Best RPG games inspired by Skyrim

There are very few games that have had as much impact on a single genre as Skyrim. The game managed to move the entire RPG landscape forward by several years by delivering an immersive open world full of quests, NPCs and monsters of all kinds, which completely transported players into a fantasy world on an unprecedented scale.

Its influence was felt right from the start, and many developers quickly got down to business trying to create a similar experience or at least one inspired by Bethesda's crowning achievement. Some tried to replicate many of the themes and ideas created Skyrim so popular, while others took a completely different route, while paying homage to one of the world's most beloved video games.

7

Dragon Age: Inquisition

BioWare's epic fantasy world

Details:

• Large scale RPG of Mass effect developers, with party-driven combat and a focus on characters

• Followed Skyrim's expansive open world structure, with multiple open areas and a more expansive world to explore

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Dragon Age: Inquisition represents BioWare's most ambitious attempt to marry its deep lore and party-based RPG roots with an open-world structure reminiscent of Skyrim. The game features large explorable regions, each filled to the brim with both main and side content, and players are given much more freedom than in the previous games to explore how and where they want.

BioWare has openly said that they took inspiration from Skyrimespecially the size of the map and the ability to seamlessly cross between areas. However, the game focused much more on story than Bethesda did, delivering a compelling character-driven narrative that felt much more cohesive and ultimately allowed it to win the very first Game of the Year award at the Game Awards.

6

Avowed

From New Vegas to Sword and Sorcery

Details:

• Set in Pillar of Eternity universe, focused on magic and melee

• Pitched internally as Obsidian's response to Skyrimbut later switched to another identity

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When Avowed was first announced, many compared it directly to Skyrimand in fact, the original pitch was to create an experience very similar to Bethesda's, just in a completely different universe. But the game manages to do a lot of things differently, like incorporating more engaging choices into the story and making the ability upgrades feel more meaningful overall.

While the inspiration is clear, the game still feels distinctly different from Skyrim in many ways. For one, Avowed favors large open zones rather than a single expansive world, which allowed the developers to put much more effort into creating compelling environments that each bring something new, giving it a unique identity that sets it apart from the titles that influenced it.

5

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Re-enactment of the Arthurian legend

Details:

• Darker aesthetic, heavy on atmosphere

• Familiar feeling to Skyrimboth in gameplay and visual style

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Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon is a gritty open-world RPG focused on exploration, atmosphere, and player-driven progression. Players are constantly guided forward by branching questlines that ensure every part of the world feels connected, but are never forced down a single path, instead encouraged to explore new areas as long as they choose to.

The links to Skyrim are clear right from the start, as both games share a similar immersive feel that keeps them engaged in both action-heavy and quieter moments. While the tone is darker, its core experience reflects that Elder scrolls approach to give players all the tools they need to embark on their own adventure, only in a world that's more ghostly and unsettling.

4

Outwards

Survive the world together

Details:

• Traditional survival mechanics with an imaginative setting

• Developed with Skyrim in mind, but wanted a unique feel with features like split screen co-op

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Outwards differs from traditional fantasy RPGs by fusing the staples of the genre with survival mechanics that force players to constantly adapt to their surroundings. Instead of grand heroics, the experience revolves around managing hunger, temperature and damage while navigating a wide-open fantasy world, where exploration can be both rewarding and deadly.

Despite its modest scale, Outwards clearly embraces Skyrim's emphasis on freedom and player agency. The world is open, and each journey unfolds naturally, with no two playthroughs feeling exactly the same. In addition, the developers mentioned a desire to create a world that can be experienced together, something that other big games like Skyrim hadn't tried in a while, and a major driver of the split screen mechanic.

3

Fire Ring

The Adventures of the Ultimate Hero

Details:

• Soul-like battles are pushed into a gigantic open world

• Inspired by ambitious, interconnected games like Breath of the Wild and Skyrim,

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Fire Ring is a remarkable open-world RPG that takes influence from every corner of the gaming world to create an experience unlike any other. Players are treated to an expansive environment with seemingly no end, and are given the opportunity to approach its challenges however they choose, without ever being directly guided down a specific path.

When discussing the game's inspiration, the developers cited some major titles such as Skyrim as the main influences on the game's design. The soul-like combat framework had already been refined over many years, but transitioning that concept to an open world meant that other games were extensively researched and used as building blocks to create one of the best video games ever made.

2

The Dragon's Dogma

Action And Scale Coupled With Elder Scrolls

Details:

• After an epic quest to defeat the dragon Gigori

• Aiming to create a distinct experience as genre-defining as Skyrim

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The Dragon's Dogma throws players into an open world full of towering monsters waiting to be conquered, and an environment that simply begs to be explored. Players are given free rein over how the game unfolds from the start, with the farming system adapting to their playstyle and each area offering opportunities for exploration in combat and in dialogue.

Its relation to Skyrim lies in the common ambition to capture a vast fantasy landscape that players can truly live in. But in this case, the game leans more towards action, creating an experience that feels more dramatic and engaging rather than serving as a simulation for medieval life.

1

Starfield

Sending Skyrim into space

Details:

• Interplanetary exploration across an entire galaxy

• Pitched from the beginning as “Skyrim in space”

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Starfield is a brand new IP from Bethesda, the first in over 25 years, and from the moment it was created, the game was designed to be as close to “Skyrim in space” as possible. DNA from the developer's previous games infuses everything from the NPC interactions to the open world exploration, only on a larger scale and in a brand new futuristic setting.

The hype was huge and many players expected the game to be blacked out Skyrim's success and usher in a new golden age for the genre. The actual release may have fallen short of those expectations, but the game remains a monumental achievement in RPG design, giving fans of the developers something new to explore that still felt familiar to the games that made Bethesda so successful in the first place.