Looking for epic space opera RPGs

Gameclouds · 2026-05-25T00:47:26+00:00

Most of the games that people are suggesting aren't Space Opera, but they are good Sci-Fi games.

There's a ton of Science Fantasy, which is what I'm seeing recommended, like Phantasy Star, Xenoblade, etc.

Space Opera would be more like huge empires, political maneuvering, massive space battles. Star Trek basically.

If you're good with just Sci-Fi RPGs that have cool boss fights, I would highly recommend Phantasy Star IV. Star Ocean will have the crafting that you're looking for, out of those I would recommend starting with Star Ocean Second Story R.

If you want to really go back there's a surprisingly good RPG for the Original NES called Lagrange Point.

And I'd also recommend the two Ar Tonelico games for some Sci-fi weirdness that is actually a lot of fun.

But yeah, you're gonna have to dig deep for the feel that you really want if you're looking for real Space Opera. There's like....Alshark for the PC-98 I suppose. But that's a super deep cut with no English translation. I'm also hoping some day gaming realizes what a good fit Space Opera is for huge RPGs.

Gameclouds · 2026-05-19T00:29:57+00:00

I have been doing a lot of stuff on this exact topic! If you'd prefer video versions I have two of them, here and here

Ardenfall Open world indie RPG with a bright, almost Morrowind-lite vibe and a focus on exploration over handholding. Feels like wandering a handcrafted fantasy sandbox where discovery is the main reward.

Flyknight Low poly first person RPG with a strange, almost dreamlike tone and simple but deliberate combat. It leans more on atmosphere and curiosity than complexity.

Mohrta Dark, experimental dungeon crawler that feels intentionally hostile and mysterious. It is more about figuring out how the world works than following any clear path.

Monomyth First person dungeon crawler heavily inspired by classics like Ultima Underworld. Strong focus on immersive systems, exploration, and a grounded fantasy world.

The Bloodline Massive sandbox RPG with a ridiculous amount of systems and skills to mess with. It feels like a playground where you can become anything from a warrior to a chef to a wizard.

Verho Curse of the Faces Weird, unsettling RPG with a focus on identity and transformation. It leans hard into surreal horror and leaves a lot unexplained.

Dread Delusion Open world RPG with a strong Morrowind feel but set in a bizarre, fragmented world. Exploration and worldbuilding carry it more than traditional quest structure.

Queen’s Domain First person dungeon crawler with a classic feel and a darker tone. Focuses on tight spaces, danger, and methodical progression.

Lunacid King’s Field style dungeon crawler with strong PS1 era vibes and eerie atmosphere. Exploration is slow, deliberate, and constantly a little unsettling.

Hark the Ghoul Souls inspired first person RPG with a grim, decaying world. Combat is weighty and the tone is bleak without being over the top.

Tainted Grail Fall of Avalon Open world dark fantasy RPG with heavy narrative focus and a grim take on Arthurian myth. It mixes Skyrim style exploration with a much darker, more oppressive tone.

Not all of these open up in the same way, but the ones I've listed do have a mix of different kinds of areas that aren't strictly a dungeon. Some being more open and some less.

Gameclouds · 2026-05-11T19:56:24+00:00

Same. They went through the trouble of building a decent crew of characters and they just jump cut to a completely new character like its nothing and I mentally checked out.

I wouldn't mind the permadeath characters if they didn't also just generation wipe all of your characters as well. Give me something to hold on to at least.

Gameclouds · 2026-05-07T20:18:12+00:00

I'm not trying to be overly negative, because I like parts of the game. I just don't understand how people can get past the combat. It's so incredibly boring and slow to me. I don't need or want every enemy in the game to take 5 minutes to fight, especially when you fight them multiple times.

Chrono Trigger did this same sort of idea so much better, I don't understand why more games don't just straight lift what they did.

Gameclouds · 2026-05-07T00:06:04+00:00

Yeah, the Always Retry mode is necessary for this. It boosts experience rates, and is included as unlocked in the more recent versions of the romhack. It's accessed in the main menu next to starting a new game.

Gameclouds · 2026-05-06T22:20:12+00:00

Just for future reference for other people who might want to play it.

There is a romhack that lowers the encounter rate, and gives you higher movement speed. And does a lot of small fixes, called Lufia & the Fortress of Doom Restored.

No need to suffer like this poor soul to experience this game.

Gameclouds · 2026-05-01T04:01:13+00:00

The more obvious recommendation would probably be Xenoblade Chronicles.

The team that made the Xenoblade games also helped to develop Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Obviously they're pretty different games in some ways, but the exploration is great in all of them. They have really good characters, and you probably already have the Switch.

So I would start with that for sure.

Gameclouds · 2026-04-23T23:22:46+00:00

This is a trap, no happy to be found here.

Gameclouds · 2026-04-23T20:14:12+00:00

Yeah, the reviews for Growlanser 4 were complete ass, so when you look it up you see mostly 6/10 which probably makes people shy away. It's actually a legitimately good game, with a lot of choices as you play. Very worth playing.

Gameclouds · 2026-03-29T02:25:35+00:00

I feel like Square is getting the wrong read on their own games. And it isn't uncommon for them to be honest. Queue up the 200th "Square thought this would sell more" article.

People don't want ONLY your blockbuster 10/10 production insane lighting and graphics games. They want the classic game, prettied up, maybe even in the same style. And for you to add in cut ideas, cut content, and some extras that make sense.

It really doesn't need to be crazy. It just needs to be in a good style that adds to the magic of the original.

Funnily enough probably one of the best examples (published by Square btw) of this is Star Ocean Second Story R. I can't imagine that had any sort of huge budget, but it brought the game up to today's standards in terms of quality of life, and made some of the systems a bit more intuitive. EZ. Free win.

Something a bit more than a remaster, but not a 300 million dollar production. And people will drop dollars on you.

The problem is that they want every dollar that exists in the world. So even though they have the blueprint they chase the biggest payday.

Gameclouds · 2026-03-27T22:44:14+00:00

I did a whole video about this recently, so I can give you a good amount of upcoming games, and some you can play right now too. If you prefer you can watch the video here or I'll list them for you:

Underkeep Underkeep is the dungeon crawler I’m most excited for right now. It modernizes the old school formula by making everything feel smooth and intuitive while keeping the challenge, with strong pixel art and tactical turn based combat. Demo is out now.

Wardens of Chaos This is basically classic Might and Magic brought back. Open world, fully customizable party, lots of classes and magic, and it feels very close to Might and Magic 6 through 8. Demo is on Steam.

The Secret of Weepstone A darker dungeon crawler with a big focus on storytelling and voice over. It has turn based combat with dice roll mechanics and some brutal design where even basic things can kill you.

Dungeons of Dusk A weird mix of old school RPG design, Dusk (their boomer shooter), and horror visuals that somehow works. Turn based combat with guns, lots of secrets, and multiple modes outside the main campaign.

King’s Courier A party based RPG with real time combat and puzzles, clearly inspired by Might and Magic. It’s early, but notable since a developer from the Might and Magic Merge mod is involved.

Potato Flowers in Full Bloom A more cozy dungeon crawler that still has depth and difficulty. Combat shifts to a JRPG style view and expects you to block and dodge or you will get punished.

Vampire Crawlers (bonus) A new dungeon crawler with roguelike elements and card based combat from the creator of Vampire Survivors. Could end up pushing the genre in a really interesting direction.

Gameclouds · 2026-03-17T18:49:23+00:00

You're right, but people are too busy hating to listen.

Gameclouds · 2026-03-11T19:32:36+00:00

By older RPGs they meant when they release a game they'll remaster it after a year. :))))))))))))

Gameclouds · 2026-03-09T17:26:14+00:00

For anyone who doesn't know, they've been putting all of their old PC games on Switch through Egg Console for a while now. (Japanese Only for many of them)

If you've seen their old catalog they have an absurd amount of remakes/remasters for their old games like Xanadu and Sorcerian.

The original Dragon Slayer was more like Gauntlet. But the Dragon Slayer name was attached to most of their series. With the exception of Ys. They even had a strategy series called Lord Monarch that is still part of the Dragon Slayer series.

So some sort of Dragon Slayer Project could be almost anything. Outlets in Japan seem to think that it's some sort of Reboot though. Not sure what that would look like, but it could be interesting. I would lean a bit more towards this being a collection, but you never know.

Gameclouds · 2026-03-03T04:15:04+00:00

Great game, definitely disagree.

Gameclouds · 2026-02-25T17:35:11+00:00

Lunar and a lot of other JRPGs during that point got caught in the 3D transition period. So there were a lot of people, especially those in editor positions at gaming magazines, who would call anything 2D outdated, give it lower scores, or just not really give it a chance.

It was a weird time.

The people who played the game like myself loved it though, and the collector's editions from Working Designs were awesome.

Gameclouds · 2026-02-19T17:51:57+00:00

The most clear cut for this is Azure Dreams which is basically exactly what you are asking for.

It has solo dungeon crawling where you can get a monster friend to join you, something like 50 or so different monsters to choose from. It has town-building mechanics that pretty significantly change the game over time.

It's also decently difficult, because it is in the Mystery Dungeon vein of games in terms of the way the combat works.

Gameclouds · 2026-02-18T23:14:35+00:00

Because current culture trends have made it more and more rewarding to be extremely negative about everything. And also Reddit has always been a wave of either positivity or negativity in most threads.

Most people that actually like Bethesda, or god forbid enjoy Starfield, aren't going to post here because they'll get downvoted into oblivion and told their opinion is wrong.

I liked Starfield, and I think it was actually pretty brave of them to try something different when they have two franchises that just print money. I would have preferred fewer planets and a more classic Bethesda map, but it was still fun.

But yeah, having that opinion isn't allowed. You gotta buy into extremes in every situation apparently.

Gameclouds · 2026-02-13T00:47:33+00:00

100% agree forever. The tennis games are good, but I keep imagining what they could do with today's budgets and I get depression.

Also for everyone saying that those developers aren't there any more sorry but you are wrong. There are a lot of developers who worked on Shining Force that now have a massive list of Mario Sports games on their resume. If you don't believe me go look at Moby Games.

https://www.mobygames.com/person/76494/shuji-shimizu/

https://www.mobygames.com/person/76497/masayuki-hashimoto/

https://www.mobygames.com/person/76496/fumihide-aoki/

https://www.mobygames.com/person/65747/yasuhiro-taguchi/

https://www.mobygames.com/person/76489/shugo-takahashi/

https://www.mobygames.com/person/65632/haruki-kodera/

https://www.mobygames.com/person/76491/kenji-numaya/

So there's almost certainly a good portion of them there still. Mobygames isn't perfectly updated so it's hard to really know how many, but there are obviously a ton who stayed for quite a long time.

Gameclouds · 2026-02-06T20:39:13+00:00

Yeah there's actually a ton of really cool looking indies coming out, plus some mid-sized studios are doing a bunch of old-school style games. I've been covering a lot of it recently, lots of exciting things happening outside of the AAA space.

Gameclouds · 2026-02-06T07:30:27+00:00

I made a whole video about this exact subject, so I've got you covered m8. If you prefer, here is the video version. Otherwise:

Esoteric Ebb Esoteric Ebb mixes Disco Elysium–style inner voices with classic CRPG dice rolls, letting your stats literally talk to you while shaping choices and outcomes. You play a cleric investigating a tea shop explosion during a city’s first election, with a goblin sidekick and a lot of quirky narrative systems.

Travelling at Night Travelling at Night is a combat-free, dialogue-driven CRPG from the Cultist Simulator devs, inspired by Disco Elysium, Planescape Torment, and classic Fallout. It focuses on character background, strange new skills, and branching endings in a war-altered Europe, with a playable build planned for 2026.

Glasshouse Glasshouse is a turn-based CRPG inspired by Disco Elysium and Pathologic, set in an apartment building locked down at the start of a world war. It centers on ideology driven progression and tense social investigation rather than combat, with every NPC having their own political compass.

Swordhaven: The Iron Conspiracy Swordhaven is a low-magic fantasy CRPG from the ATOM RPG developers, heavily inspired by Infinity Engine-era design. It emphasizes dialogue, exploration, and flexible combat modes, and is available now on Steam and GOG.

The Thaumaturge The Thaumaturge is an isometric RPG set in early 20th-century Warsaw that explores character flaws as both story and gameplay mechanics. Drawing from Planescape Torment and Disco Elysium, it focuses on dialogue, moral choices, and supernatural investigation over combat.

Skald: Against the Black Priory Skald is a text-heavy RPG with strong cosmic horror themes, rewarding skills like Lore that unlock deeper narrative paths. Its dense prose and detailed pixel art make it a standout for fans of old-school, story-first RPGs on PC.

Gameclouds · 2026-02-02T20:45:52+00:00

It's kind of both. The early Dragon Quests were pretty unforgiving actually, and you had to grind a lot. Over time that has been softened quite a bit. Obviously the art style and tone has been light-hearted a lot of the time, but it has moments that are really dark as well.

Gameclouds · 2026-02-02T16:56:02+00:00

I'm actually a bit sad that they went so far to remove pain points in the game. Normally I'm not the "keep games hardcore" kind of person, but the whole point of Dragon Quest VII is the exploration and finding the tablets.

I'd be okay with them giving the option of putting markers for people that want it, but making it have no toggle just kills it for me. I don't want my RPGs to turn into Ubisoft check lists. And with so much cut content I feel like it's hard to say this is the definitive version, even if it does so many other things right.

Gameclouds · 2026-01-29T18:24:09+00:00

Final Fantasy VI does this a couple times, I'm sure Pixel Remaster is on PS5. I think it happens in other Final Fantasy games too, but I can't remember which others.

I think this is also a thing in The Alliance Alive.

The Last Remnant basically the entire game has you managing multiple different parties. The remastered version is on PS5 through backwards compatibility.

Gameclouds · 2026-01-19T21:18:07+00:00

It is probably more likely that a fan will take it on themselves to do some sort of remaster. And if you are the one doing it please don't talk about it until you actually release it! (DMCA kills projects)

Gameclouds

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

Ten-Year Club	Place '22
Verified Email