1990s Role-playing games

52 Role-playing classics first released 1990 to 1999, in release order, and 185 games looking back to them.

Games looking back to them

• ADOM: Classic roguelike long distributed from its author's site; later remade on Steam.
• Dwarf Fortress (Classic): ASCII colony sim given away from Bay 12's site for 16 years before the 2022 Steam edition.
• Infra Arcana: Free Lovecraftian roguelike shared from the author's own pages.
• Mines of Morgoth: Moria-style Tolkien roguelike for mobile.
• Sil: Free Angband-derived roguelike set in Tolkien's First Age.
• Sil-Q: Community continuation of Sil with new abilities and fixes.
• Tales of Maj'Eyal: Open-source roguelike grown from the 1990s Tales of Middle-earth Angband variant.
• Knights of the Chalice 2: Kickstarted sequel aiming to recreate Gold Box and Dark Sun tactical combat.
• Ara Fell: RPG Maker-built 16-bit style adventure, later Enhanced Edition.
• Embers of Mana (Final Fantasy Adventure ROM hack): A brand-new Game Boy action RPG on the first Mana game's engine: a girl searching for her missing family is drawn into a quest to restore the Mana Tree.
• Secret of Mana PC Engine Port: Homebrew demo bringing Secret of Mana's ring menu and party play to the PC Engine.
• Secret of Mana Plus (Secret of Mana ROM hack): Adds real monster-filled dungeons to the Wind and Moon Palaces and expands the Gold Tower and Gold Isle story with new maps, cutscenes and bonus rooms.
• Secret of Mana: Reborn (Secret of Mana ROM hack): Rebuilds Secret of Mana's story with a fresh script from the Japanese original plus new content drawn from rarely translated design material.
• Secrets of Grindea: Co-op pixel action RPG made over 13 years as a tribute to Secret of Mana and SNES classics.
• Shining Force II: Requiem (Shining Force II ROM hack): The culmination of Dark Claw's Shining Force II work: new classes, items, characters, battles and secrets.
• Shining Force II: War of the Gods (Shining Force II ROM hack): Overhauls Shining Force II with a more cohesive story, a higher level cap, a new training option and a revised spell and healing system.
• Shining Force: Alternate (Shining Force ROM hack): Reimagines the first Shining Force with branching story paths and characters cast in new roles on the way to the Dark Dragon.
• Shining Tactics+ (Shining Force II ROM hack): Reimagines Shining Force II with new classes, characters and equipment, the most complete of the Shining Tactics mods.
• Eschalon: Book I: Turn-based isometric RPG first sold from the developer's site; now free on Steam and GOG.
• Serpent in the Staglands: Kickstarted hardcore RPG modeled on Darklands-era design.
• The Age of Decadence: Turn-based text-heavy RPG first sold through the studio's own site during early access.
• Abysmal: Cross-platform engine project for the Ultima Underworld games.
• Abyss Crawlers: Dungeon crawler drawing on Ultima Underworld and early Elder Scrolls.
• Arx Fatalis: Started as a pitch for Ultima Underworld III; first-person dungeon RPG.
• Barony: First-person co-op roguelike inspired by Ultima Underworld and NetHack.
• Cralon: First-person dungeon crawler by former Piranha Bytes developers, inspired by Ultima Underworld.
• Dark Sun Underworld: Free game-jam first-person crawler inspired by Ultima Underworld.
• Delver: Blocky first-person roguelike dungeon crawler inspired by Ultima Underworld.
• Monomyth: Immersive first-person dungeon crawler in the vein of Ultima Underworld, Arx Fatalis and King's Field, in Steam Early Access.
• Underworld Adventures: Engine project to play Ultima Underworld on modern systems.
• Underworld Ascendant: Successor to Ultima Underworld from a studio led by original Looking Glass developers.
• Underworld Exporter: Unity-based reimplementation that runs Ultima Underworld from the original data.
• UnderworldGodot: Recreation of the Ultima Underworld engine in Godot.
• xBaK: Partial reimplementation of Betrayal at Krondor.
• Breath of Fire: War of the Goddess (Breath of Fire ROM hack): Retells the first Breath of Fire with an expanded, rewritten script, deeper characters, new subplots and more world detail.
• Jimmy and the Pulsating Mass: RPG Maker dream adventure with EarthBound and Yume Nikki influences.
• Knights of the Chalice: D&D 3.5 tactical RPG at 320x240 in the Gold Box tradition, first sold only from its own site.
• Rogue Wizards: Turn-based roguelike in the style of Mystery Dungeon.
• Tangledeep: Roguelike dungeon crawler drawn in SNES style with Mystery Dungeon roots.
• Cyber Knights: Flashpoint: Kickstarted cyberpunk heist tactics game.
• Shadowrun Returns: Kickstarter revival by the Shadowrun tabletop creator.
• Shadowrun: Dragonfall: Standalone follow-up to Shadowrun Returns.
• Shadowrun: Hong Kong: Third Kickstarted Shadowrun tactics RPG.
• Caves of Qud: Science-fantasy roguelike RPG in classic tile style.
• Elona: Japanese freeware open-world roguelike inspired by ADOM, distributed only from its creator's site.
• Path of Achra: Traditional roguelike built around huge build combinations.
• Zorbus: Traditional turn-based tile roguelike, free from its site and later on Steam.
• Beyond Skyrim: Bruma (Skyrim mod): Skyrim mod adding Cyrodiil's Bruma region, the one released part of the Beyond Skyrim project.
• Daggerfall Unity: Complete Unity-based recreation of Daggerfall's engine, reached 1.0.
• DaggerXL: Daggerfall engine recreation that became part of the XL Engine.
• Enderal: Forgotten Stories (Skyrim total conversion): Free total conversion of Skyrim with its own world, lore and dark psychological story.
• Nehrim: At Fate's Edge (Oblivion total conversion): Free Oblivion total conversion with an original world by the later Enderal team.
• OpenMW: Open-source engine reimplementation of Morrowind with multiplayer fork TES3MP.
• OpenTESArena: Open-source reimplementation of The Elder Scrolls: Arena.
• Project Aedra: Alternative open Morrowind engine project.
• Skyblivion (Oblivion remade as a Skyrim mod): Volunteer remake of Oblivion inside Skyrim's engine, delayed from 2025 into 2026.
• Skywind (Morrowind mod for Skyrim): Volunteer remake of Morrowind in Skyrim's engine with all quests written and about 3,000 NPCs voiced, no release date.
• The Serpent Isle Remake (Oblivion mod): Remake of Serpent Isle as an Oblivion mod.
• XL Engine: Multi-game engine (DaggerXL, DarkXL) for 1990s 2.5D games.
• Ambermoon.net: Full remake of Thalion's Ambermoon for modern systems.
• UAlbion: Reimplementation of Blue Byte's Albion.
• Chained Echoes: Solo-developed 16-bit JRPG drawing on Chrono Trigger, Xenogears and Final Fantasy VI.
• Chrono Trigger: Crimson Echoes (Chrono Trigger SNES ROM hack): ROM-hack sequel bridging Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross, stopped at 98 percent by Square Enix and later leaked.
• Chrono Trigger: Flames of Eternity (Chrono Trigger ROM hack): Controversial reworking of the leaked Crimson Echoes with an altered story and fixes.
• Chrono Trigger: Lavos' Awakening (Chrono Trigger ROM hack): A hard rebalance of Chrono Trigger that makes Dual and Triple Techs the core of combat, reworks the end-game bosses and adds Nu Spekkio as a new super-boss.
• Chrono Trigger: Prophet's Guile (Chrono Trigger ROM hack): A new two-chapter story in 12,000 B.C. following Magus as he returns to Zeal posing as a prophet, with new maps and custom music.
• Cosmic Star Heroine: Kickstarted sci-fi RPG modeled on Phantasy Star and Chrono Trigger.
• Cris Tales: Colombian Kickstarter JRPG with time-split battles.
• Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3: 16-bit-style JRPG continuation of the Penny Arcade series.
• Sea of Stars: Kickstarted turn-based RPG with music by Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda.
• Shadows of Adam: Kickstarted 16-bit style RPG.
• Clair Obscur: Expedition 33: French turn-based RPG openly inspired by Final Fantasy.
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes: Kickstarter JRPG by Suikoden creator Yoshitaka Murayama.
• Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising: Action RPG prequel and stretch goal of the Eiyuden Kickstarter.
• Book of Demons: Paper-craft deck-building take on the original Diablo's cathedral descent.
• Death Must Die: Survivor-style action RPG with Diablo-like loot and dark fantasy look.
• Depths of Peril: Action RPG with a living world, first sold from Soldak's site.
• Devilution: Reconstructed source code of Diablo, the base for DevilutionX.
• DevilutionX: Diablo port to modern platforms and consoles; needs DIABDAT.MPQ.
• Diablerie: Unity-based reimplementation of Diablo II.
• Din's Champion: Newest Din's world action RPG.
• Din's Curse: Dynamic-world dungeon crawler in the Diablo style.
• Din's Legacy: Mutating-hero follow-up to Din's Curse.
• Drox Operative: Space action RPG mixing 4X politics with loot.
• Drox Operative 2: Sequel to Drox Operative.
• Fate: Casual single-player Diablo-like whose designer later made Torchlight.
• freeablo: Early open-source Diablo engine reimplementation.
• Grim Dawn: Kickstarted action RPG by former Titan Quest developers.
• Halls of Torment: Horde-survival game drawn in the pre-rendered look of the first Diablo.
• Hero Siege: Pixel-art Diablo-like with roguelike runs.
• Hyper Light Drifter: Kickstarted action RPG drawing on 16-bit Zelda.
• Kivi's Underworld: Light action RPG dungeon crawler.
• Last Epoch: Kickstarted action RPG in the Diablo II mold.
• Loonyland 2: Winter Woods: Action RPG sequel to Loonyland.
• Lost Labyrinth DX: Updated edition of the 2001 freeware graphical roguelike Lost Labyrinth.
• OpenDiablo2: Abandoned open-source Diablo II engine in Go.
• Zombasite: Zombie-world action RPG with clan building.
• Open Meridian: Community servers for the 1996 MMO Meridian 59.
• Cassette Beasts: Monster-fusing open-world RPG.
• Coromon: Pixel-art monster-taming RPG.
• Pixelmon (Minecraft mod): Minecraft mod that adds Pokemon catching and battling, shut down in 2017 at the Pokemon Company's request.
• PokeMMO (online game that runs on the original Pokemon ROMs): Online multiplayer game built on the classic Pokemon games, needing the original ROMs.
• Pokemon Ash Gray (Pokemon FireRed ROM hack): Follows Ash's journey from the anime's first seasons as a playable game.
• Pokemon Blaze Black 2 and Volt White 2 (Pokemon Black 2 and White 2 ROM hack): Enhanced versions of Black 2 and White 2 with all 649 Pokemon available and tougher battles.
• Pokemon Blaze Black and Volt White (Pokemon Black and White ROM hacks): Generation V hacks that rebalance Black and White and widen the available Pokemon.
• Pokemon Brown (Pokemon Red ROM hack): A new region, Rijon, built on the Pokemon Red engine.
• Pokemon Clover (Pokemon FireRed ROM hack): A 4chan-made hack with an all-new region and original fakemon.
• Pokemon Crystal Clear (Pokemon Crystal ROM hack): Open-world Crystal ROM hack where gym leaders can be fought in any order.
• Pokemon Dark Rising (Pokemon FireRed ROM hack): A dark, very hard story set in a new region.
• Pokemon Desolation: Third fan game hosted by the Reborn community.
• Pokemon Elite Redux (Pokemon Emerald ROM hack): A difficulty hack where every Pokemon has multiple abilities, rebalanced around them.
• Pokemon Emerald Kaizo (Pokemon Emerald ROM hack): Extremely hard Emerald hack popular for Nuzlocke challenges.
• Pokemon Emerald Rogue (Pokemon Emerald ROM hack): Roguelike take on Emerald with randomized routes and permadeath.
• Pokemon Essentials: RPG Maker XP kit used to build hundreds of Pokemon fan games.
• Pokemon Flora Sky (Pokemon Emerald ROM hack): A new region and story on the Emerald engine.
• Pokemon Gaia (Pokemon FireRed ROM hack): A new region and story with Mega Evolution, one of the best regarded GBA hacks.
• Pokemon Glazed (Pokemon Emerald ROM hack): A two-region game covering a fan-made region and Johto.
• Pokemon Inclement Emerald (Pokemon Emerald ROM hack): A decomp difficulty hack with a modern battle engine and Gen 4 to 7 moves and abilities.
• Pokemon Infinite Fusion: Kanto adventure where any two Pokemon can be fused, with over 200,000 combinations; distributed through Discord.
• Pokemon Insurgence: PC fan game set in the cult-ridden Torren region with Delta Pokemon.
• Pokemon Light Platinum (Pokemon Ruby ROM hack): A complete new region with a long post-game.
• Pokemon Liquid Crystal (Pokemon FireRed ROM hack): Remakes Crystal on the FireRed engine with Johto and Kanto.
• Pokemon Modern Emerald (Pokemon Emerald ROM hack): An open-source Emerald overhaul with following Pokemon and a modern Battle Frontier.
• Pokemon Mythic Silver (HeartGold/SoulSilver ROM hack): Overhaul of HeartGold and SoulSilver with later-generation content and a Darkrai plot.
• Pokemon Phoenix Rising: Episodic RPG Maker XP fan game about a royal rebellion in the Hawthorne region.
• Pokemon Polished Crystal (Pokemon Crystal ROM hack): An upgrade to Crystal with modern features, new areas and original content.
• Pokemon Radical Red (Pokemon FireRed ROM hack): Very hard FireRed hack with competitive-grade trainer AI.
• Pokemon Reborn: Long, hard RPG Maker Pokemon fan game set in a ruined city, with field effects in battle.
• Pokemon Rejuvenation: Spiritual successor to Reborn with branching stories and over 100 hours of play.
• Pokemon Renegade Platinum (Pokemon Platinum ROM hack): Widely played Platinum hack with full trainer teams and updated movesets.
• Pokemon Sacred Gold and Storm Silver (Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver ROM hack): Harder, expanded versions of HeartGold and SoulSilver with every Pokemon obtainable.
• Pokemon Sage: Community fan game set in a South American-inspired region full of original creatures.
• Pokemon Shiny Gold Sigma (Pokemon FireRed ROM hack): Rebuilds Pokemon Gold's Johto on the FireRed engine with modern updates.
• Pokemon Unbound (Pokemon FireRed ROM hack): FireRed hack with an original region, Borrius, and a difficulty selector.
• Pokemon Vega (Pokemon FireRed ROM hack): A new region with a large set of original fakemon, part of the Altair and Sirius family.
• Pokemon Zeta and Omicron: Paired RPG Maker fan games from a future Insurgence developer.
• Temtem: Kickstarted creature-collecting MMO.
• Born of Bread: Quebec-made Paper Mario-style RPG.
• Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling: Paper Mario-style action-command RPG about three bugs.
• Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup: Free open-source continuation of Linley's Dungeon Crawl, never put on Steam.
• ATOM RPG: Kickstarted Soviet post-apocalyptic RPG modeled on Fallout.
• ATOM RPG: Trudograd: Standalone sequel to ATOM RPG.
• Broken Roads: Australian post-apocalyptic RPG in the classic isometric style.
• Colony Ship: A Post-Earth Role Playing Game: Sci-fi turn-based RPG on a generation ship.
• DarkFO: Browser-based Fallout 2 reimplementation.
• Dungeon Rats: Tactical combat spin-off of The Age of Decadence.
• Encased: Kickstarted sci-fi RPG pitched in the spirit of early Fallout.
• Eschalon: Book II: Sequel in the same old-school style.
• Eschalon: Book III: Final Eschalon book.
• Fallout 1.5: Resurrection (Fallout 2 mod): Czech Fallout 2 total conversion with a new story set in New Mexico between Fallout 1 and 2.
• Fallout 2 Community Edition: Re-implementation of Fallout 2 that runs on many platforms.
• Fallout Community Edition: Fully working re-implementation of Fallout from reverse-engineered code.
• Fallout Et Tu (Fallout 1 in the Fallout 2 engine, Fallout 2 mod): Rebuild of the first Fallout inside the Fallout 2 engine.
• Fallout of Nevada (Fallout 2 total conversion): Russian Fallout 2 total conversion with a new story set before Fallout 2, over 100 quests and new music.
• Fallout: Cascadia (Fallout 4 mod): Free Fallout 4 total conversion set in post-war Seattle.
• Fallout: London (Fallout 4 mod): Huge free Fallout 4 total conversion set in post-war London.
• Fallout: Nuevo Mexico (Fallout: New Vegas mod): Standalone New Vegas-engine mod set in Mexico City in 2166.
• Fallout: Sonora (Fallout 2 total conversion): Fallout 2-engine game from the Fallout of Nevada team, now in English and playable in the browser.
• Fallout: The Story (Fallout: New Vegas mod): New Vegas mod that aimed to recreate the first Fallout as accurately as possible.
• Fallout: Yesterday (Fallout 2 mod): Fan game in the Fallout 2 engine recreating Black Isle's cancelled Van Buren.
• Falltergeist: Open-source Fallout 2 engine attempt.
• FreeFT: Open engine for Fallout Tactics.
• Geneforge: Shareware RPG about shaping creatures, with old-style isometric tiles.
• jsFO: JavaScript reimplementation of the Fallout 2 engine.
• Mechajammer: Cyberpunk turn-based RPG with old-school freedom, begun as Copper Dreams.
• NEO Scavenger: Hex-map post-apocalyptic survival RPG first sold from the developer's site.
• Olympus 2207 (Fallout 2 mod): Russian Fallout 2-engine game set in a Silicon Valley skyscraper, later translated into English.
• Space Wreck: Single-character sci-fi RPG in the classic Fallout mold.
• Tale of Two Wastelands (Fallout: New Vegas mod): Mod that merges Fallout 3 and New Vegas into one game on the New Vegas engine.
• Underrail: Solo-led turn-based RPG in Fallout's style.
• CrossUO (Ultima Online client): Open-source client for Ultima Online free shards.
• Elderlands: Tile-based MMORPG by a former Origin developer.
• Epica Rex: Crowdfunded Ultima-inspired RPG built in Minecraft style.
• Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues: Online RPG by Ultima creator Richard Garriott pitched as a spiritual successor to Ultima.
• Tibia: Tile-based fantasy MMORPG run only from its own site since 1997.
• Avadon 2: The Corruption: Second Avadon game.
• Avadon 3: The Warborn: Final Avadon game.
• Avadon: The Black Fortress: Party RPG with old-school tile maps.
• GemRB: Open reimplementation of the Infinity Engine.
• Laxius Force: Long turn-based JRPG-style adventure sold as a direct download from Aldorlea's site.
• Pathfinder: Kingmaker: Kickstarted isometric party RPG in the Baldur's Gate tradition.
• Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous: Crowdfunded follow-up in the Infinity Engine style.
• Heart Engine 2: Hearthold: A from-scratch WebGPU engine and MMO demo
• Monsters & Memories: Old-school MMO with an original EverQuest lead designer; early access since Oct 2026 through its own site and launcher, not Steam.
• Indivisible: Indiegogo-funded action RPG with Valkyrie Profile-style combat.

The classics

• Angband (1990)
• Krynn Trilogy (1990)
• Mana (1991)
• Neverwinter Nights (AOL) (1991)
• Savage Frontier (1991)
• Shining (1991)
• Amberstar (1992)
• Darklands (1992)
• Landstalker (1992)
• Lunar (1992)
• Realms of Arkania (1992)
• Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace (1992)
• Ultima Underworld (1992)
• Betrayal at Krondor (1993)
• Breath of Fire (1993)
• Dark Sun (1993)
• Lufia (1993)
• Mystery Dungeon (1993)
• Shadowrun (1993)
• ADOM (1994)
• Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse (1994)
• Beyond Oasis (1994)
• King's Field (1994)
• Menzoberranzan (1994)
• Ravenloft (1994)
• The Elder Scrolls (1994)
• Albion (1995)
• Arc the Lad (1995)
• Chrono (1995)
• Secret of Evermore (1995)
• Suikoden (1995)
• Tales (1995)
• Diablo (1996)
• Meridian 59 (1996)
• Persona (1996)
• Pokemon (1996)
• Sakura Wars (1996)
• Star Ocean (1996)
• Super Mario RPG (1996)
• Wild Arms (1996)
• Dungeon Crawl (1997)
• Fallout (1997)
• Grandia (1997)
• Ultima Online (1997)
• Baldur's Gate (1998)
• Lineage (1998)
• Xenogears (1998)
• Asheron's Call (1999)
• EverQuest (1999)
• Planescape: Torment (1999)
• The Legend of Dragoon (1999)
• Valkyrie Profile (1999)