The Best RPGs on the Nintendo Switch

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Nintendo handhelds and role-playing games go together like peanut butter and jelly, so it’s no surprise that, of all the genres well-represented on the Switch, RPGs are perhaps one of the most numerous. There’s an almost staggering number of quality role-playing games available on the Nintendo Switch, which makes whittling it down to just a list of the very best a tough nut to crack. From Switch-exclusive series like Fire Emblem and Xenoblade Chronicles to a host of excellent remakes, remasters, ports, and more, the RPG library on the Nintendo Switch is massive, and the best games and franchises in the genre are all present and accounted for. Best of all, the Switch 2’s backward compatibility means it has a built-in library of some of the best RPGs out there.

Suikoden I & II HD Remaster: Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars

• Release Date — March 6, 2025
• Developer — Konami
• Publisher — Konami
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)

One of the newer games on this list, but no less essential, is the Suikoden I & II HD Remaster. We’ve waited quite a long time for a proper remaster of the first two Suikoden games to have them playable on modern hardware, and the HD Remaster mostly delivers. While it would’ve been nice to see them add a few more bells and whistles or modern quality-of-life improvements, it’s amazing how well both Suikoden and Suikoden II hold up as two of the greatest JRPGs ever made.

Pillars of Eternity: Complete Edition

• Release Date — August 8, 2019
• Developer — Obsidian Entertainment
• Publisher — Versus Evil
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)

CRPGs are normally best played on a gaming PC using a mouse and keyboard, which is what makes the Switch port of Pillars of Eternity so significant. Somehow, Obsidian and Versus Evil were able to take the gargantuan Pillars of Eternity and shrink it down to be not only playable on the Switch, but arguably neck-and-neck with its PC counterpart in terms of features and functionality. Translating M+K controls to a standard controller scheme is never easy, and Pillars managed to nail it while also delivering one of the best modern takes on the old-school CRPG.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance

• Release Date — June 14, 2024
• Developer — Atlus
• Publisher — Sega
• Review Aggregate Score — 86% (Generally Favorable)

The initial release of Shin Megami TenseiV was a Switch exclusive to begin with, and its improved Vengeance re-release is easily one of the console’s best RPGs. Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance features an excellent story, some truly impressive visuals, and some of the best turn-based combat in the genre courtesy of the Press Turn battle system. SMT V was great to begin with, and Vengeance is just an even better version with an entire alternate storyline that’s absolutely worth playing if you’ve already finished it once.

Super Mario RPG

• Release Date — November 17, 2023
• Developer — ArtePiazza
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)

The decision to remake Super Mario RPG was met with plenty of celebration, mostly for the fact that getting your hands on the SNES original is next to impossible without resorting to emulation. To its credit, ArtePiazza did a commendable job developing an almost 1:1 faithful remake of the original while updating its visuals and tweaking the balance, and it remains both one of the Switch’s best remakes and its best RPGs. Super Mario RPG is tantamount to RPG comfort food and just as satisfying.

Octopath Traveler II

• Release Date — February 24, 2023
• Developer — Square Enix, Acquire
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)

The first Octopath Traveler was a fantastic RPG that started as a Switch exclusive, but its sequel is even better. Octopath Traveler II gets rid of a lot of the bloat that plagued the first game while retaining its interesting premise — bringing together 8 different heroes with branching storylines that eventually converge — and some incredible turn-based combat. The HD-2D art style that the original popularized also looks better than ever before, creating the perfect template for Square Enix’s remakes of its back catalog of classics.

Unicorn Overlord

• Release Date — March 8, 2024
• Developer — Vanillaware
• Publisher — Sega
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)

The TRPG/SRPG genre is well represented on the Switch, thanks to Nintendo’s own Fire Emblem series, but Unicorn Overlord is something else entirely. Vanillaware’s love letter to the Simulation RPG is equal parts Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre while also mixing in a healthy amount of strategy in how you compose your different units, creating near-endless permutations based on how many characters there are to recruit, train, and deploy. Plus, with Vanillaware’s signature hand-drawn art as the foundation, Unicorn Overlord is maybe the most visually stunning TRPG there is.

Bravely Default II

• Release Date — February 26, 2021
• Developer — Claytechworks
• Publisher — Square Enix, Nintendo
• Review Aggregate Score — 76% (Generally Favorable)

While some players prefer the original Bravely Default over its sequel, I find myself in the camp that feels Bravely Default II to be the superior game. The primary reason rests on how Bravely Default II does a much better job of handling its endgame (and removing the needless repetition of the first one’s time loop story), but Bravely Default II has a lot of other things going for it as well. Combat is faster-paced while allowing you to circumvent the need for endless grinding by stacking encounters back-to-back, job selection is more varied and synergies are more powerful, and the visual style of “toys come to life” gives the game a unique sense of charm. Bravely Default II is a modern classic, and its place as a Switch console exclusive makes it an essential in the system’s library.

Sea of Stars

• Release Date — August 29, 2023
• Developer — Sabotage Studio
• Publisher — Sabotage Studio
• Review Aggregate Score — 90% (Universal Acclaim)

We might not have Chrono Trigger on the Nintendo Switch, but with Sea of Stars, we almost have the next best thing. Sabotage Studios’ ambitious follow-up to The Messenger is not another action-platformer/Metroidvania but instead a love letter to the 16-bit JRPGs of yore, and it was made with such understanding and earnestness for the genre’s golden era that it practically oozes out of the screen. Every facet of Sea of Stars ticks all the right boxes for an RPG — from combat, to story, to visuals — and it’s one of the few modern titles that doesn’t just pay homage to the classics; it sits alongside them.

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age

• Release Date — September 27, 2019
• Developer — Square Enix
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Review Aggregate Score — 91% (Universal Acclaim)

As far as RPGs go, it doesn’t get more “classic” than Dragon Quest, and Dragon Quest XI S on the Switch is about as perfect a mix between tradition and modernity as the genre has to offer. Similar to some of the other titles on this list, Dragon Quest XI is pure JRPG comfort food. It doesn’t try to innovate more than it needs to, and it doesn’t try to fix what isn’t broken. It has a clear identity and purpose, and it delivers on it perfectly, providing more than 100 hours of classic JRPG goodness for anyone who wants to see and do everything there is to do in the game.

Star Ocean: The Second Story R

• Release Date — November 2, 2023
• Developer — tri-Ace
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Review Aggregate Score — 86% (Generally Favorable)

The Switch is home to a plethora of excellent remakes of classic games, and one of the best of them all is Star Ocean: The Second Story R. This modern remake of the beloved PS1 classic takes the best game in the Star Ocean series and polishes up both its gameplay and visuals to deliver a version that improves on the original in just about every way possible. The real-time combat is the star of Star Ocean: The Second Story R, as unlocking all the different Talents and figuring out which characters to recruit and use in battle opens up some impressive replay value from trying to tackle all the game’s hardest challenges.

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age

• Release Date — April 30, 2019
• Developer — Square Enix
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Review Aggregate Score — 85% (Generally Favorable)

In a series as long-running as Final Fantasy, there are bound to be games that are underrated and not given nearly enough praise as they deserve. And for the Final Fantasy franchise, that game is Final Fantasy XII. The Switch version of Final Fantasy XII, the Zodiac Age version, is the improved and rebalanced re-release that was previously Japan-exclusive, and it’s arguably the absolute best way to experience what’s perhaps the Final Fantasy series’ “hidden gem”. Final Fantasy VII and X get a lot of attention as the series’ best entries, but Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age almost beats them in terms of both its story and its mechanics.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3

• Release Date — July 29, 2022
• Developer — Monolith Soft
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)

The Xenoblade Chronicles series is one of the most ambitious and well-thought-out RPG franchises of the modern era, and across a trilogy of mainline entries and the excellent Xenoblade Chronicles X spin-off, developer Monolith Soft reminded us all why it’s considered one of the most talented RPG studios working today. Picking one entry to go on a list of the best Nintendo Switch RPGs is hard, considering how great every game in the Xenoblade series is, but it ultimately goes to Xenoblade Chronicles 3 for how refined its combat and progression are and how well it ties up the series’ narrative.

Persona 5 Royal

• Release Date — October 21, 2022
• Developer — P-Studio, Atlus
• Publisher — Sega
• Review Aggregate Score — 94% (Universal Acclaim)

Truthfully, either Persona 4Golden or Persona 5 Royal could take up one of the top spots on this list, but it goes to Persona 5 Royal for how content-rich of a package it is. Persona 5 would end up being millions of players’ first foray into the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona universes, and it’s perhaps the best “first impression” game that the series could have hoped for, thanks to its top-notch visuals, presentation, music, and combat. Even if you prefer the story of Persona 3 or Persona 4, it’s hard to argue against Persona 5 (and especially Persona 5 Royal) having the best gameplay in the series.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

• Release Date — July 26, 2019
• Developer — Intelligent Systems, Kou Shibusawa
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)

Take one part Fire Emblem Awakening, one part Persona-style social sim elements, and another part Harry Potter, and you have the basic building blocks of one of the Fire Emblem series’ best games: Three Houses. On its own, any one of Three Houses‘ trio of campaigns would warrant its inclusion in a list of the Switch’s best RPGs. But that it includes three different campaigns, a complete classroom simulation element, and plenty of replayable encounters and battles for when you just feel like engaging in some excellent turn-based tactical combat, makes Three Houses the full package. Fire Emblem Fates can step aside; Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the true follow-up and successor to Fire Emblem Awakening.

Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters

• Release Date — April 19, 2023
• Developer — Tose, Square Enix
• Publisher — Square Enix
• Review Aggregate Score — 84% (Generally Favorable)

What’s better than any one of the first six games in the Final Fantasy series? Why, all six of them packaged together and remastered, of course. The Final Fantasy Pixel Remasters bring together the origins of one of the most important franchises in the foundation and ongoing innovation of the JRPG genre, and the collection would earn the top spot on this list just for Final Fantasy IV or VI alone. Even with the weak link that is Final Fantasy II, it’s next to impossible to find a better collection of games or representation of the best of the RPG genre than the Pixel Remasters titles.

The image featured at the top of this post is ©CheatCC/Matt Karoglou.

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