A nearly perfect Frogotten open world RPG from ten years ago

When it comes to high-profile open-world RPGs that are still talked about today, The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and Fallout: New Vegas must be at the beginning of the list. They helped make open-world RPGs a thing with their world designs, quests, combat, and leveling systems. Moreover, they are easily available today.

Dragon Quest Builders and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning are two games that deserve to be in the conversation as well, even if they were flawed in some ways at launch. Let's walk through why these two games and four others are worth checking out today. Most are playable on modern systems except one, so let's get into it.

Heroes 3D Dot Game

Pixelated Hyrule

Heroes 3D Dot Game it came out for the PS3 in 2010 and unfortunately stayed there. It was developed by the relatively small company Silicon Studio, whose biggest work includes the first two Brave default games. Development aside, Heroes 3D Dot Game originated as both a tribute and a parody The Legend of Zelda on NSZ.

The world was built in a top-down perspective, but all characters and scenery were made from 3D voxels. This is how the world looked before Square Enix started making their HD-2D games. Players could travel around the area Heroes 3D Dot Game fighting monsters, completing quests, diving into dungeons and more, which was more than challenging for a game at the time. What made it easy was the player's sword, which could devour the entire screen at full health, and easily the biggest feature that the die-hard community remembers this quirky little PS3 gem for.

Dragon Dogma

And Dark Souls by any other name

Dragon Dogma was released in 2012 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, and while it's not exactly a Soulslike game, it basically tried to chase that crowd. The difficulty of this open-world game from Capcom was intense, and players really had to work hard to get anywhere. Even a pack of goblins could become fatal, but it also had a lot of positives. Players could create their own character along with a pawn to which they could assign a class out of several, all of which evolved.

For example, a mage can become a magical archer, which gives the character both physical and magical properties. Also, fighting large boss-like monsters, from chimeras to large snakes, was engaging as players could lunge at them, similar to the boss fights in Shadow of the Colossus. The game became overshadowed when Capcom launched an extended version, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisena year later, upon which future ports and remasters are based. Even though it's essentially the same game, there are a few players who remember the struggles of the original build Dragon Dogma today.

Dragon Quest Builders

What-If spinoff

Dragon Quest Builders was an interesting spinoff, released as part of Dragon Quest 30th anniversary of the franchise in 2016 for PS3, PS4 and PS Vita. As a minor spoiler, at the end of the original Famicom game, players could choose to side with Dragonlord, the main antagonist, which would lead to a bad ending. This game picks up where the bad ending would go, essentially leading to the apocalypse. Now, as a new hero, players can use their magical abilities to try to rebuild each region one block at a time.

Visually, the game doesn't look good at all Minecraftbut it certainly plays similarly, from how blocks break to how players can craft. It's a full-featured action RPG that basically delivers Minecraft formula rather by a point, but the downside is that players have to start at level one every time they move to a new region. This and many other problems were fixed in the sequel, which is still an underrated game, but next to this original, it can be The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim in terms of recognition. Dragon Quest Builders at least it's still playable and even got a very late PC port in 2024.

Kingdom of Amalur: Showdown

Combat perfection

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning it was released in 2012 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 and later as a remaster Kingdoms of Amalur: Re-Reckoning edition that even added additional content for systems like PS4, Switch and Xbox One. So this game definitely has the advantage of being one of the more accessible but forgotten open world RPGs of the past. Still, he deserves much more credit for what he has accomplished. The story wasn't the main argument as the NPCs and quests were pretty basic. Combat is what made this game stand out among open world RPGs.

Players weren't locked into one class at the start, as they could instead swap skills and build any type of hero they wanted, from a melee focused hero to a magic user. Melee and magic skills combined well in combat, making the battle system more similar Devil May Cry than anything in The Elder Scrolls pantheon of games. With a large number of weapons, from chakrams to swords, and an even better magic system, including lightning and earth magic, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning it's still incredibly fun to play.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel

Back from the dead!

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel it was first released on PC in 2008, followed by PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2009. Despite being relatively obscure at the time, it was actually remastered for PS5, Switch and Xbox Series X in 2025, but that version also flew under the radar. What makes this game unique from the jump is the perspective that is downloaded even more than Heroes 3D Dot Gamebut players can also customize it.

Players can create their character, choose a class, and then venture into this vast world. The combat and overall structure are more similar to a Diablo and there's even multiplayer, so that's a bonus for anyone looking for an obscure RPG they've been missing from the late 2000s. The remaster is also a good reason to check out Sacred 2: Fallen Angel first. It's more flawed compared to some of these other open-world games, but it's one of those games that's just fun to jump into and spend some mindless time alone or with friends.

Two worlds 2

Deeply flawed, but has a nearly perfect magic system

Two worlds 2 gets an honorable mention, even if it was even further from perfection than the rest of these games. It is one of the few examples of games that were released in Europe before North America in 2010, as opposed to 2011. It was released on PC, PS3, and Xbox 360, and the only version playable today is on Steam.

The redeeming quality of this game is the magic system, as players could create their own spells based on rune compilations. A simple fire spell could be boosted into a projectile for example. Everything else about the game, from the world design to the hack-and-slash gameplay, was pretty basic for the era. There are still very few games with such a creative magic system, which is why Two worlds 2 gets a mention.