RPGs and city-building games generally occupy wildly different niches. However, crossovers between the two have become increasingly common over the years. And really, what's not to love about it? Maintaining immersive control over a character within an engrossing story is even better when you can build their home from the ground up, if not an entire town.
It is easy to find an RPG or a city-building game, but it can be challenging to find a game that truly satisfies both elements for a player. Luckily, there are plenty of games out there that seem to balance these niches extraordinarily well.
Updated on May 3, 2023, by Kristy Ambrose: There are still plenty of RPGs that let you customize entire towns and cities, and the growing popularity of simulation games is only adding more bricks to the wall of video games that include city-building. From simple bases to a sprawling metropolis, the list has been expanding as old games are revisited and remastered along with the new games being launched to show you even more base-building RPGs. Sometimes the city building is the central point of the game, while it can also be a mini-game or part of the role-playing storyline. It goes to show that deep inside you is an architect that wants to go wild building RPG cities and towns.
23 Terraria
Terraria was launched in 2011 for Windows, but it has the feel of an old-school console game with a simple color scheme, graphics, and 2D visuals. The game is focused on exploration, crafting, and combat, with a world that is procedurally generated. Its popularity has prompted adaptations for virtually every platform in existence, and the game still retains its options for both single-player and multiplayer.
You start with some basic tools and introductory base-building tips before going out into the world to fight, gather resources, and build. Once you have constructed a few things, you can attract NPCs like wizards, shopkeepers, and doctors, so if you're ambitious you can build keeps, castles, and even whole cities.
22 Fallout 4
The base-building aspect of Fallout 4 was new to the popular post-apocalyptic RPG franchise. Bethesda took a risk at trying something new, but it turned out to be one of the most well-loved parts of the RPG.
The town-building aspect gives you a greater reason to collect junk to convert it into furniture, generators, weapons, and walls for the settlements they maintained. While, like most Bethesda games, there were a lot of glitches, the mechanics were great and you could build more than ever with the addition of mods.
21 Dragon Quest Builders
A spin-off series with two titles, Dragon Quest Builders has you take the role of the lone builder in a land that has forgotten how to make things. The game tasks you with reconstructing cities, defending those cities against monsters, and even curing plagues.
The RPG gives you a huge amount of freedom with how the cities can be designed. You can build apartment complexes and assign NPCs their own rooms, as well as design shops and gardens.
20 Dark Cloud
Also known as Dark Chronicles, the RPG Dark Cloud and its sequel follow young protagonists on a fantasy quest to save the world. At the same time, they are rebuilding towns that are affected by the evil that is on the loose.
In the first game, you collect parts of each town piece by piece by exploring dungeons. Every town piece has a single rule about how it should be placed. While there are many ways to rebuild these towns, the rules that come with the pieces make the rebuilding have a puzzle element to it.
19 Legends Of Ellaria
Launched in 2021, Legends of Ellaria always had mixed reviews, but this is mostly due to the long grind and time commitment involved, which isn't for everyone. The game combines a ton of video game genres, such as role-playing, real-time strategy, city-building, sandbox, action, and adventure.
Since the game strives to do a lot, it stretches itself thin and is lacking in the role-playing department. If you want to try a game that's a mix of several popular fantasy tropes for an economical price, this indie game is worth it.
18 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Set in the Pathfinder fantasy universe, this game's entire goal is to make your own kingdom while exploring and conquering the Stolen Lands. The gameplay was inspired by titles like Fallout as well as Baldur's Gate. The kingdom made by you is a reflection of your choices throughout the RPG.
The game has been out since 2018 and has gotten mostly positive reviews, and the sequel Wrath of the Righteous didn't have the same features, focusing more on character development and a complex storyline. The negatives are bugs and high difficulty, while the positives are in the story, characters, city-building, and plenty of options to make every game different.
17 Regions Of Ruin
This 2D side-scrolling game that came out in 2018 has all the typical RPG traits: battle, quests, open-world exploration, and skill trees. However, Regions Of Ruin also has a lot of city and town-building aspects. Part of the goal of the game is to save the dwarven race from extinction.
You must rescue and recruit dwarves to join their town, which is the combat and RPG portion. Then send NPCs out to collect resources to further expand the town.
16 Azure Dreams
Azure Dreams is a JRPG from the late 90s, so it was launched on consoles like the original PlayStation. Its popularity prompted a Gameboy Color remake, but it took out both the dating and building elements.
Much of the game is focused on exploring a tower, defeating monsters, and collecting loot. However, you can also collect money to add buildings to a town. This can add mini-games, love interests, and faster ways to collect money.
15 Littlewood
This adorable game came out in August 2020 and is all about what happens after the hero saves the world. The peaceful RPG title is all about rebuilding and healing after an adventure has already occurred.
That means rebuilding the town, making friends, collecting items, and crafting. Reviews for Littlewood are overall very positive and it's ideal for players of all ages.
14 The Suikoden Series
This series is a little old, with its first game launched in 1995. They have been on the PS2, Sega Saturn, original PlayStation, the Nintendo DS, GBA, PSP, and Windows. A big part of the gameplay in The Suikoden Series is turning monster-infested areas into bustling communities after clearing them out.
The more characters recruited in the games, the bigger the towns get and the more they change. In terms of which game in the series has the best town design, after playing, you'll agree on the second and fifth titles.
13 Kenshi
This sandbox RPG is quite open-ended, allowing you to stick to what you want to do rather than be committed to a linear story. Playing the game has been compared to having a bunch of action figures and playing with them.
Along with the RTS component, there can be a lot of city, base, and town-building involved. You can build a base, store, buy property, and upgrade what is built. The only limit is your own imagination.
12 Soul Blazer
Soul Blazer was designed primarily as an action-adventure RPG, but some city-building elements are integrated into the game's progression. Every dungeon in the game was once a city, and when you explore the dungeon and destroy the final boss at the end, the city is liberated, and the civilians return.
It's not just for the aesthetic of the countryside town or the conveniences of vendors, but the NPCs that now populate the city give the protagonist the items and clues they need to progress in the game. You need to build six villages before the World of Evil and the final boss is accessible.
11 Hammerhelm
Hammerhelm shares a love of dwarves with Region of Ruin. You create your own dwarf character and are tasked with building a town while also doing the typical RPG tropes, such as completing quests, fighting monsters, and taking a leadership role with the townspeople.
The story is pretty cool, as the dwarf character was banished from their homeland for believing they could build above ground. It's a simple, inexpensive game that kids can also play, and it gets mostly positive reviews from critics and other gamers.
10 Breath Of Fire 2
Breath of Fire 2 is another old title that first came out in 1994 for the SNES and then later for the Game Boy Advance. It took place about 500 years after the first game and had the new feature of city-building. You could populate villagers with various characters found throughout the game and could live in certain houses with certain jobs.
Today, the game is accessible in the Nintendo Switch SNES games library. It is worth a look since it got great reviews back in its day.
9 Aurora Dusk: Steam Age
This title is much like Legends of Ellaria in terms of combining many genres, but it has more positive reviews. It combines strategy, role-playing, simulation, sandbox, and survival elements more successfully and uses a steampunk aesthetic instead of a fantasy, science fiction, or modern urban motif.
Players must build a city, creating barracks, schools, ramparts, gardens, and more. There are over 60 buildings to make and 27 resources you can plant.
8 Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life As A King
In this RPG title, you become a ruler of a barren kingdom. With the power of a crystal, you can build homes, quest boards, schools, and shops meant to entice people to come to live there.
Once the kingdom is up and running, citizens can become adventurers, and you can send them out on quests to bring back resources and fend off monsters. While this game is heavier in town building than its RPG element, your town has ranks much like an RPG character leveling system. The heroes sent out also have different stats that can be upgraded with weapons and equipment.
7 Darkest Dungeon
Launched in 2016, Darkest Dungeon is both an RPG and dungeon crawler. There is a hub town in the base game where buildings can be upgraded, and the two DLCs add ruined districts to the town that you can spend resources on to rebuild and get benefits from.
The buildings and their upgrades can offer powerful improvements to the collected adventurers, giving them more ways to reduce stress and upgrade weapons and abilities. The rebuilding of the town also has a small roleplaying element since you play as the ruined estate inheritor. So rebuilding is not just making numbers go up but narratively restoring your ancestral home.
6 Ni No Kuni 2
While known as an action role-playing game, Ni No Kuni does let you build your own kingdom. This is not accessible immediately, though, as you will need to get to Chapter 4 to get to the city-building content.
Once you get to that point, the kingdom-building aspect is a delight. Citizens can be recruited through side quests, stores and facilities can be built, and citizens can have jobs at the various places built in the city.
5 Hinterland
Launched in 2008, Hinterland is an RPG that utilizes strategic base building. The fantasy world map is randomized with different resources and enemies that you find as you explore.
The game was created by some of the same developers as well-known city-building games like Nile, Caesar 4, and SimCity Societies. The RPG element really shines in the old-school point-and-click combat and the classes characters can choose.
4 Ark: Survival Evolved
At its heart, Ark is a survival game. It can be played either as a single-player venture or with friends as a sort of MMO. The game's RPG elements are not narrative, but in the progression elements and the open-world freedom, you have to decide your goals for yourself.
The city-building element is a major part of the game. You can make farms and mansions or go as far as to make your own towns and cities.