Indie role-playing games are where the genre takes its biggest swings. Free from the demands of a blockbuster budget, indie developers reinvent what an RPG can be — combat-free detective stories, monster-catching adventures, hand-painted JRPG throwbacks. This is our running list of the best of them — in no particular order.
We update this list as we review more games, so bookmark it and check back. Entries link straight to our full reviews.
How We Choose
Every game here earns its spot on originality, the strength of its writing and world, the depth of its systems, how cleverly it uses a small budget, and how much it makes us want to come back. The list isn’t ranked — these are all top-tier picks shown in no particular order, so don’t read anything into the sequence.
The Top 20 Indie RPGs
Disco Elysium
A combat-free detective RPG with arguably the best writing in the medium. You play an amnesiac cop unravelling a murder — and himself.
Undertale
The RPG where mercy is a mechanic. Toby Fox’s genre-bending classic lets you spare every monster you meet, and changes based on how you do it.
Sea of Stars
A radiant, modern throwback to 16-bit turn-based RPGs — gorgeous pixel art, timing-based combat, and not a single random encounter.
CrossCode
Twin-stick action meets Zelda-grade puzzles in one of the most underrated action RPGs around.
OMORI
A psychological-horror RPG that hides real darkness beneath an adorable, dream-bright surface — one of the most affecting games on this list.
Citizen Sleeper
A tender, dice-driven sci-fi RPG about survival and found family aboard a crumbling space station.
Chained Echoes
A grind-free 16-bit JRPG epic with mechs, airships, and a celebrated soundtrack.
Cassette Beasts
A wildly inventive monster-collector where you fuse creatures into new hybrids.
Stardew Valley
The most beloved farming life-sim ever made — a one-person masterpiece of cosy, endless depth.
Eastward
A breathtaking pixel-art action-adventure: Zelda-meets-EarthBound, warm and strange.
Wildermyth
A tactical RPG that generates its own myths — heroes you grow attached to, then mourn.
Cosmic Star Heroine
A lean, stylish sci-fi JRPG throwback with snappy, no-filler turn-based combat.
To the Moon
A piano-scored interactive novella about a dying man’s last wish — one of indie gaming’s great tearjerkers.
Cris Tales
A breathtaking hand-drawn JRPG that shows the past, present, and future on screen all at once.
Moonlighter
Raid dungeons by night, run your shop by day — an addictive action-RPG built around the loot economy.
Children of Morta
A roguelite with a soul: a beautifully animated story about a family of guardians defending their mountain.
Crystal Project
A one-developer JRPG with a deep job system and a vast, freeform open world built for explorers.
Hyper Light Drifter
A wordless, neon-soaked action-RPG of razor-sharp combat and aching, painterly beauty.
Roadwarden
A text-heavy illustrated RPG where prose, time pressure, and choices are the entire adventure.
Ara Fell
A cozy 16-bit-style JRPG with modern quality-of-life — charming, polished, and grind-free.
More indie RPGs to come
This list is a living document. Have a favorite we have not covered yet? It may already be in our backlog — check back as we keep reviewing.