Summary
Role-playing gamesof every flavor are most well known for theiroften dense worlds, colorful stories, and lore that serves to pull players in for hours with no intention of letting them go. Plus, in the time between major story beats, there are often some deep combat mechanics, and a fair bit of level grinding, to keep players engaged.
Sometimes, though, the balancing of a story’s tone does the heavy lifting, playing a huge role in garnering fans and giving a franchise legs far into the future. In these instances, it’s not uncommon for players to ignore a game’s critical path to explore side quests that have them either busting a gut or shedding tears. What follows are some of the bestRPGs that do an excellent job of balancing humor with their dramatic story elements.
Fallout’sworld is one that we all hope to never find ourselves in, but it’s one that quickly shows itself to be full ofabsolutely hilarious charactersdespite its dire setting. This opens the games up to the dark humor that they’re famous for.
It all starts with Vault Boy, who accompanies the player from within their Pip-Boy, and appears in all of VAULT-TEC’s marketing throughout the game, essentially becoming the cute mascot for the apocalypse. Mix in a megaton oftragically hilarious NPCs, and a huge amount of pulpy hyper-violence, and players have a recipe for one of the funniest worlds in an RPG, both intentionally and unintentionally.
TheLike A Dragongames, the re-hashed title for theYakuzaseries, continue the franchise’s penchant fortaking harrowing storiesas well as ridiculous, unrelated side quests, and throwing them together in a blender. As unceremoniously as this is done, it never takes anything away from the game’s entertainment factor. In fact, it adds to it tremendously.
Players will be tasked with uncovering dramatic conspiracies within their Yakuza clan in one moment, and then can go off to race go-carts, fight diaper-clad adult men, or even build an island home the next. These games truly figured out the formula for what makes a game both goofy and serious in equal measure.
There aren’t many game series that are as over-the-top as theBorderlandsgames. The first entry’s humor, for example, went as far as extending out to its ad campaign, touting the inclusion of “a bazillion guns” to play around with. WhenBorderlands 2came out, though, things got a bit more serious.
Instead of a simple treasure hunt, the game’s ignoble villain, Handsome Jack, is out forblood and glory, and he’s willing to do some messed-up things to get it. Things like murdering countess innocents, or even enslaving his own daughter. Yet, after all of his wicked behaviors, his hilarious diatribes on the player’s intercom during gameplay are hard not to laugh at.
One of the most popular features in many RPGs is the ability to choose what moral path to go down, good or evil. This, along with its hilarious meta natureand unmistakable eccentricities, are core to theUndertaleexperience.
While just about every opponent in the game has their quirks, they also have agreat deal of humanitythat shines through when push comes to shove. In certain moments, like when a character is going to meet their maker, their silly persona melts away, as they tell the player how they really feel.
The Witcher 3often distracts players by handing them a ridiculous amount of meaningful side quests. While never necessary for story completion, these quests typically addsome welcome characterizationto Geralt and the (at times) eccentric NPCs that dole them out, even when there isn’t much more to them than a simple gag.
Take the quest “A Frying Pan, Spick and Span” for instance, which tasks players with retrieving a pan from the person who borrowed it. Upon breaking into their house, it’s revealed that the borrower has fled, leaving someone dead in their den. The player has nothing else to do besides walk through the scene, retrieve the cooking appliance, and glean what they can about the situation, before just walking away. The quest is hilarious in its simplicity, while also being a reminder of the realities of the world Geralt inhabits.
