If you are on the outside looking in, you may think there are a variety of reasons to explain why people enjoy RPGs so much. Maybe people love the genre because it places such a heavy emphasis on story? Or maybe it has to do with the slower-paced, but often more tactical, approach to combat. Oh, or there is the music: literally dozens of legendary soundtracks that people adore. It has to be one of those things, right? Wrong. It is the fishing. We are all here for the fishing.

Related: Games With Worse Fishing Mechanics Than Animal Crossing

That’s right, the system mechanics, level progression, story, and everything else is essentially just window dressing. What we are really here for are the fishing mini-games. Unfortunately, sometimes game developers lose sight of what is important. There are some great games that should have remembered that in the world of RPGs, fishing is king.

5 Suikoden - The Ol' Bait And Switch

Suikoden, McDohl standing on is completely wasted dock

Look, I get it, this is a petty choice. Suikoden 2 added fishing. So, problem solved, right? Wrong. The point still stands that a game that features multiple fishermen as playable characters still didn’t include a fishing side game. Hell, include the pirates, who are basically just violent fishermen, and you could essentially have an entire party of fishermen. Of course, you are going to expect there to be a fishing mini-game!

Your base of operation is on a lake. Your first vessel is clearly a fishing boat. It feels like they are just mocking us at this point! The Suikoden series may now include fishing as a staple mini-game, but we have not forgotten the slap to the face that was the original Suikoden. We’re not quite ready to let Konami off the hook.

4 Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter - The One That Got Away

A cropped version of the Japanese cover for Breath Of Fire: Dragon Quarter

Some of the best games to ever feature a fishing mini-game are the Breath of Fire titles. And they all had them. From the first game to the fourth. “Wait a second, isn’t there a fifth game in the series?” you ask. Yes. Yes, there is. And now you understand why no one loves it.

Related: Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Everything You Need to Know About Fishing Tournaments

Sure, Dragon Quarter has an excellent combat engine, an enthralling story, and a unique take on the dragon transformation system that allows you to truly feel powerful without undermining the game’s fantastic balance. But none of that matters. We’re here for the fishing, dammit. You blew it, Dragon Quarter. You blew it!

3 Final Fantasy 6 - O-FISH-ally A Missed Oppor-TUNA-ty

Final Fantasy 6, Fishing to kill Cid

One of the pivotal moments in Final Fantasy 6 has you catching fish to feed Cid. What is the goal here? Well, you are supposed to catch the slow moving fish, as they are sickly. That way you can slowly poison Cid over the course of multiple days. It is a great time! But then it is over, and we have to get back to “saving the world”.

What the hell, Square? Why aren’t we able to catch more poisonous fish to feed to other pivotal characters in the game? This is something that CLEARLY needed to be expanded on. Who cares about fighting Kefka? I want to see Setzer grabbing his gut as he looks at me and asks “Why?” Because I can, Setzer. Because I can.

2 Dark Souls - The Next Big Catch

Dark Souls 3, looking at the fishing hole that could have been...

Hey, Dark Souls, we all know that you are basically just a hard mode version of Zelda with RPG systems added for spice. You aren’t fooling anyone. And that’s cool. We love you for it. But how the hell are you going to ape Zelda and leave out the fishing? What is wrong with you? Zelda is at least fifty-percent a fishing game. Breath of the Wild didn’t include fishing, and I am pretty sure it bombed as a direct result.

Related: Red Dead Redemption 2: Best Spots For Fishing

We want to go fishing in poisonous bogs surrounded by the atmosphere of the wailing damned! We want to build our characters around different fishing rods that scale with different stats. We want to craft broken fishing builds. But more than anything, we want to know what a Dark Souls-style fishing encounter looks like. If you fail to reel a fish in, do they reel you in instead? Until FromSoftware fulfills their destiny and adds in the one feature EVERYONE is asking for, we will never know.

1 Final Fantasy 15 - Keep ‘Em On The Line

Final Fantasy 15, Noctis catching a fish

“But, Final Fantasy 15 already includes an excellent fishing game!”, you scream. “In fact, the fishing in Final Fantasy 15 is the best seen in an RPG,” you cry. And you know what? You’re right! It IS excellent, isn’t it? But this isn’t a list about RPGs that need to add a fishing game; this is a list about games that would be better with MORE fishing. Can you look at me straight in the eyes and tell me that Final Fantasy 15 wouldn’t be a better game if they cut the rest of the content and just turned it into a fishing game?

Sure, you can spend your time wandering around an empty world, exploring dungeons so generic that you could believe they were procedurally generated, or engage in a combat engine that is simultaneously stupidly easy, while also being extremely frustrating to control. Instead, just rip it all out and expand upon the fishing. Oh no, the mysterious fedora man is up to no good! Who cares? If you think this would be a hard sell, add a VR mode or something to spice it up. The fact they haven’t already done this is a…

Monster Of The Deep Cover Image

…huh.

Well…

YOU WIN THIS ROUND, SQUARE-ENIX!

Next: The Best Fishing Games (That Aren't Only About Fishing)