. Even the loading screens show classic box art rebuilt from the game's blocks.

The story is simple on purpose. A hero has to rid the Dotnia Kingdom of a dark plague, and the plague turned the whole world 3D while it kept its pixel look. Silicon Studio made it in just 10 months, and nobody on the team had made a PS3 game before. One player put it well: it "has that old school Legend of Zelda vibe".

After Fallout 3, Bethesda hired Obsidian to make a spin-off and gave the studio 18 months to do it. Obsidian set it in the Mojave Desert around Las Vegas, 204 years after the nuclear war. You play a courier left for dead in a shallow grave by a New Vegas mob boss, and you go looking for the people who put you there.

Project director Josh Sawyer built the story around greed and excess. Critics praised the writing and the quests, questioned how little the gameplay changed from Fallout 3 and criticized the glitches at launch. It went on to sell an estimated 11.6 million copies. Players almost always name it in the same breath as Fallout 3.

Ni no Kuni is the closest thing to a playable Studio Ghibli film, because Ghibli made its animated scenes. Joe Hisaishi co-wrote the score. Level-5 built it as a much bigger version of a DS game that only came out in Japan. The PS3 version arrived in Japan in November 2011 and in the West in January 2013.

Oliver, a young boy, travels to a parallel world to bring his mother back from the dead. He adopts creatures along the way and raises them to fight for him. It sold over one million units within fourteen months of its Western release. For a classic JRPG on the PS3, players call it the obvious choice.

Fallout 3 was the first Fallout made by Bethesda after it bought the rights from Interplay. It drops you in the Washington area 200 years after a nuclear war. Executive producer Todd Howard wanted combat that mixed real time with turns, so it would work for shooter fans and role-playing fans alike. Lead designer Emil Pagliarulo wanted a bleak and oppressive mood, and he got it.

It shipped almost five million copies in its first week and won a number of Game of the Year awards. Critics praised the open-ended gameplay and the flexible leveling, and Bethesda added five downloadable add-ons. Players rank it among the best games they have played.

Skyrim came out on Windows, PS3 and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2011. You play in first or third person and grow your character by improving skills. After Oblivion's Cyrodiil, Todd Howard's team picked a rugged, mostly sub-arctic land. Dark Elf refugees from Morrowind live there now, after a volcano wrecked their home.

Critics praised the character building and the world, and they knocked the melee combat, the dragon fights and the technical problems at launch. It shipped over seven million units in its first week, and by July 2026 total sales reached 65 million copies. The Legendary Edition from June 2013 bundles the three add-ons, and on the PS3 that is the one to get.

Dark Souls came out in September 2011 as the spiritual successor to Demon's Souls. You play the Chosen Undead in Lordran, a decaying kingdom near the end of the Age of Fire. Critics praised the depth of the combat and the intricate level design, and they were divided on the difficulty.

Online, you can leave messages for other players or summon them to help. The Artorias of the Abyss content came to the PS3 as downloadable content in October 2012. By April 2013 the game had sold 2.37 million copies, and it led to two sequels. Players keep pairing it with Demon's Souls and telling newcomers to push through the difficulty.

Demon's Souls almost stayed in Japan. Early reactions to the demo were negative, and the high difficulty led Sony to pass on publishing it outside Japan. Atlus brought it to North America in October 2009, and Namco Bandai Partners released it in PAL territories in June 2010. Hidetaka Miyazaki had taken over as director after the project ran into trouble, and he was free to take it in any direction he wanted.

You fight through Boletaria, a kingdom swallowed by a fog that spawns demons, and after the first area you pick which region to take on next. Up to three players can team up, with visitors appearing in soul form. Sales started slow in Japan and took off in the West by word of mouth. Players recommend it more than any other PS3 RPG.